Sermon from 10/10 - Jesus meets us on the way

I apologize for the delay in posting this sermon, but here it is.  The day's text was the familiar story from Luke 17 - Jesus healing ten lepers, and (only) one, the Samaritan foreigner, comes back to thank and praise Jesus.  Thoughts?  Feel free to comment, or email me, Vicar Brett, at clcvicar@gmail.com . 
to read the sermon:

You're on your way, trying to get things done, and then you're slowed down, detoured – you hear: “The check's in the mail” . . . “We'll see” . . . “do you mind if I put you on hold?” We get frustrated when we feel like we've been brushed off, passed on to the next person, sent on our way without an answer. We want a cure for what is bothering us, we want to feel healed.


Today we read the story of Jesus healing the ten lepers. I think we hear this story and imagine it differently than it actually is. We remember that Jesus healed them, so we picture Jesus touching them, healing them right there on the spot, maybe doing some symbolic action with his hands or using what's around like when he used the mud to cure the blind man. But no, the lepers stay several feet away from Jesus, and never get any closer. They call out to be healed, pleading out for mercy. Jesus sees them and says “Go show yourselves to the priests.” So they go.

Stop right there. What would it have felt like to have been one of the ten lepers. Go show yourselves to the priests? That's like saying – let them deal with it – get out of my way . . . the check's in the mail . . . This command for lepers to go to the priests for ritual cleansing references an old Jewish law from Leviticus – so it was probably well known – perhaps this is the cultural equivalent of the obvious answer – like telling a

I wonder if they felt brushed off by this comment. They had probably heard so much about him, this Jesus, they reach out in faith and say, “Master.” And yet they part ways from him, still unhealed. He didn't promise any healing or anything more than this command to show yourself to the priests. So they were sent on their way.

Because we know the end of the story, that all ten will be healed, we forget to pause here. Maybe walking away from Jesus, still with their leprosy, they thought – well, that didn't go the way we'd hoped. (They walk away from Jesus, maybe peek a last glimpse over the shoulder and think – well, I guess that door is shut . . .) The lepers head on their way, maybe hopeful that seeing the priests will make a difference, maybe not. Perhaps their hope begins to fade. Maybe they feel like Jesus was just sending them away. Away to where? The only place lepers could be headed – to the margins of society – forbidden to interact with others, treated as almost inhuman because of their unclean status, outcast from their families. . . We still treat people like this – push them to the outside, label them, and send them on their way. We have seen in the news this week the tragic results of this, with the suicide of teens Hope Witsell who was bullied and Tyler Clementi, pushed to the margins for being gay.

Jesus isn't often found in the majority. While we as humans spend our time labeling ourselves and each other, we try to chain God's word to a narrow scope, to the majority view. But as we read in 2 Timothy, the word of God is not chained! It cannot be limited or contained within our expectations. Not only that, but Jesus, the word made flesh, is always breaking down barriers, gathering in the outcast. Jesus is always working in the last place we'd expect – healing outcast lepers from afar, after sending them away, and conquering death through his death on the cross.

The lepers go on their way, and at some point, are healed. This is a witness to us today, that Jesus works not just through obvious encounters with the expressly religious, but that Jesus meets you on the way, heals you and makes you whole. Whichever direction we are going, even if it appears to be away from Jesus, he is still there. God is still working in your life, even if it seems unclear, even if we have no faith. Because if we are faithless, Jesus remains faithful. Maybe it is my cynical nature, but if I were one of the lepers walking away from Jesus that day, I would've abandoned hope or faith in Jesus' healing when he sent me away. But this doesn't change Jesus' healing. Nothing can get in the way of that. And when nine out of ten of them do not come back to Jesus, their healing isn't taken away. Jesus' healing isn't conditional on our actions – it is unconditional, as is God's love.

That tenth former leper, the Samaritan, the foreigner, who comes back and praises Jesus, he doesn't stay with Jesus after this story. Jesus tells him - “get up, go on your way, your faith has made you well.” That tenth leper is worshiping, giving thanks, coming to meet Christ, but then he is sent on his way, just as we all are from here each Sunday with the words “go in peace, serve the Lord.” So go on your way. Know that God's word is not chained to whatever box we may put it in or expectations we may have for it. Wherever your way is, whatever path you're on, know that Jesus meets you there. Jesus is on his way too, as we are reminded at the beginning of the passage, on his way to Jerusalem, on his way to the cross. So he and the Samaritan part ways there, each on their own path.

As disciples, maybe this is what is meant – we aren't meant to follow Jesus literally, to the cross, but to go on our own way, enduring on the path given to us. To know confidently that Jesus meets us along the way, and that Jesus meets and gives life to those for whom society has nothing but death. It is natural that the Samaritan comes back to thank Jesus, just as we respond every time we come as he did to worship, praise, and give thanks – we are sent on our way – to Go in Peace and serve the Lord and we respond – Thanks be to God. Amen.