November 22, 2017 A+D Luke 17:11-19
No Foreigners? No. Foreigners!
+ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. +
Ecclesiastes tells us there is a season, a time, for every purpose under heaven.[1] The Thanksgiving holiday is a time that encompasses many if not most of the times the writer speaks of: time to heal, time to laugh, even time to weep. A time for love and a time for peace. We gather together and enjoy each other’s company, and we tell family stories. Hopefully, we remember to give thanks to God for all His many blessings.
A cowboy was riding his horse down a dirt road when a police officer drove up to him, lights flashing, and pulled him over. “Sir,” he said, “I’ve been trying to pull you over for some time now. Did you know your wife fell off the back of your horse over a mile back?” The cowboy smiled and said, “Oh, thank God! I thought for a while there that I’d gone deaf!”
It’s an old joke and not a very good one. We excel at being thankful when it suits us, and not always for the right things. However, in every situation, we can find a reason to be grateful. Paul wrote in Romans: ”And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”[2] What purpose do you think He has for you, that will do His work for good?
There was once a blind boy sitting against a brick wall near a metro stop in Washington D. C. with a hat by his feet. He had a little sign which read: “I am blind, please help.” The hat was nearly empty. If you’ve ever walked around the national mall, you know that begging is pretty commonplace in our nation’s capital. You see it so much that your heart becomes calloused. “It’s not up to me to save the world!” you think. No, it is not. It is the work of Jesus Christ that saves the world, so that through you, as His child, He might make your neighbor’s burden a little lighter, that they might come to believe in Him.
A businessman walking by saw the blind boy and took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words on it. He put the sign back, so everyone who walked by now saw the new words.
The hat soon began to fill up. Many more people were giving their change to the blind boy – even some paper money began to appear in the hat! Around lunchtime, the man returned to check on the blind boy.
The boy recognized the man’s footsteps and asked, “Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?” The man replied, “I only wrote the truth, I said what you said, only differently. I wrote ‘Today is a beautiful day, but I can’t see it.’” The first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second, however, reminded people that they were blessed simply to be able to see the beauty of the crisp fall day. When our focus becomes one of gratitude to God for what He has given us, we are not only more inclined to remember our own blessings, but we become more inclined to be a blessing to those around us. As the wise man wrote in Proverbs: “One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want. Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered.”[3]
Luke tells us that as Jesus begins His final journey toward Jerusalem before His Passion, he encounters ten lepers by the side of the road.[4] Lepers are unclean, and anyone who comes into contact with them becomes unclean as well until they go through a purification ritual. The lepers must shout “Unclean! Unclean!” to all passers-by so that folks know to avoid them. These ten, however, shouted out not “Unclean!” but “Jesus! Master! Have mercy on us!” They recognize Him as the source of not only healing but their salvation. They don’t cry out “Heal us!” They cry “Have mercy upon us!” Jesus, in His mercy, tells them to go and show themselves to the priests in the temple. On their way, they discover that their leprosy disappeared! Nine run to the temple but one returns to Jesus at this discovery. That man was a Samaritan. He would be considered unclean by the Jews, leprosy or not.
He fell on his face before Jesus, a posture of worship, praising God with a loud voice. Jesus looked at him and said “Weren’t ten healed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to give praise to God except this foreigner?” The word for foreigner Jesus uses here is the only place in the New Testament it is used. Those witnessing these events would know precisely the importance of what Jesus had just said. That same word for foreigner is used in one other very prominent place with which they are all familiar: on the inscription above the temple in Jerusalem forbidding the entry of foreigners.[5]
Had the Samaritan reached the temple and tried to go in to see the priest as Jesus commanded him to do, he would have been denied admittance. Instead, after his physical healing, he returned to the source of all spiritual healing. His faith in Christ, a gift of the Holy Spirit, healed him in both body and soul. For that, He offered Jesus his thanksgiving and praise.
Daily, we who are unworthy receive God’s mercy. We who are unclean before the perfection of our creator are healed. Because the sinless one took on our sins and our justly deserved punishment, we receive the forgiveness we do not deserve. Rather than be cast out into the margins of the world as the hideous lepers we are, we are cleansed and dressed in the image of Christ. For that, let us be truly thankful.
Let us be thankful for the blessings we didn’t even know we had, and let us pray to be the blessings to our fellow beggars we didn’t think we could be. Let us pray to the Lord that He might use us in ways we may never understand, but that will give the comfort of the Gospel to our neighbor in need. You never know how the smallest, simplest of gestures may be used by the Holy Spirit.
Medical pioneer and missionary, Dr. Paul Brand, tells the story of a man afflicted with Hanson’s Disease – which used to be called leprosy - named John who was scarred both physically and emotionally by his illness.[6] With both hands and feet damaged beyond repair and of very limited use, facial paralysis, and eyes stitched half shut to prevent further loss of sight, John's appearance was often met with gasps of horror and disgust. John did not have to shout “Unclean!” to be avoided by passers-by.
Angry at the world, John became known as a troublemaker with violent verbal outbursts, and even dishonesty and theft became everyday occurrences. Even so, within the loving environment of the clinic where Dr. Brand ministered, John eventually came to faith in Christ. But because of his traumatic past of rejection and mistreatment, he found it hard to let go of his cynical and bitter outlook. John learned Christ accepted him just as he was, both in his physical deformity and in his sinful condition. He had received Christ’s mercy in the form of forgiveness of all his sins, but he doubted that the wider Christian community would extend him the same compassion. Dr. Brand relates the rest of the story:
“One day, almost defiantly, he asked me what would happen if he visited the local church. I went to the leaders of the church, described John, and assured them that he would not endanger the congregation. They agreed he could visit.
Shortly after that, I took John to the church. It was a tense moment for him. His paralyzed face showed no reaction, but a trembling gave away his inner turmoil. I prayed silently that no church member would show the slightest hint of rejection.
And then it happened. A man put down his hymnal, smiled broadly, and patted the chair next to him, inviting John to join him. John could not have been more startled. Haltingly, he made shuffling half-steps to the row and took his seat. I breathed a prayer of thanks.
That one incident proved to be the turning point of John's life. Years later Dr. Brand returned to John’s town and made a side trip to a factory that had been set up to employ disabled people. The manager introduced him to his prize employee, a man who had just won the parent corporation's all-India prize for the highest quality work with fewest rejects. When the doctor arrived at his work station, the employee turned to greet him, and he saw the unmistakable crooked face of John. He wiped the grease off his stumpy hand and grinned with the ugliest, the loveliest, most radiant smile he had ever seen.
A simple gesture of acceptance may not seem like much, but for John it proved decisive. After a lifetime of being judged on his own physical image, he had finally been welcomed on the basis of another Image.
John had been accepted in the image of Christ. The same image as the believing and thankful leper healed by Jesus. The same image you and I have. They and we belong to Jesus. We are beggars given an abundance of forgiveness and mercy. Thanks be to God.
+ In the Name of Jesus, Amen. +
May the peace which surpasses all human understanding keep
your hearts and your minds focused on Christ Jesus.
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+ Amen +
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[1] Ecclesiastes 3:1-10.
[2] Romans 8:28 (ESV).
[3] Proverbs 11:24–25 (ESV).
[4] Luke 17:11-19.
[5] Just, Arthur A., Concordia Commentary A Theological Exposition of Sacred Scripture Luke 9:51- 4:53, St. Louis, Concordia Publishing House, 1997, p.649.
[6] "Belonging" as told by Dr. Paul Brand in Stories For The Heart, compiled by Alice Gray, pp. 23-25.