27 November 2024
Text: Luke 17:11-19
In the name of + Jesus. Amen.
Ten men were suffering from a horrible disease called “leprosy.” There was no cure, and it was eventually fatal. It is a cruel disease in which your body dies bit by bit. It is disfiguring, and also highly contagious. And in Jewish law, it made a person unclean. Therefore, someone suffering from leprosy – a leper – had to survive on his own or as part of a colony of others with leprosy.
Even though there was no cure for leprosy, the Law provided a way to be declared clean if some kind of miracle were to happen and someone were to be cured of leprosy. It is as though those parts of the Old Testament were written just for Jesus, because He did cure lepers as part of His ministry of proclaiming the Good News of the kingdom.
Leprosy – like all diseases, like everything that leads to death – exists because of sin, because of Adam and Eve’s fall in the garden. And leprosy is a terrible reminder of how ugly sin is, how it causes such pain, and leads ultimately to death. By declaring lepers to be ceremonially unclean, Jewish law recognized the connection between physical sickness and spiritual decay.
But on this one day, as Jesus entered a village “between Samaria and Galilee,” our Lord was “met by ten lepers.” As the Law required, they stood at a distance and make their condition known. But they also did something else: they prayed to Jesus for help. In fact, we still pray their prayer in our liturgy: “Lord, have mercy upon us!”
Jesus heard their prayer. He had mercy. He cured those ten lepers. He restored them to life. And so that they could leave the leper colony, so that they could comply with the law of clean and unclean, so that they could return home to their families – Jesus told them: “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as soon as they obeyed His Word in faith, “as they went, they were cleansed.”
But one of the ten did not go immediately to the priests. For “when he saw that he was healed,” he first “turned back.” He returned to where Jesus was to be found. He praised God. He worshiped Jesus. He gave Him thanks.
Interestingly, this man was a Samaritan – a member of an ethnic group that was at odds with the Jews. Their relationship was not unlike the Palestinians today. And he was the only one out of the ten who came back to thank Jesus, to praise and worship God by his presence. Jesus was amazed, and not in a good way. “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”
In a sense, we are all these lepers, dear friends. We have all been infected and disfigured by sin. There is nothing that doctors can do. There is no pill to cure us. But there is a cure for the leprosy of sin, and it is just what Jesus told the Samaritan: “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”
Notice the connection between being grateful and having faith. If we really believe that Jesus saves us from sin, death, and the devil, if we really believe that Jesus has redeemed us from the fires of hell – how could we not be grateful? And how do we express this gratitude other than doing what the Samaritan did, dear friends: by turning back again and again to where Jesus is to be found, by praising and worshiping God. That is a demonstration of the faith that saves you.
For you are here in this place today because you believe Jesus has saved you, and you believe Jesus is here: in His Word, and in His body and blood. We have all turned back and have fallen on our faces at Jesus’ feet. We are all crying out: “Lord, have mercy upon us. Christ, have mercy upon us. Lord, have mercy upon us.” For that is the only cure for sin: the sin that leads to death. Christ’s mercy that we access by faith is how we are cured and made whole. And you can only get it here: where Jesus is.
Maybe the nine were so excited about being cured that they forgot about Jesus. Maybe they took His blessing for granted. Maybe they were just ungrateful: taking what Jesus offered them without a thought toward being thankful. We don’t know what happened to the nine, but Jesus points out that they were nowhere to be found.
This is a little but like coming to churches that are largely empty, where we know there are many other baptized people who could have turned back to worship God out of gratitude for what He has done for them. But for whatever reason, they are not here. And sometimes we are of the nine, being more into the things of this world, taking the Lord’s grace for granted, and distancing ourselves from Him and from His church. It’s important that when we do come to grips with God’s goodness and mercy and grace, when we do realize what He has done for us, we need to turn back. We need to drop whatever else we are doing and run to where Jesus is. He has saved us by His grace, and we receive this grace by faith: by believing that it is truly a cure. And what we believe is shown by what we choose to do with our time.
Giving thanks at this time of year is a very old tradition. It is because this is the time of year when farmers harvest their crops. For there’s no guarantee that there will be a harvest. Sometimes diseases wipe out whole crops. Sometimes enemies come and burn down our fields and storehouses. Sometimes the weather itself ruins the yield. And then we will have to struggle until the next season. But when the crops mature, when they bear fruit, when they grow large and await the harvest, we have much to be thankful for. It is fitting for us to have a fall feast, celebrating with the first-fruits of the harvest, gathering our families together to celebrate and thank God for His mercy. There is no better way to do this than by means of a meal.
And we Christians likewise have a very old tradition. It was begun by Jesus and passed along to the apostles – who passed it down to us. It is also a meal, and it is also a giving of thanks to God for His mercy. In Greek, it’s called the “Eucharist,” that is, “the Thanksgiving.” We also call it the Lord’s Supper. For when Jesus took the bread and wine that are His body and blood, He blessed them and gave thanks. How much more, dear friends, should we give thanks when we eat this bread and drink this cup, proclaiming the Lord’s death until He comes?
For as an ordinary meal sustains our lives and strengthens our bodies, this Holy Supper sustains us unto eternal life and strengthens our souls. And by going to where Jesus is, and by receiving Jesus as Jesus taught us to do – we are not only demonstrating faith in His words, we are receiving faith in His Word as a gift, as a means of grace. And we are grateful.
This Holy Supper, this Thanksgiving, is our “turning back.” For we come to the Lord’s Supper praising God with voices of prayer, praise, and giving thanks. We fall on our knees at Jesus’ feet, and we drop everything else that we could be doing right now to be here.
As for the nine, dear friends, let’s not become one of them. And equally important, let us pray for them, that they too may turn back and give thanks for what Jesus has done for them on the cross and in the empty tomb, and for what He does for us as the altar, the font, and the pulpit.
“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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