Text: Luke 17:11-19
Date: October 9, 2022
Event: Proper 23, Year C
Luke 17:11-19 (EHV)
On another occasion, as Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, he was passing along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12When he entered a certain village, ten men with leprosy met him. Standing at a distance, 13they called out loudly, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
14When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” As they went away they were cleansed.
15One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice. 16He fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, thanking him. And he was a Samaritan. 17Jesus responded, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18Was no one found to return and give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19Then he said to him, “Get up and go your way. Your faith has saved you.”
Faith Trusts and Thanks
As I continue to work through the call to Canada, I ran into a interesting puzzle this week: a reminder from the circuit pastor in Alberta that tomorrow is Canadian Thanksgiving, and that would obviously affect my ability to get in touch with people and have phone conversations with them.
And then, after Bible Class was done on Tuesday morning, we were briefly talking about plans for church here in Belmont for the coming months. And in that moment, I felt my stomach bottom out as I thought how close the United States Thanksgiving is. I mean, it’s not close, but it’s just a touch over a month away. And, of course, that means we’re just a touch over two months away from Christmas. Perhaps you can empathize that I stated spiraling for a moment.
But, let’s not jump ahead to Christmas. Let’s focus on Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is always a little bit of a weird holiday to me, mostly because of what it has turned into. It always seems like the gateway for Christmas. In the past, Black Friday sales often encouraged people to line up at stores even on Thanksgiving Day to get the best deals when the stores open. I’m not really sure if that happens as much anymore with as prevalent as online shopping is and as system-changing as COVID has been, but at best it feels like Thanksgiving has been relegated to the gatekeeper of the Christmas season, and perhaps at worst Thanksgiving has actually been changed into the opposite of what it was designed to be: instead of focusing on thanks, it focuses us on discontent and wanting more and more and more things.
We could spend all day talking about the frustrating state of the Thanksgiving holiday, but that might miss our point a bit. Isn’t it just a touch strange or sad that we have need to have a holiday set aside for giving thanks in the first place? Isn’t that something we should be doing even without a day off of work and a plate full of mashed potatoes? Why is showing thanks so difficult for people in this country? Or this continent?
Well, in our Gospel for this morning, we’re reminded that this is not a uniquely North American problem. Thanksgiving is a struggle for people, regardless of place or time. And so we do well to consider the place of giving thanks in our own lives, and identify the proper relationship between faith and thanksgiving.
As Jesus was traveling around between Galilee and Samaria (the regions to the north of Jerusalem) he came across a group of lepers. Now, having leprosy was a life-changing experience for people in those days. Much worse than any COVID-related isolation and quarantine, if you had leprosy in those days you had to be separate from everyone, except others with the same ailment. You lived on the outskirts of towns, you couldn’t see your family. Oh, and on top of that you had a horrible disease that was at best tremendously uncomfortable. The only way to be cleared to return home is to recover (which would have been rare) and to go and show yourself to the priest who could make the call about whether or not the leprosy was truly gone. If he determined that it was gone, you could return to your life.
As Jesus is passing through the area, it’s not a surprise then that the lepers, who had undoubtedly heard about Jesus’ ability to heal diseases and infirmities, seek him out. When [Jesus] entered a certain village, ten men with leprosy met him. Standing at a distance, they called out loudly, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” Notice that they leave considerable distance between themselves and Jesus—legally required social distancing. They could only get so close to someone without leprosy and no closer. But their plea is clear—the seek mercy from the one who has proven himself capable to help and to be merciful to the all people, including those on the lowest rungs of society.
Jesus’ miracle here is perhaps one of the most understated in his entire ministry. He makes no big show, he doesn’t even say that he’s going to heal them. His only direction is “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” He still has them live under the law that governed them. He doesn’t circumvent the law and say “You are healed; go home,” though as God he certainly could have done that. He still has them do what had been commanded while at the same working that miracle: as they went away they were cleansed.
Jesus’ mercy and love extended to these ten men. Think of the joy that would have flooded their hearts as they started on their way to the priests and saw their skin clear up. Think of the relief they would have felt as the pain just vanished. Think of the excitement they felt as they got closer to the priests knowing that they were just moments away from being brought back into society and to reestablishing some amount of normalcy to their lives. What joy would have filled their hearts! It would have been euphoric!
