You've heard the saying, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree." It means that a child is a lot like his parents, or at least one of his parents-a son is like his father or has characteristics of his mother; or a daughter has interests just like her mother or reminds people of her father.

I've thought about this saying a lot, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree," since I've grown up. It's some kind of strange things when I see it happening for me. Like when I cough, I can hear my mother's cough. But it really hit me one day when I walking up to a department store and caught my reflection in the windows. I had to take a second look, because the walk was so familiar. Was that my dad walking up to the door or was it me?

If people mistook Jesus for His Father when He was walking around on earth, that wouldn't be too bad. In fact, that would be very good. Unfortunately, it's not like anyone knew His father personally, to be able to say, "Hey, you're just like your dad," but He was. Of course, that's because we are talking about His heavenly Father. And Jesus is just like Him.

Hebrews talk about exactly that. The author says, "He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature." Just like we had talked about last week, you want to know what your heavenly Father is like, look at Jesus. In the Gospel of John, Jesus says, "I and my Father are one." That's the reason why. The apple definitely doesn't fall far from the tree in Jesus' case. He is truly His Father's Son.

So, when we see the first miracle in our text, it's no surprise. We had seen a miracle similar to it in the Old Testament. Jesus can heal a leper, because He had done it before He had flesh, a couple hundred years earlier. The way of healing was different, though.

In the Old Testament, the Lord healed without even being physically present. Even the man he had called to be the pastor to do the healing, Elisha, wasn't there when the healing took place. This time, the Lord is not only there at the healing, He even touches the man. This guy with a highly contagious disease, which spread so easily by contact, is touched by Jesus. How long had it been since he had been touched by another human being? Everyone would make a wide circle around him, probably even afraid to look at them, but Jesus actually touches him. God touches Him. The Lord had taken on human flesh, and so the Lord is now able to reach out his fingers and touch this man. God can do this because now He has skin on.

A little girl was having a hard time during a thunder storm. Every thunder clap made her curl tighter and tighter under her blankets. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore, "Daddy." Her daddy came into the room, and immediately knew the problem. He comforted her by reminding her that God was watching and He would take care of her. Through her tiny sobs, she said, "I know all that, Daddy, I just wanted God with skin on."

Maybe you have heard that story before, but it's a fair description of Jesus. This is God with skin on. The same God who had healed a leper, was on earth. This is what we have been privileged to see this Epiphany season, which is to go on for a couple more weeks. This man walking around is God, God with skin on. What an impressive thought. What a gracious thing, that this man who is God does not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, to be clung to, but instead empties Himself and is born in the likeness of men. God with skin on, this way He could suffer and die. Here is where we see His greatest mercy and compassion.

God with skin on. That is what is given to us every Sundays. More Sundays than not, He actually puts that skin-on flesh and blood into our mouths. It goes into our bodies through more than just words, but as we eat bread and wine. We walk away from the rail, having received God with skin on. Like the little girl had found, this can be extremely comforting. God is with me. How much more privileged I am, than my Old Testament ancestors, to actually take the flesh and blood of God into my body and take Him with me. This is Jesus. He goes with me. He is His Father's Son.

But although He is equal to His Father, when referring to Jesus as God, he recognize His Father as superior to Him, when He refers to Himself as a human. The Athanasian creed puts it this way, "equal to the Father with respect to His divinity, less than the Father with respect to His humanity." St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians says it even more directly, "The head of Christ is God." That's when Paul was talking about how Christ is the head of man, and man is the head of woman. Jesus recognizes the order. It's a simple set-up, a simple order. Jesus submits to the Father. The Son submits to the Father, just like in our lives. In fact, because of this order, this line of authority, because Jeuss submits, Jesus does these miracles.

This did not pass by the observation of a quick witted and profoundly deep-faithed centurion. He sees that Jesus is under the authority of His Father and says, "I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, 'Go' and he goes, and to another 'Come' and he comes, and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it.

Now this centurion may be quick witted, but I am not. I've looked at this passage and for the longest time could not make sense out of the fact that He was under authority. O.K., so I thought, "He has to answer to someone else. What does that have to do with them answering to Him? And then the light broke through my foggy brain, "Those soldiers are not obeying him, they are obeying the authority above him. He may be a centurion, meaning he has a hundred guys under his authority, but they understand he has a superior officer, a general over Him. When they obey him, it is as though they were obeying that general.

