Some texts are just too obvious.
Ten lepers were cleansed. One came back and said thanks. Nine did not. The one was commended. The nine were scolded in absentia.
Ah...it’s important to write thank-you notes. My mama, your mama, and Miss Manners would be pleased. End of sermon.
Hmmm...sometimes too obvious really is too obvious.
It’s certainly biblical for us to be thankful for all the blessings and gifts that God showers
upon us.
But you know the gospels are jam-packed with stories of Jesus healing people, and I can’t remember a single other time that Jesus seemed worried about whether or not the newly-healed person was properly grateful.
Maybe we should start over.
Maybe it isn’t that obvious after all.
Maybe we should read more slowly.
Maybe we should ask questions of the text.
Maybe we should let the text ask questions of us.
Vs. 11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee.
...the border between Samaria and Galilee. Galilee -- a land populated mostly by Jews. Samaria -- a land populated by people not pure enough to be considered among the chosen people of God but not unrelated enough to be simply discounted like ordinary pagans.
I went to seminary with a woman who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. None of her brothers and sisters made a lot of money and most never even went to college. All of their cousins, on the other hand, went to fancy schools, had highfalutin’ jobs, and lived in big houses. Most people not of their class they simply ignored. But not their poor cousins. They couldn’t be ignored. They were too much of an embarrassment. Too much of a blight on the family name. My classmate explained that she and her brothers and sisters were the embarrassing branch of the family.
That’s pretty much how it was between Jews and Samaritans. Samaritans were too much of an embarrassment to be ignored. Too much of a blight on the family name. Samaritans were the embarrassing branch of the descendants of Isaiah. Not necessarily because they were poor, but because they were half-breeds and heretics.
Usually, when Samaria gets mentioned in the gospels, it’s because Jesus is turning things upside down again. Usually, when Samaria gets mentioned in the gospels, it’s because Jesus has something to say about the special place for outsiders in God’s kingdom and the temptations to blindness and self-righteousness that endanger insiders.
In the parable of the good Samaritan, for example, it is the Samaritan -- the outsider -- who models what it means to love one’s neighbor, and it’s the priest and the Levite -- the ultimate insiders -- who don’t have a clue.
The story of the ten lepers takes place on the border between Samaria and Galilee.
If you are an outsider -- if you haven’t seen the inside of a church since last century, or maybe ever, and the bulletin in your hands looks like a coded document; if you avert your eyes in polite society so as not to notice all the people looking down their noses at you -- if you are an outsider, then listen with fresh and eager anticipation. It’s likely that something is coming that will be of special encouragement to you.
If you are an insider -- and it occurs to me that most of us here this morning are insiders, good church-going folk who know when to stand up and when to sit down, responsible members of society who get at least ten offers of easy credit in the mail every week -- if you are an insider, decide now if you are willing to listen at all. And if you are, open your ears very wide and hold onto your hats, because it’s likely that something is coming to make you examine your actions more closely and more critically than you would probably like to.
Vs. 12 and 13 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, Have pity on us!"
Nothing particularly surprising here. Most villages had their share of lepers. They didn’t all have the disease that today we identify as leprosy. They included people with all sorts of different skin disease, discolorations, and disfigurements. Some of them probably weren’t even all that sick, they were simply ritually unclean. They could not associate with regular folks. They could not engage in religious ritual. They were likely to be found at the edge of town. They were required to keep their distance. And they were required to call out in a loud voice to warn people of their presence.
They were the prototypical outsiders. Normally, you wouldn’t find Jews and Samaritans occupying the same space. But among lepers, their common ailment -- their common outsider status -- overcame ethnic rivalries. Here on the border between Samaria and Galiliee, leper groups might include some combination of Jews and Samaritans.
Nothing particularly unusual in their plea for pity from the traveling teacher either. Maybe they had heard of his reputation and were begging for healing. But maybe not. Their words simply request pity. They could as easily be begging for alms. Jesus is approaching town with an entourage. They might interpret that to mean that perhaps he has money that could reasonably be spent on donations to the poor.
Vs. 14a When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests."
