Homily For The Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

This is the last Sunday in the Epiphany season for this Church Year.  We have heard the testimony of the Magi -bearing precious gifts to the newborn King; we have read of Our Lord’s time in the Temple with the Doctors of the Law at age twelve; we heard of the testimony from heaven of his divinity in His baptism and, last week, we heard again the story of his first miracle of turning water into wine at the wedding at Cana.  This morning, the Gospel features greater evidence of Christ’s divinity by recording two miracles - a healing of a leper and the restoration of the centurions’ servant.  Both indicate the power of Christ to transcend barriers - he heals the Jewish leper and extends grace to the Gentile by hearing the voice of his request.  Christ, in fact, restores the sick because of the faith of this Gentile centurion.  

Through each of these accounts we should receive greater confirmation of our own faith as we see ever-increasing evidence of Christ’s divinity and His willingness to give mercy and restoration to those outside of God’s covenant with Abraham.  We could say that this Sunday is a revelation, a manifestation of God’s loving power for the outcast. 

Our Gospel for today is found in the 8th Chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel.  Jesus has just descended the mountain where he gave the first of five discourses we know as the Beatitudes.  Jesus is presented in the early part of St. Matthew’s Gospel as the Second and Greater Moses.  He taught the multitudes from the Sermon Mount; there they heard Our Lord’s greater exposition of the Law which he came to fulfill but not destroy.  The multitudes were there to hear the one who taught with great authority; an authority that the scribes and Pharisees lacked.  

They heard the voice of God in his teaching and they would now see the hand of God in the healing of two hopeless cases.  Last week, we had the first miracle in St. John’s Gospel and now we have the first series of miracles in St. Matthew’s Gospel - these are the first two of ten miracles performed by Jesus in Chapters 8-9.  St. Matthew continues his presentation of Jesus as the greater Moses -  God delivered Israel through 10 plagues and Jesus performs 10 miracles of healing.  

One of the first rebellions after Moses came down from Mount Sinai was led by Miriam, Moses’s sister, who was made a leper and was later healed.  In our Gospel for today, we read that a leper approaches Jesus as Our Lord comes down from the mountain.  This leper fell at his feet and begged for healing - “Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.”    Here, the leper is breaking the Law by his approach - The Law forbade lepers from coming near to the community.  

Lepers were required to wear torn clothing, they must grow their hair long and live in quarantine outside of the villages;  they must warn others of their presence by yelling ,“unclean, unclean”.  They were emblematic of the wall of separation that existed between the clean and unclean; the unclean must remain separate from the clean to protect others from ritual defilements.  

The leper requests healing and St. Matthew records our Lord’s response.  Jesus stretched out his hand and touched the leper saying “I will; be thou clean” He was cleansed from leprosy in that moment.  In times past, God’s prophets healed leprosy but as servants of the Law.  For instance,  Elisha kept the Law in all strictness by refusing to go out and touch Naaman; Elisha instead sends him to wash in the Jordan.  Jesus shows that he is no mere prophet, no mere servant of the Law but the Lord himself.  Jesus is the Son of God and therefore will not be made unclean by the touch of a leper; rather Jesus makes the impure whole by the touch of his holy hand.  In his touching, Jesus does not undermine the Law of Moses; instead, Jesus fulfills it by providing cleansing to the leper.  

 Jesus, after the miracle, instructs him to tell no one but go and show himself to the priest.   This is to be a testimony to the priests, the leadership of the people, that the Messiah has arrived.  In Leviticus 14,  Moses recorded the procedure for determining when someone had been cleansed from leprosy.  The priest did not provide healing, there was no liturgy that provided cleansing from this illness; it was incurable but should the impossible come to pass, the priest would confirm that the person no longer had leprosy.  In this circumstance,  the priests and religious leadership would know that the Messiah had come to them for only he could conquer a disease of this sort.  The leper would be restored to the people and the testimony of the Messiah’s presence would be known to the establishment. 

St. Matthew then presents to us someone who came to Jesus with a different type of leprosy - a Gentile - who had the faith and commitment to plead with Jesus for another who was sick unto death.  He tells Jesus “Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.”   Only a leper was considered more unclean than a Gentile.  They, too, were considered unclean. Gentiles could not enter the temple and had to remain in the outermost Court of the Gentiles.  Male Gentiles were considered unclean unless they became proselytes, were circumcised and were ritually washed.  

