God’s Will Is For Life

St. Matthew 8:1-13

Do you ever wonder what God’s will for you is? You are not alone. I’m right there with you—very regularly these days.

Next to, “If God is love, why does He allow bad things to happen?”, this likely tops the Christian Church FAQ list of most frequently asked questions.

The truth is, God’s will is no secret—for you, for me, or for anyone. The very fact that one is alive and able to entertain the question is experiential evidence of the answer that is found throughout God’s Word. There can be no missing or mistaking it. God’s Will Is for Life. From the first pages of Genesis, where the six days of creative “Let there bes” are all about God’s will at work creating Life, to the Last enduring Word of Revelation comfort for “those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life,” Scripture is all about revealing God’s will for us in the “Word made flesh to dwell among us”—for Life.

In fact, even the name by which God wants to be known speaks Life, as we learn from His answer to Moses in Exodus 3. When Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” What does “I AM” mean or indicate but existence, Life. God wants to be known as the One who is always Living for Life—Life known only by believing in His only begotten Son:

  • whom He gave that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. [John 3:16];
  • [who has] come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. [John 9:10];  
  • who is [life] the same yesterday, today, and forever. [Hebrews 13:8].

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And so, here, in today’s Gospel according to St. Matthew, God’s Will for Life is revealed to you in a very clear and specific way. For you are that leper:

  • whose flesh is being ravaged and destroyed by the leprosy of sin every day;
  • who in your worship today is saying, “LORD, if You are willing, You can indeed cleanse me”;
  • to whom Jesus stretche[s] out his hand and touché[s] [you] and [says], “I want to do it; be cleansed.”

 [O. Marc Tangner’s translation of Johann Gerhard’s German Gospel according to St. Matthew]

 

Christ has come down from the mountain today in order that you would ask Him to cleanse you–for that is His desire, His will for you. He wants to do it to you so that you too be cleansed–for Life. In fact, that is His will for all people.

“. . . it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 1 Timothy 2:3-4

And if God wants all people to be saved, as with the all nations to be baptized, this must include the littlest people among our nations. So, in light of current events and recent court decisions, as well as the 46th anniversary of the January 22, 1971 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision making abortion legal and thus all too common in our United States of America, I would be remiss on this day if I were to neglect to mention the little ones carried in the womb among all the people He wants to save and to be cleansed.

While we must condemn this “exchange [of] the truth of God for the lie, and . . . the natural for what is against nature” that has legalized and enabled over 61,000,000 innocent human beings to lose their lives to voluntary pregnancy terminations (abortions) , we trust God has dealt mercifully and His will has been done with this myriad of little ones–innocent as to their role in whatever level of distress or possible harm a pregnancy presents, but still in need of the merciful cleansing of our Lord as to their having been conceived in sinful flesh. And we pray that He would lead us out of the temptation to sacrifice more little ones for the sake of our own selfishness and deliver us from this evil taking of life from this time forth, so that these tiniest and most vulnerable of little ones may be brought to the font of living water to be cleansed and saved—for Life.

What is more, it is His will to lead those mothers who have terminated the lives of their babies in this manner—and even the doctors and medical personal and counselors and significant others who have been complicit—to repent and come to Jesus to be cleansed as well. Yes, He died for their sins, too. He died to save each and every one of them and give them life with Him in heaven. If not, how is it any one of us could think He died for our most grievous sins, to save us, and bring us into the kingdom of heaven with Him—for  Life?

Yes, each and every one of us needs cleansing, because each and every one of us is infected and infested with the leprosy of sin that will eventually destroy this body and take us to the grave–back to the earth whence God formed us. And unless the God who created you does something to change this course of events, to cleanse you of this deadly leprosy of sin, to come and touch you and give you life, you remain as you are–unable to do anything about your disease or even to know how advanced and serious is your leprous condition.

This cleansing for  Life is what Baptism is for:

It works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare.  . . . without the Word of God the water is simple water and no Baptism. But with the Word of God it is a Baptism, that is, a gracious water of life and a washing of regeneration in the Holy Spirit. As St. Paul says in Titus chapter three, “He saved us … by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The saying is trustworthy” [vv. 5–8].

It signifies that the old Adam in us should, by daily contrition and repentance, be drowned and die with all sins and evil lusts. And also it shows that a new man should daily come forth and arise, who shall live before God in righteousness and purity forever. As St. Paul says in Romans chapter 6, “We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” [v. 4]. [Small Catechism Explanation of Holy Baptism]

Thus, we also see this cleansing for Life is what Confession and Absolution is for–nothing else than living in Holy Baptism, together in the Divine Service, privately with Christ’s servant of the Word, and even person to person in the good works of our daily Christian lives. Indeed everything the pastor does is to lead to just this, that you confess your sin and receive the forgiveness of our Lord that He came to win for you on Calvary and deliver to you in His holy Christian Church—for life.

Confession has two parts: the one is that we confess our sins; the other is that we receive Absolution, or forgiveness, from the confessor, as from God Himself, and in no way doubt, but firmly believe that our sins are forgiven before God in heaven by this. [Small Catechism Explanation of Confession & Absolution]

When I urge you to go to Confession, I am doing nothing else than urging you to be [i.e., live] a Christian. [Large Catechism Exhortation to Confession]

This cleansing for Life is what we sing about in the offertory every Sunday.

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, and uphold me with Thy free Spirit.

This cleansing for Life is why Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit with the forgiveness of sins—for Life!

In order that we can know and believe that Jesus comes down from His mountain of heaven with the same flesh of His human nature–to cleanse us and abide with us and replace our rebellious, leprous, death seeking spirit with His pure life giving Holy Spirit– He gives us His very body and blood to eat and to drink in the Sacrament of the Altar, His holy Supper. This is why Jesus is called the Christ, because He and only He has been anointed in the flesh with the Holy Spirit of God to give this Spirit of Life to sinners in their flesh for eternal life.

Thus, in all these things the Holy Spirit is working to transform us back into the image of Christ we were created to be in the beginning, but which has been perverted in and lost to us as sinners. Without Christ coming to us in these things we remain dead in the leprosy of our sin and unable to do a thing to save ourselves, to get rid of our own dreaded disease, or to rise from the dead.

The leper of Matthew’s Gospel knelt in worship at Jesus’ feet begging (that’s what worship is) and immediately . . . was cleansed of his leprosy by our Lord as He came down from preaching the Sermon on the Mount. We poor, miserable sinners kneel before the same Jesus at His altar, where He still comes down and touches each of His Baptized–each of you, each of us–most profoundly today and until the end of the age. Jesus–the once crucified, now resurrected and ascended Son of God–reaches down from heaven, stretches out His hand

  • through the preaching and praying of His Holy Word,
  • in the pouring out of His living water of Holy Baptism,
  • and by the giving of His Bread of Life and Cup of Blessing.

He touches you as you grasp with the hand of faith, and the Christ, the Son of the Living God, says to you today, “I want to do it for you; be cleansed, you are mine and I am here for you to heal you and give you life.”–in the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.