Trinity Church of Tri-Cities

August 17, 2008

Scripture: Luke 17:1-19

Text: Luke 17:11-19

Mercy, Healing, Thankfulness, and Faith

Beloved congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, In our passage Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to offer Himself up as a sacrifice for the sins of His people. He knew what awaited Him there, for several times He told His disciples that He would be mocked, scourged, and crucified, and then rise again the third day.

Jesus was walking along the border between Galilee and Samaria. Galilee, you remember was a few days journey north of Judea and Jerusalem, and Galilee was the home of many Jews and the scene of many of Jesus’ miracles. Samaria was the home of a mixed race of people, sent there by the Assyrian king after the destruction of Samaria and the captivity of Israel about 722 BC.

When the king of Assyria had settled various races there, lions started killing them, so they begged the king to send them someone who knew the gods of the land so they could deal with the lions. The king sent a priest, not a priest of Aaron’s line, but a priest of the line that Jeroboam had begun. So, the people of the land they served their own gods, and tried after their fashion to serve the God of Israel as well, a kind of hybrid religion. And so they continued.

When the Lord brought back the captivity of Judah around 500 BC, under the supervision of Nehemiah they set about to reconstruct the temple and the walls of Jerusalem. The Samaritans, led by Sanballat and Tobiah vigorously opposed the reconstruction, mocked them, and petitioned the king of Persia to put a halt to the work. However, the people of God prevailed, the work was completed, but the animosity between the Samaritans and the Jews continued strong until the time of Christ. No Jew would eat with a Samaritan, talk with them, and when a Samaritan approached, they would make certain to stay a long way from him.

Jesus, traveling then along the border between Samaria and Galilee came to a certain village, and there ten lepers came into view. They stood a long way from Jesus, and you know the reason for we have met with lepers before in Jesus’ ministry.

Leprosy was a dread disease, not only the physical pain and disfigurement, but particularly the social stigma attached to this disease. Through Moses God had commanded that those who had leprosy were to cover themselves, and announce when they approached anyone, “Unclean, Unclean.” They were forbidden to live with others, and were prohibited from entering the temple of God. So they were cut off from God and man. The Jews of Jesus day thought leprosy to be a mark of God’s particular displeasure with them, a mark of a very sinful person.

Well, there was nothing forbidding them from keeping company with each other, and their common misery brought them together. We see from the passage that at least one of them was a Samaritan, so this leprosy, and their common pain, disfigurement, and ostracism, even overcame the barriers of racial hatred. As sheep and wolves will walk together in peace when threatened by a forest fire, or as they will huddle together on high ground fleeing from a flood, so these common enemies huddled together under the curse of leprosy.

“There met Him ten men, who were lepers, who stood afar off.” Stood afar off. They were humbly aware that they could not come near. Yet, as we see from their cry, they knew something of Jesus, they knew of His power, they knew of His mercy. For they cried out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” “Jesus, Lord, have mercy on us.”

For these ten lepers, Jews and at least one Samaritan, the God of Israel, even in their misery, remembered Jehovah as the God of mercy. Even if they had to stand far off from the weekly worship in the synagogues, even if they could only stand outside the walls of Jerusalem, every Sabbath they could still catch the chorus of Israel’s choral anthem, “Praise the Lord, for His mercy endures forever. Let the house of Israel now say, For His mercy endures forever.” Jesus, Jehovah Savior, Lord, have mercy on us.

One commentator put it beautifully, remarking about the humility of these ten lepers, that the mercy of Christ is ready to flow into every heart that is lowly, as water flows into all low levels.

You know, when we think of ourselves in relation to someone we need and want to know better, we try to think of some point of contact. We may have a common interest in fishing, and so begin asking about the best way to catch bass. But where is the point of contact when we need God, and when we want to get intimate with Him? The point of contact is mercy. He Himself has laid down that point of contact in Jesus Christ, for, as Hebrews tells us, we come to God through Jesus, that, as Hebrews 4:16 says, “we may come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

“So when He saw them…” and we can take from this that he then approached them, and just said these few word, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” That’s it. Just those few words. Why did Jesus say this? We know from the verses that follow that as they went their way they were healed. So if they were healed, why did Jesus tell them to go to the priest?