So in this encounter with the centurion, Jesus continues to engage with people who were considered ceremonially unclean.  The Gentile had such faith in Christ that he didn’t even bring the sick with him for healing; Our Lord commended those four men who brought the paralyzed man to him for healing; we read that Our Lord saw their faith and healed the man.  The centurion was so convinced of Christ’s power and his inherent willingness to have mercy that he went to Jesus and asked on his behalf.  The centurion believed that if Jesus could heal a man near him then He had the power to command healing from afar.  Most would welcome, even beg for the Lord’s presence, and  Jesus offers to come and heal the man himself.  The centurion, noting his unworthiness, “I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof” and his complete confidence in Our Lord’s word, “speak the word only and my servant shall be healed.”   

God loves when we speak the truth about our own condition - we are not worthy for Christ to come near us - and our surest confidence in his complete power - His word by itself can bring healing.  The centurion reasons by faith that he has men under his authority and all he has to do is to command that something be done. His soldiers will obey him.  Likewise, Jesus has such power that he needs only say the word and the servant will be healed. Whether near or miles away, the healing will happen. 

St. Matthew tells us Our Lord’s response.  We have a Gentile, unclean according to Jewish custom, unfit for the kingdom of God because of his birth.  We also have the strongest commendation of any person, Jew or Gentile, during Our Lord’s earthly ministry.  We read that Jesus marveled at the Gentile’s faith. This is one of only two instances in which Our Lord is said to have marveled - here he marveled at the strong faith of the centurion. 

 By contrast, on the other occasion,  Jesus marveled at the unbelief in his hometown, which prevented him from doing miracles.  

In response to the centurion’s statement, Jesus turns to the crowd that is following him and declares that he has never found so great faith in Israel.  He tells these privileged Jews that the Gentiles will be a part of the heavenly feast in Messiah’s kingdom.  They will come from everywhere - east and the west;  they will lack the proper genealogy but they will be celebrating with the Patriarchs, while those born in the covenantal privileges of Judaism will be cast out into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.    Jesus connects the faith of this Gentile and others following in the centurion’s footsteps to the faith of the greatest patriarch in Jewish history, Abraham.  Abraham believed and it was counted to him as righteousness.  

God made the Jewish people from the faith of the Gentile Abraham;  the same faith that trusts in Jesus and brings inclusion into the kingdom of God.  Faith ingrafts the Gentiles into the covenant, where they can share in the joys of those who live by faith - typified by Abraham and the other patriarchs. 

This morning, we have restoration to covenant life through healing of the leper and inclusion in the covenant by the faith of the centurion.  Epiphany shows the light of Christ to the world.  The religious establishment saw the light, the testimony of Messiah’s coming in the healing of the leper.  The leper was restored to the covenant community - not just the temple and the sacrifices but also to home and friends.  Jesus cured the incurable and made the man whole.  Leprosy is a figure/a type of  incurable and pervasive sin.  We cannot be free from it of our own devices, rather, we need cleansing from this leprosy of sin.  Sacrificial purification for leprosy required blood sacrifice that pointed forward to Christ’s redemption.   Christ’s sacrifice - his hour of glory from St. John’s gospel - tears down the veil of separation between the holy of holies and the other parts of the temple. It tears down that which separates God from man and men from one another.  Christ’s redemption caused the Gentiles to flood into the kingdom of God - receive a place because of their trust in Jesus;  faith in the power of His word to save those who were afar off from Calvary in time and space yet near because of His love expressed to us in His word.  This morning, we testify to the power of Christ’s word to heal the deepest wound in the human heart, to bring us who were afar off from the people of God into the holy embrace of Christ’s church.   Praise be to God that we are received not because of our merits, for we have none.  But Christ is delighted to receive those who come to him for healing.   He heals those who have faith and put their complete trust in Him.  

This morning there is much to be thankful for.  Christ receives sinful men who repent; Christ receives those who seek him.  There is also a warning within the Gospel for today.   Many who were privileged in the Old Covenant would not be at the feast - they will be instead, says Jesus, in torment outside.  Faith is applauded by our Lord but presumption is warned against.  The Jews trusted in their lineage;  they trusted in their own righteousness.  We have access to greater gifts in the New Covenant, we have the Scriptures that can make us wise to salvation; we have membership in the Church - the Bride of Christ himself; we have access to the Holy Eucharist which is the manna in our journey to the new heavens.  All of these have to be married to faith and trust; all of these gifts must direct our obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ.  Let us remember the pride of the Jews when they thought they were entitled to God’s love, entitled to a pride of place in His kingdom.  Let us banish any pride, any presumption and fully embrace Jesus Christ, fully engage in worship in His church with a resolute trust in His mercy and grace.  Saying, truly, sincerely, from the depths of our hearts the words of the centurion - “Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof…but speak the word only and my soul shall be healed.”  Amen