Proper 23
Preaching
Preaching Luke's Gospel
A Narrative Approach
This week's familiar story of the ten lepers begins with a travel marker. We hear that this story took place "on the way to Jeru-salem...." We are reminded that this material is all part of the Travel Narrative which began in 9:51 with the words: "he set his face to go to Jerusalem." Other travel markers occur in 13:22, 18:31, and 19:11. The Travel Narrative ends in 19:27. In 19:28 we are informed that travel time is over: "Jesus went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem."
The setting for this story is the land between Samaria and Galilee. Ten lepers met Jesus. "Have mercy upon us," they cried. We expect Jesus to speak a word or effect a touch of healing. Jesus does not do so. His word seems to be only a word of direction: "Go and show yourselves to the priests." The ten lepers headed off for the priest and as they went they were cleansed.
Jesus' command to go to the priests comes right out of the pages of Jewish law. Leviticus 14 details the instruction for the law of the leper on the day of cleansing. It was the task of the priests to pronounce the leper clean. This announcement was necessary in order to restore the leper to the community from which he/she had been isolated.
We assume that the nine lepers, at least, did follow the law. They went to the priests as they had been directed. Perhaps they knew of the right of the priest to pronounce them clean. Jesus' word, therefore, must have filled them with great joy. There was only one good reason to go to the priests. The priests would certify their healing and cleanness. Jesus' word was more than a word of direction. In sending them off to the priests he was, in effect, announcing their healing.
This author, in his youth, once preached a Thanksgiving Day sermon making use of this text. The theme was "Where are the nine?" Only one leper returned to give God thanks. Where are the nine? And where are the nine today? So the sermon went. There is nothing in this text, however, that suggests that the nine were not thankful. They went to the priests. They did their religious duty. Surely they were thankful. But one of them recognized that Jesus was the source of healing. He returned to Jesus in order to give thanks and praise to God. And then the shocking line: he was a Samaritan. "Get up and go on your way," Jesus said to the Samaritan who had fallen to his knees, "your faith has made you well." As this story defines it, faith is the recognition of the One who has made us well. Faith returns to Jesus and accepts, praises, and gives thanks for what the Savior has done.
In his narrative commentary on Luke, Robert Tannehill identifies several stories in Luke as "quest" stories. Quest stories, says Tannehill,
... attack stereotypes and prejudices by presenting a series of remarkable individuals who combine characteristics which seem incompatible according to the stereotypes: gratitude and Samaritan, great love and sinful woman (7:36-50), outstanding faith and Gentile (7:2-10).1
These Quest stories, according to Tannehill, are about people in quest of help from Jesus. In each of the stories Jesus effects a dramatic reversal of fortune. We remember the reversal theme from Mary's Magnificat. It runs throughout Luke's Gospel. Ac-cording to Tannehill these Quest stories almost always portray Jesus reversing the fortune of oppressed and excluded persons. Jesus speaks his powerful word and there is a reversal in the lives of those who are turned around. These stories also tell us of the faith of the one who has made the Quest. Often this faith is exemplified in the very fact that they overcome great obstacles just to fulfill their Quest and come to Jesus.
The first story that Tannehill identifies as a Quest story is in 5:17-26. Friends of a paralytic bring him to Jesus for cure. His fortunes are reversed. A second Quest story is the story of the centurion who had a slave who was at the point of death. The centurion understood the power of a word. He believed that Jesus' word had the power to reverse the fortunes of his slave. Jesus saw a faith in the centurion that he did not see even in Israel. A third Quest story is the story of the sinful woman in 7:36-50. Tannehill cites the story of the ten lepers as a story in the Quest category. In 18:18-23 we have the story of the Quest of the rich ruler. This is a different kind of Quest story in that the ruler has everything. He is not an oppressed or excluded person. His fortunes are also reversed, however. "God has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty" (Luke 1:53). Another Quest story is the story of Zacchaeus (19:1-10). Finally, Tannehill puts the thief on the cross in the category of a Quest story (23:39-43). He came to Jesus in quest of life itself. And what a reversal he experienced! "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise."
Homiletical Directions
We have said nothing so far about the Samaritan theme that is present in this week's text. We outlined this theme in Chapter 21 when we discussed the story of the "Good Samaritan." In Chapter 21 we proposed a sermon on the graciousness of God's love for the outcast and oppressed, for us!
The Samaritan stories (see Chapter 21) can also be stitched together as a mission sermon. Put together these stories about the outcast Samaritans which climax in the "Samaritan Pentecost" as told in Acts 8:4-17. These stories are a challenge to us as we recognize the outcast ("Samaritan") people in our community and in our world. These persons are our mission field. Jesus brought salvation for the outcast, oppressed, and excluded. The mission challenge is before us.
Another possibility for stitching narratives together would be to work with the stories we have identified as Quest stories. You can't tell them all, but you can tell three or four of them. Tell those that you choose as stories of people who come to Jesus. Tell them as stories in which oppressed and excluded people come to Jesus. Tell them as stories full of the surprises that occur when people encounter Jesus: a centurion is commended for great faith; a Samaritan is commended for giving praise to Jesus; a dying thief receives the gift of eternal life, and so forth. Tell these stories as stories which demonstrate the kinds of reversals that happen when people on a Quest encounter Jesus Christ. Jesus acts. Jesus speaks and people's lives are turned around. This is a great series of stories!
This sermon could close with an acknowledgment that people in this church today are also people on a Quest. The fact that they are in your audience indicates that they believe Jesus has something to do with their Quest. Jesus has a word for Questers. "Come to me," Jesus says, "whoever you are, whatever your background, however excluded you may have felt in your life. Come to me. I have a word for you. I heal the sick. I welcome the outcast. I give eternal life to people who may be breathing their last worldly breath. I will to turn your life around. To all who believe in me I have this simple word: 'Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.' " Amen.
