PENTECOST PROPER 23 C
Luke 17:11–19
Grace, Mercy and Peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
One of the many problems in this world is disease…like the disease described in the Gospel reading: leprosy.
The modern word leprosy refers to a painful disease that disfigures the body and can lead to paralysis and even death. In the ancient world, the term may have been used more broadly for a wide variety of skin diseases.
And many of these diseases were known or feared to be contagious upon physical contact. As a result, lepers in the ancient world were outcasts, exiles. They couldn’t be near others, couldn’t have physical contact with others. And in many cases, especially in Hebrew culture, they had to announce themselves as unclean so that no one would accidentally approach them, make contact with them, and thereby contract their illness.
And until the advent of modern antibiotics, leprosy was an uncurable disease.
Think of it. An isolated, pain-filled life. A life with no community except those who share in the same shameful and debilitating disease. A life in which you are despised, feared, hated.
And it wasn’t perceived just as a physical ailment:
Here’s one description from a commentary…It says that,
Leprosy was “the outward and visible sign of the innermost spiritual corruption; a meet emblem in its small beginnings, its gradual spread, its internal disfigurement, its dissolution little by little of the whole body, of that which corrupts, degrades, and defiles man’s inner nature, and renders him unmeet to enter the presence of a pure and holy God (Easton, M. G. (1893). In Illustrated Bible Dictionary and Treasury of Biblical History, Biography, Geography, Doctrine, and Literature (p. 420). Harper & Brothers.
Do you see how leprosy was viewed? It wasn’t just physical, it was spiritual. It was an outward expression of what sin and corruption had down to the whole human soul.
But what the ideas about leprosy failed to acknowledge is that this inward corruption is, in fact, present in all humankind.
What’s wrong with the world? Not simply diseases like leprosy. The true problem is deeper than that. It’s sin and the corruption of creation which results from sin.
As far as I can tell, none of you have the outward condition of leprosy…but according to your sinful nature, you are all lepers. And so am I.
Because we’re children of Adam and Eve. Children of the curse. Oh, our corruption began in a small, “inconsequential” way. It was just a piece of fruit taken from a tree. Why is that such a big deal? But from that small beginning, corruption quickly spread, degrading the whole of our human family, so that we are indeed unfit to enter the presence of the pure and holy God.
Let me emphasize that again: According to our corrupt sinful nature we are unfit to enter the presence of the pure and holy God.
This what Adam and Eve experienced. They were kicked out of God’s presence. Kicked out of the Garden. This is why people feared to see God, to enter into His presence. Because they knew that as sinners they were unfit for His holiness. This is why the people told Moses at Sinai, Don’t let God come to us and speak to us again or we will surely die. And this is why Isaiah said, in his vision of the throneroom of the Living God: Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
And this is why worship in the tabernacle and the temple were structured so that God was always hidden from His people, behind the curtains of the Most Holy Place. Because we are, according to our corrupt sinful nature, unfit to enter the presence of the pure and holy God.
As we read this account in Luke’s Gospel of the 10 lepers, we meet men whose experience with this disease reflects the deeper reality of sin…
Sin disfigures us. We, who were meant to be like God, made in His image, become something else, something ugly and evil.
And sin causes pain. Our selfishness, greed, lust, anger and violence. These things hurt others and they hurt us too.
And sin isolates us from God and from one another. We are left in a shameful and unclean state, with no one to care for us, to touch us, to comfort us. Because our sin has pushed everyone else away.
And sin, left untreated, only becomes worse and worse, until finally it kills us, forever in the fires of hell.
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Now what hope is there for the 10 lepers? And what hope is there for you? Well, the Gospel text tells us…
The lepers cry out to Jesus, saying, Master, Have mercy on us. (Luke 17:13)
When the lepers cry out, Have mercy on us! What do they want? They want to be cleansed. They want him to take away this outward affliction, this disease that has disfigured them, isolated them from others, caused pain and leads to death. Take it away O Lord, have mercy on us.
And in the same way we echo their cry in the Divine Service. We sing and we pray, begging Jesus, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, to have mercy on us.
We beg him to cleanse us of our sin. To take away the inward affliction of our soul…the disease that has disfigured us so that we no longer bear the image of God…the disease which isolates us from each other, because we sin against each other and hurt one another. The disease that leads ultimately to death and hell.
And to this cry for mercy, Jesus says, Yes.
