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INJ
St Matthew 8:1-13
'The Retreat of Sorrow'
Divine Service
Third Sunday after Epiphany | 21st January 2007
Dear Saints,
It's no good being a leper. Your skin is rotting off, you never know if a chunk of hair will fall to the ground or when you might lose a toe or a finger. Your contagious, so much that you are required to live far away from the cities and villages, away from everyone else.
The law even requires this alienation; Moses gave the command that when ever anyone came near you would yell, “Unclean! Unclean! Don't come near me.”
So it was with this leper who cries out to Jesus. His whole life was built around making sure no one was infected by him; his whole life is making sure that no one touches him. And look at Jesus, “Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, 'I am willing; be cleansed.'” [8:3] He touched him, his white, scaly falling-off infected flesh; Jesus reaches out His hands and takes a hold of this leper.
In the season in Epiphany we are seeing how Jesus is manifesting His glory, that this is God wrapped up in human flesh, and in His miracles we see that the Creator has entered into His creation in order to redeem it and make is whole and holy, that Jesus has both power and authority to heal and cast out demons and control the wind and the waves, but when we see Jesus reaching out and taking a hold of this leper another aspect of His divinity is being manifest: His compassion.
So many of Jesus' miracles and teachings are prefaced with the sentence: He saw the people and had compassion on them. Jesus has compassion. He had compassion on the leper. He had compassion on the Centurion. He had compassion on the multitudes and feed them, five and then four thousand of them. He has compassion on us, on you and me, Jesus has compassion us.
This, dear saints, is good news. Jesus doesn't look upon us with anger and spite (though this is what we deserve). No, Jesus reaches out and takes hold of our sinfulness, of our sin, and He takes it away, He heals it. Jesus looks with compassion on us, He draws near to us, near enough to touch us. On the cross He was touching all of us and cleansing and make holy all humanity. And He delivers that holiness to us in His church.
Yesterday morning Jesus delivered that holiness to Kevin Michael in the gift of holy baptism. He has delivered that gift of His holiness to us, this morning, in the absolution, in the Word preached, and He will deliver it to us in His holy body and blood, altogether with the promise of the forgiveness of all sin. Jesus is reaching out, touching us, and declaring us clean.
And at the epiphany of this Jesus we are seeing that God in the flesh who has the authority to save and rescue and deliver us actually want to do this very thing. And so, as we have heard this morning already,
Jesus has come and brings pleasure eternal. [Lutheran Worship 78.1]
It's true, isn't it? Jesus brings pleasure, He brings happiness and joy. Pleasure and joy eternal, pleasure and joy that lasts forever.
This is what Isaiah is promising in the lesson that we have this morning, and I would like to draw you attention to the last verse of the Old Testament lesson, Isaiah 35:10:
The ransomed of the LORD shall return,
And come to Zion with singing,
With everlasting joy on their heads.
They shall obtain joy and gladness,
And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
The ransomed of the Lord, that is you and me, all of us in the Lord's church. We are ransomed and delivered and saved and redeemed by Jesus' death on the cross. When Jesus comes and dies and forgives all sins and establishes His Word and His sacraments as the distribution points of that forgiveness, then Jesus' church is established, full of holy people (that is, saints), holy by the Holy Words and gifts of Jesus, the ransomed of the Lord.
And look again at how Isaiah describes the church:
And come to Zion with singing,
With everlasting joy on their heads.
They shall obtain joy and gladness,
And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
When Jesus comes in compassion, bringing the forgiveness of all sin, joy is heaped on our heads, everlasting joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
This, then, in the retreat of sorrow. This is wonderful. When Jesus comes sorrow and sadness turns tail and runs for the hills. Tears hide their face. Sighing and moaning withdraw and pull away. They must. With Jesus and His forgiveness death has been overrun and the devil has been destroyed. Sorrow and sighing shall flee away, driven off by the everlasting joy that Jesus brings.
It's no good being a leper. It's no good being a sinner. But look, for us, Jesus has compassion and reaches out and speaks and we are made clean, forgiven, free from death and full of the promise of eternal life. His cross causes the retreat of sorrow. Jesus has come and brings pleasure eternal, everlasting joy for you. Amem.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
Hope Lutheran Church | Aurora, CO
Reflection Questions:
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How does Jesus touch us today to make us clean and holy? What means does He use today?
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What other events promised in Isaiah 35 would cause joy and gladness? Where do these promises come true in Jesus' life and death?
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Consider Leviticus 14 and the laws concerning leprosy. How do these laws inform the miracle of Jesus cleansing the leper?
