Mark Twain once wrote, “If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a human being.” As part of our month of stewardship we will unpack this story of the ten lepers along two central themes: First is seeing and recognizing Jesus. Second is giving thanks LOUDLY. As my favorite Missouri author pointed out, we don’t want to be so ungrateful that we bite the hand that saves us.
When I read about lepers or disabled people or other kinds of outcasts in the Bible, I immediately think about the homeless in our time. Forced to live on the streets by their wits, rejected by society and with no real prospects for improvement we encounter people like this frequently. Most of the time we look the other way or find a way to get rid of them. But people on the streets are not fools. They observe, they listen and they talk. They know what’s going on.
These lepers have seen thousands of people come and go. They have begged for money and food most of their lives. I think they have also heard about the itinerant rabbi named Jesus. They know about his healing power but amazingly they do not ask for healing. They call him by name saying “Jesus, master, have mercy on us.” Out of the hundreds of nameless people they have seen that day, they see Jesus and recognize him. If we saw Jesus at the mall would we recognize him?
The very next word slips right by modern readers. The title “Master” only occurs four times in the Gospels and outside of this passage it is only used by the disciples. The term does not carry the meaning we have in English of master-slave relationship, but is more military in nature indicating one who has complete authority over another. If you are a private you obey what your sergeant orders you to do.
Jesus sees these lepers maintaining their distance and pleading for mercy so he gives them a command. “Go to the priests and show yourselves.” By Jewish law the priest was the one to certify that a leper was healed and was clean and permitted to re-enter normal social life. There is only one catch. The last time a leper was healed before this was 700 years earlier. The priests and rabbis thought that healing a leper was on a par with raising the dead. The lepers must have known this impossibility too so the fact that they obeyed Jesus’ command instead of laughing at him indicates that they were indeed disciples, followers. They already had faith.
The story moves quickly. We are told that as they went they were made clean. They heard Jesus. They obeyed his command, turned and started to walk towards the priests. In their doing this they were cured of their disease. When they realized what had happened to change their lives, they must have exploded with tears of joy and laughter. They were cured of a lifelong scourge, but only one turned back.
The ten lepers have not yet reached the priests for their certification as clean. This has suddenly become unimportant to the one leper who turns back. I imagine Jesus in his great love and compassion standing their watching these lepers throw off their rags jumping for joy. Jesus surely must have shared the moment and the laughter. Nine continue to do as they are told but one turns back praising God with a loud voice and giving thanks to Jesus. The exact word the leper used to say thanks to Jesus is “eucharist.”
Next Saturday we will give thanks for our new ministry together. The service used to be called the “Installation of a New Rector.” One member of our congregation has been teasing me this week saying it was a “coronation.” I keep correcting her saying “No this is OUR new ministry not MY new ministry.” Whatever we do we will do it together. It is a celebration and renewal of OUR ministry together. To do ministry together; to be involved in worship, outreach, pastoral care and fellowship is to walk the path to wholeness. As individuals and as a community we are always striving for peace within ourselves – with our bodies, minds, souls and relationships with others. To be at peace in this way is to be whole.
We have all seen the sober alcoholic who stopped drinking years ago yet continues in the exact same patterns of behavior. The person has stopped drinking but still has the disease. In the same way we sometimes see people who have had long term medical problems corrected yet they persist in thinking of themselves as victims maintaining a dependent lifestyle. Finally most of us have encountered someone who suffered some trauma in their life and never got over it. In these situations the people may or may not have their medical or physical situation rectified but the focus of the church is to see that you are made whole. To be made whole is the literal meaning of the term salvation.
You may be suffering from a debilitating illness but how you live now and how you are able to demonstrate your faith to others is a choice you get to make. If you are like the leper who turned back to give thanks LOUDLY you will be made whole. You will be at peace with your body, your soul, your life and with others.
If you have suffered the most horrific of traumas sometime in your life, whether you remain victimized and angry at the world or whether you thank Jesus with a loud voice is a choice you get to make. Thank Jesus and you will be saved.
My job is to help you recognize Jesus in your everyday life. The other half of my job is to help you develop a life of gratitude; of thanksgiving. When necessary I need to lead you up to the edge where you can make a choice. This can happen in counseling, in fellowship, in the Eucharist or any number of places. When you do in fact turn and thank Jesus in a loud voice in spite of whatever may afflict you, I can promise you that Jesus is there smiling, laughing and embracing you saying “Welcome home.”