To the lepers, His yes was the command: Go, and show yourselves to the priests. (Luke 17:14)
In other words, go to those who have judged you to be unclean, and let them see that you are now clean…that the disease is gone, by the command of Jesus.
And to us gathered here…to spiritual lepers, He says, “Yes…I forgive you all of your sins. Yes….you are a dear child of God by your Baptism into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Yes, I have had mercy on you, and yes I will keep on having mercy on you, as you come to my table to eat and drink of my body and blood.
Notice what happens here at the table of our Lord. We who were once alienated from God and from one another by our sin, isolated and ashamed because of our failures. We come together, a community of the redeemed who receive the same spiritual food.
But we dare not eat and drink of it wrongly. At this altar we believe, teach and confess that Jesus is truly present. He is present in, with and under the bread and the wine. He is present with His true body and blood. And these gifts we receive together, not because we are so great or holy, but because we know that we are not. We know and confess that we are spiritual lepers. But Christ is merciful to us and he forgives our sins, takes our sin from us, and bears them himself on the cross.
If this is not what you believe, then you ought to abstain from this spiritual food, for the Scripture teaches us that failure to discern Christ’s body and blood in the Sacrament brings judgement on us.
But for those who come confessing this one true faith as you’ve learned it from the Small Catechism, our Lord welcomes you, on the basis of His own grace and mercy and no merit of your own. He welcomes you to come to his table and to feed on Him.
And for all this it is your duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him. Luther attaches those words to the 1st Article of the Creed. But attach them also to the second and third articles. Attach these words everywhere in your lives. For all the grace and mercy, the faithfulness and love that God has shown you, it is your duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him.
But one of the ten lepers did this. Nine out of ten ran to the priests, eager to get their old lives back…but one of them, realizes what has happened to Him, and Luke records that he, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. (Luke 17:16)
This man has an overwhelming gratitude toward Christ. He realizes that the mercy Jesus has extended him is deeper and more expansive than his physical healing. And he falls down at Jesus’ feet. He has already called Him master, but now, because Jesus has cleansed Him of his leprosy, this man approaches Jesus. Jesus is probably the first non-leper that he has been this close to in a very long time. And he falls down at Jesus’ feet and shows with his actions, with his whole body, that Jesus is, in fact, his master, his Lord, his Savior.
He was once unfit to approach anyone, let alone God…but now, God in Christ has cleansed Him and drawn near to Him.
Were the other 9 lepers only interested in Jesus’ power to heal their bodies but not their souls? Were the other nine so tempted by a return to the world, that they missed the master who had come into the world in order to take away not just the leprosy of their flesh, but the leprosy of their souls?
And indeed he took on this awful condition himself.
For our Lord, Christ was afflicted by the sin of the world. It caused Him great pain and sufferings. It disfigured Him, as he was scourged and the crown of thorns was pressed into His head. It alienated him from everyone, even God. For He said, My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.
Our Lord Christ, has redeemed us by becoming one of us, and taking this disease of ours, to bear it and defeat it Himself.
And this makes us who were once unfit to enter the presence of God…it makes us fit and worthy to come here to His table, to receive this true spiritual food, and to enter and dwell in His Kingdom forever.
And We who have been made worthy of heaven by the sacrifice of our Lord, Jesus, we are called to Follow Him. We’ve been connected to Jesus, and now we connect others to Him, in order that they might be freed from the disease of sin, and receive His mercy, just as we have.
There’s a famous story of a catholic priest, Father Damien who volunteered to minister in a leper colony on the island of Molokai in Hawaii. Father Damien ministered directly to the lepers there for 16 years. He himself contracted the disease and died from it. But hear what he said about his ministry among the lepers of Molokai: “I make myself a leper with the lepers to gain all to Jesus Christ.”
Because the outward physical disease known as leprosy…it is one of many crosses that the people of God may have to bear as we live in this broken world. And we can bear it…for the sake of the Gospel…because Christ our Lord has cured us of the real disease. The spiritual leprosy he has taken away. And so we go out of this place, suffering with Christ, suffering with the world, suffering for the sake of the Gospel, giving up time, talent, treasure and whatever else we have, perhaps even our own health, in order to proclaim Him, who died and rose again, to forgive our sins and to welcome us into life in His kingdom, which has no end. Amen.
Now, the Peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in the one true Faith in Christ Jesus. Amen.