Mercy!

Robert E. Hall
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

October 14, 2007

Text: Luke 17: 11-19

THE SCENE

Picture the scene. Jesus, accompanied by his disciples, enters a small settlement. Ten people approach them, but keep some distance away. They are in tattered clothing; they have long scraggly, dirty hair. They have sores on their skin. Some are crippled. They are yelling, loudly, “Unclean, Unclean!” as they cover their upper lips. Then, as with one voice, they scream out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”

The ten (men, women, both?) are “lepers,” people with one of a number of diseases which went under this description. What is now known as Hansens disease (or Leprosy) is included.
Other diseases or conditions under the category of leprosy in Jesus’ time were dermatitis, leocoderma, ringworm, eczema and psoriasis. In other words, people with a variety of skin conditions, some of which could cause paralysis and permanent deformities. (See cdc.gov for more detailed information)

Lepers were quarantined, made to live on the outskirts of cities. Their existence was miserable and they were at the mercy of people’s charity. They certainly could not worship with others. They were considered dangerous to the general population. Coupled with their physical illness was the belief that they were sinners who were being punished for sins they had committed.

Though trivial by comparison, we can relate to the lives of lepers in small ways. Have you ever been in a clinic waiting room waiting for an X-Ray? There you are, with complete strangers, from all walks of life and all economic brackets, but you are all subsumed under the category of “patient.” You may be from many religions or none, many nationalities, decent and caring or indifferent to others. But you are, for a brief time, all in the same boat.

In the early days of the discovery of Aids/HIV, patients were regarded much as lepers were in Jesus’ day. There is something in all of us that recoils in fear from people who are sick of any disease. We may catch what they have. We become aware of our vulnerability and our mortality.

This fear may be a holdover human response from ancient times, when to isolate sick people was about all they could do to keep a communicable disease----or something feared to be communicable--- from spreading. In days before modern scientific hygiene and medicine and prescriptions such as antibiotics, about all one could do was isolate patients when in doubt.

So lepers were desperate people. Occasionally, one of them would get well----perhaps from one of the less serious diseases. They could be examined by a priest, go through elaborate ritual and physical cleansing and a period of probation, and then be welcomed back into the community. (See Leviticus 13 and 14 for the laws related to lepers and more details of the symptoms than you could ever desire.) All they could hope for was a miracle.

THE PLEA

 So they called out to Jesus, one known to be a healer, for mercy, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”

Jesus sees them and hears them. This is the first act of grace in the story. When I see someone looking like a leper, I want to pretend they are not there----drive on by, or change the channel on the TV! Jesus doesn’t. He hears and sees---and responds.  Earlier, in another place, Jesus had touched a leper who came to him; the report of his healing went everywhere. (See 5:12-16) Even among lepers, perhaps there is grapevine.

Jesus tells them to go and show themselves to the priests.

It is a strange command. The priests would not see them unless they were healed. And yet they went. Was it their faith in Jesus that caused them to go? Or did they think, “What have we got to lose?”

The relationship between a physician and a patient is a fiduciary relationship. The doctor wants us to come to him or her when are sick or need a check-up. And the doctor expects us to do what he or she tells us to do. The lepers see in Jesus one they can trust; they have come to ask for help; and they do what Jesus says to do.

Faith is sometimes shown by our willingness to move from where we are to where God commands us to be, even when we do not know for sure what is next. Carl Michaelson, the late theologian of Drew University, wrote that “in the Port of Genoa, in Italy, there is an 8 ton statue of the Lord with arms outstretched. It is below the surface of the water. No one sees it. What does this mean? We must learn to throw ourselves upon the mercies of God as sailors throw themselves upon the mercy of the seas. That is faith.” (“Faith Must be Risked,” in The Witness of Radical Faith, 1974)  

Faith is not blind. It is based on some news, some report, a little confidence. But faith is, finally, a risk. The lepers believe enough in Jesus to begin the journey to wholeness.

THE CURE                

As they go, they are “made clean.” God hears their cries for help.

They are on their way to a new future. We do not know what happens when they get to the priest and begin their re-entry. Nothing is here about their joy or their surprise. But one of the lepers, when he saw that he was healed, turned around and began praising God “with a loud voice.” And he came to Jesus, knelt at his feet and thanked him.
About the only time we get on our knees anymore is at the altar rail, as we are able. We hold out our hands and receive food. Did you ever think about how unusual that is? There is no charge, no bill. There is no rank: we are, whether children or adults, leaders or followers, we are all on the same plane. No first-class and coach, all first class.
Father Bob Hedges, retired Episcopal priest and close friend from San Angelo, told me about an ordination service he attended in Coleman, Texas. The young man, at the point when he approached the altar-table, knelt fully flat on the floor of the church before his ordination. When I think of the returning leper, prostrate before Jesus in gratitude, this image comes into mind.

Praise moments, moments of joyful adoration and deep gratitude, may be missing elements in our worship and prayer-life. Will Willimon wrote that “praise is an expression of abundance rather than need. A time when we are able to say with the psalmist, ‘my cup runneth over.’” “Joy is like that. It is not a warm, rosy feeling we look up to---to do so would be artificial, forced. Joy, holy joy, is reflexive….The beginnings of praise are present in our lives….:The “Ah!” that arises from our lips when a skyrocket bursts in a July evening sky, the hush that comes over us when we stand on the summit and look across a hazy, blue mountain valley, the tear that comes to our eyes when we hold our child for the first time in our arms.” In the old liturgy of Holy Communion, the minister would say “Lift up your hearts,” and the people would respond, “It is meet and right so to do.” “Meet is the old way of saying it is fitting…..You may have experience in worship such unfeigned joy, ta time “when [you]have been swept up into ‘wonder, love and praise,’ and [you] know that, no matter where [you] go from here or whatever happens to [you] after this moment, [you] are all right.” (With Glad and Generous Hearts, 1986)

DOUBLE HEALING

Then we are shocked to learn that the one who returned was a Samaritan?

We have heard “Samaritan” so often with the word “Good” that this designation is almost ruined for us. Samaritans were not considered good in Jesus’ day. Here’s why. When the Jews in exile were sent back home from Babylon after 70 years, they brought many of the Babylonian gods back with them. The Bible says that they “feared the Lord but also served their own gods, after the manner of the nation among whom they had been carried away….They feared the Lord, but they also served graven images….” (See Second Kings 17: 24-28) In other words, their religion was a mish-mash, they worshipped at Mt Gerizim, not on Mt Zion, and they had intermarried with Gentiles. They were known as those who were “impure from the cradle.” (Jesus’ disciples, traveling with Jesus through Samaria, want Jesus to call down fire to destroy the Samaritans because they weren’t hospitable to them when they passed through one of their villages! See Luke 9:56)
You never can tell who is going to “get” the message and identity of Jesus. “Whosoever will….” as John Wesley said. Who knows which ones are going to be found by God through Jesus? And if God calls them, who are we to reject them?In receiving the one leper kneeling before him, the one who can’t thank him enough, Jesus asks three questions (even if we don’t know to whom he is talking):
Were not ten cleansed?
Where are the nine?
Was none of them found to give praise to God except this foreigner?
Jesus seems a little picky here. After all, the nine were only doing what Jesus told them to do. There may be many good reasons for their absence.
Maybe they thought they would see Jesus later.
Maybe they were waiting to see if the cure was going to last.
Maybe they thought, “I never had leprosy in the first place.”
Maybe they gave glory to the priests.
Maybe they thought, ‘I was already much improved.’
Any rabbi could’ve done it.
(From Leonard Sweet, Source lost)

Two perspectives here are possible. The other lepers were, presumably, Jewish, people of Jesus’ own people. Of all people, they should be able to see that something greater than a cure was being done. This was the very God of the covenant introducing a new day, a new reign of God’s power and grace on the earth; this was a sign of the coming kingdom.
And, “the absence of the ability to be grateful reveals a self-centeredness or an attitude of ‘I deserve more than I ever get.’” (Alan Culpepper, New Interpreters Bible Commentary)

UNFEIGNED PRAISE
It is quite often the one who has come in from the cold--- like the Samaritan leper, who has the most prejudice and rejection to overcome---who is the most overcome with joy and praise. You will recognize them, as Fred Craddock has said, as the ones who come at prayer, worship, study and service with unfeigned joy and, such as these:
“The stranger who sings heartily the hymn we’ve left to the choir.
The one who expresses gratitude for blessings we had not noticed.
The one who listens attentively to sermons we think we have already heard.
The one who gets excited about our old Bible.
The one who gets actively involved in acts of service to which we send small donations.”
(Luke, the Interpretation Commentary)
In some very important ways, we must always be beginners at prayer and worship. Or, as Jesus said, we must be like children to enter the kingdom--- put off our calculating mind-set and simply be in worship instead of working at it so hard.

Jesus’ last words are surprising, too. He says, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.” The leper comes back, not to profess his faith in Jesus, but to praise God and thank Jesus. And yet, in his gratitude, Jesus recognizes an expression of saving faith. (The word used here for “well” is the same word that Jesus uses for “being saved.”) This leper is not only cleansed, he is brought into a lasting relationship with God through Jesus. His joy is the joy of a homecoming, not only to his community of faith, but to his Creator.

What is God calling us to do in response to this story?  We can cultivate thankful hearts. We may choose to slide across life without being awake to God’s presence and power, concentrating instead on all our worries, fears, grudges and lacks.  But a daily inventory of all with which we are being blessed may instill in us an awareness of God’s joy. Our daily inventory is our “turning back” to praise and give thanks to Jesus. You may want to list 10 good things, people or events that have been signs of God’s saving and healing power for you or your family or your community. (Martin Luther said that “Worship is the tenth leper turning back.”)

Though most of us are not in the dire circumstances of first-century lepers, we have our own hang-ups and illnesses, our own battles to fight, sometimes against great odds. We can, as many have, adopt the prayer of the lepers, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on me/us!” We are all supplicants in the final analysis.

And, as those committed to following Jesus, we can pray on behalf of all of those who, because of their condition or circumstance, are regarded as cast-offs in our society, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on them!” And, we can accompany our prayers, with action, with movement: we can offer to do our little or big jobs of relieving their suffering and offering community, in the name and in the spirit of Jesus, with the gentleness of our Lord, the One who saw, listened and responded to them in their need.

I want to believe that all ten lepers had names. I would like to think that, from henceforth, they were not identified by their disease, but known as ones created in God’s image and ones for whom Christ died and was raised. Include yourself in this naming; rejoice and give thanks “with glad and generous hearts.”

Let us pray.
“Thou that hast given so much to me,
Give one thing more---a grateful heart;
Not thankful when it pleaseth me,
As if thy blessings had spare days,
But such a heart whose pulse may be
                                     Thy praise.”
(George Herbert)