Epiphany 3 2 Kings 5:1-15, Matthew 8:1-13 (2022)

A Question Of Authority

II Kings 5:1-15, Matthew 8:1-13

In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.

II Kings 5:14  “So [Naaman] went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.”

Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord…  The question of authority in Christ’s Church is a very important question.  In order to receive our Lord’s blessings, we must know both where to look for those blessings, and to whom the authority has been given to bestow them.  And this is important as well: unless our Lord has attached His promise to something, it can have no divine power.  And unless He has given authority to act in His place – that is, unless He has given His authority to use His power and bestow His blessing through that thing – we can never be certain if Christ will be active in it or not.

This is why, for example, the Lutheran order for private confession asks the one who is confessing his sins whether or not he believes that the pastor’s words are Christ’s own words?  It is a question of authority.  If the pastor does not have the authority from our Lord Himself to speak those words, then Christ’s blessing is not given, even though the outward rite is exactly the same.  Without the authority of Christ, there can be no certainty of blessing from Christ.

Our Old Testament lesson today shows the importance of this issue of authority.  Naaman was the mighty and valiant commander of the Syrian army, and he was suffering from the dreaded disease of leprosy.  He discovered from a servant girl that there was a prophet in Samaria who could cure him of this horrible disease.  And so, the king of Syria wrote to the king of Israel and asked him to heal Naaman.

And the king’s reaction was pretty intense.  He said: “Am I God, to kill and make alive, that this man sends a man to me to heal him of his leprosy?”  The king knew that he had no power to do what had been asked of him.  Yes, he was the king, but his authority extended only so far.  He had authority over the politics and laws of Israel, he had authority over its army, and he had authority over Israel’s relations with other nations.  But he did not have the authority and power to act as God and heal Naaman of his leprosy.  So, he tore his clothes in anger, knowing that his failure to appease the Syrian king would have drastic political consequences for him as well as his nation.

But there was a man who had the authority that the king of Israel lacked: the prophet Elisha.  And when Elisha heard how the king had torn his clothing in despair, he sent a message to the king, saying: “Why have you torn your clothes?  Please let him come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.”  In the realm of Divine intervention, the king had no authority; but the prophet did.  Elisha had the divine authority bestowed by God Himself to speak and act on God’s behalf.

So Naaman came to Elisha.  At first, he went away in a rage at the folly of the prophet’s command that he dip himself seven times in the Jordan river.  In a classic Old Testament hissy fit, Naaman said, “Are not the Abanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?”  Naaman was full of self-importance, and He was looking for something far more amazing than an undignified bath in a foreign – and dirty – river.  Surely he was worthy of something more awe-inspiring!

But here it is that we see the importance of knowing where to look for God’s blessings.  As I mentioned before, God’s blessings cannot be received through things to which God has not attached His promise.  The noble rivers of Damascus could do the leper no good, because God had not attached His promise of healing to those bodies of water.  God through His prophet had designated the Jordan River as the place where Naaman would be healed.

Finally, at the counsel of his servants, Naaman returned and submitted himself to the prophet’s authority and to the means chosen by God for his healing.  The writer of II Kings tells us: “So he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.”

Now when he saw that he was healed he confessed a new-found faith: “Indeed, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel.”  Then, he offered the prophet gifts, but Elisha refused.  You see, Elisha’s authority was not intended to be self-serving; he wasn’t in it for fame or fortune.  The authority and power was given to Elisha for this reason alone – so that he could serve others with God’s Word and sometimes with God’s intervention and aid.  Even though God was using the prophet, it was not Elisha’s own power and authority that had healed the man; it was God’s power and authority.  The honor and glory for healing Naaman was rightly God’s and God’s alone.

In today’s Gospel we meet another leper and we witness another miraculous healing.  “And behold, a leper came and worshiped [Jesus], saying, ‘Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.’  Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.’  Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.”

Jesus, who is God in the flesh, exercised the same authority and power over this man’s leprosy as had been demonstrated by Elisha.  Only this time, there was no prophet standing as intermediary between the leper and God.  God Himself, by sheer act of will and the power of His words, healed this leper.  Jesus has divine authority over all sickness and death.  Where the King of Israel despaired and cried out “Am I God, to kill and make alive?”, Jesus shows Himself to be exactly that: God who kills and makes alive.

