10/10/04

What About the Other Nine?

Psalm 66:1-12
2 Timothy 2:8-15
Luke 17:11-19

The story of Jesus and the ten lepers should be a familiar one. It comes up every three years in the lectionary, and sometimes is used on Thanksgiving Sunday as a lesson on giving thanks. What do we know about the disease of leprosy - way back then and today? Leprosy and related words are mentioned over 60 times in the Bible, mostly in the 13th Chapter of the Old Testament book of Leviticus, which talks about leprosy and other similar skin diseases that might be contagious, and what to do about them. We also know that having leprosy in Bible times was about the worst kind of human existence possible. Lepers, people who had the disease, were banished from the towns and made to live off by themselves. The only ones allowed to come in contact with them were the priests, and kind of like public health officials, they were charged with inspecting their sores, and if possible, treating their terrible disease.

Most people wanted nothing to do with lepers then, and this is still true today. Though in our country there are only a few cases of Hansen's Disease (what leprosy is called today), about a million people in over 90 countries around the world are still afflicted with the disease. Some of the symptoms of leprosy are pigmented skin lesions, nerve damage, and if not treated, gross disfigurement, including the loss of fingers, toes, hands, and feet. The disease is spread by direct personal contact or by contaminated drops from a person's breath. (i) We can see why lepers were and are shunned - because people are afraid of them, afraid they might get the disease themselves. Better to keep a safe distance from them. But, how do you think lepers feel? Probably terrible. No contact with friends, or with family, not able to worship with others, having to live off by themselves, and the disease itself is awful - very painful.

In our story today Jesus is about to enter a village when a group of ten lepers approach him. They don't get too close, because they know their place, but they do get close enough to yell out to him, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" What do you suppose they might want? Well, you know, stories about Jesus have been spreading all over the region, even into places where the lepers live. For sure they've heard that Jesus is a miracle-worker, that he can heal people from diseases, or blindness, or not being able to walk. Maybe he can heal their terrible disease! I am sure this is what's going through their minds.

Jesus could just ignore them. Most people do. Like how we ignore homeless people sitting on the sidewalks in Boston and other big cities. Most of us just walk right by their outstretched hands, not even looking at them, not even saying hello. Jesus could just ignore the lepers. Who would blame him? He's a busy man on his way to something important. Why be concerned about these repulsive persons? But when he sees their plight, and hears their cries for mercy, he has compassion on them, and directs them to the priests. And on the way all ten of them are made clean!

But ... only one of the ten turns around, only one of them praises God - not timidly, but with a loud voice, only one falls down at Jesus' feet in humble gratitude, only one thanks Jesus for making his new life possible. And this one is a Samaritan, a foreigner, someone who others would have looked down on, even if he didn't have leprosy! He's the only one who is not only made clean but also made whole, healed in body and spirit. Like Jesus, we may also ask, "What about the other nine?" What's happened to them? How come they didn't turn around, and praise God, and come back and thank Jesus? What about them?

Truth is, we really don't know, but let's use our imaginations and think together about some of the possible reasons (ii) why the other nine lepers might not have come back to praise God and thank Jesus. Some of them may have been too frightened. Just imagine at one moment you've got an awful disease, and the next moment you're all better - instantly. It could be fairly traumatic. They may have been so blown away by their experience, that they were speechless, and crept away in fear and trembling.

Some of the lepers may actually have been confused by what happened to them. They had expected that if they'd ever gotten healed then they would have had to undergo elaborate rituals, months or years of fasting or prayers or washing or whatever. They thought that to be cured you had to fulfill certain requirements, you had to earn your reward. They never expected free unmerited grace. It couldn't really be real if it came so quickly; so they refused to return and give thanks.

Some of them may have simply forgotten their manners. They forgot to give thanks! Gosh, that happens to us all the time, doesn't it? We get so wrapped up in the joy and happiness of what we have, that we simply forget to give thanks. Maybe some of them were so excited about their new life that they just plain forgot to say "thank you." Real little children sometimes have to be reminded by their parents to say "thank you." Like little children, some of them just forgot.

Perhaps a couple of the lepers didn't say "thank you" because they had become so hardened by life, so embittered by their affliction and circumstances, so angry at the way people shunned them, that they didn't say "thank you" to anyone. They were so tired of being pushed around, so tired of being pitied, so tired of their second class citizenship, so tired of having to beg for scraps of food to eat, that they didn't say "thank you" to anyone - not even to Jesus.

Maybe there were one or two lepers who did not give thanks because they did not honestly believe that Jesus had anything to do with their being cured. They didn't believe in hocus pocus, magic, or miracles - none of that kind of stuff. There had to be a perfectly logical scientific explanation of what happened. They didn't understand it, for sure, but it certainly had nothing to do with the brief conversation they'd had with Jesus; it had nothing to do with him. Jesus couldn't have been involved; he never even got close enough. It's probably human nature for us not to give thanks for what we've been given. Oh, for sure, we're pretty good about thanking people for gifts given to us, particularly tangible gifts like birthday or Christmas presents. But do we regularly give thanks to God for all the gifts, all the blessings, God gives to us? I'll bet not as often as we should.

Maybe we too are at times frightened at the power of God and at the depth of God's love and mercy toward us. To even think that almighty God would care about little old you or me is mind-boggling. Maybe we too are a bit confused that we've gotten gifts from God we didn't deserve to get, that we haven't earned one way or another. Maybe we too are simply forgetful, overlooking or ignoring the blessings of God all around us. Maybe we too have a hard time saying the words, "thank you" - even to God, because of all we've been through in life. And maybe for some of us, we just can't believe that God can be that giving, that powerful; we can't believe it is God who is behind the "miracles" we see, if we're looking, every day.

The truth of the matter is that though our God is an awesome God, we need not be afraid. God is loving and good. The truth is, God loves us more than anything. The truth is, we don't deserve and we haven't earned the gifts we have received from God, and that's what makes them so special. This is what God's grace is all about. The truth is that God forgives us when we forget to give God our thanks and praise, even when we refuse to give thanks because of the difficulties we've had in life - and God has been with us in all of these hard times, helping us to get through them. The truth is that God really is powerful, and able to do more than we can ever imagine.

What about the other nine? Did God love them any less for not giving praise and returning to thank Jesus? No, I believe that God loved each of them equally in spite of their ingratitude. Like the tenth one, the nine began to experience new life, free of the stigma and the suffering of their disease. They went on their way, forgiven, accepted, and loved. But the tenth one, he had something more. He had an encounter with the Holy One, with Jesus, that the others missed. He had a knowledge of something they could not understand - that his faith had something to do with his healing. And he went on his way, I imagine, smiling and humming a tune - really, really happy. May we leave here today doing the same thing, and giving God the praise. Amen.

The Pilgrim Church of Duxbury
Rev. Kenneth C. Landall

i LectionAid, Vol. 12, No. 4, 10/10/04.
ii Martin Bell, "The Way of the Wolf," pp. 47-51, was the inspiration behind this section of the sermon.