Preaching
Ordinary Words, Extraordinary Deeds
Preaching The Miracles Of Jesus
Luke 17:11-19
Proper 23
Pentecost 21
Ordinary Time 28
Miracle Nine
The Lepers
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 he 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 prostrated himself 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 he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."
Reflections On The Text
Luke begins this passage reminding us that Jesus is on his "way to Jerusalem," where betrayal, suffering, and death await (cf. 9:21-22, 9:43-44, 17:31-33). Yet, even as he is deliberately moving toward his destiny in Jerusalem, Jesus continues his ministry of teaching and healing. In the sections before the present text, Jesus has shared with the disciples his perspectives on the necessity of forgiveness, the possibilities within even a little bit of faith, and the humility required of those who would be servants of God (17:1-10). Each of these sayings will influence the miracle story that follows.
Jesus comes close to a village in 17:11 and immediately encounters ten lepers. They are on the edge of the community. Required by law to live away from others, the lepers are literally marginalized and outcast (Numbers 5:2). Their uncleanness prohibits them from participating in the community's life and religion. They are outsiders in every sense. Even as they approach Jesus, the lepers keep their distance (17:12). Their status is clear to them -- and to everyone else. Yet, they are not reluctant to call out to Jesus for mercy. Somehow, they know, or at least sense, that he will respond to them and care for them, even when no one else will.
Here is another example in Luke's Gospel in which the author takes care to demonstrate the inclusiveness of Jesus' ministry (see also the reflections on the healing of the centurion's slave in Miracle Seven above). From his genealogy that goes back to Adam to his unique description of the criminal on the cross who turns to Jesus for forgiveness, Luke makes a comprehensive effort to show that what God has done in Jesus extends across all sorts of religious and social boundaries. Those cast out are now welcomed. Those who have been excluded are now included. Those who have been expelled from the community are now restored. Women are included (e.g., 7:10-17, 36-50); tax collectors are included (e.g., 5:30, 18:9-14); even Samaritans are included (10:25-37). This last group, the Samaritans, has particular impact for the present story as Jesus shows mercy on another undesirable class of people -- lepers.
The lepers call to Jesus and he "sees" them (17:14). He sees their plight, he sees their need, he sees beyond their disease. Jesus repeats the actions of the characters in the famous parable, unique to Luke, of the Good Samaritan.1 The priest and the Levite in that story both see the victim lying alongside the road. Yet they do not act. The Samaritan also sees the man; but, unlike the first two, the Samaritan has compassion on him. So it is with Jesus in this passage: he sees the lepers and has compassion on them. In showing them mercy as they call out to him, Jesus also embodies the teaching in the preceding passage, the necessity of extending forgiveness to those who ask (17:1-4).
The healing act is minimized in this story. Indeed, after seeing the lepers and hearing their request, Jesus' only words to them are a direction to show themselves to the priests. There is no indication that they are healed until after they leave Jesus' presence and begin to travel to the priests. It's on the road that they find themselves restored. The healing happens along the journey. The actual healing within the story is under-reported in favor of the grateful response made by one of the lepers. This one "sees" his healing and returns to Jesus and praises God and falls at Jesus' feet in gratitude. This is the action that matters the most in this story: the thankful response to grace. While others in Luke's Gospel prostrate themselves before Jesus to plead for mercy (5:12, 8:41), this healed leper falls at Jesus' feet in grateful worship. With the thankful leper kneeling before Jesus, Luke gives us one more detail about him: he is a Samaritan! Like his counterpart in the earlier parable (10:33-35), here is a Samaritan who gets it right, when so many others do not "see" what is going on. Once again, the readers of Luke's Gospel have to face a Samaritan hero as the net of the gospel is cast a little wider still.
Jesus' ensuing questions make clear the magnitude of what has happened. Ten were made clean, but only one has returned in praise and thanksgiving. Only the Samaritan, the foreigner, the only one with two strikes against him, expresses gratitude for his healing. We are left wondering about the other nine. What did they think happened to them? How did they understand the change they have experienced?
