Sermon 071014
October 14, 2007
Luke 17:11-19
Curing, Healing and Gratitude
This morning’s Gospel reading is an account of ten healings Jesus did while on his way to Jerusalem. It speaks to the power of God that uniquely resided in and worked through Jesus. It tells us that receiving a cure is different from being made whole. It highlights the gratitude of one of the men who was healed from a dreaded skin disease. Let’s look at and unpack these eight short verses.
Jesus and his disciples are on their way to Jerusalem. They are about to enter a village in the region between Galilee and Samaria. As they approach the village a group of ten lepers call out to him to get his attention. One of the diseases that humans have struggled with since the earliest of times is leprosy. It is a contagious and severely disabling and disfiguring disease that was common in the ancient Near East. The disease is caused by the bacteria, Mycobacterium leprae. The bacteria thrive in the cool areas of the body near the skin surface. Nerves are permanently damaged by the bacteria. This leads to the victim losing sensation of pain and burns or injury often goes unnoticed and creates further secondary problems and infections.
In Israel, the Law of Moses recognized that leprosy was a danger to the community. It recognized that any numbers of virulent skin diseases were a danger, and persons who had such diseases were separated from the community. The priests declared them ritually or ceremonially unclean and they had to live outside of community. There was little hope of cure. People who had skin diseases often had leprosy but they could also have had psoriasis or fungal infections. The life of a victim of such skin diseases was terrible. They could not work so they were forced to beg. They banded together for support as they were pushed out of their villages. Wherever they went they had to stay away from normal people and had to warn others that they must stay away from them by calling out, “Unclean! Unclean!” In Medieval Europe lepers wore bells to warn people of their presence. Fortunately, today leprosy is treatable through a multi-drug regimen of medicines and is quite uncommon in the western world. It is now generally characterized as a tropical disease. Ten people who had leprosy kept their distance but called out to Jesus, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
The ten must have heard about Jesus and known that the healing power of God resided in him. They called him by name. And they also called him, “Master.” The only other people who called Jesus Master were his disciples. The ten recognized that Jesus was not just a rabbi but that he operated uniquely in the authority and power of God. They were not just looking for a few coins or some other hand-out. They were seeking the concrete mercy of God.
When Jesus saw them, he said, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” He did not pronounce healing. He did not touch them. He simply told them to go to the priest for verification of the healing. One of the requirements of the Law of Moses was that a person who thought they were healed from a dreaded skin disease must be examined by the priest. He then would be re-examined a couple of weeks later then, if no disease is evident, the priest would pronounce him clean and he could return to his normal place in society. He no longer would live as a feared outcast. The stigma of disease would be removed from him and he would be restored to his place in society. The priests did not heal. They merely certified that healing had taken place. Jesus has no special formula for healing. In this case he told them to go to the priests, and as they did so they were healed. As they walked to the priests their leprosy was healed and their lives would be completely transformed. This healing was more than just recovering from a cold or the flu. It meant being reinstated to one’s place among other people. It was akin to raising a dead person to life.
Something odd happened. Of the ten who were heading to the priests for certification that they were healed, one noticed that he was healed and he turned back. He was praising God with a loud voice. He came to Jesus and fell on his face at Jesus feet. He thanked him. The Gospel writer notes, “And he was a Samaritan.” His stigma was a dual one. Not only was he a leper he was also a hated foreigner. The Jews and the Samaritans were enemies and had no social contact. Occasionally they would do nasty things to each other. Normally they just stayed away from each other. In this case nine Jews went off healed and did not return to give thanks, but the foreigner, the Samaritan, came back and gave thanks to Jesus for what God did to him through Jesus. Jesus was quite impressed with the response of the Samaritan, and said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”
Modern medicine does a wonderful job effecting cures. If we are sick, we can go to the doctor and receive medicine that will cure us of our disease. Once bacteria that were often fatal now are killed. Surgeons cure many people from tumors, and other problems that arise in the body. If one gets a broken bone, an orthopedic physician will reset the bone and allow it to grow back together. If you have a damaged heart, the cardiologist will provide medicine or surgery to fix it. If you have a bad knee, a surgeon can replace the damaged knee with an artificial one and cure your pain. It is wonderful to live in a culture where there are so many ways to be cured of the things that ail or afflict us. But curing an ailment or injury is different than genuine healing.
I, like many in our nation, am afflicted with a disease process that leads to obesity and other physical problems. Since May 1st I have been cured of a number of physical problems. My blood pressure is normal, and I have been taken off medicine for high blood pressure. I have a diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetes and maintain normal blood sugar levels through proper diet. My cholesterol and triglyceride levels are now low normal. I am now less likely of developing heart disease or having a heart attack or stroke. In many ways I have been cured. However, I know that unless I follow a strict regimen of eating a healthy diet and exercise, I could easily slide back into the previous physical problems and obesity. I have been cured but am still seeking healing. There is a difference between being cured of an ailment and being healed.
A cure deals with only one aspect of the human entity. We are not just our bodies. We are more than the physical. We are created in the image of God. Although we share the strange quality we call life with other physical beings, we are more than just a physical being. We are made up of both body and spirit. We are physical entities but we also are spiritual ones. While the medical profession does fine work with the body, it has only recently acknowledged the spiritual aspects of human existence. While a cure affects the body, healing affects both body and spirit.
The sinfulness of our human condition affects all the areas of our being. As long as we delude ourselves with the notion that we are pressed only to do good and be good we will never be healed. We humans have a rich heritage. On the dark side, our heritage also includes generational and corporate sin. If all we had to deal with was personal sin, our life might be easier. But our lives are affected in many ways from generations past and from social conditions that press us to destruction. For example, two racial groups have a high incidence of alcoholism: Native Americans and Irish. Some of us have inherited a propensity to alcoholism. At one level alcohol abuse is a choice but at another it is a dangerous choice for many. Since sin is living outside God’s kingdom or living a life contrary to that which God wants us to live, alcohol abuse is clearly sinful. One can take medicine that causes a terrible reaction when one uses alcohol, but that provides no healing. Healing comes when one deals with the reality of sin in one’s life and is found only at the feet of Jesus. That’s where the Samaritan former leper found healing. It is relatively easy to be cured of certain ailments but to be healed means dealing with realities most of us don’t want to deal with. However, it is only as we face the reality of sin in our lives that we can move through that dark side to the light of Christ. As one writer wrote, “We wear the filth of a lifetime of personal sin, generational sin, and corporate sin…until we realize that we see no need for God.”
The story is about Jesus’ curing of ten lepers, of the healing of one and the reality that God worked uniquely through Jesus providing healing and wholeness to people who had no chance of such healing. It’s not a story that leads us to add another “should” to our list of “shoulds.” It does not tell us that we should be grateful as much as it tells us that in Christ Jesus comes genuine and complete healing. It does not mean that all our diseases will be healed but it means we can face anything in life or even death itself with confidence and hope. Outside of Jesus one may find a cure but only in Christ Jesus can one find genuine and complete healing. How are you opening yourself up to the healing you need? Are you living as God wants you to live? Are you living out kingdom values or are you living out the dark values of the world?