Here is the manuscript from the sermon preached on October 13, 2013, the 21st Sunday after Pentecost. We had our annual picnic here at Bethany this weekend and there sermon was not recorded. Hopefully I will have audio again on the next one. Blessings on your journey.
Luke 17:11-19
On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. 12 And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance 13 and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; 16 and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”
Growing up I was a member of the Boy Scouts of America. It is an experience that I still treasure today, an experience from which I still glean valuable wisdom. My father and my scout masters, hard working men of faith every one of them, gave freely of their time to try to teach junior high and high schools boy how to tie knots, start fires, do basic first aid, and, now an unfortunately dying art, how to read maps. I like to boast that I have a good sense of direction. Growing up I could travel to a place once and remember how to get back, and how to get home. I was good with a map. And so even today I like to look at maps. I still have a road atlas in my car. Sometimes the iPhone map just doesn’t tell the whole story. Sometimes I like the bigger picture that only a physical, paper map, can provide.
When I encounter the names of places in scripture, I like to see where they are on a map. In the long travel narratives, like the journeys of Paul, its helpful to look at a map to gain more perspective on what the author is trying to communicate. The journey that we are currently on with Jesus is no different. Sometimes a little perspective on our whereabouts helps.
Our story from Luke this morning takes place in the space between Samaria and Galilee. We hear that Jesus, on his way to Jerusalem, passes through this borderland, and if we were to take out a map, it wouldn’t make much sense. This journey to Jerusalem, that started all the way back in chapter nine, is still going on, and the current path just does not make much sense in the flow of the Gospel story. So perhaps the physical details do not matter and Luke is trying to get us to think deeper. Perhaps the physical places on a map are not the focus.
This morning we again find ourselves in permeable space. Two weeks ago we heard the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, a story that gives us a glimpse of how God comes to us in this world. We lifted up the voices of Moses and the prophets, reminding ourselves of the witness of scripture and of great narrative of God’s love, a love that comes to us in permeable spaces. The reminder from the prophet Amos was that justice is done at the gate. Mercy is enacted at the gate. The love of God for the world and our love for one another breaks into the world through permeable spaces.
Today, we again have a story that takes place in permeable space. We are somewhere between Samaria and Galilee. We might as well be somewhere between Eagle Pass and San Antonio, or Fredericksburg and Austin, or Bethany and main street. This story could have taken place in any of the permeable spaces that we know, so the focus is not upon the place, but upon what Jesus does and the witness of how God’s love happens in our midst.
The cast of characters is simply ten leprous men and Jesus. It would be easy to be sidetracked by the disease of leprosy, but I am not sure that is what Luke is talking about. The term leper, λεπροs in Greek, can refer to any number of skin diseases, so to focus on the disease would be to miss the point. It’s the result of the disease that is actually crippling to these persons. Because of the status of leper, they are outside of the community. They are labeled “unclean” and denied access to the privileges of the community. In reality, they are dead men walking, cut off from the life of the community. They are socially dead to the world. And what’s more, they are held in this status of unclean by the priests, the gatekeepers of status and privilege. The priests deem these people unclean and literally take their lives away. It is this broken system of death and power that Jesus confronts and dismantles with his act of healing.
So, as the story goes, the lepers follow the rules of the day and shout at Jesus from far off, “Jesus, one of authority, have mercy on us!” Jesus responds by sending them to the priests, and on the way they discover that they are indeed “made clean” by Jesus. In an act of healing, Jesus has given these men status, he has labeled them clean and has restored their lives. This is an instance of social healing. And then the story gets really interesting.
On his way to the priest, one of the men realizes that he is cured and turns back to enthusiastically thank Jesus. And then the punch line comes. Luke lets us know that this man was a Samaritan, a person Jesus will later label as a foreigner, and the real trouble begins. This man, a leper, now outed as a foreigner, would not have been able to see the priest at all. If we spend any time in the Gospels, even in the Old Testament, we come to find that the Jews and the Samaritans do not exactly get along. They really hated each other in reality. So here we have a leprous Samaritan being healed by Jesus. In the social ranks of the day, he is a double outcast. He is labeled unclean with no way to be named clean. It was forbidden for foreigners to even enter the temple in Jerusalem, so we can bet that a local priest would refuse his services.
But Jesus, in his radical embodiment of God’s love, declares, “Get up and go on your way. Your faith has made you well.” Jesus, in a moment of grace, restores this man to life in a community that is not divided by racial or ethic or social or economic barriers. Jesus gives this man new life in God’s kingdom. The Greek word for “get up,” Ἀναστὰς (anastas), is a word that is connected to resurrection in Luke’s Gospel, and in much of the New Testament. In just a few chapters, an angel will remind the women at the tomb that Jesus told them he would rise (Ἀναστὰς) on the third day This man is resurrected, given the new life that only God’s love can grant. A love that is freely given to all people. A love that is present in this life.
The word that we translate as “made you well,” is a complex word in Greek that often gets translated as saved, thus rendering a picture of some future life to come, ignoring the present realities that this word communicates. The word σῴζω (sode'-zo) carries with it the overtones of being made whole to receive the gifts of God’s kingdom in the here and now. It is a present reality into which the man is received. It’s a new life in the kingdom of God, the kingdom that we are baptized into....a kingdom that will never pass away.
The bottom line is that this is a story of privilege and access; it’s about who has access to the resources that make one a member of the community. Jesus redraws the lines based on God’s love and mercy, and not on our fallen rubrics of power. All are welcome and loved in the kingdom of God. We don’t get to draw the lines. We are loved and invited to follow. To follow God into the permeable spaces of life.
God is moving and working in the permeable spaces in our lives. God works in the space between Samaria and Galilee just as God works in the space between Eagle Pass and San Antonio. God is working in the permeable space between work/school/church and home. God is working in the permeable space between Bethany and main street. God is working in the permeable space between life and death. This is where we are given new life and called to follow. And here is where the map comes into play.
I am not talking about physical maps with place names, but the map of scripture, the Gospel, that points us to the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Following Jesus is not about places, but about being open to the movement of God’s love in our world. The Gospel points to where God’s love is working in the world and is our map to following Jesus and living into that love.
Our story is another reminder of God’s radical grace and a challenging call to follow Jesus. As we continue to learn how to follow Jesus, this is a bold reminder that we follow Jesus into the expansive kingdom of God where all people are included in the community. We have been empowered to live into this kingdom here and now. We do this through love. We do this through how we encounter others. We do this as we gain a new perspective in following Jesus.
So rise, friends of Christ, and go on your way. Your faith has made you whole. That is our reminder, and our call today. Rise, be resurrected, and go on you way following Jesus out into the world. Your faith, your trust, has made you whole.
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