The Lutheran Hour

"Mercy"

#78-05
Presented on The Lutheran Hour on October 10, 2010
Speaker: Rev. Ken Klaus
Copyright 2025 Lutheran Hour Ministries

Text: Luke 17:11-19

Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! To a proud world, a sinful world, the resurrection of the Christ can seem unimportant and inconsequential. But God’s truth is this: if we are to be saved, we need the mercy which comes from Holy Spirit-given faith in the risen Lord. Today, by His power, may all who hear be moved to say, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” God grant this to us all. Amen.

Today we begin with the telling of a most interesting story: the story of Jesus curing ten men who had the dreaded disease: leprosy. With only the most minor of modifications for the purposes of clarification, this is the way the Gospel writer and physician, Luke, told the story: “as Jesus was traveling on the way to Jerusalem, he was passing along the borderland between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who, lest they infect someone unintentionally, were required by law to stand at a distance. Seeing Jesus, these lepers lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have
mercy on us.”

When Jesus saw these hopeless men whose disease had cut them off from family, friends, and all a person holds dear, He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” It was the priests, and only the priests, who could give the ten a clean bill of health. Although it seemed a foolish journey, they started out. As they went, they were cleansed. Nine of the lepers who had been healed went to the priests and then to a reunion with their families. But one of the restored men, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, praising God. With a loud voice he praised Jesus. Indeed, He even fell on His face before the Savior’s feet and offered Him thanks. Amazingly, this man was a Samaritan, a nation of people who, for centuries, had been feuding with the Jews. When Jesus saw this man at His feet, He said, “Weren’t ten men healed? What happened to the other nine? Is it possible that none of the others returned to praise the Lord for His grace? Is it only this man, this foreigner, who has it figured out?” Scripture records nobody answered Jesus, nobody tried to make an excuse for the other nine. That was when the Savior turned to the thankful man who had been healed and said, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

That’s the story. It’s a fascinating story which gives considerable insight into human nature. With its theme of gratitude, or more accurately, people’s lack of gratitude toward God, it is understandable that most ministers feel compelled to launch into a sermon about how we need to appreciate God’s many and manifold graces. No doubt that is what will be happening in Canadian churches tomorrow when that great country celebrates Thanksgiving. Indeed, it is quite right for preachers to talk about giving thanks to God. They know it’s not part of human nature to give thanks to anybody. And if you wonder why I say that, I can only reply, 28 years in the parish taught me that we would get nine requests to publicly pray for assistance, healing, and help for every petition we received asking us to give thanks to the Lord for a pain or a problem successfully resolved. Nine-to-one seems about right… just like in Luke’s story.

Now, you should know that this Lutheran Hour message is not going to talk about the
human heart’s great capacity for ingratitude.

Instead of dealing with the thanklessness of the nine ex-lepers, let me focus instead on their pre-healing plea: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” Mercy. That’s an unusual concept, especially if you don’t go to church. Now it’s not my intention to make this complicated, so let me try to explain. If you go to a Lutheran Church this Sunday, or a Catholic Parish, or most of the mainline denominations, you will hear the word mercy being used, and you will hear it being used very often. For example there is a prayer, the Kyrie which reads, “Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy.” In that prayer the worshippers are asking God not to give them the punishment their sins deserve, Many times, in the prayers which take place toward the end of the service, the congregation will respond to individual requests with the words: “Lord have mercy,” That’s the worshippers way of saying, “Lord, listen to this request and please don’t give us the penalty we have earned through our lives of disobedience,”

Yes, if you go to church, you will hear the word mercy being used, But, for the life of me, I can’t think of any place outside of church where mercy is part of our common conversation, You may write a letter to Uncle Sam asking him to excuse your past due and unpaid taxes, but you probably won’t use the term mercy, A student may come to a teacher and ask for another chance to raise his grade by retaking a test, but that student won’t ask for mercy, You may go to an auto dealer and try to negotiate the price of a car, but you won’t ask the dealer to have mercy on you,

Now, there’s a number of reasons why the word mercy has fallen out of favor, We don’t ask for mercy because most of the time we don’t need it. We can turn on the radio or the TV and find out what the weather is going to be for the week, We’re not at the mercy of the elements as our ancestors were, Stocked refrigerators and freezers, full grocery store shelves mean we don’t have to worry about starvation as did those who lived before us, No longer do we fear barbarian hordes sweeping down upon us, If a barbarian horde were to show up, we would nuke them, Because people believe they are in control of their lives is one reason we don’t ask for mercy,

