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Pentecost 18 2025 Proper 23
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Hamilton, Ohio
Pastor Kevin Jud
October 12, 2025
Ruth 1:1-19a, 2 Tim. 2:1-13, Luke 17:11-19
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Where is God? God appears to Abraham as one of three visitors bringing him and Sarah the promise of the birth of Isaac. God wrestles with Jacob. God appears to Moses in a burning bush that is not consumed.
As the Israelites leave slavery in Egypt the Lord is with them as a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day. The children of Israel build the tabernacle and God dwells with His people in the tabernacle and then later in Solomon’s Temple. God is with His people in the Temple in Jerusalem. The cloud of God’s glory is there in the Temple. If someone asks, “Where is God?” The answer is, “He is in the Holy of Holies in the Temple in Jerusalem with the Ark of the Covenant.”
Later… that answer changes. Due to the wickedness of the children of Israel, the Temple is destroyed in 586 BC by the Babylonians and the Ark of the Covenant disappears. In exile in Babylon, Ezekiel has a vision of the presence of the Lord departing from the Temple. After this, the question, “Where is God?” does not have a clear answer.
Under authority of the Persians, the Temple is rebuilt by Zerubbabel starting in 536 BC and then is greatly expanded by Herod the Great starting in 19 BC. But the Ark of the Covenant never comes back to the Temple and the cloud of God’s glory never returns. Ezekiel has a later vision of the glory of the Lord returning to the Temple from the East. For the Jewish people after the Babylonian exile, there is no good answer to the question, “Where is God?” Just that He is up in heaven and we are waiting for Him to return.
We are in this time after the exile when we hear about ten lepers in the border region between Samaria and Galilee. Lepers are forbidden to be close to others and must live outside of towns and villages and cry out, “unclean”, if someone gets near. These ten have heard about Jesus’ miraculous healing powers and instead of crying out, “unclean,” they lift… “Luke 17:13 (ESV) 13 … up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” They have faith that Jesus can heal them and He does just that. Luke 17:14 (ESV) 14 When [Jesus] saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed.” The ten had faith that Jesus could heal them and they received healing through His Word. Nine do just as Jesus instructs and go to show themselves to the priests to be declared officially clean, but one of the former lepers understands what just happened. One knows the answer. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, one knows the answer to the question, “Where is God?” God is standing right in front of him. Luke 17:15–16 (ESV) 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; 16 and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan.” Where is God? Jesus is God. The Samaritan is lying at Jesus’ feet worshipping and praising God.
Now looking at this scene it does not make sense. The man is worshiping God, but Jesus does not look like God. Jesus does not have a cloud of glory surrounding Him. He does not appear to be God…but He is God. He is Immanuel, God with us.
This former leper is a Samaritan. Samaritans are the descendants of those left behind by the Assyrians when they conquered the ten northern tribes of Israel in 722 BC. The Jewish remnant intermarried with the Assyrians who came into the conquered land. They built a temple on Mount Gerizim and worship there. The Jews worship in Jerusalem and consider the Samaritans to be impure and not God’s people.
Luke 17:17–18 (ESV) 17 Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Jesus is clearly showing that true knowledge of His identity is not restricted to the Jews but is for all people, even those the Jews hate.
Jesus addresses the Samaritan. Luke 17:19 (ESV) 19 …“Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”
This verse can be translated in various ways. It is a little odd for Jesus to say, “your faith has made you well”, because all of the other lepers were also made well. What is different about this one?
In Luke 7, at a dinner at a Pharisee’s house, a woman, known to be a sinner, cleans Jesus’ feet with her tears and her hair, and anoints His feet with ointment and kisses. After teaching the Pharisees that those who are forgiven much, love much, Jesus concludes by telling the woman Luke 7:50 (ESV) 50 … “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” This is the same Greek words Jesus uses toward the former leper.
The Greek word here can mean both “restore to health” or “to save.” Here, with the Samaritan, I believe Jesus is saying your faith has saved you, for this man knows who Jesus is. He knows where God is found.
And also, the word the ESV translates as “go your way” can also be translated as “come” or “journey.” Jesus may not be sending him on his way, but rather inviting the man to journey with Him to Jerusalem to see God’s presence reenter the Temple from the East as Jesus rides into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. And to see “God with us” arrested and abused and crucified and buried, and to hear that the curtain in the Temple is torn in two. He would be there with the followers of Jesus on that awful Saturday wondering what has just happened to the one who is God in flesh. He would be there to see “God with us” raised from the dead and appear to many and then ascend into heaven.
This one former leper, a foreigner, understands where God is and worships Jesus, giving praise to God. He knows the answer to the question, “Where is God?” Jesus is God. The Kingdom of God is at hand.
Today you still ask the question, “Where is God?” Jesus has ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father Almighty and you wait for Him to return in glory. Where is the right hand of God? It is everywhere. God is everywhere and God also lives in you. As a baptized child of God you have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who gives you faith to believe that Jesus is your Lord and Savior and trust that His blood covers all your sins. St. Paul writes in a prayer for the Ephesians… Ephesians 3:16–19 (ESV) 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
This one former leper, a foreigner, understands where God is and worships Jesus, giving praise to God. He knows the answer to the question, “Where is God?” Jesus is God. The Kingdom of God is at hand.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus dwells in your heart and you are filled with the fullness of God. “Where is God?” He is everywhere… and He is in you. “Where is God?” You find Jesus in the Word of God. You find Jesus in your gathering together as the Body of Christ. “Where is God?” You are sealed in the name of God in your baptism. Jesus has promised to come to you in His Body and Blood in, with and under the bread and wine of Holy Communion. God is here today, for you, for the forgiveness of your sins.
Forty days after His resurrection Jesus ascended into heaven and you await His return on the Last Day, but He has not abandoned you. Jesus very much remains Immanuel, God with us, in His presence in your heart, in your fellowship together as the Body of Christ, in His Word, and in His Body and Blood.
“Where is God?” He is here, for you. Amen.