Sermon - Epiphany III 2019 - Matthew 8:1-13

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Everybody knows that pithy little saying is a joke, it’s a farce. Sure sticks and stones may break bones, but words actually have the power to hurt to a far more disastrous extent. 

As a child if you break your arm or leg or a rib, these things heal, probably you’ll grow up and it’ll be just fine. But as a child if your parents constantly berate you and mistreat you, abuse you with words, you may never recover from that. A bully can beat a kid up with his fists or the bully can torture the kid with words, driving the child to suicide. 

As adults, the stakes are even higher! We have a serious 8th commandment issue going on today, where anybody and everybody is encouraged to give false testimony against their neighbor, speak lies against them, betray them, slander them, hurt their reputation, and explain everything in the harshest way. The media will publish rumors and outright lies about people, ruining their reputation and their family’s reputation forever. Lately, it’s become popular on social media, in workplaces, and otherwise to accuse another of wrongdoing without a shred of evidence, just to hurt their reputation. 

Words are powerful tools. With words you can manipulate an entire people group towards right or wrong. With words you can lead people into despair or euphoria. With words you can indoctrinate with truth or lies. Words are often far more powerful than some sticks and stones.

So you have no reason to doubt that words are powerful, and it should come to no surprise for you to hear that words from the Lord are even more powerful. For the Word of God carries with it the power of God, such that as at Christ’s Word sickness, death, and Hell flee away while that which His Word promises is bestowed. The Word of God has always carried such power as the scriptures everywhere attest. 

In both our Old Testament and Gospel lessons we hear two very similar accounts of God bringing healing through His Word. In the lesson from 2 Kings we learn of the Syrian commander Naaman, who was “a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.” Lepers were shunned from society, it was a contagious skin disease that made you look deformed and ugly. So no one would want to be around you, for one they didn’t want to look at you, and second they didn’t want to catch what you have! So when Naaman was made aware of a cure for leprosy, of course he would go and pay dearly to be cleansed of his disease.

But upon going to Israel, what happened? “Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.”” The prophet Elisha didn’t even go in person to meet Naaman, but instead sent a messenger who spoke to him. What’s more, the treatment was to wash in the filthy Jordan river! 

This wasn’t at all what Naaman expected to happen, like he said “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 have over the place and cure the leper.” He thought Elisha was actually going to do something, not just send a message to him! So as he was stomping away in a rage of unbelief, one of his servants had the wisdom and boldness to confront him, saying, “My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”

So Naaman “went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored.” What healed Naaman wasn’t some physical treatment or showy waving of hands, it wasn’t meeting the great prophet Elisha that cured him, it wasn’t even that the Jordan river had the power to heal leprosy, if anything the Jordan river is so gross it could have given some infection. No, the thing that healed Naaman was exactly what his servants identified: the great word which the prophet Elisha had spoken. It was the Word of God, with the water in the Jordan, and received by the faith in Naaman’s heart, which restored him from his disease.

A very similar thing happens in Matthew 8. A Roman centurion in the military comes to Jesus seeking healing for his “servant lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” But Jesus, unlike Elisha, immediately responds to the gentile centurion saying “I will come and heal him.” Jesus says and does what Naaman in his earlier unbelief would’ve rather had Elisha do. But instead, the centurion already has faith in Jesus, and he responds in humility, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed.”

The centurion already understands the power of Jesus’ word. He knows that his own words have power, when he tells one of his soldiers or servants to “go” he goes, to “come” he comes, to “do this” and he does it. If his own words hold power, then most certainly does Jesus have the power to command an illness to flee and it will. The centurion believes in Jesus, has faith in Him and the power of Jesus’ word to do what it says. His faith is so great that even Jesus “marveled” when He heard it! 

Indeed, Jesus’ Word was received in faith by the centurion, and at the Word of Jesus “the servant was healed at that very instant.” Again, the Word of God carried with it the power to do just as Jesus had spoken. It brought healing to the servant of the centurion as the Word of God was received in faith. 

Truly I say to you, the Word of Jesus still carries with it the same power to this very day! No I’m not talking about malicious faith-healers who put on a good spectacle on the TV in order to rake in the money. I’m talking about the Word of Jesus which He has commanded His church to speak to this day which brings with it the power of God. 

In John chapter 20, the resurrected Jesus appears to his apostles and says to them: “Peace be with you. As you the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you. Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” Jesus gives to His servants, to His pastors, the power to forgive sins and withhold forgiveness. 

When I, your pastor, or any of your previous pastors, or any of your future pastors, say those words of absolution to you “I forgive you all of your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” it is done because of the power of Jesus’ Word. Your sins are actually forgiven because the power to forgive sins lies in Jesus’ words which is now spoken by your pastor. When you receive this word in faith like Naaman and the centurion, you also receive that which it promises: forgiveness of sins! 

In Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, and 1 Corinthians 11 Jesus right before His betrayal, arrest, and crucifixion, institutes the Lord’s Supper with His 12 Apostles in the upper room, saying: “Take, eat; this is my body… Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this.” Jesus gives to His church the Lord’s Supper whereby He delivers His body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins.

Indeed, we like the centurion confess that we are not worthy to have Jesus come under our roofs of our houses. But Jesus humbles Himself even greater than that, and He comes under the roofs of our mouths in the sacrament of the altar. He enters in and He gives us not only His body and blood, but also He heals us of a sickness greater than that of physical paralysis: the paralysis of our souls, the sickness of sin. At this altar you receive not merely bread and wine alone, but you receive the very body and blood of Christ, not because the pastor is worthy, not because your faith makes it so, but because Jesus’ Word declares this to be His body and blood. When you receive His Word in faith, along with His body and blood, you receive also that which He promises: the forgiveness of your sins.

In John 3 and Matthew 28, at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry and again right before His ascension, He institutes Baptism, saying: “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God… Therefore, as you are going, make disciples of all nations by baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Jesus gives to His church the lavish washing away of sins in the sacrament of Holy Baptism. 

Just like Naaman at the Jordan river, the water together with the Word of Jesus, received in faith, cleanses us of the disease of our sin and restores us as if we are born again as a little child. Baptism carries with it the power of God to save us, forgive our sins, raise us to new life, not because the water is anything special, but because the Word of God is powerful and does what it says. At this font, people are saved not because they’re anything special, or there’s anything magical about the water, but because Jesus’ Word does what it says: forgives sins. 

So like Naaman, listen to the messenger of the prophet, listen to his servant, and believe that the Word of God is great and powerful. Follow the example of the centurion, and trust in the power of Jesus’ Word which does exactly what it says because Jesus speaks it. Jesus speaks with the Father’s authority, and that Word is spoken repeatedly here in this sanctuary with Jesus’ authority, so don’t doubt the great and mighty Word of God. His Word says confess and be forgiven. His Word says wash and be clean. His Word says take, eat, drink, this is for you. His Word casts away, sin, death, and the devil, and gives to you holiness, life, and Jesus. Believe the Word of God, it is powerful.