They had to go to the priest for three reasons. First, they, (and we all need it) needed official assurance that they were clean, they were healed. The priest had to examine them, and then, as an official appointed by God, publicly pronounce that they were clean, healed of this dread disease. So, for their own assurance, for their own confidence that they were indeed freed from the disease that had so long plagued them, they needed an official act of God’s appointed priest to make the pronouncement.

Do you think that the reason so many people today still deal with feelings of guilt over past sins or omissions, and have trouble coming to the full assurance of forgiveness, is because they don’t have one of God’s officials make pronouncement over them? Think about it.

Second, they had to go to the priest, for the priest would also declare to all the people that this person was healed, and so was free to come and go among them. If he had a wife and children, he could finally go home. He could go to work again among his fellow laborers.

Third, and most important, the priest would declare that this ex-leper could now come into the assembly of God’s people in worship. God Himself, through the priest, was admitting this person into His presence again, and all the blessings from which he was formerly cut off, were his again to enjoy.

Jesus is telling us, isn’t He, that there are more dimensions to healing than just the physical. I think we may say that there are six dimensions. First, there is the personal dimension, what the person thinks of himself, is he whole again? Second, there is the other aspect of the personal dimension, what others think of him in terms of his healing. Has he really been healed? Third, there is the social dimension. Is he assured that others will accept him again? Fourth, the other aspect of that social dimension, can others say that they do accept him? Fifth, the spiritual dimension, if we may call it that, and that is this, is this person assured that God accepts him? Does he have that personal confidence that his cure has gained him admittance into the presence of God? And again, sixth, the obverse again, has God officially said that He accepts him? For you see, a person may have confidence that God accepts him, but unless that confidence is confirmed by God Himself, he will ever be uncertain. Someone may say, “I feel that God has forgiven me, and cleansed me.” But, and this is what will plague him, can he be certain that his feelings are a firm foundation for that confidence? Not really. He needs the verbal assurance from God Himself.

Are we aware of, and do we give proper recognition and practice to these dimensions in the life of the church today?

“So when he saw them, He said to them, “Go, show ourselves to the priests.” “And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.” As they went they were cleansed; their scaly skin smoothed over, the open sores closed up, the raspy voices became harmonious, the fingers and toes that had fallen off were restored again, all the spots and blotches disappeared. They were whole again, they were clean. How they must have jumped and shouted, “Hallelujah, it’s over. We’ve been released. We are free. We can go home again. No more calling out “unclean, unclean.”

“And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice, glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.” “So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?”

And this introduces us to the subject of thankfulness, doesn’t it? First of all, this record shows us how often there is a great contrast between the people of God, whose lives and actions should be full of gratitude for the mercy God renews for them every morning. And yet, as we often pray, “Lord, teach us not to take all these things, these mercies for granted.”

Most of us are familiar with the words of Jeremiah in Lamentations, suffering under bitter trials, and yet saying, “It is because of your mercies that we are not consumed. Great is your faithfulness. Your mercies are renewed every morning.”

Why is it that in times of misery and woe, in times of trials and pains, in times of stress and problems that we cannot overcome, that we come so near to God? We plead with Him, we pray with tears, we groan, we cry out. “Hear me, Lord. Listen to me. Help me. Rescue me.” And that is all to the good. We honor God by coming to Him with our sorrows and problems. He has told us to cast all our cares on Him for He cares for us. “Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will answer you,” says the Lord.

Yes, we call on Him, and we can call on Him even when we are in trouble because of our own sins and failings. Remember how often Israel cried to the Lord during the time of the judges, when they forsook the Lord and followed strange gods. He heard, He answered, and saved by His mercies. Yet, when saved, they soon forgot the Lord, and instead of thankful, obedient living, they went their own ways. Thankfulness. The Samaritan alone of the ten returned to praise God and give thanks to Jesus, Master, for showing mercy to him.

