Epiphany 3 January 26, 2020 The Sunday of Jesus Healing a Leper and the Centurion’s Servant

Epiphany 3
Matthew 8:1-13
January 26, 2020

I’m Not Ashamed of God’s Power:
Look at What God’s Doing, Not What I’m Doing

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

We should all come here Sunday morning and we should open our Bibles every day just simply because the Word of God is powerful. We shouldn’t need any other reason. We should just be here because God’s Word is different. People were flocking to Jesus’ preaching because he didn’t teach like the scribes. He taught with authority. His word had power.

Yet that seems to never be enough for us Christians. We think God’s Word is too simple and boring. So we have to dress it up. Church needs more emotion. More drama. So today we’ve got megachurches. Big stages, big lights, big bands, big TVS. Or if you’re in certain liturgical churches, it’s big hats and big processions and big displays of grandeur.

But God’s Word doesn’t need anything from us. Certainly not any “dressing up”. Magicians don’t do this as much anymore but they used to use “magic words” when they’d do their tricks. Words like “hocus pocus” and “abracadabra”. Interestingly, some think those words were just mimicked from Church or religious words. Hocus pocus may have come from the Latin words of Institution at the Lord’s Supper where the priest would say Hoc est corpus meum, “This is My body.” Abracadabra may have come from the Greek Abraxas which was a gnostic name for the supreme god of power.

Now we’ve probably all seen a magic show. They don’t actually believe the words do anything, of course. No one truly believes that the words hocus pocus are making a rabbit appear in a hat. So you have to dress up the words with all kinds of show. You dress up the magic show with lights and tables and dark sheets and maybe a pretty female assistant and all kinds of empty talk and show from the magician himself.

This is the same way we often treat God’s Word. We don’t actually believe its power so we try to make it look important by dressing it up. And sadly since we often think what God’s doing is boring we make it all instead about what we’re doing. We turn all the attention away from God’s word and onto ourselves.

This tells us that we are actually, despite Paul’s strong words I’m not ashamed of the Gospel, ashamed of the Gospel. We’re ashamed of it. We must be. Otherwise we wouldn’t try and make it about our power. And one of the biggest examples of this that I’ll talk about this morning quite a bit is Baptism. Many churches today have turned Baptism into a show about ourselves. Baptizing a baby is too boring. Where’s the drama in that? Where’s the emotion? The baby doesn’t even know what’s going on! Of course, that doesn’t matter because the whole point is what God is doing and the power of His Word. But we’re ashamed of that. It’s too easy. Too simple.

So you can’t baptize a baby. No, you have to wait until you’re older. Wait until you can show how great you are by giving your life to Jesus. There’s got to be a show. A testimony. A great dunking in the water. Maybe we even go to a great river or a spring or whatever the case. Just the simple Word of God isn’t enough for us.

Naaman was the same as us. He thought there ought to be a show. Naaman was the Syrian army commander that had leprosy in our Old Testament reading today and he went down to Israel to look for a healing. Eventually he ends up at the door of the prophet Elisha. But Elisha wouldn’t even come to the door. Instead, he just sends his messenger to tell Naaman to go wash in the Jordan river and be healed. Now Naaman was irate about this. He wanted a show. He says, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than the Jordan?”

He wanted a show. He was disgusted by this simple Word of God. It was far too boring. Yet one of his servants convinces him, “Hey, why don’t you just do it?” So he does. And lo and behold, God’s Word doesn’t need any dressing up. It does have power. And he washes in the Jordan River and his leprosy is gone. Just like God said!!

Then there’s the beautiful and inspiring story of the leper in the Gospel reading today. He doesn’t need a show at all. He’s not ashamed of the Word of God! Of its power! He simply kneels before Jesus and says, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean!”. Lord, your Word has power. Just say the Word and I’ll be clean. And Jesus says, “I will; be clean.” And He touches him. No show. Just power. No dressing up. Just God’s Word.

Then the even more surprising story of the Roman centurion who next meets Jesus and asks Him to heal his servant who is very sick at home. And Jesus says, “Sure. I’ll come.” But no! The Centurion doesn’t need a show. He doesn’t even need Jesus to come to his house. No, he says, I’m not worthy to have You come under my roof, into my home. But only say the Word!

Wow! What a faith! Just say the word?! From miles away?! Talk about not being ashamed of God’s Word. He doesn’t want any show at all. No drama. Nothing big or elaborate. Just the Word. And Jesus says, “Wow! What faith! I haven’t found this kind of faith anywhere in Israel!” And Jesus says to Him, “Go, of course! Go and let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment.

Are we ashamed of God’s Word? Are we ashamed of how simple and boring it appears? Are we ashamed that we don’t do anything except just receive it? Are we ashamed that a little baby who doesn’t know what’s going on can receive full salvation just from the Word of God? Are we ashamed that a little piece of bread and swallow of wine can give full forgiveness of sins just from the Word of God?

We don’t need to be ashamed. Because it’s the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. So let’s come back to Baptism for a moment. It’s painful that we Christians have taken Baptism and made it something that we do instead of something that God’s powerful Word does. If we truly believe that God’s Word is what does the Baptism—that it’s God Himself who does the baptizing, then we would obviously conclude that it doesn’t matter what age you are or how good your testimony is or how well you can understand the Baptism. None of that matters. Just only what God is doing and that you are receiving it.

But in many Christian churches today Baptism isn’t taught to be God’s word at all. It’s just a symbol. It’s your outward public testimony to what God is doing in your heart. So they make it a show of the individual rather than a demonstration of God’s power.

You don’t need to be ashamed of Baptism and especially infant Baptism. The Church baptized babies for 1500 years before people starting saying that wasn’t good enough. And you know that the power doesn’t rest in us. It rests in God. You can rest assured that God keeps His Word and that His Word does what He says. He says, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.” Peter says in Acts 2, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

And Paul writes to Titus in chapter 3, “he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This saying is trustworthy.”

So, Christians, don’t be ashamed. Don’t be ashamed of the Church. Don’t be ashamed of Baptism. Don’t be ashamed of the Lord’s Supper. Don’t be ashamed of the Word of God. Because it’s the power of God for salvation. One little servant girl in Syria wasn’t ashamed to tell Naaman, the commander of the army of the king of Syria, about God’s Word. You don’t be ashamed either. God’s Word is power. Amen.