Sermon -- Octoberfest Vespers (September 28, 2025)

MATTHEW 8:1-4

IF YOU ARE WILLING…

In the name + of Jesus.

    This is the first recorded miracle in the Gospel of St. Matthew.  A leper came to Jesus in hopes of being cured of his leprosy.  He came with the politest request that was ever made of Jesus.  Some came and deposited their sick before Jesus.  Others shouted and pleaded, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”  This leper “came to him and bowed down to him, saying, ‘Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean’” (Matthew 8:2). 

     “If you are willing…”  This leper was not so presumptuous to think that he was owed a healing from Jesus.  He expressed his confidence in what Jesus could do for him: “you can make me clean” (Matthew 8:2).  But he recognized that Jesus had every right to decline his request.  “If you are willing,” he prayed.

     Our prayers usually direct God to some specific action to be taken on our behalf.  This is not wicked.  Our Lord summons us to pray: “Call on me in the day of distress.  I will deliver you, and you will honor me” (Psalm 50:15).  St. Peter urges us, “Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).  We get to tell our heavenly Father what our particular trouble is.  We even get to ask for a specific blessing or outcome.  The leper was specific: “You can make me clean” (Matthew 8:2).  A leper who had been cut off from his family, from his friends, from the temple, and from society would long to be cleansed.  His request was no surprise; but his submission to God’s will was.

     “If you are willing…”  It is good for us to recognize that God may have different plans for us than our requests.  When St. Paul fervently prayed, repeatedly, that the Lord would grant him relief from the thorn in his flesh which tormented him, the Lord was not willing to take it away.  When David prayed and fasted that the boy born to Bathsheba through an illicit affair would be spared or even that David could be put to death so that the child would live, the Lord was not willing to honor David’s petition.  The leper who came to Jesus recognized that Jesus might tell him, “I know that your life is hard with leprosy, but I am going to ask you to bear this cross.  You will receive relief and deliverance from your leprosy at the resurrection of all flesh, but for now your flesh will be corrupt.  You will be given the strength and the grace to deal with it, but it is not God’s will for you to be cleansed from it.”  But even when it is difficult, God’s will is always good.

     We don’t often know what God’s will is because he does not tell us.  Is it God’s will that my loved one lives or dies?  Is it God’s will that my pain is alleviated?  Is it God’s will that our nation remains peaceful and prosperous?  We know that God does not will what is sinful, but we also know that God may use evil for his own good purpose.  Whatever our prayer is—and you can make whatever petitions and intercessions you want, and you can make them as specific as you want—our prayer is and remains, “If you are willing….”

     We have a Savior who knows what it is to submit to the will of his Father.  In Gethsemane, Jesus already felt the sorrow, the pain, and the curse he would have to endure to take away our sins.  Jesus “fell on his face, and prayed.  He said, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me (a specific request). Yet not as I will, but as you will’” (Matthew 26:39) (If you are willing…).  Since there was no other Savior who could deliver us, and since there was no other way to remove the curse of sin from us, Jesus submitted to the will of his Father—not because it was fun, but because it was good.  Jesus took the cup of God’s wrath and consumed every last drop for us.  Why?  Because it is God’s will that sinners would be saved.  And if it is God’s will to save you and to give you everlasting life with him, then God’s will is always going to work for your good.  In fact, he tells you so.  “All things work together for the good of those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

     “A leper came to him and bowed down to him, saying, ‘Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.’  Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him. ‘I am willing,’ he said.  ‘Be clean.’  Immediately he was healed of his leprosy” (Matthew 8:2-3).  In compassion for the leper, Jesus was willing to cleanse him and did.  When we do not know what God’s will is, we pray for whatever we want and, like our Savior, submit to whatever he chooses to do.  And when we do know God’s will, we submit to whatever he would have us do.  For, the will of God is always best, his word is always true, and his love never fails.

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.