Luke 17:11-19
June 30
Lauren J. McFeaters
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Desperation leads us to do many things.
Our lepers live in desperation; they breath it, look like it; smell of it.
And we can understand it. Leprosy is a horrific disease affecting the skin and nerves that causes severe disfigurement where tissue rots, and sensation in hands and feet ends, lungs are scared, and eyes are blinded. Leprosy is a disease of stench and desperation.
Here’s what the Book of Leviticus says about lepers:
“They shall wear torn clothes and
let the hair of their head hang loose,
they shall cover their lips and cry,
‘Unclean, unclean.’
They shall remain unclean
as long as they have the disease;
and shall dwell alone in a habitation outside the camp. [ii]
So by the laws of Leviticus, those with leprosy are completely, utterly, separated from family and work and synagogue. Those suffering from leprosy are forced to live as those who mourn – except the death they mourn is their own.[iii] All they can do is to travel down the road and not come back again.
If you travel down the road in Elgin, Illinois, just off the Highway 90, you come to the headquarters of the Church of the Brethren. It’s tucked in a beautifully wooded area close to the highways’ exit and within the complex of its administrative offices sits a chapel.
I visited this chapel years ago and without exaggerating – it was astonishing, for in the middle of a contemporary denominational headquarters, is a chapel of ancient stone; dark and cool; silent and welcoming; holy and simple. Standing at the entrance of this chapel is like being transported into another time; for it’s a small, rustic, rough-hewn sanctuary our ancestors would have worshipped in.
As you look up front toward the pulpit, you are immediately drawn to the small squares of beautiful stained-glass windows, set into the stone. Being about 1 foot by 1 foot, and settled back into the stone about 1 foot, the colorful glass is thick and chunky; it catches the light and holds onto it.
You can’t help but be drawn in, to walk forward down the center isle; and that’s when the extraordinary happens; when you become aware of all the other small windows that come into view, beside you, above you, surrounding you. Unless you’re standing at a particular angle, the windows and symbols are hidden from view, but once you step farther into the sanctuary – the windows are revealed; the symbols are discovered. Each individual window holds a Christian symbol: fish and loaf; Bible and cup.
I have rarely seen anything so thoughtfully designed for the glory of God. The gifts of God, for the people of God were everywhere. The wheat and cross, the boat and net. A holy place, tucked between a freeway and the woods, where once you step in, something comes into view that was not there before.
So, it was with the lepers. As Jesus steps forward into their village, something comes into view that wasn’t there before. The lepers, in all their desperation, and keeping a distance, call out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
Not keeping his distance, Jesus gets close that when:
- They cry for mercy – he restores their sight.
- They wheeze out a whimper – he gives them their breath.
- They sob for compassion; he sews their flesh back together.
- They weep for comfort; he takes their stench and bathes them.
- All by these words: “Go and show yourselves to the priests.”
- That’s it. Seven words: “Go and show yourselves to the priests.”
And down the road they go on legs that can walk, and spines that can carry, and fingers that can feel. But. But then something comes into view that wasn’t there before: one of them turns around and comes back again. One of them, One out of ten – when they feels their fingers, takes a deep breath, sees their hands, comes back, celebrating God with an unimpeded voice, falls on their face to the dirt and sings the sweetest, simplest gratitude that ever was: “Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.”
What compelled this sole Samaritan to discover what the others did not? Here is a person of the wrong race, wrong religion, wrong worship, in the wrong place. The major point of contention between Jews and Samaritans was the proper place for the worship of God: for the Jews, Jerusalem in Judea; for the Samaritans, Mount Gerizim in Samaria.
The nine Jews make a B-line for Jerusalem.
- Only the Samaritan relocates worship in the presence of Jesus – the restorer of life.
- Only one recognizes that the place to worship God is at the feet of Jesus of Nazareth.[iv]
- Only one returns for the doxology: Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
“But weren’t there ten? I’m sure there were ten. I thought I had counted ten,”
Jesus says, sounding a little playful.
“Where are the nine?”
Well, it’s perfectly obvious where the nine are – the nine are doing what Jesus told them to do. They are literalists – God love them; they are doing their duty as commanded, found their cleansing on the road, and seem to think that staying on the road is the just the thing. Like Forrest Gump with a football, they have scored a touchdown, crossed the goal, and go right on running, clear out of the stadium, where the celebration happens without them.[v]
Barbara Brown Taylor says that the question is not really “Where are the nine?” but “Where is the tenth?” “Where is the one who followed their heart instead of their instructions?” [vi]
Jesus loves it when we make our way down the road and turn back again; when our hearts break into praise and we fall with abandon into song.
- We cry out in desperation; Jesus leads us to one another and gives us a church.
- We spin ourselves into anxious, quivering beings; Jesus is the lamp at our feet and illuminates our hope and helps us to breathe.
- We feel trapped in bodies that betray us; Jesus hears our weeping, claims us as his own, and never, ever, relinquishes us.
- We treat others as invisible; Jesus sends something into view, wakes us up, gives us eyes to see and hands to right the wrong.
- We treat ourselves as dead; act in ways that deny our humanity; Jesus calls us back upon the road for a new beginning:[vii]
- It’s a cleansing, so therapeutic, that it gave ten lepers the means to be restored to their lives, homes, families, Temple.
Do you think Jesus is repulsed by your desperation?
It’s not so.
Do you think our God is repelled by your shame?
Think again.
When it’s too dark to see, our Lord, hears our pleas for “Mercy,” and something comes into view that wasn’t there before – like stained glass tucked into a holy place.
And it’s us – finally able to see the Healer of our Every Ill. And we turn around, fall at the feet of our Savior with our faces in the dirt –
thanking and praising, that we belong to him, and he to us.
Thanks be to the God of the Lepers.
ENDNOTES
[i] Luke 17:11-19 NRSV On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When Jesus saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He bowed down at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then Jesus said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”
[ii] Leviticus 13:45-46.
[iii] Leviticus 13:45-46.
[iv] Dennis Hamm. What the Samaritan Leper Sees, CBQ 56, 1994, pp. 273-287.
[v] Paul D. Duke. “Down the Road and Back.” The Christian Century, September 27, 1995.
[vi] As quoted by Paul D. Duke.
[vii] Dennis Hamm.