Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity - September 13, 2009

The Church Season of Trinity
The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity, One Year Series
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (September 13, 2009)

“JESUS HAVE MERCY”

Readings:
Psalm 119:9-16
Proverbs 4:10-23
Galatians 5:16-24
Luke 17:11-19

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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen

The text for today’s message is as recorded in the Gospel Lesson from the 17th chapter of St. Luke, the following verses,

Luke 17:11-19 (ESV)

11 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.” 14 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.”

Our Gospel reading is known as “The Cleansing of the Ten Lepers.” And as we hear of these 10 men calling out for pity, quite frankly, it’s hard for us to relate to them. There are about 350 million people in the United States, and there are about 110 cases of leprosy here. Most people have never met a person who has leprosy and only know that it is some kind of skin disease. And to be fair, these ten lepers standing at a distance from Christ probably knew less about their condition than we do, yet they did know that it had terrible consequences. Because the consequences of having leprosy meant that a total separation from society was not only necessary it was defined by ceremonial law. And, since there was no cure the effects of the disease, certain death was to follow. It’s probably a good thing that these ten lepers didn’t know that it would be nearly two thousand years before a reliable and certain cure would be found. So the bottom line for these 10 men was that they had to live out their lives according to the Law. It meant that there bound by strict rules as to how they could, or rather could not, interact with other people. They could not worship in the temple, they could not come near other people. It meant that their bodies would literally and very slowly waste away. It meant that a sure and certain death, a very lonely death would ultimately result. The ten stood at a distance from Christ with no hope for their present, and no hope for their future and so they cried out,

JESUS HAVE MERCY

Jesus heard their cries and He healed all ten. This was an overwhelming miracle, they were healed. And yet in the face of a clear and undeniable miracle only one returned to lay face down before Christ and return thanksgiving. And the story of that one person may give a clue as to his actions. This man was a Samaritan, which meant that he was doubly cursed. He was cursed because he was not clean as defined by the ceremonial law in Leviticus. But even more than that he was not a Jew so he couldn’t be clean even if he wanted to. Quite frankly he was stuck between a rock and a damned place, stuck with no hope for today and no cure for tomorrow.

It has been said that, “The leper who returned to Jesus giving glory to God shows us a picture of how every Christian should be grateful to Christ in devout humility. Falling down before the feet of the Lord, he truly gives thanks to God. He is aware of how weak he is in himself. He who attributes no virtue to himself. And he confesses that the good he does is due to the mercy of his Creator. In this way, he shows us that we should attribute all we receive to Christ Jesus who gives us all things.” (St. Bede)

This week I heard of an amazing story of mother in our community who, only a short time ago, gave up the custody of her two children, both less than three years old. We all know that these types of situations take time to build to a conclusion, court cases, warnings, interventions all with the intent of keeping families together. In this case this very young mother was addicted to heroin which has made significant inroads in this community. Due to her addiction she was ultimately unable and quite frankly unwilling to be a caring mother in any way. She ended up giving up her parental rights and to be more truthful the children were taken from her. This drug heroin has a very powerful affect on people, rarely are people freed from its hideous grasp upon first attempts to quit. But this mother received help from our community. She was freed from the drug and stayed that way for a full year and upon the conclusion of that year she re-gained custody of her children. She then said that without outside help, she did not want to be a mother, she did not want to quit, she did not see, nor want, a way out of her addiction. But that day when she was again given custody, she said she felt like she was redeemed, not by her own actions, but by the actions of everyone who had helped her to be who she should be.

Many of us would be quick to say that we have never been addicted to a drug like heroin. Nor likewise have we ever seen or even heard of a person being sick from the disease of leprosy. That we have never felt the never ending despair of being so out of control, that we would consider it a bonus to give up our children or family members. That we have been so stricken by something in this world that we have been ripped from society, and shoved away in a place by ourselves. Or even worse yet that we have stripped ourselves away from society because we could not face all that it has to offer. We deny that there is anything that has ever faced us or brought us so low that we haven’t been able to reach down and grab our bootstraps and pull ourselves up out of that hole. But if we say all those things we are not being truthful.

Whether it be the sin of Adam and Eve which we inherit, or all the sin by which we fall each and every day it is still there with us. We feel it, we live it, we die from it. Our bodies are once strong, and then sickness, pain, and disease causes us to be weak. Our weakness causes our faith to be tested and challenged. And when our faith is tested, it is then that the devil has more than a foot into the door of our lives. Our minds are lured into sin when we talk about others in less than glowing terms. And sin is manifested in us when we are distracted by the things of this world, which tell us we must have whatever it is, at any cost even if it is at the expense of others.

Most of us will never be afflicted by leprosy, nor addicted to heroin, but we still face a certain death as a result of the, “things which we have done, and the things which we have left undone.” And sin will one day cause a final separation. For those who fall to sin and do not repent from it, they will be separated and cast away into eternal torment. But, “Christians are pilgrims through this world on their way to heaven. The devil, like a highway robber, assaults [us], and [we] go down before him because of [our] weakness, not because [we] meant to go down.”(Walther L&G, p. 320) Instead the Christian stands away from the crowd of hypocrites, recognizes their sin and cries out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”(v. 13) We pray to God in fervent prayer and we conclude those prayers by saying, “Lord have mercy.”

The one leper knew nothing within himself could bring the healing which he needed. But Christ gives us our faith which heals us who are the needful. In baptism all your sins were washed away, the disease of sin, was cured. Christ physically touched you and made you well. In the Sacrament of the Holy Supper of our Lord, Jesus’ true body and blood touches your lips, forgives you your sins and we respond by saying AMEN You Christ have done this for us. By Jesus’ death on the cross and glorious resurrection we are given the forgiveness of sins. We are given a faith which does not dwell in our bodies, our actions or our minds, we are given a faith which comes from the very Son of God. For no matter what you face, no matter what you have done, no matter what sins you have committed, whether by action or in action, for all you who believe in Christ Jesus, He brings you from a sure and certain death, to the ecstasy of eternal life. And that s an overwhelming miracle for you. That is His promise to you, for by His actions Jesus brings you from this world into His heavenly kingdom and there you shall go for He has conquered sin, death and the devil and that makes you eternally well. Amen.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

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