But only one of them stopped en route and turned around. There’s no mention of the intentions of the other nine. Were they planning to come back to Jesus after seeing the priests like they told them to? Were they going to seek him out after their reunion with their families? We don’t know. What we do know is what Luke records for us: One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice. He fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, thanking him. And he was a Samaritan.
This one man knew what had happened. He knew that God had healed him. He knew that Jesus had worked this miracle to change his hopeless, isolating situation and returned to thank Jesus. He couldn’t repay Jesus, he couldn’t do anything except express his gratitude. And Jesus knew this. So he said to him, “Get up and go your way. Your faith has saved you.”
All ten of these men trusted that Jesus could heal them; that’s why they had called out to him in the first place. And that trust was not in something uncertain; that trust was on the rock of Jesus. But this Samaritan’s faith was so strong, it pulled him off the course he was on to come back and thank Jesus for what he had done. His faith trusted Jesus, but it also thanked Jesus.
We had been in a hopeless, isolating situation, one that was far more dire that the ten’s leprosy. Our sin cut us off from God and we could do nothing to fix it or make anything better. So complete was the isolation that we couldn’t even shout to Jesus for help and mercy. We were left alone in our sins, destined to be forever cut off from God in hell.
But Jesus saw our state and had mercy on us. But sin was a far bigger problem than leprosy. No simple visit to the priests would solve this. No, to solve the disease of sin, we needed our Great High Priest to offer himself as the sacrifice. The miracle worked on our behalf was far less subtle than the one we see with the lepers, because on that dark day the Son of God died for the people he created, for the ones who had sinned against him. The cleansing we needed required not physical healing or a third-party’s approval, but the blood of Jesus shed for us.
And so we look at ourselves and we are clean! The sin is gone, the disease is cured. We are restored, not simply to our brothers and sisters here, but to God. We are welcomed into God’s family once again because he cured us and made us whole. We are no longer isolated and hopeless, but wrapped in the arms of our loving God, never to fear again.
The faith that God gives through his Word and the sacraments clings to these promises. There is no doubt in our voice as we plead with God for his forgiveness. Before we even ask, we know we have it because that’s what he’s promised and done for us. We approach our God with complete confidence!
What, then, is our response to this? Do we see the enormity of it? Do we understand the ramifications of what Jesus has done for us? Is there any appropriate response except for overwhelming gratitude? Is there anything we can do but thank God for what he’s done for us? Can we possibly delay our thanksgiving to God until we accomplish this or that task? Hardly!
We throw ourselves at Jesus’ feet in joy for what he’s done. We praise him here at church. We fill our hearts and mouths with prayers of joy and gratitude along with our requests for help. We live lives that reflect our gratitude to God. Paul said in our Second Reading: You will be made rich in every way so that you may be generous in every way, which produces thanksgiving to God through us. Generosity to God, chiefly shown in generosity to the people God places around us, is a primary way that we show our gratitude to God. Which means when we take our forgiveness of sins and eternal life seriously, we look for ways to help others to express that thanksgiving. We rejoice in our forgiveness in every possible way, not just one hour a week, but every moment of our lives.
We know our lives are not always filled with thanksgiving, though. I would guess all of us, if pressed, would acknowledge that at some points during the past week we took God’s forgiveness for granted. Perhaps his Word didn’t cross our minds on a given day. Perhaps it was a real struggle to really get ourselves going this morning to come to church. Thanksgiving is not as natural and automatic as it should be because of our sin. Often we are not the one thankful Samaritan, we are the other nine.
But our reason for thanksgiving means that there’s reason to rejoice even when we note our failure to thank. Because as we look at all the times we didn’t live our lives in thanksgiving, where we didn’t praise God like we should, where we didn’t reflect his love well to those around us, we know that for all of those things we are forgiven as well. Jesus died even for our ingratitude and thanklessness. That is forgiveness that faith trusts; that is forgiveness for which you can then give thanks.
So as you leave here this morning, go be thankful. Be thankful in your prayers, in your praise, in your words, and in your actions. Why? Because you know Jesus has saved you from hell, and as your faith clings to that promise it also thanks the God who gave it. Amen.
