Foreigns [Trinity 14; St. Luke 17:11-19]

AUDIO AVAILABLE HERE.

It is Jesus Who speaks in your hearing today, saying:

“Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”

Let’s get one thing straight. Whenever the question is asked “What would Jesus do?”, the answer is always, always, “Die on the cross”. Jesus’ only mission is to save you from your sin, graft you into Himself, and get you to live with Him forever.

Today is no different. There are voices in the country speaking loudly against foreigners: refugees, immigrants, and their illegal counterparts. These loud voices are quick to define what a foreigner is, as well as saying that foreigners are anyone not “like us” as if there is a special rule or standard for them to determine such a thing.

The Greek word used in the Gospel today literally means “other-born” or “other-begotten”. I want to say it in Greek to you now, so that you remember it in a few minutes, when I will bring it up again: Allogenhj. A person born of another line, another family. Not born as we are.

In holy Scripture, you also hear of foreigners and as God defines who they are, it almost sounds just as bad as the politicians and atheists say it is. In Leviticus, no foreigner may eat (Lev. 22:10) or offer holy things and if you married a foreigner, you can’t eat either (Lev. 22:12). In Numbers, any foreigner caught near the Tabernacle would die (1:51). Indeed, even the divine Service is not for them (18:4). The priests are not to minister to them, for there is no forgiveness for them (18:7) in anything the priest is called to do.

Not separating yourself from foreigners is unfaithfulness and intermarriage is equal to breaking all the commandments at once (Ezra 9:1,2,14). The Lord has declared that Jerusalem will be holy and foreigners will pass through it no more (Joel 3:17). Harsh sounding, yet this is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Hopefully you are squirming in your seat and wondering how in the world you are going to be compassionate tomorrow and still be Christian. Good. The rubber is hitting the road. A sinner encountering a holy God should feel as such.

Please continue to squirm as we consider Job. He is accused of having turned his spirit against God and that is why his troubles were so great. In the same chapter Job declares that he will see his Savior because he knows that his Redeemer lives, he declares that he is a foreigner to his own household. His affliction is that of a foreigner in front of God.

At the hands of the Law and his friends’ declaration of it to Job, he feels what you are feeling: that perhaps you are all foreigners and perhaps God really is enacting judgment upon you in events that are out of your control. You feel that all your suffering and all your sin makes sense if you yourself are also a foreigner.

Enough of all your abominations, saith the Lord, “[when you admit] foreigners, [who are] uncircumcised in heart and flesh, to be in my sanctuary, profaning my temple, when you offer to me my food, the fat and the blood. You have broken my covenant, in addition to all your abominations.” (Eze. 44:6-7)

Repent. “On the day that you stood aloof,
    on the day that strangers carried off his wealth
and foreigners entered his gates
    and cast lots for Jerusalem,
    you were like one of them.” Obad. 1:11

You are the foreigner. A foreigner is not an alien, illegal or otherwise. A foreigner is a sinner. A foreigner is someone who has a corrupt and fallen nature, who rebels against God, and despises Him, in His own Church and does not believe rightly.

When the Bible is speaking about foreigners being excluded and not finding forgiveness, it is talking about the world in its corruption, the devil in his rebellion, and you in your sin.

Those who do not believe there is forgiveness to be found in the Divine Service of the Church of Christ will not find forgiveness there. Not that its not there, but that they do not want what God is offering to them there. And because you acted like them, you will be numbered with them. Because you act like and follow the world and your own sinfulness, you will be foreign to God.

So, what would Jesus do? In the place of the Allogenhj comes another Greek title that only one man in the entire history of creation bears: monogenhj. You can hear the word mono in there, meaning “one” or “only” or “sole”. In the place of the other-begotten comes the Only-begotten.

Jesus is not just one-of-a-kind or special. He is the ONLY kind. He is the only one to believe. He is the only one to follow. He is the only one to listen to. Not only that, but no other person or god can claim to be a son or sons, except Jesus. By declaring Himself to be the Only-begotten, Jesus protects us from quite a few heresies.

Not the least of which is the fact that He, being God and man, humbled Himself beneath us and became the foreigner, rejected by His own and sacrificed outside of His city that He might sanctify all people through His own blood.

Jesus is the foreigner. He allows His creatures to lay hold of Him, to blaspheme Him, and to crucify Him. He is not given a Jewish trial. He is not given a Jewish death, and He is not given a Jewish burial.

All this in order that He would save some Allogenhj ; some of the ones who have turned completely from Him in sin and have become alien to God. Sin makes you a foreigner. Baptism grants you full rights and access to the Only-Begotten and His righteousness. In that washing of rebirth (Titus 3:5), new blood and a new spirit is grafted into you to work out God’s salvation.

Now that the blood of the monogenhj flows through the veins of the Allogenhj you are no longer called strangers (Eph. 2:19), but saints. Because the true Body and Blood of the Only-begotten flows freely in your body and soul through Faith, you are adopted as sons and heirs.

Jesus becomes the foreigner, taking your place, and putting you in His place. The heir to the throne abdicates and enthrones you and crowns you with His many crowns. This is not a surprise. For all the apparent intolerance of the Old Testament that people love to pick on, they miss the Gospel in it.

When God promises that no foreigners will pass through the land of His people, He means that His Name is going to not only keep His children, but make more children of God, even out of the foreigners. The foreigner also is included through God’s Name.

Jesus is not keeping people out, He is inviting through Baptism, which is the place where we find God handing out His Name. In Christ, the Crucified, no sinner can stand and no foreigner can be present, because He, by His Word, changes them into saints and citizens of the Kingdom.

Herein lies the point. Jesus is crucified for all because that is the only way to save them and to change them, not into good people, but in to Sons of God. The greatest act of mercy Jesus can show to you, today, is by reminding you of your baptism wherein you were put to death along with your sin and foreign-ness, and were brought again to new life in Christ.

Making all people in the world one people would not do the same thing. In fact, it would only cause more hatred. One of the reasons there are people that look and act and talk differently from you is to show you your own foreignness in front of God, lead you to repent of it, and find forgiveness freely given for it.