After Jesus had entered the city of Capernaum, he met a Roman centurion who, like the King of Syria had done for his servant Naaman, now pleaded to Jesus on behalf of his own servant who is lying in a tormented paralysis.  “And Jesus said to him: ‘I will come and heal him.’”  But then the warrior said something astonishing, and it is a beautiful confession of faith: “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof.  But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed.  For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me.  And I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

What a profound understanding of our Lord’s divine authority!  “Speak only the Word – attach Your blessing to this Word, O Lord – and it will be done; my servant will be healed.  You have the authority to do it, and the sickness has no choice but to obey.”  This man knew where to look for God’s blessings, and he knew who had the authority to give them.  St. Matthew reports: “his servant was healed that same hour.”

Our Lord did not will for his Church on earth to be without His authority and blessings.  So, as He did in the Old Testament times, He appointed men to stand in His stead in order to administer His own power and blessing for the sake of His people.  In the Old Testament these men were the holy prophets.  In the New Testament our Lord gave the Apostles the authority to speak and act in His stead.  And those apostles – the first New Testament pastors – were led by the Holy Spirit to appoint other pastors (called in the Bible bishops, elders, overseers, presbyters and deacons) to stand in Christ’s place at their congregations.

God does this so that in every place where people gather together in Christ’s name, there may be someone there who has the authority to bestow Christ’s blessings to them, the blessings of forgiveness, life and salvation, given through the means of the proclaimed Word and Holy Sacraments.  For without His gifts and without the authority to administer them in Christ’s place, there can be no certainty of His blessing.  

Where there is no authority for a person to act on behalf of God, there can be no certainty of God’s acting.  And that means that any person who is not rightly called into the Office of the Holy Ministry can only confuse people and not bless them.  This, of course, includes any woman who thinks she can play the part of a pastor.  Women are not given any authority from God to serve as pastors.  Women who think they are pastors are taking from God what has not been given to them.  Therefore, anything that they may do in the church is, at best, suspect; their acts have no promise or authority from God.  God calls only men to the Office of the Holy Ministry, and He does so through the right application of His Word through the calling congregation.

And so, to this very day, the Office of the Holy Ministry exists among us so that we may know that Christ is active and present and blessing us.  The Office of the Holy Ministry is given by God to His Church so that we may know for certain that His Word is rightly preached and that His Sacraments are administered in accordance with His Holy Word.      

It is not enough for a congregation to choose someone to serve them the things of Christ.  And it is not enough for an ordained and elected church official to give approval to it.  There must be also an ordination, an official and public placing of that man into the Office of the Ministry.  It is the office that bears the authority of Christ, for He has established it.  And without the office, there is no authority and no promise, no matter how pious or able the fellow may be who tries to do the work of a pastor without it.

Our sinfulness prompts us to try to have God’s blessings on our terms rather than on His terms.  This is true any time we look for His blessings either through means and methods He has not given, or when we look for them apart from the authorities He has established to give them.

And so we, like the centurion, must know not only who has the gifts to give, but who has the authority to give them.  And our Lord has given the Office of the Holy Ministry, and the ordination of men into that office, so that we may know just that.  The Office of the Holy Ministry is given for you, that you might have no reason to doubt that when the pastor speaks Holy absolution to you, it is Christ speaking in and through his words and delivering forgiveness to you in the stead and by the command of Jesus.   

The Office of the Holy Ministry has been given to you so that when you hear the public preaching of Christ’s Word, and in particular His Gospel, you can be certain that His Spirit is active in that proclamation for your salvation, that Jesus Christ crucified for your sins is placed into your ears for your comfort, certainty, and blessing 

The Office of the Holy Ministry has been given to you so that when you receive Holy Communion, you can be certain that your Lord is bodily present in, with, and under that bread and wine, and that He is forgiving you your sins and strengthening your faith, and that the man giving them to you has the authority to do so in Christ’s place.

You see, as with Elisha, so it is with the pastoral office.  The authority is not there so that the pastor can lord it over you, but so that he can serve you with the good blessings of God, so that you can be saved from the leprosy of sin and the death that disease brings, so that you can have life in Christ, and have it abundantly and without cause for doubt.

Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ for giving us His Holy gifts and for giving His authority to men to give them to us, so that we may know in no uncertain terms that our Lord is dishing out His forgiveness, life, and salvation for our faith, strength, and certainty.  To Him be the glory now and forever.

In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.