The thankful leper corresponds with the unworthy slaves that Jesus uses in the previous passage to illustrate the humility of discipleship (17:7-10). While in that example, the slaves rightly serve expecting no reward for just doing their duty, the Samaritan in this story demonstrates how to respond to a grace undeserved. In our discipleship we have no right to demand any more than what we have received already. God calls for obedience without the promise of tangible gain. Life is not any easier for those committed to the way of Jesus. Yet, God is merciful; and grace continues to surprise and delight. The leper's enthusiastic response models the gratitude that we would do well emulate.
The third element of the teaching section immediately prior to the healing of the lepers are the famous words about the power and possibility of faith even so small as a mustard seed. This word also finds expression in the miracle story. The grateful leper is told that his faith has made him well (17:9). All ten lepers have been healed; but the one who returned to worship Jesus is the one with faith, the one who has thus been made well. All have been healed; one has been made whole. The inclusive power of Jesus' love is reflected in the saving power of this one leper's faith.
Preaching Possibilities
This is a rich text for preaching, and there are many directions a sermon could go. Of course, a preacher cannot (and should not) try to go in all those directions in one sermon! Here are at least three possible homiletical roads to travel:
First, this passage presents a fine opportunity to preach on the inclusiveness of the gospel. Jesus simply practices a love without boundaries. That was scandalous then; it is scandalous now. This is the offense of the gospel: there is no category that Jesus has not shattered. However, you want to divide the world -- clean and unclean, Jew and Gentile, sinful and righteous, male and female, and on and on -- Jesus shows little regard for those definitions. Here there are lepers and at least one of them is a Samaritan, but, even with these "two strikes" they are not excluded from Jesus' saving work. This text is not an isolated event within Jesus' ministry, but rather it is just one more example of the love that cannot be contained by convention or assumption. Not even death can defeat it. If he will touch a leper, heal a leper, heal a Samaritan leper, is there anything Jesus will not do, anyone whom he will not love, any barrier that he cannot overcome?
Secondly, the healed leper's response to Jesus is a wonderful model for gratitude. He is overwhelmed by the grace that has made him whole, and the first thing he does is return to Jesus to express his thanks. A whole new life is ahead of him with health now restored; but, before he can walk any further into the suddenly promising future, he has to return to Jesus to express his thanks. In the story, the road back to Jesus, the road of gratitude, is traveled only by this one healed Samaritan leper. Only one out of ten lepers responds with thanksgiving. This meager ratio challenges the reader to assess her own measure of gratitude for the blessings received.
Thirdly, it is perhaps significant to note that the healing for the lepers happens on their journey. They are not cleansed in the presence of Jesus. Instead, "as the lepers went, they were made clean" (17:14b). This is not one of those stories where Jesus touches someone and he is immediately healed. These lepers are healed after they have seen Jesus, while they travel on the road that leads away from him, the road to which he himself points them (17:14a). Things seldom get better in a single moment. Pain rarely instantly vanishes. Problems are not instantaneously solved. Healing happens over time; healing happens on the journey.
Even when the one who is thankful returns to Jesus, he is sent away again. Jesus does not let the grateful leper cling too closely nor stay too long. Jesus sends him on his way (17:19). This is the rhythm of faith. We come to Jesus and we are sent by Jesus. We do not come to Jesus and stay; nor do we leave and never come back. We come and we go; we return and we go again. This pattern, this coming and going, matters. We come on Sunday to worship, but we don't stay in church. It's not what Jesus wants us to do. Instead, he directs us to go out there, to live our lives, to continue the journey. In the course of all of that, we will be blessed and sustained and even healed. When we look with the eyes of faith and recognize those blessings, how can we not return to worship God once again? Christian faith is about coming and going.
Our ticket for this journey is our baptism. In baptism we are marked as those who come to God and are sent by God and who return to God again in the rhythm of discipleship. In this coming and going, we have occasions to glorify God, express our faith, and demonstrate our thankfulness. Eucharist then is our nourishment for this journey. We come to the table to be fed, but we don't remain there. Instead, the bread and the cup give us sustenance to resume our travels in the world, following the path of the healed leper who acknowledges his debt to Jesus in worship, only to find there a commission to take his faith into the world.
____________
1. R. Alan Culpepper, "The Gospel of Luke: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections," New Interpreter's Bible, Vol. IX (Nashville: Abingdon, 1995), pp. 326-327.
