Slightly revised from 2007.

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit

You might think the leper has weak faith. If he knows Who Jesus is,
he should march right up to Christ, get in His face, and be bold to
ask for healing. After all, Jesus is the long-awaited Savior of the
Jewish race.

That little word if shows us the leper has some faith. You might
think Matthew uses this account to show how all Jews had little faith
in Jesus. Then again, you might marvel that this Jewish leper at
least has faith. Though he uses the qualifying word, if, at least he
knows that Jesus can do something about his sickness.

Sometimes we go to our Lord in prayer and use the word if. We use
that word because we think the Lord won’t do anything for us. We’ve
asked time and again. We’ve received little of what we’ve asked.
When we do receive something that we asked, it’s never enough.

How much is enough for us? We catch ourselves saying, “close enough
for government work” or “good enough for who it’s for” when we deal
with our neighbor, the government, or even our Lord. What if the Lord
were to answer us the same way? We ask, “Lord, heal my cancer” and
the Lord takes away enough cancer. We ask, “Lord, give me peace from
those who hurt me” and the Lord gives you enough peace. How much is
enough cancer? How much is enough peace?

Thanks be to God our Lord doesn’t deal with us in ifs and enoughs.
Jesus says to the Jewish leper, I am willing; be cleansed. Jesus
didn’t ask if the leper had enough faith. Jesus healed the leper.
Jesus told the leper to do what Jews do when they are healed as a
testimony to them. Jesus does the unthinkable. He touches a leper to
cleanse him not only of his illness but also of his sin. The leper
shows himself to the priests as a visible testimony that the Lord
dwells among His people in the flesh.

Then there is the Gentile centurion. Jesus is ready to go to the
centurion’s house and heal his servant. How many ceremonial laws will
Jesus break in thirteen verses of Scripture? He touches a Jewish
leper. Now He wants to follow a Gentile home to heal his servant. A
Jew would never do these things!

Jesus is no ordinary Jew. The centurion is no ordinary centurion.
When Jesus is ready to follow him home, the centurion answers, Lord, I
am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a
word, and my servant will be healed. One word. That’s all it takes.
Now that’s faith!

The centurion believed the Word of Jesus was as good as His physical
presence. Jesus speaks and it’s done. That’s the way it was at
creation. That’s the way it was on the cross when Jesus said it is
finished. That’s the way it is every Sunday morning. God speaks. We
listen. We speak back to God the Words He first gave to us.

Are your problems healed with one word? Do we believe the Word of God
works? Consider these words written for pastors from renowned
German/Australian theologian Hermann Sasse:

The humble preaching of the Gospel and the administration of these
simple Sacraments are the greatest things that can happen in the
world. For in these things the hidden reign of Christ is consummated.
He Himself is present in these means of grace, and the bearer of the
ministerium ecclesiasticum (churchly ministry) actually stands in the
stead of Christ. That certainly puts an end to any clerical conceit.
We are nothing. He is everything. And that means that the terrible
sin of pessimism, which is the pastor’s greatest temptation, is
finished with as well. It is nothing but doubt and unbelief, for
Christ the Lord is just as present in His means of grace today as He
was in the sixteenth or the first century. And all authority in
heaven and on earth is just as much His today as it was when He first
spoke that promise to the Apostles. And it remains so into all
eternity. Do we still believe this?

Ask yourself that question. Do we still believe that the preaching of
the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments are the greatest
things that can happen in the world?

God bespeaks you righteous. The Word made flesh takes away your sins.
The Word made flesh feeds you with His True Body and True Blood for
the forgiveness of sins. The Word made flesh declares you worthy to
sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
There is a place in heaven for you next to all the heavyweights of the
faith. Yes, you are not worthy. Christ makes you worthy. Jesus
becomes unworthy for us that we might become worthy in Him.

You are not saved because you are baptized, a Lutheran, a Christian, a
Jew, a Gentile, or just being someone. Saint Paul tells the Ephesians
by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Do we still believe this? Christ speaks the Word and we are healed
from sin, death, and the power of the devil. There is no if or enough
on God’s end of things. He changes our if and our enough to yes and amen.

Jesus is willing. He is willing to cleanse you from all sin. He is
willing to speak the Word so you may be healed. He is willing to die
for you so you may live. Jesus is willing to speak the Word so you
shall be healed. Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be
done for you.

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit