Community Thanksgiving Service

Community Thanksgiving Service

“There They Are!”

Luke 17:11-19

11On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, 13they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. 15Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. 17Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? 18Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

John Main, a Benedictine teacher of prayer, used to say that probably one of the greatest sufferings that Jesus had to endure was people’s unawareness of his unbounded love for them. Our scripture reading reminds us again that there are people who seem to be unaware of what Jesus has done for them, as well as what Jesus can do for them.

We have this odd little story. It is odd because Jesus doesn’t heal the lepers like he healed the blind man, or the lame man, or the demoniac, or the son of the widow of Nain, or anyone else. In each of those stories, the person being healed, and all those watching, were clear that Jesus was doing the healing, the casting out, the raising up. In each of those stories, the people were amazed at the power of Jesus to heal, and to forgive, and to bring new life. But not in this story.

As Jesus approached an unidentified village in a no-man’s land between Israel and Samaria, he was met by ten lepers. These lepers recognize Jesus and they cry out for help. But instead of applying a mud poultice, or praying out loud so the crowd can hear, or doing something else so that the people would know that it is Jesus who is doing this amazing thing, Jesus tells them to go and present themselves to the priests. Many people subconsciously think this is the important part of the story – whenever there is a problem, the appropriate answer must be, “let the preacher deal with it!”

In any case, the ten lepers set out towards Jerusalem, probably muttering and complaining that this trip was pointless because they were still lepers. But as they hobbled along, the one on a crutch gasped in awe as he saw his leg grow under him. The one with a half-eaten face beamed with a rich new smile. Their finger stumps expanded into normal hands.

This healing took place for all ten of them. Imagine what must be going through their minds. “I can walk. Look at me, I can run! Look at me – I want you and everyone else to look at me, because I am restored to my good-looking self!” All that stands between them and the life they desire is a trip to Jerusalem to present themselves to the priests. My hunch is that if Jesus could restore their flesh, he would have also given them the strength to make the journey, even if they wanted to run the whole way.

The disciples watch as the lepers walk off, and then one by one, two by two, they start to run away. But one of them made a U-turn back to Jesus, to thank him. This is when the disciples first discover that Jesus has actually healed these lepers. And surprisingly, to these disciples, the one who returns is a Samaritan, an outcast among the outcasts, the very least of these in the eyes of the faithful.

Jesus’ response to the Samaritan’s return might be a testimony to his personal hurt at our ingratitude. “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?” I confess that I think that some of the gospel stories have seen some editing. I find it hard to believe that when Jesus asked, “Where are the other nine?” that at least one of the disciples didn’t reply “I saw them running that way. Do you want me to go get them?” It’s the kind of impulsive answer we might expect from Peter, or the brashness we have seen in James and John – but I don’t think that is the point the gospel writer was trying to make with the telling of this story.

Jesus’ response might be evidence of his disappointment, but I’m not so sure that Jesus was actually disappointed in the nine who did not return. It may be that we see disappointment in Jesus because we know that we get disappointed, and we get discouraged, when people do not praise us for the good we are doing.

We want to believe that it is right and good to expect gratitude when we help others. After all, we are taught at our mother’s knee to say “thank you” when someone gives us a cookie, or pays us a compliment. So if something much bigger than a cookie is offered, like the healing of your leprosy, we expect a much bigger “thank you,” a much bigger show of gratitude.

We also want to believe that it is right and justified to be hurt by the ingratitude of others. When we do something good for others, and they don’t thank us, we want to know, “Where are they?”

And the truth is, if we take this passage at face value, we don’t know where they are. We don’t know if these other nine lepers actually went to Jerusalem to show themselves to the priest. We don’t know if, in their excitement in being healed, they went straight to their homes and families so they could hug their children and embrace their spouse. We don’t know if, with their renewed strength, they searched for those persons who had treated them poorly in order to extract a little vengeance.

And that is how it is today, as well – we don’t always know where the people we help go after we help them. Their response may be one of gratitude, or it may be one of suspicion and distrust, or it may be puzzling to us because we don’t know what else is going on in their lives. It is quite possible that the help we offer is not the help they most needed, because there are other issues in their lives that keep them on the outside looking in.

We don’t know about the other nine lepers because this passage is told from the vantage point of the disciples who are with Jesus. We see only what they saw. They saw ten lepers healed. They saw nine former lepers walk away. They saw one former leper return to say “thank you.” No one accompanies the lepers on their journey. There are no “follow up” forms to indicate how many actually went to see the priests, how many just moved away from Jesus, and how many tried to assimilate themselves into the communities without the benefits of the clergy. We just don’t know.