Ahh, now it made sense. I and my Father are one. Yes, Jesus and His Father are both God, but when referring to His humanity, authority has to be given to Him by His Father. Because He has been given that authority, however, He is able to heal the centurion's servant. He is able to tell the paralyzing illness, "Be gone," and it has no choice but to listen. The leprosy of the man in the first miracle hears the voice of the Creator, "Be gone," and the leprosy has no choice but to listen.

Now, let's bring this a little closer. Jesus is no longer walking around doing miracles like these anymore. It's not that He doesn't do miracles, He's just not walking around now like He was. Yet, His greatest work, forgiving sins, His whole reason to come on earth, to bring sinners safely to His Father, still goes on. He commissions His first pastors using the same word, authority. "All authority on heaven and earth has been given to me." He has been given that authority now, He passes on that authority to forgive sins, to His spokesmen, to His called men to speak for Him.

He breathes on them and says, "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whoever sins you forgive, they are forgiven. Whoever sins you do not forgive, they are not forgiven."

The Father's Son is given authority and then He passes it on another level. He creates an office to exercise that authority and calls men to fill it. Now, His people have the assurance of knowing that when the man in that office speaks, when he forgives sins or retains them, as the catechism goes, "It is as though Christ our dear Lord dealt with us Himself."

It doesn't seem special when I stand up here and during the Divine Service and say, "In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." When I-a sinner myself with kinds of weaknesses and sinful thoughts, I would rather die than have you know-stand up here, with my hand on the font, extending my right hand and saying these words, it doesn't seem like anything special. But listen to the centurion again, who was confident that Jesus could heal simply by speaking, because He had been given the authority to heal. Listen to his words, "I too am a man under authority. I say to this soldier, 'Go' and he goes and to another, 'Come' and he comes. Again, why? Because they are following the order of His superior.

This is your assurance. This is how you can know you are truly forgiven. Why are you forgiven? Why is your guilt told to disappear when those words are spoken? Because when those words are spoken, God Himself has said it. Likewise, when the painful task of retaining sins, of saying, "Your sins are not forgiven," it is not any human saying it, but God Himself saying it. "When the called ministers of Christ deal with us by His divine command, in particular when they exclude openly unrepentant sinners from the Christian congregation and absolve those who repent of their sins and want to do better, this is as valid and certain as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us Himself."

In those dark moments when you feel unforgivable, when you know you don't deserve forgiveness, hear the One who has the real authority speak to you through this bumbling and sinful man that is your pastor, hear Him say, "I forgive you."

Recognizing these lines of authority may be especially helpful now that we have just seen the inauguration of our 44th president. Some of you may be pleased to see Barack Obama as our president. Others of you, not. Other elections may not have gone the way you wanted, but what do we understand from St. Paul as he writes to the Romans? "There is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God."

Jesus doesn't ignore those lines of authority which we tend to call "secular." Look at what He says to the leper. "Go, show yourself to the priest." Jesus could have told the leprous man to bypass the priest. "You don't need to see him. I've made you clean, just trust me." But He doesn't. He honors the lines of authority established and maintained here on earth. "Go show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them."

He honors the lines of authority that we see now, and here is where it might be likely to surprise you as you think through the implications, he uses them. You may not like your boss, but no authority has been established except that which has been established by God. You may not like your teacher, but the same.

Wherever authority is found and used properly, we find God behind it. Whether that is in the family with a husband and wife, father or mother and children; the state, with the president, governor, senator or mayor and citizens, at work, with the boss and workers; at school, with teachers and students, or at church, with pastor and hearers, God is directing and blessing.

Now, through these mundane, simple arrangements, God does His will. So, parents, when you tell your children, "Pick up your room," you can be sure God is behind it. And when the government says, "Pay your taxes," and oh, yes, the accountants of our congregation are busy with that once again-you can be sure God is behind that too, all because of what Jesus did in our text, submitting to His Father and obeying His holy will, and because the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

AMEN