This is a loud episode. It contains several themes that crop up in Luke. Jesus has a care for the outcast. To be a leper was to have a mysterious, incurable disease that seemed to be very infectious. Without our science, anyone who had any sort of skin condition was shunned and excluded, and this would have included people with conditions such as psoriasis; even severe acne would lead to you being looked at with suspicion. The group of ten lepers must keep their distance, but they lift up their voices. They shout Jesus, Master, eleison hemas – have mercy on us!
Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem for what we know will be the great showdown. The Greek text actually says that Jesus is passing though the midst of Samaria and Galilee – we are not being given a precise itinerary but rather a general idea of the area he is moving though on his way, and this accounts for the fact that he meets a group of outcasts who are mixed – Jews and Samaritans. The Samaritans are descendants of foreigners imported by Assyrian conquerors centuries before who have inter-married with the locals – they are despised by the Jews as half-breeds and outsiders. The greater shame and pain of being lepers has banded this group together. All ten of them are outcasts, from society in general, and specifically from engaging in temple worship – they are unclean.
Jesus sees them, and he does nothing. He does not touch them, pray for them, anoint them; he does nothing. He merely tells them to do what anyone has to do when their skin condition clears up – go to the priest to be examined and if pronounced clean, offer the proper sacrifices to God in praise and thanksgiving.
All ten of them go. It showed faith – a reliance on the word of Jesus. It is as if I told someone with a medical condition that they should go to their doctor to be examined and pronounced healthy, perhaps so that they could get their car insurance reinstated. Would you go on just my say so?
All ten of them are obedient and go. As they go, they are cleansed. All ten of them.
One of them sees. What does he see? That he has been cleansed, yes, but something more, that his cleansing has somehow come from Jesus. Here is the irony. The other nine are presumably still on their way to see the priest for the all-important pronouncement that will lead to their re-admittance to society; they are going to offer the sacrifices and praise God. This man, however, disobeys Jesus. He turns back.
He comes back, praising God in a loud voice. I wonder if having sent them on their way, Jesus has moved on to someone or something else when there is a ruckus, a disturbance in the distance, coming nearer. And here is this man, shouting the praises of God, throwing himself at the feet of Jesus, and offering his eucharist, his thanksgiving to Jesus.
What has he seen? That his encounter with God has been through Jesus. That the praise of God is linked inextricably with the offering of praise, worship and thanksgiving to Jesus. That instead of going to the temple, where as a Samaritan he might still not be welcome, he should come to Jesus to offer thanks.
Jesus comments that it is the outsider who has responded thus. The man’s faith has made him well, has saved him. This means so much more than a physical cleansing from his leprosy, or even his reinstatement in society. He has a wholeness that encompasses his whole being. He has encountered Jesus and has been saved, made whole, transformed in every area of his being. His worldview has changed. His hopes and aspirations have changed. He has been saved.
To be saved has become a sort of shorthand in some circles for being converted, born-again, a real Christian. The term is used more widely in the bible for being rescued from physical danger, for being healed or delivered from illness or distress, to encompass being made whole, and to describe God’s ultimate act of kindness in welcoming us in to his kingdom because of all that Jesus has done for us by dying and rising again for us.
Peter writes in his first letter “1:8Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
We have received a present forgiveness for past sins, the promise of our future home with God, and we are also experiencing the work of the Holy Spirit, transforming us to be like Jesus.
The world is full of people who feel themselves to be living incomplete, unfulfilled lives. It is a common theme in books and films. At the end of the film Titanic, Rose says that Jack Dawson has saved her, presumably from a life of careless meaningless wealth and a loveless marriage. After the battle outside the city of Gondor, the dying King Theoden says that his niece Eowyn has saved him, in his case from disgrace and feeling that he has shamed his ancestors. Steven Spielberg made a whole film about saving private Ryan – the irony being that Ryan survives the battle but seems to spend the rest of his life looking for a kind of salvation.
We are gathered today to celebrate the fact that we are saved. That we have encountered God through Jesus, and he has made us whole. He has brought us forgiveness and a fresh outlook on life – a perception that the world is his, that he is king of the universe, but he is also our loving heavenly Father.
(1) Why are we not more thankful? We are here to share in the Eucharist, but so often this is merely a ritual and form of words that we go through:
Lift up your hearts.
All We lift them up unto the Lord.
Let us give thanks unto our Lord God.
All It is meet and right so to do.
It is very meet, right and our bounden duty, that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks unto thee, O Lord, holy Father, almighty, everlasting God.
Therefore with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious name, evermore praising thee, and saying:
All Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts,
heaven and earth are full of thy glory.
Glory be to thee, O Lord most high. Amen.
As a choir boy and now as a man, I have been saying these words or something like them for most of my life in church on Sundays. But how often do we give thanks in the supermarket queue? Or in the traffic jam? Or when doing the accounts? Or when we are cleaning up sick? Or when we see sunset or a new-born lamb? How often do we discern, see, God’s hand at work in our daily lives? As a church, we have much to give thanks for. Last Wednesday 100 Christians from across Camberley joined in prayer for the renewal of St Michael’s. Every day we have opportunities to share God’s love with our relatives, neighbours, colleagues and friends. As a church we have seen how God provides for our needs.
(2) To what extent is it possible to be truly a Christian if we do not thank God in our hearts? If we are not thankful, perhaps we need our eyes to be opened to realise, to understand the greatness of all that he has done and is doing in us and for us?
So here are two prayers that you might find helpful. The first is from the Alpha booklet Why Jesus? It is designed for those seeking to start their walk with Jesus:
“Lord Jesus Christ, I am sorry for the things I have done wrong in my life (take a few moments to ask his forgiveness for anything particular that is on your conscience). Please forgive me. I now turn from everything which I know is wrong. Thank you that you died on the cross for me so that I could be forgiven and set free. Thank you that you offer me forgiveness and the gift of your Spirit. I now receive that gift. Please come into my life by your Holy Spirit to be with me forever. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Amen.
If you prayed that prayer today, you might want to talk to me about it quietly after the service.
The second and final prayer is much older and is known as the General Thanksgiving:
Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks for all your goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all whom you have made. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your immeasurable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies, that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up our selves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honour and glory throughout all ages. Amen.
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