Jesus asked the disciples, “Where are they?” We don’t know where these other nine former lepers are because we hear only what the disciples hear. They hear ten lepers cry out to Jesus for mercy. They hear Jesus tell these lepers to go and show themselves to the priests. They hear one of the former lepers say “thank you” with a Samaritan accent. They hear Jesus ask them, “Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And they hear Jesus say to this Samaritan, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

And still, Jesus asked the disciples, “Where are they?” Too often, we treat this as if it were a rhetorical question – as if it were a question that Jesus didn’t really expect us to answer. We assume that the answer to this question about their location is unknowable, except to God. Even if the disciples don’t know where they have gone, Jesus does.

We assume that their failure to return means they are not thankful for what God has done for them. Or we assume that they were unaware that it was God who healed them, since Jesus only told them to go show themselves to the priests. We don’t know where they have gone physically, and we don’t know where they have gone spiritually. We just don’t know.

I don’t know about you, but there is a lot that we don’t know, and yet we still are making assumptions about these other nine former lepers. And there are some other assumptions we make, which if we reveal them, just might help us answer the question Jesus still asks us today.

We assume that the lepers were all Jewish, except for this one Samaritan who returns to give thanks. We assume this because Jesus tells them to go and show themselves to the priests. Without that declaration from a priest, a Jewish person could not rejoin their family. They could not rejoin their community. Without that declaration, they could not be embraced, or sit at table to eat with others, or make new friends, or be employed, or be part of the community in any meaningful way. A Jewish leper would have to go to the priests in order to be restored to their life.

We assume that these lepers were all Jewish, except for the one known Samaritan, only because we forget that leprosy was not a skin-condition that was limited to Jewish people. So, what if at least one of the lepers was a Nubian woman, or a Cushite man, or an Ethiopian eunuch? What if at least one of these lepers was a Roman soldier, or a Greek trader, or a nomadic swineherd? What if at least one of these lepers was a tax collector, or a woman who had sold her body, or a prodigal who had wasted his inheritance in frivolous living?

What if our group of lepers included persons who were not among the Chosen People, or who were not in good standing even before their leprosy? It seems unlikely that this group of lepers would have been perfect and homogenous in every other way before they got leprosy. Yet, Jesus chose to send them all to the priests, to have the priests declare that they are now clean. It seems to me that Jesus wants the priests to do something they have forgotten to do, in their quest for righteousness before God. Jesus wants the priests to recognize that God is at work among all the people.

We remember that the priests believed that illness, such as leprosy, was caused by sin. They believed that healing was a sign of forgiveness. And they believed that only God could forgive sins. What are the priests supposed to believe if a Roman soldier stands before them and says, “I used to be a leper, but now I am healed.” What conclusion can the priests come to if an Ethiopian eunuch stands before them and says, “I used to be a leper, but now I am healed.” What argument could the priests still cling to if a tax collector or a prostitute stands before them and says, “I used to be a leper, but now I am healed.”

Where are the other nine? I believe that they ended up standing before the priests, just like Jesus told them to do. They stood before the priests and they shared their witness of what God had done for them. Maybe they didn’t use that kind of language, that God had healed them. But we know, as the author of the letter of James knew, that actions speak louder than words. However they described it or understood it, the message is clear. Once, they were unclean, outcast, and unwanted. But now, they are clean, and they have been sent by Jesus.

One Samaritan recognized in Jesus the work of God. We are told that his faith has made him well. But instead of sending the Samaritan back to Samaria, Jesus sends him on his way, still sends him to see the priests, to make his statement, “I used to be a leper, but now I am healed.”

Most of us here are like that Samaritan. We know our sin-sickness. We have lived as foreigners, strangers, and even enemies to the kingdom of God. But now, we know that we have been healed by Jesus. We know that we are the ones who come to Jesus, praising God. And we are the ones that Jesus sends out, with our new lives, to encounter the world and to tell our story.

But most of us are also like the priests in this story. People show up at our churches, and they tell us that something has happened in their lives. They have been identified as lepers, outcasts, misfits, the unclean in our communities – but now they are on a journey that has brought them to us. They may not use that kind of language, of course, or they may not even be able to say that God had anything to do with bringing them to us. They just know that now they are here before us, and they need a word from God in order to be clean. They need to know that we can see that God is at work in their lives, so that they can claim and live this new life.

It is in those moments that we need to remember, that we need to know in our heart of hearts, that it is Jesus who has sent them to us. And as the priesthood of all believers, it is our job to hear their story. We are to help them examine their lives so that they will discover how it is that Jesus has sent them to us. And we are to help them understand what this new life that is being given to them means. It is our job to declare that they are clean – that their sins are forgiven them, through the grace of Jesus Christ. We are to no longer see them as lepers, or to treat them as lepers, but to receive them as members of this community.

When we can remember this, and we incarnate the Body of Christ for them, we will be able to answer the question Jesus still asks us today: “Where are they?” And we will say, “There they are! They are here with us.” And that will be a day of great thanksgiving!