But there’s another explanation as to why mercy has become a forgotten concept. In western society we are all supposed to be equal. Men and women are equal, or at least the law says they ought to be, Our boss may have a say in what we do at work, but his influence is confined to those hours we are on the job and even there his influence is most definitely limited, A policeman may have the power to pull us over, but I’ve talked to many officers and all of them speak of belligerent motorists, These drivers may have broken the law from A-to-Z, but they still look the officer in the face and they challenge him: “Trying to make your quota of speeding tickets?” they say, “Why don’t you go out and arrest some real crooks”, they challenge, But ask a policeman if anyone has ever asked for mercy .. , well, that’s another matter,

Nobody asks for mercy anymore, In our modern world an individual who is being put on trial for a crime small or large doesn’t stand before a group of individuals who are his supposed superiors in society, He is not declared guilty or innocent by a panel of people who are thought to be ranked above him, On the contrary, he is judged by a jury of his peers, men and women who are his equals, We don’t need and we don’t want mercy, Logic tells us we don’t need mercy if we’re equal”, and nobody who is equal to everybody else is obligated to get down on bended knee and ask for help, And if somebody ever suggested that you might plead for mercy, I can almost hear your reply: “Mercy! Mercy! I’m supposed to ask him for mercy? Just who does he think he is? He’s not the king of me! He’s not my boss, I’m not his slave, Not me,”

I hope all of this explains why most of us don’t generally use the word mercy any longer, Of course, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a time or place for it. Let me explain, In 1989, the last empress of Austria and the last queen of Hungary, a woman by the name of Zita, breathed her last. Coming from the Hapsburg family, she wished, according to custom, to be buried in the royal crypt which is in Vienna, When the funeral procession arrived at church, the leader of the group ceremoniously knocked on the door, One of the monks inside answered the knock with the question, “Who is here?” The spokesman for the funeral called out, “Zita, Empress of Austria, Queen of Hungary and of Bohemia, Princess of Bourbon-Parma,” The door remained shut. Eventually, someone knocked again, “Who is there?” came back the question for a second time, This time the answer was shorter: “It is Empress Zita,” The door stayed bolted and closed, Finally the company outside knocked again, “Who’s there?” This time the spokesman said, “”Zita, a poor sinner,” Then and only then, was the funeral allowed to enter,

Now, if you understand that story, you understand the concept of mercy.., and where all of us need to ask for it. The ten lepers in the story would, most certainly, have
understood, Before they had consulted with the priests and received their final diagnosis of leprosy; before they had been willing to admit they would be lifelong outcasts from society, there is little doubt they would have consulted with other medical people; they would have kept their ears listening for news of a miracle cure, a miracle cure which never came. But finally, when they had given up hope; where there was no light on the horizon, when there was nowhere else to turn, they went to the only One Who could assist: they came to Jesus. He had healed others; perhaps He might do the same for them. But why should He? What could they do for Him? He didn’t know them; He had no reason to help them. Still what else could they do? Everything was at stake. That’s why they did the only thing they could do. They asked for mercy. They came to Jesus and begged, yes, begged for His assistance.

“Jesus, Master, have pity on us.” That’s what they said. For the last few minutes I’ve been telling you nobody uses the word mercy any longer. That’s not entirely true, is it? There is one place where people ask for mercy. In fact there is a term which describes the request: it’s called “throwing yourself on the mercy of the court.” Let me ask, when does a person throw himself on the court’s mercy? Yes, it’s when that person is guilty as sin. When that person’s personal defense of his actions has fallen to pieces; when he doesn’t have a leg to stand on; when he’s been proven wrong, dead wrong, that’s when his attorney suggests: “There’s nothing left for us to do but to throw ourselves on the mercy of the court. We’re going to have to beg the judge to be lenient to us and hope he’s in a good mood.” When hope is gone and a person is most assuredly lost, that’s when he throws himself on the mercy of the court. That’s what the ten lepers did. That’s what we all should do.

