The Other Nine The Rev. Kirk Baker Pub. 10/09/2016 Luke gives us this event, when Jesus healed ten lepers, yet only one came back to worship Him, without comment. Ten lepers were healed of a disease that, more than anything else, caused the expulsion of God's Elect from public spaces, from their own homes, even from the Temple where, originally, every Israelite was supposed to worship. People claimed leprosy was a disease that showed God's displeasure, so not only did leprosy justify in their minds forcing lepers into isolation, the lepers' own families would have been rejected if they failed to separate from them. So the ten lepers who met Jesus had to stand so far away they shouted for Him to heal them. They had been shunned long enough to know, they should not get too close to God's appointed. We all heard how this ends: Jesus told them to go, show themselves to the Priest, meaning they were healed and the Priest could certify them healed. But many suppose the lepers misunderstood Jesus, thinking if they went to the Priest, the Priest would heal them! Apparently, only one ever recognized Who had healed him; the other nine were unaware Jesus had saved them. The lepers were diseased, yes; but they were not just diseased of the body, they were ill in the spirit, they were SOUL-SICK! I read this and wonder, what could so completely blind them to the glorious work of God? Let us suppose together. Let us take the nine, and wonder what might have served as a stumbling-block, a snare that tripped up their spiritual senses, so they 1-22-12 1 Luke 17
would gain the thing they most desired, yet fail to go acknowledge this miracle? Perhaps a couple of those nine were moderately well-educated. They knew Torah stated only a Temple Priest could heal their terrible disease, but had not learned enough to understand, healing ultimately comes from God. Perhaps they had prayed or paid money to spiritual healers before, with no effect. So even though the miracle happened right before their eyes, their eyes were closed to it. ONLY a Priest can heal us, they thought. So they went on their way, blind to the miracle of their own bodies. Maybe another two were concerned for their families. As men they were the literal bread-winners and even though they could not return home, they knew their wives had not remarried and their children often went hungry. They were so eager to provide for those they loved, in their haste they did not take time to notice their sores were healed. The Temple was a few days' travel away and in their rush, in their eagerness to care for their wives and children, they forgot the most important element of family, the need to put God first above all other needs. If they had simply stopped rushing, and focused on the God of Possibilities, their families would have been better off. The fifth was a quiet, timid woman who had been told all her life that good daughters, wives, and worshipers should never speak up, never complain. Though she was a member of this group she always stood a little behind others, was always last to receive scavenged bread. When Jesus spoke, she felt some change within her; she wondered if perhaps she might not be healed. But the others all seemed to run off for the temple, and who was she to stop them? Truth be told, if she had spoken, she would have been the first to praise Jesus, not the Samaritan. But she never believed she could 1-22-12 2 Luke 17
speak for God, never realized she was the very type of person God often uses. Another was a minor Levite. When they cast lots to see who would serve in the temple, his name had come up three times, while many died without ever entering those inner courts. Some in his neighborhood saw him as especially beloved of God, especially worthy, and especially righteous. But now, with running sores on his head, shoulders, arms and legs, some mocked him, and taunted his wife and children. Some even said, it was not God, but Satan who helped him win the Temple lottery. He could not wait to vindicate himself, to offer his thanks with a sacrifice at the Temple, and silence all his critics. Do you see, because even a house of God can stand between us and the Messiah, he could not see God's healing. The eighth and ninth were brothers who had grown up with abusive parents. They had known neglect and violence virtually since they were born; as boys, the elder had held the younger as they cried, nursing wounds from boots and sticks, and promised, as soon as he was of age, he would take them to their kindly aunt's village, free from the unpredictable rages that made their small frames tremble. He was true to his word, and the people in his aunt's neighborhood found the boys hard-working and responsible. They were trusted and loved, and for the first time, they felt happy and free. But when the disease took hold, they left their aunt silently in the night, because inside they had come to believe they deserved bad things, that there was something wrong with them. Sometimes, we wound others until for them, the whole world seems drained of all its beauty; then how can they see God's healing? These nine lepers; they were healed of body, but not whole of spirit, so it was as 1-22-12 3 Luke 17
if the reality of God's healing never happened. If we stop a moment, we can all picture people like these nine, children created by God to whom Christ extends the gift of salvation through grace, but who act as if the gift were not there, as if Christ is not with us; they are simply unable to see God's healing. If we stop a moment more, we realize, we can be those people, too. We live in a culture that praises us for saying who we hate, yet finds it strange to publicly proclaim Christ's love for all. We are expected to boast of our possessions, and admire those who have material things, but there is no common language outside faith communities to discuss the important things, matters of the Spirit. We call automobiles and appliances goods, but cannot agree on what it means to be GOOD. Money talks, but we often hesitate to speak of our faith. And yet, in the end, we are Christians disciples of our risen Lord. We are those who dare to take off the blinders, dare to believe truth is stronger than lies and love will always win over hate, that the Gospel message should come must come first, before and above all else, primary above all things. That is why we come here, that is why we work and strive in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: we may not always see, we may look now as through a mirror dimly, but we seek out, we search for, we desire at every moment, to see and bear witness to the healing power of God's grace. We can acknowledge, we have been and will be again one of the nine, as blind as the Pharisees who ask the Lord of lords for a sign; but we believe, we believe God Himself wipes the window-pane clean, the Almighty Creator of the Universe shines a blazing torch into the darkest of hearts, and sometimes, praise be to God, sometimes, we are the one, healed leper who returned to throw himself at the feet of Jesus. Sometimes, with God's help, 1-22-12 4 Luke 17
we see God's healing. That is why we are the body of Christ; that is why we are witnesses to the infinite, enduring grace of God. Amen. 1-22-12 5 Luke 17