Luke 17:11-19

Day of Thanksgiving (Revised Common Lectionary) | 11.23.23 | Luke 17:11-19 | Carl A. Voges

The Passage

On the way to Jerusalem he (Jesus) was passing along between Samaria and Galilee.  And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”  When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.”  And as they went they were cleansed.

Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks.  Now he was a Samaritan.  Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed?  Where are the nine?  Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”  And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” [English Standard Version]

“God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” [2 Corinthians 9.8]

In the Name of Christ + Jesus Our Lord

The cultural routines of this holiday weekend are settling in on our lives once again.  While some family members and friends may be clogging the highways and the airports, we find ourselves closer to home – worshiping, texting, cooking, emailing, eating, face timing and shopping!

Thanksgiving is a national holiday with several origins – one initiated by the early settlers in New England, one whose first proclamation was issued by George Washington, one whose proclamations resumed under Abraham Lincoln.

Being a national holiday, the day attempts to surface the best of this country’s life while a number of parish communities participate in offering traditional dinners for homeless individuals.  Running underneath all this activity is a vague sense of the good, material life available to many people in this country.

Such a focus and sense may speak of the LORD God in a general way, but there are few specific mentions of the Father, Son or Holy Spirit (those speaking publicly of thanksgiving in this culture may be inclined to get specific, but they may know, from experience, that is not always a good form!).

Given this reality then, it would be easy for parishes in this culture, particularly those who struggle to be faithful to the LORD God, to just walk away from the holiday by not worshiping!  At the same time, though, such parishes would be missing a great opportunity to see the Life of the LORD God and his specific actions forming the real center of Thanksgiving, regardless of what the culture thinks or does.  So, while the culture focuses on its stuff through the weekend, on this national day the Lord’s baptized people focus on the real center of Thanksgiving – the rescuing, sustaining and creating actions of the LORD God, actions that spill over, in hidden ways, into this culture’s life.

These contrasting views are brought out vividly in today’s Gospel!  Our Lord is on the way to Jerusalem where his crucifixion and resurrection will shatter this world’s life and lead to the emergence of his eternal Life.  On the way he encounters ten lepers who ask him for mercy.  Do they do this out of habit?  Or had they heard of Jesus’ ministry?  Or are their lives of desperation getting to them?

Leprosy was and is a rotting skin disease, one that is highly infectious.  When people caught it, they lost their jobs and were forced to live in ghettos, separated from their families and friends.  Having caught the disease, they were forced to live with its symptoms – loss of feeling in nerve endings, ulcers and paralysis, gangrene and mutilation.

It is striking that these ten people do not ask for healing but for mercy!  In response, Jesus tells them to go to the temple and show themselves to the priests.

There are two sections in Leviticus 13 and 14 that go into detail about the handling of leprosy:

First, when contracting the disease, a person had to go to a priest to have it verified and to be declared unclean;

Second, the person was then required to dress in a torn and disheveled way to reflect that uncleanness, such requirements also included living away from other, unaffected people;

Third, finally there was a long ritual that marked the cleansing from the disease and the offering of fitting sacrifices to reflect such cleansing.

On their way to temple, the ten lepers discover their skin disease is gone!  Nine of them continue on their way.  Do they follow through on the ritual just described?  We don’t know.  Do they think they deserve the healing after all their suffering?  We don’t know.

Do they shrug their shoulders and set out to resume their lives?  Again, we don’t know.

But what we do know is that one of them noticed something.  It dawned on him that Jesus had triggered this healing, so he turns back to thank him; he praises him with a loud voice and stretches himself out at Jesus’ feet!

Luke comments that the man is a Samaritan (remember that, as a people, they were viewed as detested half-Jews, poorly thought of by those who considered themselves pure Jews).   Jesus wonders about the other nine.  We wonder, too, how they could follow Jesus’ instructions and then ignore what happened to them?  Jesus calls the Samaritan a foreigner and comments that he is the only one to return and give praise to the LORD God!

He then tells the man to get up and go on his way, stating that his faith has helped him to see who made him well.  Notice, also, that Jesus does not punish the others by re-infecting them with the disease!

As we pull away from this passage, it is clear that all ten of these lepers were gifted with the culture’s stuff of thanksgiving (they were healed of a horrible skin disease), but there was only one individual who saw Jesus’ Life behind the healing (the real center of Thanksgiving).

Isn’t that true of us as well?  We’re always trying to make something of our lives, managing them as well as we can.  We’re always attempting to get through life’s difficulties and turmoil as best as we can.  We’re always assessing how we relate to what the culture is telling us as well as we can.

Then, when some blessing impacts our lives or we are gifted with some goodness, we eagerly reach for it!  We may be briefly thankful (even the culture thinks it is good for us to notice the stuff of thanksgiving), but it is more likely that we see ourselves as deserving of what has occurred).  We may think such blessing and goodness are rewards for all we have had to endure or for the decency and energy we have had to put into our lives.  Then we go on, just like the nine healed lepers!

Or do we catch what is going on when such blessing and goodness surfaces in our lives?

Do we see them flowing from the new Life of our Lord, like the foreign leper did?  We will, when it dawns on us how dangerous and selfish is the natural concern for self which surfaces in our thinking and doing!  Up to that point, however, we honestly do not think we need a Rescuer.  But when our lives are being torn down or are crumbling it then strikes us that we do need One!  And, out of his grace and mercy, our Lord compassionately responds!

He is continuously streaming into our lives with his Life through the Scriptures and the Sacraments of Baptism, Forgiveness and Eucharist, impacting us with the richness of that Life while overwhelming us with the realities of the Son’s crucified and resurrected Life!

Such holy streaming reminds us that the real center of Thanksgiving is found:

Not just in the lifestyles of this culture that appear to be comfortable, but also in the holy drenching of the Lord’s water at Baptism;

Not just in the families of this culture that both bless and curse us, but also in the holy words of the Lord’s Scriptures and the Lord’s Forgiveness;

Not just in the work of this culture which drives to be successful, but also in the holy eating of the Son’s Body and the swallowing of the Son’s Blood.

Yes, the stuff of this culture’s thanksgiving has its importance and significance.  But it is the Life of Thanksgiving, the Life seen in our crucified, resurrected and ascended Lord which reflects the most importance and the most significance!  This distinction between the culture’s thanksgiving and the Lord’s Thanksgiving continues to fill us with deep appreciation, applause and gratitude.   This culture bases all its thanksgiving on the apparent good of its material life, determining if there are sufficient accumulations to warrant such thanksgivings.  The Lord’s baptized people, however, base all their thanksgiving on the rescuing, sustaining and creating actions of the LORD God.

Thus, parish communities struggling to remain faithful to the LORD God do not walk away from the culture’s holiday.  Instead, they step into it with a fresher and deeper look at the Life into which they have been drawn by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

Now may the peace of the LORD God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus Our Lord

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Pr. Carl A. Voges, Columbia, SC; carl.voges4@icloud.com