Yes, us. You see, my friend, on your own you are lost. You may be strong, and smart, and handsome, and beautiful, and superior in all things. But there is one thing you are not: you are not perfect. You may be good, kind, gentle, and loving, but you are not perfect. If you have any doubts, any doubts at all that what I am saying is true; I can only encourage you to look within yourself. Is there no dark thought, no deep anger, no sin against you which has remained unforgiven? Has there not been some envy, some lust, some sense of being treated unfairly by someone else? You are a sinner and as a sinner you are guilty before the perfect God Who will judge you.

Now, you can get a dream team of lawyers, but they won’t do you any good. You are guilty. You know it and God, your Judge, knows it. He knows it better than you do. He knows it better because He’s the One you’ve been sinning against all these years. With a perfect memory He can recall every sin, every slight, and every transgression you have ever done to Him or anyone else. He knows you’re guilty and He knows the verdict which must be pronounced. My friend, you’re a dead duck. You can’t atone for your sin; you can’t make it right. It’s hopeless.

Now, there are plenty of people who choose to ignore these facts and think they can buffalo their way through a Judgment Day trial by minimizing their law-breaking. “Yeah, I know I’m guilty, God, but I’m only guilty of some minor sinnage. There are others out there who are a lot guiltier than me. Punish them with eternal death. Me? Weill think I ought to be sentenced to a few days of listening to Pastor Klaus’ old sermons. That ought to be punishment enough for my minor infractions.” There is little doubt that people will try to excuse themselves that way and I’m pretty sure others will stand before God and try to say there were really no laws for them to break. And if there were no laws to break, they really can’t be judged. All in all, these excuses are pretty lame and these requests to have their case thrown out of court will be rejected. The truth is, no matter what excuse people make, what defense they make, the court will find them guilty, they will be lost and God has no choice but to condemn them to eternal damnation.

And if you think I’m making this all up, I can assure you that I’m not. I’m in dead earnest and so is the Lord. He says, “The wages of sin is death”, and “The soul that sins will die.” Romans 2 warns: “because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.” And if you think you can escape or get good enough to please God, you can’t. Ecclesiastes 7 is blunt when it tells us, “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and
never sins.”

We are lost and there is nothing to do but to throw ourselves on the mercy of the court. But, why should God be merciful? We have sinned against Him! We have disobeyed and disregarded Him! Is there any earthly reason the Triune God should reduce or eliminate His punishment? Let me answer the question for you: “There is no earthly reason. We deserve the full judgment of the law. We deserve eternal death.” That’s the way it was. That’s the way it will be.

Unless.

Unless Someone were to voluntarily take our place. Unless Someone would willingly step forward and take what we have coming to us. But Who would do such a thing? Why would Someone Who is innocent suffer for the someones who are guilty? It makes no sense. It is completely, totally, absolutely illogical. But what do we have to lose? We’re condemned and lost At this point, we join our pitiful voices with those of the lepers and say, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”

Amazingly, He does have mercy. Read the Gospels. Look at His life. Jesus became One of us so He could take our place under the law. The prophet Isaiah tells us of Jesus’ mercy: “Most certainly Jesus has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. On our behalf He was stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. He was wounded for the things we had done wrong; He was bruised for our sins, and He was chastised so we might be given peace. By His bloody stripes we receive healing. Yes, all of us have gone astray like sheep. We have followed our own ways.” So we might have mercy the Lord laid all of our guilt, all of our sins on Him, all of our sins. Throughout His life Jesus was oppressed; He was afflicted, but He didn’t complain; not any more than a lamb complains before it is slaughtered. He was crucified with thieves and His body was placed in a borrowed grave. All this Jesus endured so that we might have mercy. Yes, God wishes to give you mercy. Indeed, that mercy is yours when, by the Holy Spirit’s power, you are given faith in Jesus as your Redeemer, your Friend, Your Savior.

And if all of this sounds so impossible and unimportant, let me share the words of Abraham Lincoln, one of America’s best and most noble. He said, “I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day.” My friends, for everyone of us the day is coming when our abilities will be insufficient. Before that day of death arrives, I pray you will drop to your knees as did Lincoln; I encourage you to call out as did the lepers: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” Yes, that is my prayer … and if you need to know more about the Savior’s willingness to have mercy, please, call us at The Lutheran Hour. Amen.

LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers)
October 10,2010
Title: Sins and Our Relationship With God

Announcer: Does our sin break our relationship with God? Pastor Ken Klaus responds to questions from listeners. I’m Mark Eischer.

Klaus: Thank you, Mark, and before we begin, let me say these questions really are from listeners. Maybe there’s something you’ve always wondered about God, or Christianity, or the Bible. We’ll try and answer your questions. We don’t identify anyone by name.

Announcer: And, there are a number of ways you can contact us. Probably the easiest is to send us an e-mail. Go to our homepage at lutheranhour.org. That’s lutheranhour.org. Or call us at 1-800-876-9880.

Klaus: OK Mark, so, what have we got?

Announcer; Our listener writes: “I know that we are sinners. We have sinned in the past
and, despite our best efforts, we will undoubtedly sin again in the future. When we do
sin, do we break off our spiritual relationship with God? If so, when should we confess
our sins? Should we do it at the moment we are first conscious of our sin, or should we
wait until the next time we’re in church, or until our evening prayers at the end of the
day?”

Klaus: Let’s deal with the last part first When you realize you have sinned, it is good to
make confession right at that time you remember. Since we sin regularly, this type of
regular confession is going to put us into a regular or frequent communication with God.

Announcer: But, suppose we don’t realize that we’ve sinned … or we forget to make confession? Does that break off our relationship with God?

Klaus: This was something that caused Martin Luther quite a bit of agony in his younger days, until he came to understand the grace and mercy of God that is ours through faith in Jesus Christ.

Announcer: Please explain that.

Klaus: Mark, when I was young, I was a very good boy.

Announcer: I’m sure you were.

Klaus: But there were still some times that I disappointed my parents … there were times I disobeyed them … sometimes deliberately … sometimes by accident… sometimes without thinking.

Announcer: I suppose in much the same way that we Christians disobey the Lord.

Klaus: Exactly. Now, you had the opportunity to meet my mother while she was alive.

Announcer: That’s right.

Klaus: I realize you don’t know her very well, but I’m going to ask you to make some reasonable guesses.

Announcer: OK.

Klaus: When I broke the home rules, what do you think my mother did? What do you think happened?

Announcer: I would guess that you were disciplined in some way.

Klaus: OK, but the point is, did she disown me? Did she take all my clothes and my toys and my baseball equipment and put it all out on the curb? Did she set one less place at the table? Did my father say, “You were my son, but now you are an embarrassment to us. Go! Never darken our doorway again?”

Announcer: No, I can’t imagine any of that happened.

Klaus: And you would be right. I was their son. Period. When I disobeyed, I most certainly hurt them, but I didn’t stop being their son. When I sinned, they loved me with a sad kind of love. When I was good, they loved me with a happy love. But always, always, they loved me and they never broke their relationship with me.

Announcer; Would there have been any exceptions to that rule?

Klaus: Yes, you know, I think there could be. If I deliberately and willingly decided that I no longer wished to be part of the family, I could take steps to sever the relationship. Now that’s something my parents wouldn’t do … not unless my actions clearly expressed my desire to no longer be part of the family.

Announcer: And although God doesn’t sever His relationship with us, we could break off our relationship with Him, assuming that there is one in the first place. And that would be by willingly refusing to be part of God’s family of faith. In other words, you could end things with God.

Klaus: Exactly, but God will still continue to call us to repentance, will take us back if we see the error of our ways and are turned back to Him. God initiates the relationship and the Holy Spirit works to sustain it through God’s Word and the message of Christ and His forgiveness.

Announcer: And I would say to our listener, if you’re worried about whether or not your relationship with God is broken–it probably isn’t.

Klaus: Yeah, that kind of concern is in itself some evidence offaith. God says He will not extinguish a smoldering wick or discard a bruised reed.

Announcer: Thank you, Pastor Klaus.

Music selection for this program:

“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC

“Lord, for Thy Tender Mercies’ Sake” by John Hilton, (attr. Richard Farrant). From Blessed by the Concordia Seminary Chorus (© 2000 Concordia Seminary Chorus)

“Today Your Mercy Calls Us” From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House)

“Oh, for a Thousand Tongues to Sing” From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House)