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Sermon for Trinity 14
Luke 17:11-19 + Proverbs 4:10-23 + Galatians 5:16-24
The Gospel of the Healing of the Ten Lepers is an easy story to understand. Ten men were afflicted with the chronic skin disease called leprosy. Ten men approached Jesus, begging him for mercy. Jesus had mercy on them and sent them on their way to the priest, who was charged by God with the task of examining lepers and pronouncing them either clean or unclean. Ten men were healed of their leprosy. But only one returned to where Jesus was to give him thanks. Let’s take a few moments this morning and consider what the Holy Spirit is teaching us in this Gospel.
You may remember that people who were afflicted with leprosy not only had their skin disease to deal with. They had to deal with the reality of being excluded from society, excluded by God’s own Law. They were considered contaminated and contagious. They had to keep their distance and live at a distance from all the “clean” people in Israel. People with leprosy not only lost their health. They lost their family and friends, and even their ability to go to the Temple, where God had placed his name forever.
But along came Jesus, who went out of his way to travel between Galilee and Samaria on his journey to Jerusalem to give his life on the cross. Along came Jesus, whose reputation of goodness and kindness and healing power had reached the lepers’ ears. The kindness of Jesus is what drew the lepers to him. They had nothing to offer him, nothing to give, just their leprosy and uncleanness.
They prayed that simple prayer, “Jesus, Master, have mercy!” “Eleison!” There’s that word, that phrase, that prayer that we sing and say over and over again in every Divine Service. It’s the prayer of the pathetic, the prayer of the weak and frail and helpless who seek help from a Jesus who is kind and merciful and able to help. “Lord, Jesus, have mercy!”
And Jesus did have mercy in our Gospel. He sent the Ten Lepers to the priest, but he delayed their healing until they had gone on the way for a little while. You can imagine them walking along the road, checking their hands and arms every few minutes to see if they were healed yet. And when they realized that they had been healed, you can imagine their joy and the brief dialogue that probably took place among them.
“Look! I’m healed! Are you healed? We’re all healed! Praise God! Now, let’s hurry and get to the priest so that we can get back to our lives!” They’re all Jews, apparently, except for one who is, for sure, a Samaritan. We heard about them last week, didn’t we? The Samaritan says to the other nine, “Hey! Let’s go back and give thanks to Jesus for healing us!” But the others barely hear him, too distracted by the prospects of returning to a normal life again. He urges them again, “Come on! Let’s go back!” And they say something like, “You go ahead. We’ve got a life to return to – finally. We’ve got friends and family to see again. We’ll just say a prayer of thanks to God in our hearts. We don’t need to actually go to where Jesus is. And if we get a chance, we’ll try to bump into him someday. After all, there will always be time to give thanks.”
So while the nine race to the nearest priest, the Samaritan turns around and races in the opposite direction, back to Jesus, praising God with a loud voice and falling on his face at Jesus’ feet in humble praise and thanksgiving.
Then Jesus asks that burning question, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Of course, he knows the answers to his questions. Yes, all ten were cleansed. The other nine are busy racing back to their earthly cares and concerns. And no, no one else was found to return and give praise to God except for this foreigner.
It doesn’t say that Jesus was sad or mad or angry about that, but he did notice and he wanted all those around him to notice as well. As for the one who returned – the Samaritan, Jesus simply accepts his humble thanks, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” And here’s where I wish the English translation would just say what the Greek word says, “Your faith has saved you.” Not, “your merit and worthiness,” not “your good character” not “your works of love,” not “your returning to give thanks – has saved you.” “Your faith has saved you.”
Over and over again in the Scriptures, we see this simple truth. It is faith that saves the sinner. Not because faith is some great work on our part, but because faith lays hold of Christ, the Savior of sinners. Leprosy, in the Scriptures, is a symbol of the disease of sin that infects us all, that makes us unclean and unhealthy and ugly and that alienates us from God and from one another. God’s law shows us our leprosy, the works of the flesh, that whole laundry list you heard in today’s Epistle from Galatians 5. But the Gospel shows us Christ, who died on the cross to pay for that whole laundry list of sin, who invites sinners to trust in him for the forgiveness of sins. And that Gospel, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, creates faith, where and when it pleases God. And that faith approaches Christ for mercy and receives mercy and forgiveness and help from him.
