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INJ
St Luke 17:11-19
'The Thankful Samaritan'
Morning Service
The 14th Sunday after Trinity Sunday | September 9, 2007
Dear Saints,
Faith and love, the two teaching of the Scriptures. We learned about faith and love last week as we considered the parable of the Good Samaritan, and we will consider faith and love this week as we learn the story of the thankful Samaritan.
Jesus, says the first verse of our Gospel text, was on His way to Jerusalem. His face is set like flint to get to Jerusalem, the city of His suffering, the city of His cross. And on His way He passes through Samaria and Galilee and comes across ten lepers. It seems that word of Jesus must have spread even the to most remote corners of the area, for even these lepers, these ten outcasts, knew Jesus' name and that He was God's Son sent to deliver the people from their sins and afflictions.
“They lifted up their voices and said, 'Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.'” [Luke 17:13] And Jesus does have mercy; He sends them to the temple in Jerusalem to show themselves to the priests. These, according to the law of Moses, were the ones who could declare them “clean” and eligible to reenter society. As they are on their way, the are cleansed of their leprosy.
Ten are made well, but only one returns to say “Thank you” to the Lord Jesus, and this one is a Samaritan. After asking him where the others were, Jesus says, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.” [Luke 17:19]
Jesus says this a lot. To the sinful woman who washed Jesus' feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair when Jesus sat at the Pharisee's table. Jesus forgave her all her sins, and “He said to the woman, 'Your faith has saved you; go in peace.'” [Luke 7:50]
To the woman who had been bleeding for 18 years, who fights through the crowd to touch the hem of His garment, knowing that He could heal her. He does heal her, and He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace." [Luke 8:48]
To the blind man on the road to Jericho, Jesus say, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.” [Luke 18:42]
But this is really amazing thing to say. Isn't it Jesus who is doing the healing and fixing and forgiving; His word that is making all things new? And yet Jesus says that it's faith. Your faith has made you well; your faith has saved you. The Lord gives so much honor and credit to faith, and we should as well.
It is the Scripture's teaching that we are saved by faith alone, sola fide, apart from works or efforts, but simply by trusting and putting our confidence in the promises of God. “For by grace you are saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” [Ephesians 2:8] “Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.” [Galatians 2:16]
By faith we are healed, saved. But I thought we are saved by Jesus, you say. The two are not in conflict. Faith and Jesus belong together, because faith is only as strong or as helpful as the object in which it is placed.
Imagine, if you will, a frozen river. Two men approach it to get across. One has much faith in the ice, the other is not so sure. So the one with weak faith tosses a couple of rocks out, taps the ice with a stick, pushes on it, and then crawls out on the ice on his belly and shimmies across the river. The other man with great faith charges across on his snowmobile. Both make it across, not because of the strength of their faith, but because the ice is frozen solid. ... Now let's go back to the river a couple of months later. The sun has been beating down, and the ice is paper thin. Both men again come to the river. Perhaps the doubtful man escapes the freezing water, or perhaps not, but surely the man with the strong faith ends up at the bottom of the river.
Do you see that it is not the size or strength of your faith, but rather the reliability of that in which you place your faith? Strong faith cannot make the ice thicker, just like the person who very very sincerely believes in a false god cannot make it true; someone who trusts in their works cannot, no matter how sincere their faith, earn heaven. If the object of your faith is wrong, no matter how sincere, your faith is wrong, useless and even dangerous.
So we see in the Scriptures, and especially in the Gospel text today, that the Lord would set us straight and put our faith in the right place: on Jesus. He alone is our Redeemer, our Savior, our Hope, our Salvation, and when we place our trust in Him we cannot go wrong, we will not be ashamed. His promises stand sure, and they are the foundation of eternal life that cannot be shaken.
May the Lord continue to grant us faith in the hearing of His word.
The text also teaches us about love, and especially the Lord for the Lord that gives thanks to Him. There were ten lepers with faith who were healed, but only the faith of one endured and manifest itself in thankfulness to the Lord.
Thanksgiving is really the only appropriate response of a heart that knows the depth of its own sin, and therefore the corresponding height of the Lord's love. To be thankful, dear saints, is just part of what it means to be a Christian.
And look how much the Lord Jesus loves to be thanked. He commended this thankful Samaritan, and He saw to it that, by the Holy Spirit, this story was recorded for us by St Luke in his Gospel. It seems so simple, to turn around and say “Thank You.” It's not as if this Samaritan did some great heroic deed, endured trials and tribulations, struggled and fought for the kingdom of God, preached the Gospel to thousands of established ministries of mercy to feed the hungry and clothe the cold. No, He simple returned to the Lord and said, “Thanks be to God.”
This is for your comfort, dear saints, that you would know that the Lord takes the same delight in your “Thank You”'s. For He loves to give His children great and marvelous gifts. He did not even spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, and with Him He gives us all things.
May the Lord grant to us His Holy Spirit, that thanks to God for all His benefits might always be on our lips and in our hearts. Amen.
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