18th Sunday after Pentecost, 10/13/2019

Sermon on Luke 17:11-19, by Ryan Mills

11On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, 13they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. 15Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. 17Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? 18Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.” (Luke 17:11-19, NRSV).

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son +, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Our youngest daughter has just turned one-and-a-half years old, and one of the great delights with her and every child is the growth of their language and words around this time. It seems that for the last six months or so she really only had three words, spoken either in infant sign language or in her own cute toddler accent: “Please,” “thank you,” and “boppy,” the latter being a catch-all phrase of delight to be shouted when seeing puppies, or any other animal of any kingdom or species! And so it caught my attention this week to read that someone said there are really only three prayers in the Christian life, just three prayers: the first is “Help,” the second is “Thank you,” and the third is “Wow.”i Similarly, today in our gospel lesson we are told the story of the ten

lepers who came to Jesus saying “help,” and the solitary one who returned to say “thank you”-- a story of the “wow” of God’s healing mercy for all of us.

We’re told this morning that as Jesus was entering a village ten lepers approached him, keeping their distance, calling out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”

Leprosy, or as it’s called today, “Hanson’s Disease,” sounds kind of comical to us, but millions of people around the world still suffer from it, including a few hundred every year in the U.S. It results in terrible weakness and decay of the feet and hands, and of the ears and nose, so that they fall off or become like stubby claws or clubs. There’s pictures up at Yale Divinity School of lepers being treated by medical missionaries, and the scariest part is not the limbs or the skin falling off, but is their faces, the look of absolute hopelessness and loneliness in their eyes. The Bible itself in Leviticus lists severe public health regulations for people who get leprosy: they must leave their spouses, their families, their homes, their town, and live totally alone far away from everyone. They may not come to the temple, or join others in worshipping God. They could not come within 50 feet of any person, and so it’s not a surprise that many families would hold funeral services for a loved one with leprosy--they were as good as dead.

Now the lepers today come saying, “Jesus, Master, have Mercy.” I don’t know if those words ring any bells for you, but for two thousand years Christians have begun worship by calling out the same words as the lepers, “Lord, have mercy,” “Jesus, have mercy,” “Lord, help, have mercy,” we sing. We may not have skin issues, but the loneliness, the hopelessness, and the desperateness of the lepers we can relate to. If the illness of leprosy affects only some, the illness of sin affects us all and we all know what it is to feel rejected by those we love, to feel unworthy in the presence of God, to be isolated from others, and to watch our own lives decay away and to helplessly contribute to it. We all sometimes have a leper’s heart, in that we have no hope for ourselves, and even wish we were dead. So there’s nothing for any of us to do but to cry out this morning, “Lord, have mercy,” “Help, God, help.”

See, these lepers cry out today because they’ve somehow heard about Jesus. They’re not too proud to come before him because they have no other options, for in fact we really learn how to pray when that’s the only thing we have left. So maybe in spite of themselves, maybe in their quietest voice, maybe in the weariest groan, maybe with the tiniest mustard seed of faith they cry out in faith to Jesus today, trusting that he can work it out, that he is able, that it’s in his hands, and that he can bring them the healing they’re desperate for.

So Jesus tells them this morning, “Go and show yourselves to the priests,” that is, go show your skin to the temple official who will certify that you’re clean, that you’re cured, that you can be admitted back to society, back to life. And as the lepers obediently went on their way, as they went off with their mustard seed of faith, they were made clean. Made right. Made whole. Made pure. Made guiltless. Their skin soft and smooth like a newborn’s. What would that be like, do you think, to be remade, reborn? To be able to stand up straight and proud, to hold your loved ones, to be back in your home, back at work, back at church, to be brought back from the walking dead to the land of the living? Well God has done just that to you this morning: anyone washed in the water of baptism, anyone with a mustard seed of faith planted in their life has been healed, made whole, remade, reborn! We don’t always get cures in this life, but wherever Jesus promises and we believe, there is healing.

All ten lepers go on their way this morning, all ten ex-lepers who were healed this morning. And nine go on to do whatever they had dreamed about during those long nights alone, nine have the attitude of “I’ve got mine--what have you done for me lately?!” The nine were healed, their skin smooth and beautiful, but deep-down they still kind of remained lepers, stuck in themselves, trapped, alone, and isolated again.

But one leper, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice, and he knelt down right at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.

That’s what a Christian is. That’s what the church ought to be, that’s what we can be! That one leper, that one leper who turned back. God is good to so many, “he makes rain to fall on the just and the unjust,” everybody out there today walking by our church is given blessings from God whether they want to admit it or not. But right here this morning you and I are the one leper. For while we could go on our merry way, thinking we’re entitled to it all, instead we’ve turned back this morning to say “thank you”. When we could be far off, we’re here kneeling right here down at his feet. When we could say, “thanks for nothing, I earned it myself,” instead we say that second prayer of Christians, “thank you, Lord, thank you, thank you.”

See, the “thank-you” recognizes the relationship and brings a kind of healing that’s more than skin-deep. The other nine are still stuck in themselves, still lepers deep down; but this leper who turned back to give thanks, he’s no longer a leper in any way, his whole being is freed, he’s brought out of himself, he’s connected to Jesus in faith, he’s reborn, totally alive, he is totally free this morning, and by your offering thanks to God for everything he’s given you, for everything he’s done, by your recognizing his

blessings, naming them, counting them, your saying “thank you” also makes you who you’re supposed to be: a reborn child of God, who will live with him forever.

Jesus seems to be surprised this morning, “Ten were healed and just one turned back, and he’s a Samaritan?” A Samaritan, the most ungodly of people: God doesn’t care what we’ve done or where we’ve been or how we’ve become unclean. No, he’s at work to bring healing, he’s busy making us whole, he just gives; and we just give thanks.

Somebody once did a huge favor for me, for which I’m still grateful. I asked how I could thank them, or pay them back, and they said, “You can just pay it forward.” We can’t give God anything except our thanks for all he’s done, but we can pay what he’s done forward. We can go on our way in faith, showing our thanks, living it, putting it into action, living for our neighbor, sharing our gifts with others. When we’ve been healed, and made right, there’s nothing we want to do more than pay it forward in any way that we can. And this is maybe the “wow” of the Christian life, that as Second Timothy says today, “Remember my Gospel, Jesus Christ raised from the dead.” The “wow” is that Christ has triumphed over our every sin and death, that God has done everything for you by grace, and that he doesn’t need you to do anything, but now you

are his and get to serve him, now you are free to serve him in your neighbor, and to be as generous with others as he has been with you.

In a moment we’ll gather around this altar in the Great Thanksgiving, for the Eucharist, the Giving-Thanks, for Holy Communion. We’ll hear again that on the night in which Jesus surrendered to betrayal and death, he took bread, and gave thanks. And then we’ll hear his words to all who turn back to give him thanks, to all who leave this place to go and pay it forward: “Get up, go in peace, your faith has made you well.”

“Help, Lord.” “Thank you, Lord.” And, “Wow.”

And the Peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Amen.

The Rev. Dr. Ryan Mills
New Haven, Connecticut
E-Mail: Pastor@TrinityLutheranNH.org

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