But see what often happens! In nine of the ten lepers who sought and received healing from Jesus, faith was quickly replaced by unbelief. Faith died as their sinful natures took over and they turned away from Jesus to gratify the desires of their sinful nature. It’s not that they turned into murderers and thieves. It’s that they stopped seeking Christ and replaced him in their hearts with earthly cares and with earthly pleasures. The Spirit of God was urging them back to Jesus to worship him and give thanks to him. But they chose to be led, instead, by other concerns that took them in the opposite direction of where Jesus was.
Heed the Spirit’s warning in this Gospel. Many Christians start out recognizing their sinfulness and seeking mercy from Jesus. But after receiving a little bit of his mercy – a little taste of forgiveness and earthly blessing, they go on their way and Jesus becomes an afterthought. “We’re healed now,” they figure. “Time to get on with the rest of our life. We can give thanks to God anytime. We don’t need to be in church. We don’t need to receive the Sacrament.” And the struggle within the believer that Paul described in Galatians between the Spirit and the flesh begins to fade, until there really isn’t a struggle anymore. The flesh has won. Faith has died.
This is not a rare occurrence. It happened to nine out of ten cleansed lepers. How many Christians will let this happen?
But then there’s that one leper, the most unlikely of all, the Samaritan. He shows us what saving faith looks like. The one with saving faith clings to Christ. He looks to Christ for mercy, not once, but always. He knows that he has no life to get on with apart from Christ. He knows that, although God is everywhere, Jesus wants to be worshiped in a place. Not just one place, not in a Temple in Jerusalem, not necessarily in a church building, but where the Church gathers – that’s where Jesus says that he will be found. That’s where Jesus says he will accept our worship and continue to hand out to us the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in their midst.”
Here is Jesus, in our midst, according to his own word, to receive our humble thanks and praise. We gather here as the Church, not to purchase Jesus’ help with our words of thanks, but to worship him for the help he has already given us: for becoming man to be our divine Brother and take our place under the Law; for struggling against sin and temptation and overcoming the devil for us; for bearing our sins and our diseases and for making atonement for our sins; for rising from the dead and bringing his eternal life to us in the Gospel; for sending his Spirit in the Gospel to warn us, to comfort us, to encourage us and empower us in our daily struggle against our sinful nature. There will never come a time in this life when we cease to need Jesus’ help. There will never come a time when Jesus will turn away those who seek him in faith. There will never come a time when we have more important things to do than give him thanks for saving us from sin, death and the power of the devil.
We’re about to give him thanks once again this morning. You know, don’t you?, what the Church’s ancient name for Holy Communion is: “The Eucharist.” It’s OK to call it that. Eucharist means “Thanksgiving.” The Eucharist is not our sad, weekly, funeral remembrance of Jesus. The Eucharist is the Church’s great Thanksgiving to the Son of God who gave his life for us and took it up again. If you have been losing the struggle against your sinful flesh, if you have sins that need forgiving, if you believe Jesus’ words that his body and blood are here for you to give you forgiveness and life, then come to where Jesus is. Come and worship him by receiving what he wants to give – his life to you, his salvation to you, his righteousness to you. Here he is to receive your humble thanksgiving, and to give and to give and to give.
Many will receive Jesus’ healing for awhile and then go their own way. It will always be that way, as our Gospel teaches us today. But it will also always be true that some return again and again to Christ to praise and thank him, to receive mercy and help from him. Take this warning and this comfort and this sincere encouragement with you today from the Gospel, that you may the one out of ten who returns to give thanks to Jesus for healing you of your leprosy, for saving you through faith in him alone. Amen.
