Saving Faith
Grace to you and peace from God our
Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The Law says that the leper “is
unclean, and he shall dwell alone; and his dwelling shall be outside the camp.”
The Law also says that, when someone comes near, lepers are supposed to
cry out, “Unclean! Unclean!” But
these lepers are near the entrance of a certain village, and they band together.
And instead of shouting that they were ritually unclean, they cried out, “Jesus, Master, have
mercy on us!” What causes these ten lepers to break the Law? The
punishment for violating this law is severe: forty lashes with a whip. They
know this. So why do they risk so much?
For mercy, these men will risk
much. For mercy, they will knowingly and willingly break the Law. Mercy is what
fuels their confidence and stokes their courage—and not even mercy, but simply
the hope of mercy. After all, they have no guarantee that their cry will
be granted, that Jesus will have mercy. This same Jesus used a whip to drive
out money-changers from the Temple,
precisely because those merchants broke the Law. He could easily react the same
way toward these law-breakers. Yet mercy compels them.
You might think that they really
have nothing to lose. After all, they have leprosy, which means they are
outcasts and live a miserable life. So why shouldn’t they risk all? Don’t we
promise to risk everything—even life itself—for sake of faith? Yet how often we
take the easy route, waiting for some guarantee that we’ll get what we want
before we put anything on the line. Only if we believe against what the world
says; only if we hope against hope—only then might we be willing to lose our
life in order to gain something better. Yet these men hope against hope with
the faith that Jesus will not turn them in or turn on them, but will have
mercy. It is not desperation that drives these lepers, but the Lord’s mercy
that invites and draws and encourages them. It is not fatalism; faith makes
them bold.
And our Lord does not disappoint
those who hope in His mercy. He says, “I will have mercy on whomever I will
have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.”
Whatever we receive from God, whatever gift He gives that we accept and take to
heart, ultimately all depends “not on human will or exertion, but on God,
who has mercy.” And that is where these ten men are: they depend on nothing
but the Lord’s mercy. And that is what we are: unworthy beggars who look to, hope
for, depend on, and hold to our Lord Jesus and His mercy. And so the cry for
mercy must remain our perpetual and eternal prayer.
Like the ten, we are not
disappointed in our hope. Our Father is the lover of mankind, and so, through
His Son by the power of the Spirit, He has mercy on us and on His whole
creation. His mercy is not simply given to the good and upright. Our Father offers
and gives His mercy to every single person—even if you don’t believe it, even
if you don’t ask for it, even if you don’t think you need it.
That is why our Lord commends the
faithful Samaritan. When this man saw that he was healed, he returned and glorified
God. By giving thanks to the Lord, this man, formerly outcast both as a
Samaritan and as a leper, demonstrated that he loved the Lord and His mercy. So
the Lord gives a second, greater blessing: “Arise,
go your way. Your faith has saved you.”
Faith which begs for and lives from
the Lord’s mercy; faith which cries out in both desperation and joy; faith which
then shows the mercy and love of God within you—that is the faith that saves
you. This is the faith which you have received in the waters of Holy Baptism.
This is the faith which our Lord feeds with His body and blood. And this faith,
a gift from your God, sustains you for this life and for the life of the world
to come. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
The peace of God which passes all
understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.
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