Nineteenth Pentecost
Luke 17:11-19, 2 Kings 5:1-15
Like most preachers who have been around for a while I have used our gospel text about the healing of the ten lepers as a rousing Thanksgiving Day sermon. I am quite sure you could write the sermon. It would go something like this. Look at all our blessings and here we are with sixty people out of 600 here in church to give thanks.10% 10 lepers, 1 returns to give thanks. Where are the nine? I think that a valid if superficial understanding that WORKS OKAY for Thanksgiving Day but in truth I think there's a lot more going on in our text for today than simply the message, "say thank you."
What peaks my attention is the question, Why is it that it's a Samaritan who comes back? Samaritans are from Samaria, that kind of a place where we want to rollup the windows and lock the doors when we pass through. That place that supposedly harbors mean and nasty people. That place where the people are irreligious and don't worship God properly. And yet it's a Samaritan who returns to give thanks. What's that about?
I think it has something to do with the action of the lesson and the particular words that are used to describe what's going on. Permit me a little teaching moment here. Some of you may choose to drift away, just promise you'll come back.
Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. Rather than take the expressway he chooses the scenic route which takes him to some small towns on the border of Galilee and Samaria. As he enters one of these towns he's met by ten lepers. Now we know that leprosy is a highly contagious disease so lepers are compelled to keep their distance outside the town. If anyone should happen upon them they are to yell with all their voice, "Unclean, unclean" so people will know to stay away. When Jesus enters the village they call to him "Jesus, master, have mercy on us."
Jesus sees them and says to them "Go and show yourselves to the priests." Now, The priests were the final medical authority because of course besides being ill the lepers were ritually unclean as well. The priests had to check out their bodies to make sure there were no lesions or sores and then had to prescribe appropriate ritual bathes in order to purify them and readmit them to society. .So Jesus sends the lepers to the priests. As they went on their way they were "made clean." This is a very particular word in Greek... They were made clean--their symptoms disappeared. Suddenly they had no more running sores, no more deformed fingers or toes, their skin was clear. All of them were "made clean."
One of them realizes he is healed. "Healed" that's a different word. For this one man realizes that something internal has gone on. Yes the symptoms are gone but something more has happened. He's the one that goes back to Jesus.
Now Jesus inquires after the other nine. But he says to this one who has come back "Your faith has made you well. "Well" that's another word. in Greek. It means to be made whole or to be rescued from destruction, to be saved. Three separate words; to be clean, to be healed, to be well. Three words that point us to a very clear distinction.
Many years ago a man by the name of Granger Westberg made some significant inroads into the medical community talking about wholistic health. He made giant strides convincing doctors and nurses not to see "the broken leg in room 205" or the "gall bladder in room 306" but to see Joe Johnson in room 205 and Greta Glump in 306 Westberg challenged us to see that health was about more than just not being physically sick and that illness is. more than a set of symptoms or an aggregate of physical complaints.A lot of those ideas got lost with the idea of a health care industry and HMO's but every once in a while these ideas come back to us in different form. Three weeks ago or so the cover of Newsweek featured articles on the Mind Body connection--much of what was discussed pointed to a spiritual connection.
Perhaps it was enough for nine of the lepers to be clean, perhaps all they wanted was to return to normal and we can understand that. I don't doubt that I would be one of the nine--impatient to get on with life, back to family and friends and work. I don't doubt that I would have been one of those nine lepers but they were missing something vastly more important. They did not realize that they were healed.And they did not meet the one who healed them. so they did not receive the much greater, much more life-changing message of wholeness and salvation.
Now let's get back to that first question. Why was it the Samaritan who turned back? I imagine we could all speculate on that but perhaps it was because he realized how vulnerable he was. Jesus might have said "you Israelites go show yourselves to the priests" And there would be the Samaritan--left as always out of the loop, an outsider, an interloper.
When I was a chaplain at Salem Village I met a man like that. He had AIDES. It was early on in societies understanding of Aides and people were still very frightened. Sometimes institutions do things right and I think Salem handled it very well. A lot of inservicing was provided to educate staff. Nurses were allowed to request not to work on the floor but if they were there they would treat this man with the same respect and care as any other patient or be fired. Sometimes people do act right. Only one or two nurses and a few nurses' aides requested duty other places. So Mr. X entered Salem Village extended care. And he was a wonderful man. Confidentiality was important but the paper gowns and masks and gloves outside his door were a bit of a give away. But the staff tended to gravitate to his room--Maintenance would have to work on his TV more often. Housekeepeing would spend five extra minutes dusting the floor. Night nurses aides would stop to chat. Why? Because he was so grateful. In a facility of 280 people 250 didn't want to be there and probably 225 regularly complained about everything. But Mr. X was grateful. He quickly knew everyone's name and regularly told them he didn't know what he'd do without them. He was not "clean" in the sense the lepers were clean but he was healed and he was whole. Mr. X knew his vulnerability so to be accepted and to be included was sweeter and he answered with gratitude.
Our Old Testament figure from the lesson this morning Namaan had to come to learn that same lesson --the hard way. Here's a great general, a mighty warrior afflicted with leprosy. With all the pomp and flair of his office he treks his horses and chariots to Elisha's door step and Elisha doesn't even come himself to see him--he sends a messenger. A little power play here perhaps. Namaan is at the prophet's mercy but when he tells him to go wash in the river--a river in Israel at that--Namaan is beside himself. Desperate, he does as he is told. And he was clean.
We're back to that great theme of the Evangelist Luke as voiced by Mary, "His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly.
There's a lesson here. It is about giving thanks but it is just as surely about Jesus healing us. Can we admit our need, can we allow ourselves to ministered to in our vulnerability? Can we hear Jesus tell us "your faith has made you well?" Are we one of the nine or the one who returns?
Amen