Proper 23
Pentecost 21
Ordinary Time 28
Miracle Nine
The Lepers
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 he 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 prostrated himself 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 he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."
Reflections On The Text
Luke begins this passage reminding us that Jesus is on his "way to Jerusalem," where betrayal, suffering, and death await (cf. 9:21-22, 9:43-44, 17:31-33). Yet, even as he is deliberately moving toward his destiny in Jerusalem, Jesus continues his ministry of teaching and healing. In the sections before the present text, Jesus has shared with the disciples his perspectives on the necessity of forgiveness, the possibilities within even a little bit of faith, and the humility required of those who would be servants of God (17:1-10). Each of these sayings will influence the miracle story that follows.
Jesus comes close to a village in 17:11 and immediately encounters ten lepers. They are on the edge of the community. Required by law to live away from others, the lepers are literally marginalized and outcast (Numbers 5:2). Their uncleanness prohibits them from participating in the community's life and religion. They are outsiders in every sense. Even as they approach Jesus, the lepers keep their distance (17:12). Their status is clear to them -- and to everyone else. Yet, they are not reluctant to call out to Jesus for mercy. Somehow, they know, or at least sense, that he will respond to them and care for them, even when no one else will.
Here is another example in Luke's Gospel in which the author takes care to demonstrate the inclusiveness of Jesus' ministry (see also the reflections on the healing of the centurion's slave in Miracle Seven above). From his genealogy that goes back to Adam to his unique description of the criminal on the cross who turns to Jesus for forgiveness, Luke makes a comprehensive effort to show that what God has done in Jesus extends across all sorts of religious and social boundaries. Those cast out are now welcomed. Those who have been excluded are now included. Those who have been expelled from the community are now restored. Women are included (e.g., 7:10-17, 36-50); tax collectors are included (e.g., 5:30, 18:9-14); even Samaritans are included (10:25-37). This last group, the Samaritans, has particular impact for the present story as Jesus shows mercy on another undesirable class of people -- lepers.
The lepers call to Jesus and he "sees" them (17:14). He sees their plight, he sees their need, he sees beyond their disease. Jesus repeats the actions of the characters in the famous parable, unique to Luke, of the Good Samaritan.1 The priest and the Levite in that story both see the victim lying alongside the road. Yet they do not act. The Samaritan also sees the man; but, unlike the first two, the Samaritan has compassion on him. So it is with Jesus in this passage: he sees the lepers and has compassion on them. In showing them mercy as they call out to him, Jesus also embodies the teaching in the preceding passage, the necessity of extending forgiveness to those who ask (17:1-4).
The healing act is minimized in this story. Indeed, after seeing the lepers and hearing their request, Jesus' only words to them are a direction to show themselves to the priests. There is no indication that they are healed until after they leave Jesus' presence and begin to travel to the priests. It's on the road that they find themselves restored. The healing happens along the journey. The actual healing within the story is under-reported in favor of the grateful response made by one of the lepers. This one "sees" his healing and returns to Jesus and praises God and falls at Jesus' feet in gratitude. This is the action that matters the most in this story: the thankful response to grace. While others in Luke's Gospel prostrate themselves before Jesus to plead for mercy (5:12, 8:41), this healed leper falls at Jesus' feet in grateful worship. With the thankful leper kneeling before Jesus, Luke gives us one more detail about him: he is a Samaritan! Like his counterpart in the earlier parable (10:33-35), here is a Samaritan who gets it right, when so many others do not "see" what is going on. Once again, the readers of Luke's Gospel have to face a Samaritan hero as the net of the gospel is cast a little wider still.
Jesus' ensuing questions make clear the magnitude of what has happened. Ten were made clean, but only one has returned in praise and thanksgiving. Only the Samaritan, the foreigner, the only one with two strikes against him, expresses gratitude for his healing. We are left wondering about the other nine. What did they think happened to them? How did they understand the change they have experienced?
The thankful leper corresponds with the unworthy slaves that Jesus uses in the previous passage to illustrate the humility of discipleship (17:7-10). While in that example, the slaves rightly serve expecting no reward for just doing their duty, the Samaritan in this story demonstrates how to respond to a grace undeserved. In our discipleship we have no right to demand any more than what we have received already. God calls for obedience without the promise of tangible gain. Life is not any easier for those committed to the way of Jesus. Yet, God is merciful; and grace continues to surprise and delight. The leper's enthusiastic response models the gratitude that we would do well emulate.
The third element of the teaching section immediately prior to the healing of the lepers are the famous words about the power and possibility of faith even so small as a mustard seed. This word also finds expression in the miracle story. The grateful leper is told that his faith has made him well (17:9). All ten lepers have been healed; but the one who returned to worship Jesus is the one with faith, the one who has thus been made well. All have been healed; one has been made whole. The inclusive power of Jesus' love is reflected in the saving power of this one leper's faith.
Preaching Possibilities
This is a rich text for preaching, and there are many directions a sermon could go. Of course, a preacher cannot (and should not) try to go in all those directions in one sermon! Here are at least three possible homiletical roads to travel:
First, this passage presents a fine opportunity to preach on the inclusiveness of the gospel. Jesus simply practices a love without boundaries. That was scandalous then; it is scandalous now. This is the offense of the gospel: there is no category that Jesus has not shattered. However, you want to divide the world -- clean and unclean, Jew and Gentile, sinful and righteous, male and female, and on and on -- Jesus shows little regard for those definitions. Here there are lepers and at least one of them is a Samaritan, but, even with these "two strikes" they are not excluded from Jesus' saving work. This text is not an isolated event within Jesus' ministry, but rather it is just one more example of the love that cannot be contained by convention or assumption. Not even death can defeat it. If he will touch a leper, heal a leper, heal a Samaritan leper, is there anything Jesus will not do, anyone whom he will not love, any barrier that he cannot overcome?
Secondly, the healed leper's response to Jesus is a wonderful model for gratitude. He is overwhelmed by the grace that has made him whole, and the first thing he does is return to Jesus to express his thanks. A whole new life is ahead of him with health now restored; but, before he can walk any further into the suddenly promising future, he has to return to Jesus to express his thanks. In the story, the road back to Jesus, the road of gratitude, is traveled only by this one healed Samaritan leper. Only one out of ten lepers responds with thanksgiving. This meager ratio challenges the reader to assess her own measure of gratitude for the blessings received.
Thirdly, it is perhaps significant to note that the healing for the lepers happens on their journey. They are not cleansed in the presence of Jesus. Instead, "as the lepers went, they were made clean" (17:14b). This is not one of those stories where Jesus touches someone and he is immediately healed. These lepers are healed after they have seen Jesus, while they travel on the road that leads away from him, the road to which he himself points them (17:14a). Things seldom get better in a single moment. Pain rarely instantly vanishes. Problems are not instantaneously solved. Healing happens over time; healing happens on the journey.
Even when the one who is thankful returns to Jesus, he is sent away again. Jesus does not let the grateful leper cling too closely nor stay too long. Jesus sends him on his way (17:19). This is the rhythm of faith. We come to Jesus and we are sent by Jesus. We do not come to Jesus and stay; nor do we leave and never come back. We come and we go; we return and we go again. This pattern, this coming and going, matters. We come on Sunday to worship, but we don't stay in church. It's not what Jesus wants us to do. Instead, he directs us to go out there, to live our lives, to continue the journey. In the course of all of that, we will be blessed and sustained and even healed. When we look with the eyes of faith and recognize those blessings, how can we not return to worship God once again? Christian faith is about coming and going.
Our ticket for this journey is our baptism. In baptism we are marked as those who come to God and are sent by God and who return to God again in the rhythm of discipleship. In this coming and going, we have occasions to glorify God, express our faith, and demonstrate our thankfulness. Eucharist then is our nourishment for this journey. We come to the table to be fed, but we don't remain there. Instead, the bread and the cup give us sustenance to resume our travels in the world, following the path of the healed leper who acknowledges his debt to Jesus in worship, only to find there a commission to take his faith into the world.
____________
1. R. Alan Culpepper, "The Gospel of Luke: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections," New Interpreter's Bible, Vol. IX (Nashville: Abingdon, 1995), pp. 326-327.
