Matt. 8:1-13 True Faith

Both stories of healing come as a result of people coming to Jesus. The leper was breaking both religious (ceremonial uncleanness) and moral (potential to hurt someone else) law. The Roman centurion was going against his own culture, possibly defying his own worship of Caesar or other gods. They both had heard the good news – that Jesus was kind and receptive to all, capable of helping them, and most of all, willing to help them. Is this a picture of the body of Christ? Are we drawing people to the Christian religion because we appear so kind, accepting, our power to help, our willingness to help instead of to condemn? Contraire, my friends. Christians today wield judgment, condemnation, righteous anger, and earn your way into our good prayers and graces. Will the Temple need to be destroyed, again? All this points to Luther’s claim that [1 - #2] “this is true faith: a living confidence in the goodness of God…[#4]…The Gospel is a good report, saying, or fame of Christ, how he is all goodness, love, and grace…” The reason Jesus tells the leper not to tell others is because this is the example of love. Love is not shown by a person in order to receive credit or attention for its actions. Jesus wasn’t expecting anything in return, and neither should we when we help another person. He only wanted the Father to be glorified. Leprosy is a disease of the skin, our outer covering. It’s a metaphor for our external actions that are sinful. Unfortunately, our actions are contagious, and others can be infected by them. Leprosy also is a disease in which the skin loses its ability to feel. Maybe like alcoholism or drug addiction. Addictions make people numb to the pain of the world, and they can’t tell that they are being destroyed because they’ve lost the ability to feel what is hurting them and others. Only Jesus can touch us and make our actions pure. But they have to hear that Jesus (the body of Christ) will not cast them out because of their disease. When the leper prayed, this showed that true prayer is one in which we submit to the will of God, not necessarily anticipating our proposed answer is the best answer. Trust in God’s wisdom and that whatever happens can be used to glorify God. An example was given of one of the speakers at the Youth Quake in New Orleans who lost his legs to a rare disease. I’m sure he prayed for his legs to be spared. Though they were not, he was speaking to 37,000 youth and adults to glorify what God had done through him in sharing the good news with people in Africa. Having half the body we have, God is using him in a powerful way to motivate others to seek Him. Luther says the centurion, a heathen, was exalted by Christ because he had a faith greater than any person of the chosen nation of Israel. What does this say to us today? We are the ‘chosen’ people of Christ – called Christians. Are there heathens who trust in Jesus and his healing power more than we do? Maybe so. And are we cast into outer darkness (unbelief, lack of understanding) where we struggle and wail and gnash our teeth? Maybe so. Especially if we are requiring more (religion, adherence to law) than trust in Jesus Christ for our salvation. Faith is not about what we think. Faith is about WHO we trust. That’s why little children inherit the kingdom of God. They do not use logic or reason. They trust in the goodness of God through Jesus. Luther identifies reason as a stumbling block to faith. Reason and right thinking are not just stumbling blocks for us today, they are a mountain. Keep the faith - PWM

Matt. 7:15-23 False Prophets

Martin Luther declares that all Christians have been given the power, by Christ, to be judges of all doctrine, and he gives them power to judge what is right and what is not right. [1 - #4] This sure opens a can of worms, especially at a time when the ELCA is trying to decide as a body what is right and wrong. He says, “The sum total of all Christianity is Jesus’ conclusion to the sermon on them mount: Therefore all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do even so unto them (vs. 12)” [1 - #1]. Okay. There we have it. What else do we need? Everything else confuses the issue.

You and I will be accountable to Jesus when we stand before him on the last day for who and what we did and believed. It won’t do us any good to point to any one teacher and say, “It was his or her fault that I did or believed what I did!” We are responsible in whom or in what we place our trust, and if it isn’t Jesus Christ alone, then we put it in the wrong place. If we place our trust in Charles Stanley, Crevlo Dollar, Joel Osteen, the Holy Bible, the Book of Concord, you name it – it’s in the wrong place. Christ alone.

So who are the false prophets? Those who teach contrary to the Word. But Luther has a different understanding of the Word than most people today. [1 - #8] “Therefore God must speak to your heart: This is God’s Word; otherwise you are undecided…[#9]… What does it concern us whether St. Augustine or Jerome, St. Peter or St. Paul…yet it will profit me nothing, for I must have God’s Word, I will only hear what God says…[#10]…It is the Word that has spoken when it is effective in those who believe.” The false prophets point to the words on the pages of Scripture and the teachings of the church that ask more of you than trust in Jesus Christ.

The Word speaks to us through the writings of scripture, and when we hear God speaking to our heart, imprinting the truth on our heart, we cannot act against the truth – no matter if we have to stick our necks out a thousand times to get them chopped off. We always act according to what we believe/trust. We cannot act otherwise. Which is why many, many Christians do not project an image of the One they say they follow.

[1 - #26] True prophets possess the fruit of the Spirit – joy, peace, love, longsuffering, patience, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance, self-control. It’s easy to tell a false prophet from a true prophet. Just watch their actions. If they don’t exhibit the aforementioned fruits, run. The works of the flesh (false prophets) are enmities, strife, jealousies, envy, wrath, factions, division, no love, no mercy, no friendship except for their own sect, they would just as soon destroy anyone who doesn’t agree with them [2 - #29]. Wow. One more quote: [3 - #12], The real nature of false prophets is that they force themselves upon us.

We know each other by our fruits. Keep up the good work! - PWM