Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity

When I was growing up, my mother taught me the importance of thankfulness. Over and over, until I had internalized the habit, she would make me look people in the eyes and say, “Thank you!” It was a good lesson, and I’m better off for having learned it.

Some people think that Jesus is teaching us this same lesson in the Gospel reading today. “Don’t be unthankful like the nine lepers. Follow the example of the thankful leper!” But that’s not the point. Jesus is not primarily concerned with social etiquette and good manners. He’s not teaching us about thankfulness today. Jesus is teaching us about faith. Good manners are necessary when you go out for dinner. Faith is necessary for salvation and eternal life.

Did the lepers have saving faith? Did they believe that Jesus was God incarnate? Did they believe that He was the Lamb of God who had come to be the once and final sacrifice for sin? It’s hard to know what exactly they thought about Jesus. But clearly they believed that He had the power to cure their incurable disease. Maybe they’d heard about the leper that Jesus had cleansed at the beginning of his ministry. Jesus touched the leper and said, “Be cleansed,” and he was. Then Jesus told the man to keep it quiet, but instead he went out and announced it to everyone. So the ten lepers came looking to be touched as well. This is not yet saving faith, but it least it brought them to Jesus.

Did Jesus do what they wanted? Not exactly. He didn’t touch them. He didn’t say, “Be cleansed.” Instead, he said, “Go and show yourselves to the priests” (Lk 17:14). Imagine the discussion that must have happened among these men as Jesus left them standing there and continued on his way. “Go show what to the priests? We’re still lepers, still covered in open sores and wrapped in bandages. We’re still unclean, standing a great way off from the entrance to this little village, and certainly not worthy to enter the temple in the holy city of Jerusalem.”

Perhaps a small kernel of faith had brought them to Jesus expecting to be touched and healed. But Jesus wanted to give them more than healing. He had come to save, not just to heal. So, without giving them any physical evidence to support their healing, Jesus told them to go on their way as though they were already clean. They still looked like lepers, smelled like lepers, had open sores like lepers. And yet, because they heard the word of Jesus, faith was beginning to take hold in their hearts.

The same is true of us. When the Bible talks about the incurable death sentence of leprosy, it’s a metaphor for sin. Why else does the Law of Moses give specific instructions for the steps to follow when a leper is miraculously cured: Go be examined by the priest. Offer the cleansing sacrifices. But from Moses until Christ, not one Israelite leper was cured. Everything written about leprosy was to prepare us for the coming of the great High Priest, who was Himself the sacrifice that would cleanse the leprosy of sin forever.

Jesus says to you, “Go your way; your sin is forgiven; you are clean.” But guess what? His word doesn’t appear to be true at all. Look at your own heart. What do you find there? Sin, leprosy, uncleanness, festering sores and evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, gossiping, deceit, and pride (Mk 7:21–22). Would you dare show your heart to a priest and ask him to certify that you are cleansed? And yet Jesus says, “You are clean because of the word I have spoken to you” (Jn 15:3).

Miraculously, when the lepers heard the word of Jesus, even though sense and reason screamed out that it could not be true, they started on their way, as though what Jesus said were actually true. And, of course, it was. As they went they were cleansed (Lk 17:14). Faith had been planted in their hearts when they first heard of Jesus. Now, it was taking root through the hearing of His word. As they went on their way they were cleaned. But even so, Jesus was not done. Remember, He had not come simply to cure leprosy. He had come to give life eternal.

Off the men went to find the temple and the priests, and to make the proper sacrifices, but surprisingly, one of them came back to Jesus. Why? Maybe he remembered that the Jewish priests would never allow a Samaritan anywhere near their temple. Or, better yet, perhaps he recognized that the true temple is not a building made with hands, but the dwelling place of God on earth. In either case he bowed down in worship at the feet of Jesus. Who was he worshipping? God Incarnate, who is all at the same time the sacrifice Lamb, the Temple of God, and the great High Priest who makes the sacrifice for sin. Now, at last, faith had brought the man to the source of cleansing, not just for the symptom of leprosy, but for the root cause of sin. And finally Jesus could give this foreigner what He desires to give every person: “Rise and go your way; your faith has saved you”(Lk 17:19).

These last two words require a bit of explanation. When a pastor reads the original Hebrew and Greek text of the Scriptures, it could be easy for him to talk about the places where English translations get things wrong. I have to be very careful about this, because I never want to give the impression that you can’t trust what you read in your English Bibles. You can absolutely trust it. Our English translations, especially those that are rooted in tradition of the King James, are very good and trustworthy. But there is one place where all major English translations miss the mark. It is in the final two words of our Gospel text. If you open your Bible to Luke 17, verse 19, it will say, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” This is an unfortunate translation. Jesus says these same words to different people on several occasions. But in the original language, He never says, “Your faith has made you well.” He says, “Your faith has saved you.”

This is very important. Faith in Jesus does not always heal—at least, not in this life. Christians die from cancer and a host of other bodily aliments all the time. But faith in Jesus always saves. It is destructive to our faith to believe promises that Jesus has not made. He did not promise that if you believe your back will stop aching. Jesus did not promise that if you have faith your cancer will go away. If you thought that He had, you could end up disappointed and angry with God. Many people are. Some Christians lose their faith entirely because they think Jesus didn’t keep his promise to heal.

Faith does not always heal, but faith always saves. Your aching back may not agree, but eternal salvation is far, far better than bodily healing only. When Jesus asked, “Where are the other nine?” it was because he wanted to give them salvation too. This is God’s desire for all people. He is not content to simply hand out band-aids, to cure the leprosy of people who will soon die from the greater sickness of sin. Our Lord Jesus wants to cleanse every sinner. And He does so by His word. He speaks that word to you today. To all whose ears have been opened by the Holy Spirit, He says, “This is My Body, broken for you. This is my Blood, shed for the forgiveness of all your sins.” You may not feel clean. Your heart may not look clean. But Jesus says that you are. Rise and go your way; your faith has saved you. Amen.