In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

 This past week I was visiting one of our members at West Allis Memorial Hospital.  Right by the revolving doors at the entrance, was an advertisement for a series of classes entitled, "Spiritual Connections."  What caught my eye was a particular phrase that was used, which said that the classes would help you to "express and experience your spiritual self."  There may be some fine things about the series, but that phrase really encapsulated for me everything that's wrong about what people think spirituality and faith should be–expressing and experiencing your spiritual self.  True spirituality is not about the self.  It's about God.  Worship is not about expressing your own religious ideas; it's about receiving God's gifts in Christ, expressing thanksgiving to Him.  Faith is not primarily about some sort of experience or spiritual feeling you get.  It's about trust in the unchanging truth of Christ and His Word, a reliance on Him who is Himself the Truth made flesh.  "Experiencing your spiritual self" would actually be a good definition of sin, which Luther characterized as human beings turned in on themselves.  What passes for spirituality today is often little more than a devotion to what empowers me, what fulfills me, what gives me a sense of the divine presence within.

 However, in contrast to all of that, we have today's Gospel.  Jesus deals with two men–a leper, and a Roman centurion whose servant was ill.  Neither of these men were ones who thought it important that they express or experience their spiritual selves.  In fact they show by their words and actions that they know there is no help to be found at all within themselves or their experiences or their merits.  Any reference they make to themselves has to do with their own unworthiness and desperate need.  Help is to be found only outside of themselves in Christ alone.  In the leper and the Roman centurion, then, we are given a good example of true Christian faith to meditate on.

 First of all a leper comes and worships Jesus.  He falls down on His knees at Jesus' feet.  This is the first thing about Christian faith.  It recognizes that the place where divine help is to be found is where Christ is present in the flesh.  The leper could have just stayed home to make his petition to God; but instead he kneels at the dusty, sandaled feet of Jesus.  For faith seeks God not just in some mystic and spiritual way, but where Jesus is concretely and tangibly located.  The God who is present everywhere is present for us in particular in the humanity of Jesus.

 The Lord comes to us physically and externally, that our faith may have something sure and certain to grasp and cling to.  That's why we gather like this each week.  It's not that you can't pray to God or meditate on the Scriptures on your own.  I hope that you do.  But above all faith desires to be where Christ is present in the flesh and comes to you concretely–where He speaks and preaches His words out loud into your ears, where He feeds you His very body and blood to forgive you and fill you with His life.  The leper doesn't pray to a God who is just everywhere but to the God who is somewhere in particular for him, in the flesh of Christ.

 And this is what he prays, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean."  Christian faith recognizes that since Jesus is God in the flesh, He is able to do whatever He wills.  In Christ lies all the power of God to heal and to cleanse.  The leper does not doubt for a moment that Christ has the ability to make him whole and healthy again.  There is no questioning that Jesus has divine authority over His bodily ailment.

 Nevertheless, faith does not demand anything from Christ, but humbly submits to His will.  "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean."  It is as Jesus taught us to pray, "Thy will be done."  The Lord's ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than ours.  The Lord has promised to work all things together for our eternal good.  And there are times when our eternal good will mean our temporal suffering.  For the cross must come before the resurrection.  Our sinful flesh must be crucified before we can be raised anew.  To have strong faith is not only to trust in Christ when all is going well, but to faithfully pray "Thy will be done" even when all is not going well, to believe sometimes despite your circumstances that He is good and merciful towards you.  "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean."

 "Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.'" What tremendous words of Gospel those are, when Jesus says "I am willing"!  By those words He opens up His heart and shows His great love towards you.  It is as if He said, "Yes, this is exactly what I want–to help you and save you.  This is the very purpose for which I was born.  Indeed, I am willing, so willing that I will take your disease and your suffering into myself and put it to death in my body on the cross, that your healing may not only be temporary but eternal."  In the verses just after today's Gospel it is quoted from Isaiah, "He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses; and by His wounds we are healed."