In chapter 5, Luke tells the story of Jesus cleansing a leper. The man fell at Jesus’ feet and requested cleansing. Jesus granted it, and then Jesus gave the man specific instructions to go to the priest and offer a sacrifice. According to the law, the man would not be officially ritually clean until certified so by a priest.
In this story, though, the lepers do not specifically request cleansing, and Jesus does not specifically grant cleansing. Instead, they ask for pity, and he sends them to the priests.
Maybe they understood that as a promise of cleansing to come.
Or maybe they understood it as a promise of help from the priests.
Or maybe they were simply in the habit of doing as they were told.
In any case, they went.
V. 14b And as they went, they were cleansed.
Now we’re going to get a little bit technical. Because there are three verbs used in this story that have related but different meanings, and it just might be informative to pay attention to how these three verbs are used.
The first one is [KATHARIZO]. It means to make clean, cleanse, purify. That’s the verb in verse 14: as they went they were cleansed. They were made clean. They were purified. It refers specifically to cleansing someone ritually. It could refer to cleansing instruments for use in the temple, ritually. So that they would be appropriate for use. As they went they were cleansed.
Vs. 15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice.
One of them, when he saw he was healed... that verb is [IAOMAI]. It means to heal or to cure sickness or infliction or disease. He was cured as well as cleansed. And seeing the cure, he turned and he came back, praising God in a loud voice. A little while ago he was begging for pity in a loud voice. And now he’s praising God in a loud voice.
Vs. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him -- and he was a Samaritan.
Think about that with the ears of 1st century folks -- he was a Samaritan. He was the outsider of the outsiders. He was the foreigner who got it right. Who experienced the cleansing as a healing. And who responded with praise and thanksgiving. Who put aside the command to go see the priest. I don’t know if he eventually went later, or if he never went. I don’t know. He’s the one who actually in a sense disobeyed and turned and came back and praised God. I don’t know what happened to the rest of them. Did they just continue going to the priest after they were cleansed? After they were healed? Or what? It doesn’t say.
Vs. 17 and 18 Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?"
The one who got it is the one who didn’t have that special connection to Jesus by virtue of shared faith...by virtue of shared heritage...by virtue of being "in". The one who got it...the one who was not only cleansed but healed...the one who responded to that with praise and thanksgiving...the one who identified Jesus as the one to whose feet to fall as he praised God...was a foreigner, the outsider.
Vs. 19 Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well."
It could also be read, rise and go; your faith has saved you. The verb there is [SOZO]. It’s the verb that’s used through out the New Testament when you see the word saved. It’s kind of like English. Think about "saved" as it’s used in English. It’s got a couple of largely unrelated meanings. You can save money in a bank, or you can save a child from drowning. Really quite different things. In Greek, there’s a variety of ways to use that verb "to save" [SOZO] as well. Actually they aren’t quite as different as the English variations, they are more related. You can save someone from a physical danger or affliction. You can save someone from a sickness; you can save someone from an earthquake. You can rescue them. Basically it means rescue. You can rescue someone from eternal death and grant them salvation and save them. It carries that connotation of rescue. The scripture says "Rise and go. Your faith has rescued you."
Maybe it has a double meaning here. Faith has rescued you from the disease and faith has rescued you in a broader sense.
Ten lepers cried out for pity. Grace was extended equally to all ten. But in only one did that grace touch home in such a way as to bring a response of faith -- as to bring a relationship with Jesus Christ -- marked by gratitude, marked by faith. And this one was the outsider of the outsiders.
But for those of us who are insiders it might be, among other things, a call to keep our eyes open when we are out there among the outsiders. Because they may model for us that dramatic, exciting, free, wild response of faith to what Jesus is doing in their lives. When we just get into the habit of going through the motions, we need somebody to remind us of the passion of getting to know Jesus for the first time. Maybe somebody out there will remind us to respond with wild abandon to the amazing things that Jesus is doing in our lives.
Grace was extended equally to all ten. But in only one did that grace touch home in such a way as to bring a response of faith. With wild abandon, and gratitude, and excitement, he turned from going through the motions and fell at Jesus feet. That one was an outsider.
