Model The Faith Of A Former Leper

Canton, Ohio. Cleveland, Ohio. Cooperstown, Pennsylvania. Eveleth, Minnesota. What do those four cities have in common? They all have a “Hall of Fame” located in them. Canton, Ohio is the home of the Football Hall of Fame. You will find the Rock-N-Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Baseball fans know that Cooperstown, Pennsylvania is the home of their sport’s hall of fame. And what hockey fan in Minnesota doesn’t know that Eveleth is the location of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame?

So what is it that qualifies a person to be honored in one of these places? Those enshrined at Canton, Ohio were among the best of the best on the football field. For a musician to be inducted into the Rock-N-Roll Hall of Fame he or she would have to reach a high level of popularity and record a certain number of hit songs. It is skill on the baseball field, perhaps in pitching, batting, or fielding, which earns a player the right to be listed among the elite at Cooperstown. And finally, a player’s skills and achievements on the ice qualify him or her for a place in the hall of fame up in Eveleth.

Now imagine for a moment if we were to make a “Hall of Faith” instead of a hall of fame. Whose pictures and biographies would we hang on the walls? What criteria would we require of a person to be listed among the greats in the area of faith in God? In order to do something like that we would have to define faith and identify the things that go along with a great faith. We would look for people who trusted God’s promises and showed their faith in God by the way they lived.

Some candidates for our “Hall of Faith” immediately come to mind. As we consider the believers mentioned in the Bible names like: Noah. Abraham, Issac, and Jacob pop out at us. Joseph, Moses, and Joshua would also seem like individuals who showed great faith. And although he had his failings, we would certainly list King David among those with great faith. But one of the amazing things about the Bible is that many of the people who had a strong faith and showed it aren’t even named. In the Word of God that we will consider in our sermon today we have just such an example of an unnamed person that models great faith for us. May God the Holy Spirit work great faith in us through the Gospel Lesson for this Sunday from Luke 17:11-19. (Read text.) Through this portion of Scripture you and I are invited to:

“MODEL THE FAITH OF A FORMER LEPER”

I. A Confident faith

II. An Obedient faith

III. A Thankful faith

Before we look at the faith of this former leper it would be helpful to know something about what his life as a leper would have been like. First, there were the physical affects of the disease. Modern research has revealed that leprosy is caused by a slow-growing bacterium. Following infection, skin lesions usually appear. Over time the infection also affects the nerves and mucous membranes. As the disease progresses (usually over a period of several years) the skin lesions may increase in number or spread. Sometimes they discolor a person’s skin. In other cases they may cause the skin to thicken. As leprosy progresses it leads to nerve damage and muscle damage. Physical deformities and crippling often follow either from the disease or from injuries caused because a person has the disease. Then there were the social consequences of leprosy. These ten lepers mentioned in our Gospel Lesson would have had to live in isolation. They couldn’t interact with any others except those who shared their disease. And wherever they went they had to warn others to stay a safe distance away from them.

I.

And yet one day a glimmer of hope walked into their miserable existence. Jesus, the one that many thought to be the Messiah and the one who had done many miracles, came within shouting distance of their diseased bodies. Luke tells us, “11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” Joining their ten voices gave volume to a request which expressed their shared desire. They wanted Jesus to have pity on them. Although Jesus would later speak about the faith of one of the ten lepers they all obviously had some faith in him. They obviously hoped he would heal them. And given their response to Jesus’ command to go show themselves to the priests they must have believed he had the power to heal them.