Reflection: “Grace” Throughout his Gospel, Luke presents the Gospel, or Good News, with the telling of parables, or stories.
He illustrates a series of personal encounters between Jesus and others – sometimes with the followers of Jesus, sometimes with his opponents, sometimes with strangers. There were crowds of the curious and hopeful - and various other individuals – a tax collector, a centurion, a grieving mother, a sinful woman, a man inflicted with demons. As Luke relates these stories, he shows how Jesus responds with love and grace and uses the occasions to teach the values of God, whilst all the time challenging the contrasting and distorted ways of the world. Now, having reached Chapter 17, we find Luke recalling an episode in which Jesus was engaged by 10 lepers who were begging for mercy. These unfortunates suffered from what we now call Hansen’s Disease, a chronic bacterial infection which affects the nerve endings, meaning that the afflicted cannot “feel”. This malady, known among humans for thousands of years, went untreated in biblical times and caused permanent damage to skin, nerves, limbs and eyes, compromised the immune system, and hastened death. Contrary to popular belief, it did not cause limbs to “drop off”, although secondary infections may have hastened their decay. Though it’s now known to be only mildly infectious, the ancients considered it highly contagious and forced lepers to stay away from others, identifying their condition by calling out “unclean, unclean” when approaching others. As a result, they were excluded from the general society and forced to make their own communities. They became like dead men walking – at the mercy of others, ostracized, alienated from the richness of family life and the comfort of communal religious practices. Like others, the lepers in today’s gospel reading were outcasts who bound themselves to one another out of necessity and because no one else would touch them. All that mattered was their disease, as evidenced by the inclusion among them of a Samaritan, who would have been a hated and shunned foreigner in mainline Jewish society. This band of 10 had nothing to offer others; nothing to offer Jesus. When they saw him coming, they recognized him, perhaps by his reputation as a holy man, and approached within shouting distance, calling out: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” Possessing enough inspiration, or maybe just a sense of desperation, they reached out to Jesus with an appeal for healing that went beyond all conventional expectations. And Jesus didn’t hesitate in his response. He didn’t back off - or require the lepers to confess a faith in God. He didn’t inquire about whether they were worthy – in fact, he didn’t ask anything of them. Jesus just saw them for what they were, desperate men, in need of God’s grace and he said simply, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” According to Jewish law, a cured leper had to appear before the priests, who would conduct a series of elaborate ritual actions, in order to declare them cleansed. The lepers, who had put their hope in Jesus, now displayed enough faith to obey him. They immediately left his presence to go to the priests and then begin their new lives, made possible by Jesus. What Jesus did for them, of course, bore remarkable significance. Not only were they cured of a horrendous, disabling disease, but the cleansing also enabled them to overcome what was perhaps the greater affliction, separation from society. Now, having been cured, they could return to their families, to become a part of the community that had cast them out. Now they could participate in life fully - restored physically and socially and surely experiencing the beginnings of emotional healing. Yet, we might ask, did they gain everything Jesus hoped for? Did they achieve spiritual healing, as well? We’ll never know about all of them, but we have assurance that one did – the Samaritan who returned to give thanks to Jesus. What led to his distinguishing himself by praising God and falling at Jesus’ feet in gratitude? It was easier for him – as a double outcast – to see clearly the remarkable nature of what had happened. Jesus was saddened that the outsider, the Samaritan, was the only one who came back, and he used the examples of the one and the nine, to teach his disciples another lesson about the grace of God. He was clearly disappointed by the behaviour of the nine, and in earshot of his followers, he said to the now-cleansed Samaritan leper, “Your faith has made you well.” In place of the word “well,” some bible translations use the words “made whole” or “saved.” There is ambiguity about the Greek meaning, but its use by Jesus implies more than just being cured from a disease. “Your faith has made you whole,” seems closer to the way Jesus used this episode to provide a new teaching. The Samaritan was not simply physically cured of Hansen’s Disease, like the others, but experienced something more important – God’s saving grace. His response to being cleansed, demonstrated that his view of God was closer to what Jesus came to earth to reveal. As he wasn’t of the Jewish faith, there was no reason for him to gain certification of his cure by rushing to the priests. Instead, before anything else, he saw God as the centre of the personal miracle he was experiencing. And so, the Samaritan returned and gave thanks for the chance to renew his life. This was the beginning of his personal transformation, and it provided a fitting model for Jesus to honour. The man was not only cured physically, but he also gained spiritual wholeness. For the worshiper, there are several things to glean from today’s gospel reading – community, inclusivity and wholeness - in the life of the world and in Christianity. We can think about it when we come to the communion table. What we experience among our fellow worshipers, in prayer and in the common meal, is unity in its purest form. Receiving the sacrament of the bread and the cup, the body and blood of Christ, all else is shut out but the holy context. We are at one with God and one another, in a sublime moment of grace - in this moment we’re made whole. Even if we lose this reality as we depart from the church, we know it as a deep truth on which to draw on our journeys of faith. In that moment, we know that everyone is like the Samaritan, freed from alienation and separation from others - in a realm of inclusion with God. Luke’s story of this encounter between Jesus and the lepers allows him to teach us about the disappointment Jesus must have felt because the other nine failed to return and give thanks, but also the joy he must have experienced in discovering that the Samaritan recognized the deeper truths of God. When Jesus reflects on the difference, he’s speaking to us, today, as well as the disciples of old. Today we’re reminded of the sadness of our Lord when we, like the nine, fail to thank him. More importantly, we are led to emulate the Samaritan by recognising the source of our healing – and that is God. We can take joy in the act of committing ourselves anew to respond in love and gratitude to the grace, forgiveness and wholeness of God that we can all have - simply by accepting this freely offered gift. So often we forget to give God the thanks that he deserves. So don’t be like the nine, but instead, return back to God and give thanks to him for all his goodness towards you. Pastor Rick
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