____________
1.aRobert C. Tannehill, The Narrative Unity of Luke-Acts, Volume One (Minne-apolis: Fortress Press, 1986), p. 119.
The setting for this story is the land between Samaria and Galilee. Ten lepers met Jesus. "Have mercy upon us," they cried. We expect Jesus to speak a word or effect a touch of healing. Jesus does not do so. His word seems to be only a word of direction: "Go and show yourselves to the priests." The ten lepers headed off for the priest and as they went they were cleansed.
Jesus' command to go to the priests comes right out of the pages of Jewish law. Leviticus 14 details the instruction for the law of the leper on the day of cleansing. It was the task of the priests to pronounce the leper clean. This announcement was necessary in order to restore the leper to the community from which he/she had been isolated.
We assume that the nine lepers, at least, did follow the law. They went to the priests as they had been directed. Perhaps they knew of the right of the priest to pronounce them clean. Jesus' word, therefore, must have filled them with great joy. There was only one good reason to go to the priests. The priests would certify their healing and cleanness. Jesus' word was more than a word of direction. In sending them off to the priests he was, in effect, announcing their healing.
This author, in his youth, once preached a Thanksgiving Day sermon making use of this text. The theme was "Where are the nine?" Only one leper returned to give God thanks. Where are the nine? And where are the nine today? So the sermon went. There is nothing in this text, however, that suggests that the nine were not thankful. They went to the priests. They did their religious duty. Surely they were thankful. But one of them recognized that Jesus was the source of healing. He returned to Jesus in order to give thanks and praise to God. And then the shocking line: he was a Samaritan. "Get up and go on your way," Jesus said to the Samaritan who had fallen to his knees, "your faith has made you well." As this story defines it, faith is the recognition of the One who has made us well. Faith returns to Jesus and accepts, praises, and gives thanks for what the Savior has done.
In his narrative commentary on Luke, Robert Tannehill identifies several stories in Luke as "quest" stories. Quest stories, says Tannehill,
... attack stereotypes and prejudices by presenting a series of remarkable individuals who combine characteristics which seem incompatible according to the stereotypes: gratitude and Samaritan, great love and sinful woman (7:36-50), outstanding faith and Gentile (7:2-10).1
These Quest stories, according to Tannehill, are about people in quest of help from Jesus. In each of the stories Jesus effects a dramatic reversal of fortune. We remember the reversal theme from Mary's Magnificat. It runs throughout Luke's Gospel. Ac-cording to Tannehill these Quest stories almost always portray Jesus reversing the fortune of oppressed and excluded persons. Jesus speaks his powerful word and there is a reversal in the lives of those who are turned around. These stories also tell us of the faith of the one who has made the Quest. Often this faith is exemplified in the very fact that they overcome great obstacles just to fulfill their Quest and come to Jesus.
The first story that Tannehill identifies as a Quest story is in 5:17-26. Friends of a paralytic bring him to Jesus for cure. His fortunes are reversed. A second Quest story is the story of the centurion who had a slave who was at the point of death. The centurion understood the power of a word. He believed that Jesus' word had the power to reverse the fortunes of his slave. Jesus saw a faith in the centurion that he did not see even in Israel. A third Quest story is the story of the sinful woman in 7:36-50. Tannehill cites the story of the ten lepers as a story in the Quest category. In 18:18-23 we have the story of the Quest of the rich ruler. This is a different kind of Quest story in that the ruler has everything. He is not an oppressed or excluded person. His fortunes are also reversed, however. "God has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty" (Luke 1:53). Another Quest story is the story of Zacchaeus (19:1-10). Finally, Tannehill puts the thief on the cross in the category of a Quest story (23:39-43). He came to Jesus in quest of life itself. And what a reversal he experienced! "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise."
Homiletical Directions
We have said nothing so far about the Samaritan theme that is present in this week's text. We outlined this theme in Chapter 21 when we discussed the story of the "Good Samaritan." In Chapter 21 we proposed a sermon on the graciousness of God's love for the outcast and oppressed, for us!
The Samaritan stories (see Chapter 21) can also be stitched together as a mission sermon. Put together these stories about the outcast Samaritans which climax in the "Samaritan Pentecost" as told in Acts 8:4-17. These stories are a challenge to us as we recognize the outcast ("Samaritan") people in our community and in our world. These persons are our mission field. Jesus brought salvation for the outcast, oppressed, and excluded. The mission challenge is before us.
Another possibility for stitching narratives together would be to work with the stories we have identified as Quest stories. You can't tell them all, but you can tell three or four of them. Tell those that you choose as stories of people who come to Jesus. Tell them as stories in which oppressed and excluded people come to Jesus. Tell them as stories full of the surprises that occur when people encounter Jesus: a centurion is commended for great faith; a Samaritan is commended for giving praise to Jesus; a dying thief receives the gift of eternal life, and so forth. Tell these stories as stories which demonstrate the kinds of reversals that happen when people on a Quest encounter Jesus Christ. Jesus acts. Jesus speaks and people's lives are turned around. This is a great series of stories!
This sermon could close with an acknowledgment that people in this church today are also people on a Quest. The fact that they are in your audience indicates that they believe Jesus has something to do with their Quest. Jesus has a word for Questers. "Come to me," Jesus says, "whoever you are, whatever your background, however excluded you may have felt in your life. Come to me. I have a word for you. I heal the sick. I welcome the outcast. I give eternal life to people who may be breathing their last worldly breath. I will to turn your life around. To all who believe in me I have this simple word: 'Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.' " Amen.
____________
1.aRobert C. Tannehill, The Narrative Unity of Luke-Acts, Volume One (Minne-apolis: Fortress Press, 1986), p. 119.
