Text: Luke
17:11-19
In the name of + Jesus. Amen.
The account of the Ten Lepers sounds like a parable, but it isn’t. This was a historic incident that happened in the life of our Lord and His disciples “on the way to Jerusalem,” as our Lord “was passing along between Samaria and Galilee.” It was an actual happening. But our Lord uses this incident as if it were a parable: to teach us about the kingdom.
And for us to know about the kingdom, we need to know about the King, as well as about the subjects of the kingdom. In other words, we need to know Jesus, and we need to know ourselves.
For when Jesus tells parables, it’s very easy for us to identify with the heroes of the story, and not the villains. We certainly don’t want to see ourselves as the proud Pharisee, but rather as the humble tax collector. We don’t want to see ourselves as the coward who buried the talent, but rather as the ones who heard their Master say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” We don’t want to see ourselves as the coldhearted priest and Levite who left the crime victim to bleed in the street, who turned and looked the other way pretending not to notice, but rather we would like to identify with the heroic Good Samaritan.
It is our sinful nature to see ourselves as good, and to see others as evil. Our flesh wants to believe that Jesus tells parables and gives lessons based on what happens in His earthly ministry so as to pat us on the back, while exposing the sins of others. But this is not why our Lord told parables. This is not why our Lord comments upon this incident with the ten lepers. Again, we need to know the King, and we need to know ourselves as His flawed and broken subjects. For if we were good and righteous, we would not need a Savior any more than these ten lepers needed to be healed of their horrible disease.
And let’s not forget, dear friends, these ten lepers do indeed show that they have faith in Jesus. They stand “at a distance” as the Law commands. But they come within earshot of our Lord, and they beg Him: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” They have faith because they come to Him for help. They come to Him because they believe He can cure their incurable disease. And they come to Him praying – just as we do in our Divine Service – “Lord, have mercy upon us.” They acknowledge His power over leprosy. And Jesus is not a physician (though St. Luke, the only author who wrote down this account, is a medical doctor). These men are coming to our Lord not because they think He can cure them with pills and creams and surgery. They aren’t coming to Him for therapy and the latest medical technology. Rather, they know that He has divine power. And they are bold to ask for Him to use it to heal them. That, dear friends, is faith.
Our Lord’s answer is prompt. He tells them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” For this is what the Law commands if you have certain diseases that separate you from the community, but you have been cured. You go to the priests to be declared clean, to come back to the community. St. Luke leaves it to us to imagine the scene: as the ten lepers realize that they have just been healed.
Maybe they reacted with elation and joy. Maybe they were quiet and stunned, and pinched themselves to see if it were only a dream. At any rate, Luke tells us that they “went” and they discovered that “they were cleansed.”
And, of course, we know what happened next. Nine of the healed lepers went away, absorbed in themselves, but “one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on His face at Jesus’ feet, giving Him thanks.”
Again, this is what happens in the Divine Service. We are healed from the leprosy of our sins. We sing. We praise God. And even the Lord’s Supper is known by the Greek word “Eucharist,” which means, “thanksgiving.” We end the service by praying the Psalm: “O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, and His mercy endureth forever.” We also sing, “Bless we the Lord, thanks be to God” – right before the Lord gives us His priestly blessing.
The entire Christian life is a life of thanksgiving. For we don’t get what we deserve, rather we receive gifts – like these ten lepers – from Jesus, our Master, who has mercy on us.
And it is fitting that the grateful leper was a “Samaritan,” a “foreigner,” one who did not belong there. That is indeed the Christian life. We don’t belong in God’s kingdom, but Jesus puts us there anyway. That is what grace is, and that is why we are grateful.
But sometimes we aren’t. Sometimes we are ingrates. Sometimes we take the Lord’s grace for granted. Sometimes we think God owes us something. Sometimes we think we are entitled to more than someone else. Sometimes we, like the nine, take God’s mercy and run, not thinking to come back and say “thank you,” to praise our Master for His mercy.
But, dear friends, let us not forget, Jesus even healed the ungrateful. Jesus died for the sins of the world. But let us also not forget that the grateful leper responded with faith. And St. Paul says that we are saved “through faith.” Jesus made this very clear as the grateful former leper “fell on his face at Jesus’ feet,” worshiping the God in human form who saved Him. And Jesus accepts this worship. But Jesus, the King, also commands this “foreigner” in the eyes of the world, who is a citizen in the kingdom, to “rise and go [his] way.” Jesus said, “Your faith has made you well.”
So whether we are acting like the nine ungrateful, or like the grateful one, our Lord Jesus has the divine power to save us. He dies on the cross to redeem us. He preaches His Word to us through His servants to restore us. He gives us His sacraments to heal us. He answers our prayer, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” He takes us as outcasts and aliens, and He receives us into the kingdom: healed, restored, forgiven, and made heirs of the King by grace. And as our Priest, He declares us clean and restores us to citizenship in the Kingdom by His grace and by His Word.
Dear friends, let us always be grateful. For our gratitude is simply the response of faith to our Master’s mercy. His blood atones for us. The Holy Spirit dwells in us and drives out our infirmities and imperfections. And we do indeed run to our great high priest, God in the flesh, who declares us healed and worthy and restores us to the community: the communion of saints, citizens of the kingdom. And we fall at His feet to give Him worship, thanks, and praise.
And let us also hear and believe what our Lord says to us today: “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”
Amen.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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