The Great Reversal :: Luke 17:11-19

Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back with a great voice, glorifying God. And he fell on his face at the feet of Jesus, giving thanks to him. Now he was a Samaritan. 

5.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, are there not 134 baptized members of this congregation? Where are the other 70 or so? Are you really the only ones who were found to give glory to God?

I’m not sure that there is a more cutting law in this text than that. Are you really the only ones? Half of our congregation did not return to God today to give him thanks and praise for cleansing them of their sin, for healing them, for making them whole, for providing his feast in celebration of the forgiveness of your sins. Couldn’t anyone [else] be found to return and give glory to God? This is not our theme, but it’s certainly the question of the day. 

4.

And it’s a hard question to answer, isn’t it? Why did only one of those nine sinners in our text reverse course and return to Jesus? We don’t know. But it’s probably making more than a few of us squirm, thinking Jesus asks that of us. The Law will do that to you ... ya know. It cuts us to the heart and exposes our inadequacies, our guilt, and our shame brought on by our ingratitude for the gifts of God. It highlights how we have failed to fear, love, and trust in God above all things ... how we despise preaching and his word, a word that calls, gathers, and enlightens us. 

Some of us ... though we call ourselves Christians ... have no regard for what God actually does for us in the Divine Service. Some of us ... though we say we have sin ... nevertheless ignore the rest of the sin in our lives, acting like it doesn’t exist. Some of us ... though we say we are Christian ... nevertheless spurn the Divine Service where God makes us whole. We try to convince ourselves that we don’t need his service to us. We try to justify ourselves, saying we don’t have time for it. In turn, we even deny each other the forgiveness of sins. 

Couldn’t anyone [else] be found to return and give glory to God?

Some of us ... though we call ourselves Christians ... aren’t really interested in thanking and praising Jesus every week for the gifts of Word and Sacraments even though our own confessions say we will. Some of us ... though we call ourselves Christians ... too often we act like the other nine lepers ... who didn’t return to worship at the feet of Jesus, though they had been cleansed too. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ ... repent and believe the Gospel. 

Our Lord Jesus Christ draws near to us every Lord’s day through Word and sacrament. While we are still far away, standing at a distance, crying out ... Lord, have mercy! Christ, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! ... Jesus comes into our midst, even though we were sinful and unclean. He doesn’t ask what we need. He already knows it. He comes down the mountain and takes our sin from us. He draws near to speak a better word: a word of absolution and confidence that you can now show yourselves to the priests, and thus receive absolution and share it with each other. 

On account of his Word Your sins are forgiven, cleansed, washed away. God has said so. 

He draws near to make us whole. He draws near to strengthen our faith in him by sacrificing himself, giving his body and blood to you. He draws near with means of grace that strengthen our faith in him. 

Are you starting to see and hear the Gospel, the good news of what Jesus does for you? 

3.

Then while they were going, [the Samaritan leper] realized he had been healed. So he turned back ... yes, you could say he repented ... and with a great voice, he began glorifying God ... thanking the Lord ... singing his praise ... telling everyone what God in Christ had done. He fell on his face and he worshiped Jesus ... our Immanuel ... God in the flesh!

Don’t let this moment pass you by without realizing what is happening in this great reversal. 

The Samaritans were among the most despised people in the land of Israel. They were rebellious. By the time Jesus was born, they not only had embraced the gods of the Canaanites, they embraced the gods of the Assyrians. 

More than that, this Samaritan was a leper. Lepers were God forsaken people. There are nearly two full chapters in Leviticus on how to deal with lepers. If you had leprosy, you couldn’t go to worship. You had to live outside the camp. You had to warn people to stay away from you. You were isolated and left alone ... not only by other Christians, but by your own family.

So let’s put it all together. A Samaritan ... a man who had been ostracized by those who claimed they believed in God ... a man who had been ostracized by his family and friends because of his leprosy ... a man who was forced to live on the fringes of society ... turned back to God and glorified him by glorifying Jesus for delivering the forgiveness of sins. That is to say ... in a great reversal ... he repented and worshiped God in the flesh, recognizing Jesus is God.

2.

As Christians, we too do that in the Divine Service. Here we return from the world and worship Jesus. We recognize that by glorifying Jesus we are glorifying the God who comes to us and gives us his flesh and blood that nourishes the faith he gave us. We couldn’t go to God ... so he comes to us ... and he cleanses us in baptism! He speaks a better word to you ... the Gospel ... of how he lived without sin, died for your sin, rose from the dead, and returned to paradise. 

The fact that your faith in this truth of Christ has saved you isn’t a past tense moment. Your faith in Christ ... in all that he does and continues to do ... has saved you and it continues to save you. This is what Jesus is telling us today. The Gospel doesn’t tell you what to do. It tells you what Jesus does for you. Where else does this actually happen than in the Divine Service?

We could focus this day on the truth that as Christians we must learn to be grateful first of all to God, our gracious Father in heaven, who not only gives and preserves our physical body and life … giving us clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, and all that we have … but he strengthens and keeps us in the one true faith. Instead, recognize today how that happens. God in Christ does this precisely through Word and sacrament ministry administered by your called and ordained servants in Christ. The Good News ... the Gospel ... is realized in the Divine Service. The Good News is not what we do. It is what God does. It is the great reversal.

You can see it in all that happens here. 

First, look to the cross. Here is where God Himself declared victoriously that It is finished. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, became sin when he went to the cross. He traded his innocence for your guilt so that he could redeem you from sin. He ensured that your sin suffered God’s wrath there, and that it died with him there. He ensured that your sin was buried with him. More than that, the Gospel is the good news that he is risen! He is risen, indeed! Hallelujah! 

On account of his Gospel, of what he has done and continues to do for you, we now have all the reason in the world to thank and praise God, to serve and obey him, always and in every circumstance. On the cross we see the great reversal from death to life, like the Samaritan in our text. It doesn’t matter how bad things may be or much worse they may get. Your God and Lord has truly made you well and given you the free gift of eternal life with Him. 

Knowing that, now look to this font, and remember what God did for you here. 

Here, God in Christ brought his life-giving, death-reversing victory to you through baptism. Here, he continues to call you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Here, he continues to lead you out of the wilderness of sin and into the paradise of eternal life with him. Here, he made you one of his own, giving you life and breath, drowning your sin and raising you into eternal life. This is a present reality. Now because of baptism, he is always with us. 

And because he is with us, we can now look to this altar and worship at the feet of Jesus, giving thanks and praise to God. Again, here your merciful, gracious Lord draws near to you for the marriage feast of the Lamb in his kingdom, a celebration of forgiveness that has no end. Here, he kneels down from heaven in order to nourish you with his life-giving body and blood as all the saints and angels rejoice that you are receiving freedom from guilt and shame. 

1.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, our loving Lord gets very little thanks and praise for all that he has done, but there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than nine who need no repentance. So let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another ... (Heb 10:24-25). In the Gospel of word and sacrament we continually receive assurance that our sins are forgiven for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter, sufferings and death of our loving savior. Thus we enjoy constant healing from the leprosy of sin. 

IN THE GREAT REVERSAL, WE CAN NOW SEE JESUS DRAWING NEAR TO DELIVER HIS SACRAMENTAL GIFTS THAT DELIVER LIFE AND SALVATION.

That’s more than enough reason to return for a mere hour every Lord’s Day longing to give thanks and praise. Our celebration is nearing its crescendo. And it is certainly good, right, and salutary that we should at least say “thanks” for all he has done and continues to do ... forgiving, renewing, leading ... in Jesus’ name.