Text: Luke 17:11-19
Imagine you are riding in your car toward the Mexican border at MacAllen, Texas. Driving south on US 77. Passing through Victoria. Passing just north of Corpus Christi. You finally make it to McAllen. You keep driving and soon see the "Welcome to Mexico" sign. And suddenly you have crossed the border between Texas and Mexico. What do you feel when you cross that border? A tinge of excitement? A sense of adventure? We may feel a heightened sense of awareness when we cross the border into another country.
There seem to be new possibilities when we cross a border. Perhaps we are a little uneasy because no one will know who we are in this other place. It's not home. Or maybe we feel a slight sense of release and exhilaration at the thought of finally being anonymous for a few hours or days, however we will be away from home. We don't have to worry so much about how we look since no one will know who we are. In that sense we can relax. But there is a degree of danger when you are in a place where no one knows who you are. If we don't know them and they don't know us, perhaps we feel a little edgy and a bit more aware of our surrounding. We feel some exhilaration. A sense of relief. Yet edgy and very aware of our environment. I imagine that is how Jesus felt when he was making his way toward the city of Jerusalem as he crossed over the border between Samaria and Galilee.
As he entered a village, ten men, all lepers, met him. Ten lepers. Now there's something you don't run across every day. What do we know about leprosy? We know from Harper's Bible Dictionary that leprosy in the Bible was a disorder affecting houses, fabrics and humans. Leprosy appeared as greenish or reddish spots in some fabrics and houses which sounds like a type of mold or mildew. This mold and mildew was contagious so there were rules that anyone entering a leprous house must bathe and anyone who eats or sleeps in a leprous house must bathe and wash their clothes. People also got leprosy. We are not sure what humans infected with leprosy looked like. We don't think it was the same as modern leprosy, which we call Hansen's disease. However they may have looked people with leprosy were certainly contagious so they were required to live apart from the community. Leprosy, like modern AIDS, was a socially unacceptable disease. Some people considered leprosy a punishment from God for sin. When someone recovered from leprosy, purification rites were performed by a priest. (Harper's Bible Dictionary, 555-556)
Jesus, on his way to Jerusalem, had just crossed the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten men with the leprosy disease met him. The ten lepers kept their distance but raise their voices, calling out, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" So the lepers recognized Jesus by name. They ask Jesus to have mercy on them. This may mean they are asking for a handout. They would need money to survive. Perhaps they were unemployed. According to the Bureau of Labor Statitics, 14.9 million Americans were out of work and the unemployment rate is 9.6 percent as of the end of August. Unemployment brings you down emotionally and financially. The lepers were probably depressed. Contact with other people was not allowed. No wonder they cried out, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!"
They may have heard that Jesus had healed people afflicted with leprosy. So perhaps in this instance when the lepers cry out for mercy they are asking Jesus to heal them. We will have an anointing service for healing during worship on October 31, Halloween Day, or All Saints Day as we prefer to call it. Come for prayer and anointing for healing of emotional, mental, spiritual or physical dis-ease. You don't even have to say what you seek healing from or why you want the prayer. Perhaps you are feeling the need for Jesus' healing power like these ten lepers.
Knowing what we know about leprosy and about Jesus, we would expect Jesus to heal the lepers and continue on his way toward Jerusalem. However, remember that Jesus met these ten lepers in a village after he crossed over the border between Samaria and Galilee. Having just crossed the border, perhaps Jesus will be reluctant to attend to these lepers. Jesus may feel a little uneasy having just crossed the border. He may sense some danger here.
But Jesus overcomes any fear he may have faced. He calls the ten men with leprosy over to him. He takes a good look at them. What color is their leprous skin? Green like mold? Or pinkish red like mildew? After taking a good look at them, Jesus said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests."
"Go, show yourselves to the priests?" That would imply they were already healed. Lepers are supposed to show themselves to the priests after they are healed so the priests can perform purification rites. But the lepers have no visible proof that they have been healed. For all the lepers knew Jesus could be brushing them off.
The lepers walked away. What did they have to lose? If he didn't want to heal them they couldn't make him heal them. And if he had already healed them then they may as well go to the priests to be declared cured of leprosy. So they went, and while still on their way, became clean. Notice how the healing was a process. This was not an instant healing. As they were going, after 20 minutes, or 3 hours, or perhaps several hours, they became clean. Their leprosy went away. They were healed! All ten of them were healed! Jesus had healed their leprosy.
One of them, when he realized that he was healed, turned around and came back, shouting his gratitude, glorifying God. How far did he have to go — 20 yards? 2 miles? 20 miles? No matter the distance. One of the lepers was so relieved, so full of joy and so excited that Jesus had healed him that he came back and found Jesus. He shouted "Thank you! Bless you, Master! Thank you, sir! Thank you, Jesus, I appreciate your healing me." Ten lepers had shouted at Jesus, "Jesus, master, have mercy on us." Only one retured to shout his thanks to Jesus for healing him from leprosy. The scene is dramatic: "He kneeled at Jesus' feet, so grateful. He couldn't thank him enough—and he was a Samaritan." (Luke 17:16, MSG)
Say what? A Samaritan? That word Samaritan would sound as icky as a fingernail scratching on a chalkboard to the ears of Jesus audience. Aagh! A Samaritan. Even Jesus seems surprised. He says, "Were not ten healed? Where are the nine? Can none be found to come back and give glory to God except this outsider?" (Luke 17:17-18) The Jews regarded the Samaritans as foreigners. They were ethnic. They were people of color. They were different. Not like us. Not part of our group. The punchline of the story is also the scandal of the story: The outsider, the man who lived on the wrong side of the tracks, the one from across the border, is the only one of 10 lepers who returned to give thanks.
Is it not humbling when those whom we consider ourselves to be better than prove themselves better than us? Is it not humbling when those we call outsiders prove they are on the inside track when it comes to connecting with Jesus? Is it not humbling when those we try to keep from crossing the border into our own country prove by their actions that they are perhaps more worthy citizens of the Kingdom of God than we are?
Jesus healed 10 lepers and only one of them returned to expressed his thanks and the scandal is that the one who returned was a Samaritan. Sometimes we learn the most important lessons from those from whom we expect the least. If only we could listen to the people who have no voice. If only we could observe the people who are invisible. If only we had eyes to see life as a gift from God. Perhaps then we would say "Thanks" more than "No Thanks." And then Jesus would say to us what he said to the Samaritan leper who returned to give thanks: "Get up and go. Your faith has healed and saved you."
How often do we look and not see the lepers in our midst? Those whom no one wants to be around. Those who turn us off. Those who bring us down. Jesus wants to heal them, too. I think he wants to use us to bring healing to them. The remarkable truth is that if we open ourselves to be instruments of healing to the lepers among us, we find we have been as well. Perhaps we didn't realize we were even ill. Our illness is well concealed. No one can see the leprosy inside us. Sin is easy to see in others and harder to recognize in ourselves. I wonder if Jesus would say to us this morning what he did not say to the lepers whome he healed? I wonder if he would say to us, "Go and sin no more." I wonder if we would reply to Jesus, "Thanks, but no thanks."
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The Rev. Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon on October 10, 2010 (28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C) at St. John's Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas.