 Just as He touched the leper, so also our Lord Jesus has touched you.  He put out His hand and poured water on you and put His name on you, that you might be cleansed and sanctified and made whole again.  Every time you confess your sins, every time you hear and believe Christ's words of forgiveness, you are returning to your baptism, to that washing of regeneration.  Whenever you hear the absolution spoken to you, it is as if Christ our Lord is repeating to you the same words He spoke to the leper, "I am willing; be cleansed."  And immediately it is so.  For Jesus' Word always delivers what it says.

 That power of Jesus' Word is something that the Roman centurion also knew of and believed in.  Even though he was a Gentile, he was willing to stake his beloved servant's life on it.  The centurion demonstrates his faith in two ways.  First of all, when Jesus indicates His willingness to go to the servant and heal him, the centurion says, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof."  Here he is, an army officer with great power, one who is in a position of honor and authority and respect, and yet he humbly confesses that He is nothing in the presence of Christ, that He is not even worthy to have Jesus step foot in His house.  What a good example that is for us!  Though we may have honor in the eyes of the world for our intelligence or our skills or our looks or our wealth or our good behavior, yet we lay all that worldly honor aside in the presence of Christ and acknowledge that we are unworthy even to speak to Him, let alone to have Him come under our roof.  Anything that we receive from Him is not because of our merit but solely because of His grace and love toward us sinners.
 Which brings us to the centurion's second statement of faith.  Not only does he acknowledge his own unworthiness, but he also confesses Christ's worthiness and the authority that Christ has been given by His heavenly Father.  "Only speak a word, and my servant will be healed.  For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me.  And I say to this one, ‘Go,' and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,' and he does it."

 Do you see what the centurion is getting at?  He is saying, "I have received my authority from those in the chain of command above me and ultimately from the Roman government.  Therefore my Word gets things done.  But You, Jesus, have an authority much greater than mine.  For You act with the authority of Your Father, the Maker of heaven and earth.  You who are the very Son of God have been given dominion over all things as true man–over sickness and even death itself.  Therefore, just say the word and I know my servant will get better.  You don't even have to be visibly present.  Just speak and my servant will be healed."  Jesus did speak, "As you have believed, so let it be done for you."  And the centurion's servant was healed that same hour.

 The point here for us is this:  You can count on Jesus' Word.  It's 100% reliable.  What Jesus says comes to pass.  The words of people are sometimes shaky; they don't always do what they say.  But when Jesus speaks it is so; it is real.  He keeps His promises.  Faith relies on that Word, even though He's not visibly present.  So it is even now in divine service.  When Jesus says "This is My Body; this is My Blood," you may have absolute confidence that the bread really is His Body and the wine really is His blood, that He is truly present in the Sacrament to release you from your sins, even as He will release you from every bodily ailment that you suffer on the Day of resurrection.

 In fact it has been a tradition in the church to speak the words of the centurion as part of one's preparation to receive Holy Communion.  "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof.  But only speak the word, and my soul shall be healed."  Those who are waiting to come to the Lord's table until they are worthy are going to be waiting forever.  To be truly "worthy and well-prepared" to come to communion is simply to have faith in these words, "Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins." "As you have believed, so let it be done for you," Jesus says.  And here at the table, He heals and restores your soul.

 There is one last thing that must be mentioned here.  Jesus marvels at the faith of the centurion.  For remember, this Roman officer was a Gentile, one who did not have all the blessings and privileges of being a Jew.  And yet Jesus says, "I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!"  Those who were the insiders, with the good genealogy and family tree and all the advantages, were put to shame by this outsider who had nothing to put his trust in but Jesus.  Apart from faith in Christ there is only weeping and gnashing of teeth, suffering and despair.

 Let us Gentiles, then, to whom the Gospel has come, not be like insiders, trusting in our own status and connections, or our own inner spirituality and experiences.  Let us rather ever be outsiders like the centurion, ones who have nothing to cling to but Christ and His Word.  For that is the essence of true Christian faith.  In a world which looks down upon such faith, let us boldly and gladly confess with St. Paul, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Gentile."

  In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit