Twentieth Sunday After Pentecost

Twentieth Sunday After Pentecost
10/10/10
Luke 17:11-19
Bror Erickson

[11] On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. [12] And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance
[13] and lifted up their voices, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." [14] When he saw them he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went they were cleansed. [15] Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; [16] and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. [17] Then Jesus answered, "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? [18] Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" [19] And he said to him, "Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well." Luke 17:11-19 (ESV)


Rise and go your way, your faith has made you well. “Your faith has made you well” Jesus utters it to a Samaritan. This man had no birth right, he didn’t know the law. He wasn’t raised in the faith, and all the good morals. When Jesus told him to go show himself to the priest, he was probably left wondering where a priest might be found. It may be the first time he attempted to go find a priest.
He was a Samaritan. The only reason he knew the right thing to do and the other nine didn’t is because he didn’t know any better. The other nine grew up with the law, and at a minor suggestion were like dogs to vomit willing to return to it. Go and show yourselves to the priests.
O.T. priests were gate keepers of the community. They could not cure leprosy, but they were charged with diagnosing it. And if you were diagnosed with it, the only thing the priest could do is throw you out. You went to live a life separated from family and friends, unclean, outside the law, outside of society. It was a protection plan. It kept others from getting infected.
But it was harsh. It left you with no hope. No more trips to the temple. No more family. No more work or interaction with regular society. To do so would endanger others. This is why they stand far off.
The nine go and find a priest. They know where the priests are. And they have homes and societies to return to. The Samaritan, even if he is clean it isn’t going to mean that he becomes part of Israel’s society. The temple and all that? It means nothing to him. He has no reason to show himself to a priest, which is precisely why he shows himself to The Priest, Jesus Christ, the only priest that ever mattered.
I mean priests were gate keepers for the community. They were charged with teaching the faith. They were charged with intercession on behalf of the people, and making sacrifices.
Jesus is the door, no one comes to the Father except through him. Jesus is the faith. Jesus intercedes for the people for you and I face to face with the Father. And Jesus made the only sacrifice ever worth making when he offered himself as the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and sacrificed himself for you and I on the cross. Jesus is the consummation of all that the priests were supposed to be. And not only can he diagnose the disease but he can cure it. Forgiving you your sins he brings you into the communion of saints.
The Samaritan showed himself to The Priest, the only one that mattered. Not knowing any better, he is the only one to respond rightly!
I mean one wonders what is going through the heads of the others. They are healed. They cry out and God has mercy on them. Did they have faith? I guess. But it seems like an odd faith. It takes faith to pray, to ask God for anything. But why is it that they don’t return and rejoice? That is odd to me. They are healed and run off. You might think that when the Samaritan turns and runs they get the hint. But no, they are too blind, veiled by the law to see what has happened. And all they can do is hope to get back to the law, to society to be under the law.
We are lepers too. Jesus heals us. Our faith in him, apart from works of the law, justifies us, saves us, and heals us. But where do we go? Do we think God owes us something for being good boys and girls? Do we praise Him? Or do we return to the law? Or do we do as Jesus says, and go on our way?
Jesus tells the Samaritan to go on his way. What does that mean? Jesus knows the Samaritan has faith. Jesus knows the Samaritan will stay in the faith. He is the only one who knew enough to thank the guy who healed him.
But go on your way? It seems so dismissive. It seems so unlike what you expect to hear. I mean Jesus could ask this man for anything and the man would do it at this point. He knows whose feet he stares at. He knows this man is God. He knows this man is the only priest worth worrying about. And Jesus tells him go your way, your faith has made you well?
Why? I imagine the Samaritan returned home. I imagine he went back to a wife he missed and resumed being a husband. I imagine he picked his children up and gave them hugs. And that is what Jesus wants. He went back to his old occupation. His old job. And he couldn’t help but tell them about Jesus. They were bound to ask. No one gets healed of leprosy.
But go your own way. Not in a Fleetwood Mac sort of way, a sort of hedonistic make your own code sort of way. But go live life in thanks and praise to the Lord who has saved you from your leprosy. Enjoy life, enjoy family. Go your own way, because when you are a husband to your wife, a wife to your husband, when you are a mother and a father, and do an honest job, you serve God in ways unimaginable. You do the good works he has given you to do. Because you do it not under the law, but because it is what God has given you to enjoy as you have been forgiven in him. And when you sin show your self to The Priest who will cure your leprosy forgiving your sins.
Now the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, keep your minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.