Bible Text: Matthew 8:1-13 | Preacher: Pastor Christian Preus
If you are willing, you can make me clean. There are two things here. First, is the will of God. Is he willing to help you. The second is his power. Can he help you. Let’s take the second first. God is almighty. That means He can do anything He wants. It doesn’t mean He can do anything we want. There’s a big difference. God can’t sin for example. Because He is righteousness. He can’t stop existing. Because He is existence, He is Life.
But there are no limits to the good God can do for you. Because He is Goodness. And you’ll see it in the resurrection. But there are limits to what He can do. Those limits aren’t set by us. They’re set by Him. He is good and He can only do good. If we ask for bad, He won’t give it because He can’t. He can only give good. And what our good is we don’t know completely. God does. It may be that we think something is bad for us and so we ask God to take it away, but He knows, because He knows everything, that this bad thing will turn out for good for us. And it may be that we think that something is good for us, so we ask for it, but God knows that it won’t be good for us at all, so He doesn’t give it.
It seems that we know – of course it’s not good for me to get cancer. Of course it’s not good that I lose my job. Of course it’s not good that I’m not married yet. Of course its not good that we’re not making enough money. But we don’t know. God does. And if suffering is the thing for you, for a time, God knows it. Suffering is not good in itself. But God suffered. So He made it good for His Christians on this side of glory. Jesus, our dear Lord, suffered. And it brought the greatest good imaginable for you. There are things God cannot do that God did because He loved us. God can’t suffer, but He became a man to suffer for us. God can’t die, but He died, because the man Jesus who bore our sins is truly God.
Here is where you see that God is Love and that His will is always good. Here is where you find your trust, full and unqualified, in God. And you can say, “Thy will be done” with perfect confidence. Though he contains all things, and is contained by nothing, though He is joy itself, and has no need of us at all, and though we have turned against Him by our many sins, there He was touching a leper, there He was healing a centurion’s servant, there He was hanging on a cross, suffering, dying, our Brother and our God, who sought our greatest good before we could ask for it. Because He wanted to. That’s His will. He won us life, so that it is simply true that one day, and after that all days, for eternity, we will see that our every prayer has been answered, that God has worked it all for our good, that there is no loneliness anymore, no pain, no death, no guilt, no sin, no shame, no cancer, no evil. Jesus took it all on Himself.
The leper was no longer a leper, no longer lonely and cast out – where did it go? Jesus bore it. The centurion’s servant was no longer sick, no longer tortured and paralyzed – where did it go? Jesus took it. He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. And this is true of you. Whatever bad thing you suffer, Jesus will take it away because He has already taken it on Himself. He is willing. But He will do it in His own time and way, and He will direct everything to your highest good, which is to keep you a Christian and make you own eternal life with Him.
Jesus speaks of the eternal goal in our Gospel: many shall come from the East and the West and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. The leper and the centurion both had immediate goals. The leper didn’t want leprosy anymore. The centurion wanted his servant healed. Those are their goals. But Jesus speaks of the eternal Kingdom. He speaks of faith in Him and everlasting life. That’s His goal. If he is willing to heal in time, it is because He is willing to heal for eternity.
When that is our goal, when our final goal is to see God, to remain Christians all our lives, and in the end rise in glory at the voice of our Savior, then we know God’s will and we can pray, “Thy will be done.” And leave everything else to Him.
The leper doesn’t ask for anything. Neither does the centurion, at least not at first. The leper simply says true things about Jesus. He says if you are willing, you can make me clean. This is first of all what we need to know about prayer. Tell God who He is. That’s why we begin the Lord’s prayer not with an ask but with a truth about God, “Our Father who art in heaven.” Say true things about Him. Tell Him that He is gracious, because He is and you know it because the Father sent His Son and the Son took on your humanity, and the Spirit has joined you to Jesus’ death and resurrection. Tell him He is your Creator, the almighty. Tell God that if He is willing, He can do all things. He already knows what you need. He sees everything you are struggling with. He knows what you want before you ask it. Your needs are as obvious to Him as the leper’s diseased skin. He sees it and He knows how best to deal with it. So confess the truth about Him and He will do what He wants, which is always good.
Then the centurion. He doesn’t ask for anything either. He simply tells Jesus that his servant is lying at home paralyzed and tormented terribly. He doesn’t have to say, “Heal him.” He lets Jesus say it. Jesus knows best. This is why St. Paul says, “We don’t know what to ask for as we ought, but the Spirit intercedes for us.” Put the facts before God in prayer. I’m lonely, I’m sick, I’m worried about my family, my job. You don’t even need to offer Him a solution. You might not be able to see how there can be a solution. But God does. And God can deal with your problems in ways unknown to you for good.
Before the centurion asks for anything, he confesses what we all need to confess of ourselves. I am unworthy. I have not deserved a thing from God. We daily sin much and surely deserve nothing but punishment. But we ask that He give everything to us by grace, because of His love, because of His will, because Jesus Christ is standing there in human flesh and so God must love us.
Up to this point in the Gospel of Matthew, there’s not a single record of anyone believing in Jesus. They’re amazed at his teaching. Many are following him. But there’s no mention of anyone believing in Him. Here for the first time, almost a third of the way through the Gospel, you see it. And it’s amazing that instead of faith asking for things, faith simply confesses Jesus, tells Him its troubles, and leaves everything in His hands. Because faith is focused on Jesus. It looks away from all our troubles and sees Jesus and knows that He will work all for our good, because He has come to bear our sorrows.
When the centurion finally asks for something, it is this, “Only say the word, and my servant will be healed.” He asks Jesus to speak His word. And that is what we ask for first and above all. If you look at the Lord’s Prayer, the first three asks are for our Father in heaven to speak His Word to us. Hallowed be thy name: How is God’s named hallowed? When the word of God is taught in its truth and purity. Thy Kingdom come. How does God’s kingdom come? When our Father in heaven sends us His Holy Spirit, so that by his grace we believe His Word. Thy will be done. How is God’s will done? When our heavenly Father strengthens and keeps us firm in His Word and faith until we die.
Only speak the Word. That’s our first ask of God. Everything else follows. Only then do we say Give us this day our daily bread. Because when you hear His Word, you know His will. You know what God wants. You know He wants to care for your every need and He will give it. How do you know God looks kindly on you? How do you know He is your Father who made you and loves you? How do you know He is your Brother who laid down His life for you? How do you know He is the Spirit who sanctifies you and makes you an inheritor of everlasting life? He speaks it. He says I forgive you. He tells you about Jesus your Savior. He says this is my body, this is my blood, shed for you.
Jesus said, Let it be to you as you have believed. What did the centurion believe? He believed that Jesus had authority over sickness, sin, and death. That He could speak a word and it would be gone. You believe that, you confess that Jesus has authority to take away your sin, your sickness, your death, because He bore it on the cross and He is your God and He loves you, and you have what you believe. It’s yours. Forgiveness now, the care of God through all your life, and in the end a seat at His table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, at the feast of salvation. Amen.