Year C Proper 23 Luke 17:11-19

“Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”

What was it like to be a leper in Jesus day? We’ve all heard these stories many times, but do we fully appreciate the plight of those stricken with leprosy? Being a leper meant being worse than dead. One day you’re a happy person with friends, family, work, and then suddenly – you aren’t. You show the very first signs of this dread disease and everything you know and love is ripped away.

Lepers were considered evil and unclean. They were excluded from every part of community life. They could not live, worship, eat, walk, or talk among “normal” people. They had to stay at a distance from life and to survive, as best they could, on the leavings and the charity of others. The horrible progress of their disease was probably far from the worst thing they suffered. They had nothing, and no hope, yet they could – from forty paces away – watch the real world, and real life, a life they had once enjoyed, happen just outside of their reach.

Ten of these lepers meet Jesus. They stand at a distance from Him – as was required by the law – and shout for mercy. There were many traveling rabbis and healers in Jesus’ day, so the lepers had probably shouted the same thing to every passing rabbi, hustler, and holy man with a reputation for healing who had wandered within earshot. A simple prayer: “Jesus, master, have mercy on us.”

And it’s a good prayer, because Jesus granted them mercy. He just did. No reason is given or needed. Jesus heard their prayer and showed them mercy. He gave them their lives back, and then He told them to present themselves to the priests. This last act, to present themselves to the priests was more a medical act than a religious one. The priests were the ones who certified that the lepers were cured and could rejoin the world.

They had nothing to lose and everything to gain, so off they went toward the city and toward the priests. And as they went, their leprosy went away; they were cured. Jesus stood there and watched. He gave them back their lives, and he put no conditions on the gift. Then, He just stood there, and watched and waited. Nine of the ten just kept going.

We can’t possibly fully grasp what the lepers must have been feeling. One minute you’re an unclean, evil, outcast, and the next moment your life is given back to you. All you have to do is be certified “healed” by the priests, and then your friends, your family, your loved ones, your home and work, everything you thought was gone forever, is once again yours. No wonder, when Jesus said to show themselves to the priests, those lepers turned and headed for the city, going as fast as they could.

They weren’t ungrateful. There is no way anyone could have such a thing happen to them and not be grateful. Those nine who showed Jesus their backs were doubtless thrilled, ecstatic. It is easy to imagine them, happy, overcome with joy, and running just as fast as they could away from Jesus. The issue wasn’t gratitude. The issue wasn’t how they felt about Jesus or anything like that. The issue was that those who had received so much were running so hard in the wrong direction.

They were so full of what they had received, of their gift, that there was just no room for the Giver, the source of the gift. They weren’t ungrateful; they were just overcome with their desire to reunite with the world.

And that is our life, in a nutshell. What are we running toward? How often do we stop, or even slow down, long enough to pay some attention, not only to our gifts, not only to all we have and all we have to do, but also to the Giver, to the source of it all? As we plunge ahead, what are we leaving behind?

“Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”

Only one came back. Only one was actually drawn toward Jesus, and not away from him, by the wonderful gift. Only one! And this one alone received the fullness of what Jesus had to give.

And to the one who returned, Jesus said, “Rise up and go your way, your faith has made you well.”

All ten lepers were “cured” – the Greek verb is a medical term, and it means their disease went away. And all ten stayed cured, whether they came back or not – God gives freely, without conditions. But to the one who came back, to the one who saw what was going on the most clearly, to him and to him only something more was said. “your faith has made you well.” The Greek for “made you well” is a different word, a theological word; it means “being made whole,” or “being made complete.” It also means being saved. Go your way, Jesus told the man, your faith has made you not just cured, but whole, and saved.

All ten were healed, their lives returned to them, but Jesus had more to give than that. That’s why He watched and waited, that’s why coming back was so important – because Jesus had more to give. Only one was made whole, only one was fully made well. All ten were given back their lives; but only one was given the fullness of life.

The one who came back, the one who actually gave thanks, who actually changed the direction he was going and did something different, the one who focused not only on the gifts, but also on the giver, this man was a foreigner.

The one who made it back to Jesus didn’t fit in. He didn’t belong to the world as much as the others; he didn’t have quite as much to run to, or quite as much to gain. So he alone could see clearly, could see beyond the gift, could see beyond rushing back to his life in the world, and so could see the Lord. Everyone who belonged, all of the natives, ran the wrong direction.

We need to discover what it means to be a foreigner, to belong somewhere else, for our first loyalties to be other than where the world tells us they should be. We tend to fill our days running toward things, our work, our responsibilities, our friends and families, toward what we must do and what we want to do, and all of it is in this world and concerns worldly things. We have our lives, but unless we take the time to turn back, to seek the Lord, in service and in prayer, we do not have the fullness of life He brings us.

“Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” That’s a good prayer to know. It’s a good place to begin.

Let us pray:

Lord make speed to save us. Christ make haste to help us. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on us, and forgive us. Amen