October 13, 2019
Hope Lutheran Church
Rev. Mary Erickson
Luke 17:11-19; 2 Timothy 2:8-15
Double the Healing
Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Parents the world over try to teach their children to say “thank you.” When someone gives their child a cookie or a toy or something special, Mom or Dad will ask their child, “What do you say?” And the answer is “thank you!”
We want to foster gratitude in our children. Gratitude is something we can kindle and nurture. It’s possible to become a more grateful person. And it’s a force that cascades. As we intentionally begin to look for ways we are grateful, the more and more grateful we automatically become.
Lots of studies have been conducted on the benefits of gratitude. Forbes Magazine (Nov 23, 2014) ran an article on 7 scientifically proven benefits of gratitude:
1. Gratitude opens the door to new relationships. Thanking someone who is a new acquaintance increases the likelihood that an ongoing relationship will develop.
2. Gratitude also improves our physical health. Thankful people generally feel healthier and experience fewer aches and pains.
3. It improves our psychological health, too. Many studies connect gratitude with increased happiness and reduced depression.
4. Gratitude enhances our empathy towards others and it reduces aggression. Thankful people are less likely to retaliate when treated negatively. They’re not so apt desire to seek revenge.
5. And grateful people sleep better! Helpful technique: if we spend a little time before we go to bed reflecting on what we’re grateful for, sleep improves.
6. Gratitude improves self-esteem. When we dwell in gratitude, we don’t make as many social comparisons with other people. We can genuinely appreciate the accomplishments of others without lowering our own sense of self.
7. And finally, gratitude increases mental strength. Gratefulness fosters a greater capacity to face trauma and strain. Gratitude develops resilience so that we can bounce back after trials.
Our reading today from Luke tells a well-known story. Ten men suffering from leprosy approach Jesus from afar. We don’t really see leprosy so much any more, at least in the United States. It was once greatly feared as a highly contagious disease. That’s why in the story today, the leprous men keep their distance from Jesus. Lepers were ordered to stay away from people so that no one would catch the disease.
We now call leprosy as Hansen’s disease. It’s a bacterial infection. Hansen’s disease affects nerve endings. People lose feeling, and that lack of feeling causes a cascade effect. They get injured, but because they can’t feel pain, the affected body part is vulnerable to further trauma. This eventually leads to such extensive trauma that the area becomes necrotized and dies. Left untreated, Hansen’s disease leads to paralysis, disfigurement and blindness.
Nowadays we have very effective treatments for Hansen’s disease. But in Jesus’ day, those treatments didn’t exist. If you had Hansen’s disease, you were on board a long, slow train heading towards advanced suffering.
Not only were you suffering physically, but you were also shunned. You were an outcast, cut off from emotional support. It was a lonely, devastating lot.
So today we see this poor band of ten lonely lepers. They have no one but themselves for company. And the interesting thing is that they’re comprised of both Jews and Samaritans! Now, Jews and Samaritans avoided each other. There was bad blood between them. The Jews looked on Samaritans as people of a sullied gene pool. Their once pure Jewish stock had interbred with other peoples.
These were the people of the Northern Tribes. Their ancestors had split off from the Southern Kingdom Judah. They set up their own temple in the capital city of Samaria and they didn’t worship in the true temple in Jerusalem. And then they fell to Assyria. Other captive peoples were settled into the region beside the Northern Kingdom peoples who weren’t taken into exile.
The Jews deemed the Samaritans as a corrupted, sullied people. And the Samaritans knew they were looked down on. So there was a long history of bad blood.
But all that changed for the lepers. Once they each belonged to their own people. But now they were no people. They were simply: lepers.
These ten lepers see Jesus as he travels in the border region between Galilee and Samaria. And they think, this is our chance! There’s Jesus! They call out to him from a long distance. “Jesus, have mercy on us!”
Jesus tells them to go and show themselves to a priest. Priests were the official experts on deeming whether or not a person had been cleansed from a contagious skin disease. They made the call as to whether a person was able to return to society. So through his command, Jesus was telling them, “I’m going to heal you, so go and get yourselves checked out.”
Along the way to the priest, they look at themselves. And lo and behold, their leprosy was gone! The one leper, he turned around and returned to Jesus. He was so filled with gratitude for being healed that he had to return to the source of his healing, to Jesus. He throws himself at Jesus’ feet and thanks him.
Then comes the surprise. He was a SAMARITAN!!!! Only the man from Samaria returns to give thanks! Jesus says to him, “Go on your way. Your faith has made you well.”
Here was the man who was doubly cursed. He was both a Samaritan and a leper. But he is the only one to receive the double healing. He’s healed of his physical disease. And he’s healed on the inside. His faith blesses him with the gift of gratitude. His heart is increased. His cup runs over.
That’s what gratitude is. It’s the second blessing. Our lives are first blessed by the love and the grace and the beauty around us. But when we feel gratitude, then that blessing doubles. It doubles because we KNOW we’re blessed.
This is what Paul is conveying to Timothy in our reading from 2 Timothy. REMEMBER, he says. Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead. Paul calls on Timothy to reflect intentionally on the incomparable gift we have received from Christ Jesus. “If we have died with him,” Paul writes, “we will also live with him.” Paul tells Timothy to reflect on Christ’s faithfulness. Dwell on that, let Christ’s faithfulness fill you heart, and you will be revived.
Intentional remembering. That’s why we gather here week after week. We come here to remember all of Christ’s faithful acts of grace. His is a love that conquers even death. Nothing in all of creation can separate us from the love of God through Christ Jesus our Lord. That’s good news. And when we remember, gratitude blooms, and we are doubly blessed.
One last story. Dr. Paul Brand was a renowned orthopedic surgeon. He specialized on reconstructive surgery for the hands and feet of the victims of Hansen’s disease. He wrote a manual on the construction of the hand that is still the standard for surgeons today.
Paul Brand was born in 1914 in India. His parents were missionaries. Paul lived in India until he was nine years old. Then his parents sent him back home to England for his education. When he was 14 years old, he received a telegram informing him that his father had died from Blackwater Fever.
Then, after learning of his father’s death, Paul Brand received a letter in the mail. It was from his father. His father had written a letter to his son prior to his death. But the letter had been transported on a ship, so it took longer to arrive than the telegram.
Can you imagine holding in your hands a letter from your father whom you knew was dead? What a gift! The words in that letter would have a deep effect on Paul Brand.
In the letter, his father described the hills around the Brand home in India. And then he closed his letter with these words:
“God means us to delight in his world. It isn’t necessary to know botany or zoology or biology in order to enjoy the manifold life of nature. Just observe. And remember. And compare. And be always looking to God with thankfulness and worship for having placed you in such a delightful corner of the universe as the planet Earth.” *
As a young doctor, Paul Brand returned to India. And there he worked with people who were affected by Hansen’s disease. He is the person who first realized that lepers lose their appendages due to their inability to sense pain. That lack leads to catastrophic, necrotizing damage.
His discovery brought new understanding to a long-misunderstood disease and compassion for its victims. He also developed groundbreaking reconstructive surgical techniques to straighten their crooked hands and feet.
Paul Brand was a deeply religious man. How did the final message from his father direct his pathway? “be always looking to God with thankfulness and worship.”
May we all kindle and nurture the spark of gratitude. And in our thankfulness, we will receive the double portion.
*From Philip Yancey in his book Soul Survivor
