Trinity 14 August 28, 2016
Trinity 14
Luke 17:11-19
August 28, 2016
“Clean”
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
What’s the longest you’ve ever gone without a shower? The longest number of days you’ve gone without bathing? Now I’m not talking about when you were a little bitty kid and Mom and Dad didn’t give you a bath for a week. Yes, that happens. I’m talking about when you’re old enough to give yourself a good scrubbing in the shower. What’s the longest you’ve gone without getting clean?
My family and I like to go camping once in a while. We don’t have one of those nice campers with the shower in it. So we have to use the camp showers. Some of you have seen those camp showers. They can be quite scary at times. So maybe there have been showers skipped for a day or two while camping. Maybe you’ve had similar times. Gone hiking or camping and haven’t showered. Maybe you’ve been injured and had a cast or something where you couldn’t shower or you’d get it wet. At any rate, what’s the longest you’ve gone without bathing?
Now let’s say you went a whole month without showering. What’s going to happen? Probably the most noticeable is the smells. The body odors. After a few days without bathing, you won’t want to lift your arms too high, right? Others will not stand too close to you, right? Then there’s that slimy, greasy feeling on your skin. You develop this kind of film of dirt all over your body. Then there’s your hair which will become much greasier and stiffer. Others won’t want to be around you and you won’t really even want to be around yourself. Now I know that not all cultures bathe as much as Americans do, but you’re getting the point. It’s not much fun to be really dirty.
Now imagine you went for two months without showering. A year without showering. What are you going to smell like? Look like? Who will stand to be around you? And now maybe you’re starting to get a little idea of what it was like to be a leper in Jesus’ time. In today’s Gospel reading Jesus meets ten lepers and their life is not pleasant. It’s not because they haven’t bathed. Has nothing to do with that. But they were considered the dirtiest of the dirty. Leprosy was a skin disease that caused all kinds of painful sores on the body. So imagine swelling and open sores and pus. It was highly contagious so that no one wanted to be anywhere near them. They had to live outside of the towns and had to warn anyone whenever they were coming near. They were looked down on, separated from society, and weren’t allowed anywhere near the Temple for worship.
Leprosy is important to know about because the Bible often uses it as a kind of picture for sin. God gave leprosy to Miriam when she sinned against Moses. He gave leprosy to Gehazi, Elisha’s servant, when he sinned against Elisha. God gave leprosy to King Uzziah when he sinned against God and became angry with the priests. Leprosy gives you a picture of what sin does. It makes us unclean. It separates us from other people. It brings us loneliness and shame.
This is what sin does to you and me. Sin that isn’t forgiven, isn’t dealt with, is like not taking a bath for days and weeks and months. Our sins make us dirty. Look at this list that Paul gives in the Epistle today from Galatians 5. The works of the flesh. Sexual immorality. Impurity. Sensuality. Drunkenness. Orgies. Sins like pornography and adultery. They make us dirty. He talks about enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy. These sins separate us from each other. Enmity and envy and jealousy ruin marriages and ruin families. Anger and rivalries destroy relationships. We’re dirty. We’re lonely. We’re ashamed. We need a bath. A huge one. We need Jesus.
These ten lepers find Jesus. Who knows how they heard about Jesus? Jesus had cured leprosy before. Maybe the word was getting around. But they find Jesus and beg for mercy. “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” That’s where you and I turn. Jesus, have mercy on us. We’re dirty. We’re ashamed of things we’ve done. We’re lonely because our sins have separated us from others. We want to be clean. Lord, have mercy. Lord, help us.
Now Jesus doesn’t get out the bucket and the water and the soap to clean these ten guys up. He knows better. And He doesn’t call in a doctor with some fancy creams or salves to make their sores go away. He doesn’t use some kind of all natural home remedy for leprosy. He simply speaks His Word. “Go,” He says. “Go!” Go show yourselves to the priests. See, that’s what you did when you were cleansed from leprosy. The priests would check you out and declare you clean. Healed. And as these ten get up and go—they are cleanses. Jesus heals with His Word.
Imagine going to the doctor with a serious illness and they simply say, “Go home. You’ll be better.” You’d be upset. But not with Jesus. His Word really does make us clean and better.
Now the word “baptize” means wash. It’s a Greek word that was used for all kinds of washing. So to baptize someone is to wash them. So Jesus baptizes these ten lepers. He washes them. He cleans them. Takes their leprosy away. But with what? Soap and water? No, He baptizes them with His Word. He says the Word, “Go,” and they are washed clean.
This morning we witnessed five baptisms. Five washings. And we believe it to be the power of God because it is His Word. The same Word that baptized and cleaned these ten lepers. The same word that baptized these five children today and washed all their sin away. God’s Word is that powerful. “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” All of you who are baptized have been cleaned. You, just like the ten lepers, have been washed by the Word of Jesus. He made you His child and took away the dirty and the loneliness and the shame and the separation. Being baptized is being washed clean by the Word of Jesus.
Now where do we go from here? Do we get baptized by Jesus and then run away and never come back? One of those ten lepers shows us a very important thing. Nine of them take off and never come back. But one comes back. One leper realizes that he never wants to be away from Jesus again. He come back falling at Jesus feet giving Him thanks and praise. And Jesus says, “Where are the other nine?”
Just like most of you probably wouldn’t go a day without showering, let alone a week or a month—there shouldn’t be a day goes by where we aren’t washed clean by the Word of Jesus. We don’t receive His Baptism and then run away and never come back. We come back like the one leper and give Him thanks and praise every single day.
God’s Word is a cleansing shower. It makes you clean every single day. It’s something to be excited about. Getting clean is exciting. Maybe that’s why people like to sing in the shower. Maybe that’s why the one leper runs back to Jesus singing His praise. Because being forgiven and cleansed is exciting. It’s a joyous thing every day to bring all your sin to Jesus and say, “Lord, have mercy,” and He says, “Go.” Go in peace. Go forgiven. Go in joy.
God loves us dirty sinners. He loves you every day. And by His Word of forgiveness in Jesus, He makes you clean. Every day. And being clean is so much better than being dirty. Remember that dirty list of sins that Paul gave us earlier? Now look at the other list he gives us—the clean list—the list of gifts that God gives you when you are in Jesus. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” These are the fruit that God’s people produce when they’re washed clean every day by forgiveness.
Isn’t that an awesome list? Joy and peace? Patience? Kindness? These are the things that you and I want to have but often come up empty. They are gifts of the Spirit. They come through hearing and receiving God’s Word. He will give you those good gifts when you are living in Jesus and hearing His Word and praying and being in Church and receiving the Lord’s Supper.
Getting clean is a wonderful thing. Just ask the ten lepers in the Gospel today. And it couldn’t be simpler. Just stick with Jesus. His Word washes away all the dirty. “Go,” He says. To you today He says, “Go, your faith has made you well.” You are clean. Forgiven. By the Word of Jesus. Amen.