Sermon - Trinity XIV 2022 - Luke 17:11-19

Cleansing of the Ten Lepers, Codex Aureus Epternacensis, 1035-1040

Jesus cleanses our flesh and our souls.

1. The cleansing power of Jesus’ word and cross.

2. Jesus cleanses our flesh.

3. Jesus cleanses our souls.

A mark of Christianity is purity. I know purity sometimes gets scoffed at, but it’s pretty important. We filter our water to cleanse it of impurities. Or how would you react if after eating a couple of cookies I told you they were 99% pure, and I got most of the mouse poop out of the flour? Or it was a little disconcerting when I learned a couple months ago that all rice is infested with rice weevil eggs and larvae; you can't eat a bowl of it without eating bugs hidden inside of the grains. Obviously impure food grosses us out, like finding half a worm in your apple. But wormy apples aren’t the end of the world, they’re just gross. The impurities which are worth worrying about are those which dwell in our flesh and our souls.

When Jesus cleansed the ten Samaritans of their leprosy, it’s not just that their rotting bodies were made less gross, but that Jesus cleansed their flesh and their souls. So it is that Jesus cleans our flesh and our souls. Today we will meditate on the cleansing power of Jesus’ word and cross, and what it means when Jesus cleanses our flesh and Jesus cleanses our souls.

Obviously, Jesus is He who cleanses. After the lepers begged Him for mercy, “He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed.” Here we see that Jesus cleansed the lepers by the power of His word. Most assuredly, God works through His word to cleanse His people! Like we heard in Proverbs: “My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh.” The word of God cleanses us from the filth of this world.

God’s word has the power to cleanse us. This is why the book of Proverbs exists, this is why the whole Bible exists, this is why the church exists! God’s word is able to cleanse us from the impurities present in our lives. It does this even quite practically. Reading through the book of Proverbs it’s filled with practical daily life advice, things like who to hang out with, how to treat other people, and what sort of attitude you should have. What we read in the Proverbs does cleanse us from physical, relational, and spiritual foolishness! All the scriptures do this, not just Proverbs, but they’re all filled with directions for life, not only this life but the one to come. The scriptures were written that we might have life, and that life is given to us through Jesus. So it is Jesus who uses His word most powerfully to cleanse us!

But more significantly yet, Jesus cleanses us through His cross. Jesus was “on the way to Jerusalem.” Jesus was on the way to the cross. It is upon the cross that Jesus shed His blood and died in order to take away the sin of the world. His sacrificial death paid the price of our forgiveness, and so it is through the cross that we are cleansed of all our iniquities. “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” Through the crucifixion our sinful passions and desires which flow from our impure hearts are forgiven us.

The crucifixion of Jesus Christ cleanses us! Maybe this doesn’t seem immediately important, but it is the most important thing both immediately and eternally. The impurities which dwell within our flesh and our souls are cleansed by Jesus’ crucifixion. This clearly matters eternally, since it opens to us the door to everlasting life. But it also matters immediately, because the shame of my own guilt, and the shame of all that has happened to me, is cleansed by Jesus. All of the stupid things I’ve done, and all of the rotten things that seem to stick to me, are cleansed by Jesus sacrifice! Like the lepers, being cleansed frees me! Jesus tells the man: “Rise and go your way.” The leper isn’t stuck in a leper colony, shunned from the rest of society, but he gets to live again, he can go home, he has freedom!

By the cleansing power of Jesus’ word and cross we are purified both in the flesh and in the soul. In Galatians St. Paul makes this distinction between the flesh and the Spirit. “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other.” The works of the flesh he says are evident: “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.” These impure works of the flesh are horrible things! “I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” The impurities of the flesh aren’t just disgusting, they’re not just gross like wormy apples, but they also have the ability to send us to hell for eternity.

Our daily behaviors and actions have consequences, both in this life and in the next. Behaving wickedly defiles a person. It’s common that our sins do have earthly consequences. For example: gluttony changes our appearance and our health, fornication reduces our ability to bond to one person and spreads diseases, fits of anger and rivalries make us unhappy and isolated, drunkenness lessens our ability to think and injures our organs. Our sins defile us and make us unclean.

Yet Jesus is He who cleanses us of all those impurities. God’s Word is written to purify God’s people from the works of the flesh, so that we wouldn’t become defiled by our transgressions. But what about when the damage has already been done? Jesus cleansed the ten lepers immediately, what about us? The miraculous healing of the lepers is a foretaste of Jesus’ cleansing power. On the last day when Christ returns, He shall raise us from our graves whole and undefiled, cleansed from all of our foolishness. 

However, for most of us, once the damage is done, that is now a cross we must bear in this life. But these aren’t crosses we have to bear all alone. In the body of Christ we bear one another’s burdens. The fruit of the Spirit is mostly directed toward how we treat each other: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” So as the body of Christ we are to help each other very practically as we bear the scars of our sins. 

For instance, once these people who had sex-changes and took hormone therapy realize their errors and what they did to their bodies, they will bear in their bodies the scars of their sins. For the rest of their lives they will need Christian friends to encourage and support them, since their bodies and minds will have issues the rest of their earthly lives. The same is true for sinners of all stripes. They may suffer in this life,  long to be made whole again, and in Jesus they are cleansed. Their bodies will be cleansed on the last day and for eternity through the power of Jesus Christ!

In a similar way Jesus also cleanses the soul. The sins we commit in this life with our bodies also defile our souls. When we live in sin we harden our hearts, we set ourselves against the Spirit, our faith dwindles and may even be snuffed out completely. But remember that Jesus doesn’t want to crush the bruised reed or snuff out the smoldering wick, instead He longs to cleanse even your soul from sin and make you whole again. Through the power of His word Jesus directs your soul toward Him, and through the power of the cross Jesus washes every spot and stain from your heart with His blood. Indeed, your faith has made you well, “your faith has saved you.”

So it is that Jesus cleanses our flesh and our souls through the power of His word and His cross. The guilt and shame that sticks to you, either by your own sins or the sins done by others to you, is cleansed from you by Jesus. In response to this miraculous healing, let us always imitate the lone lepper who turned back to Jesus, praising God with a loud voice, and falling on our face at Jesus’ feet, giving Him thanks. Afterall, Christ makes us whole, both body and soul, now and forever.