Were the other nine really cured? Yes, they were. The Lord had indeed showed mercy to them, and they received that mercy in their own bodies, and yet, we might say, they did not fully embrace that mercy, for if they did, they would have joyfully returned with this Samaritan to Jesus. Do we joyfully embrace the salvation God gives us? Not just the salvation against hellfire at the last day, but salvation from our hurts and pains, salvation from the dilemmas we find ourselves in because of sin, or because we have neglected our duties? How often have you had this experience, that you have faced a problem, that try as you may, you can’t solve it. Finally, out of desperation, you come to the Lord. Then, a couple of weeks later, the problem is resolved. It disappears. It’s not there any longer. Whoa, what happened? It went away. It’s gone. Wow. Then what? How does our thinking go? We think, well, it just went way. Really? And we forget that God acted in answer to our prayers, and we fail to give thanks to God.

Beloved, remember the words of the apostle Paul as he was writing about the vile heathen who knew not God. What did he say in Romans 1 that characterized the heathen apart from God? Romans 1:21: “Because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful…” Nor were thankful. Ingratitude is the great charge Paul brings against them. And us? Listen to the Psalmist, Psalm 116, the one we sang a few minutes ago: “What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits toward me? I will take up the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord, I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all His people.” “Now in the presence of all His people.”

Public thanksgiving, gratitude and praise expressed in corporate worship. Verse 18,19, “I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all His people, in the courts of the Lord’s house, in the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord.”

How can we make this more meaningful, to bring personal, family, church thanks to the Lord? The nine were shamed by the gratitude of this one Samaritan. We remember God in adversity, but so soon forget Him in prosperity.

But what about the priests? Wouldn’t this Samaritan have had to still go to the temple and to the priests? He did. He did? Yes, however, instead of going to the Old Testament temple, he went to the New Testament temple, Jesus Christ himself. You remember that in John 2 Jesus said, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” He was speaking of Himself, for He was the true, the real meeting place of God and man. For He was both God and man.

He came to the temple, and he came to the priest, for the priest was Jesus Christ himself. He had that priest, and we have that priest, who today has entered the holiest for us, that we may have a strong consolation, that through His words, through His pronouncement, we are clean, personally, socially, and spiritually. Through the Word of Christ, through the body and blood of Christ, He Himself officially declares that we may consider ourselves to be children of God, saints, holy ones of the most High. He Himself declares that we are members of one another again, joined in community with all the members of the church, restored socially. He Himself declares, that as the Father has loved Him, so the Father loves us. We are accepted in the beloved.

But again, let me raise the question. How do we know all this? What is the ministry of the church and its officers for us in all this? Has this been neglected?

Let’s return to this theme of thankfulness again. This Samaritan came to Jesus, fell at his feet, and praised God, thanking the Lord Jesus for his mercies. “And He said to him, “Arise, go your way, your faith has made you well.” “Your faith has made you well.” This is a curious statement. For in our confession, the Heidelberg Catechism we ask the question: “Why do you say that you are righteous only by faith?” and we answer, “Not that I am acceptable to God on account of the worthiness of my faith…”

We have no problem accepting that as Biblical truth. And yet, and yet, the Bible so often presents us seeming contradictions, for in this statement of Jesus to the Samaritan He seems to attribute his healing to the worthiness of his faith. Well, we can believe both and still be comfortable, for this is what our God says.

There are four instances in the gospel of Luke where Jesus says this and each of the people to whom He says this are in some sense outcasts.

In Luke 7:50, Jesus said to the woman of ill-repute who had washed His feet at the home of Simon the Pharisee, “Your faith has saved you.”

In Luke 8:48, He said the same to the woman who was unclean because of the 12 year issue of blood.

In Luke 18:42 to the blind man at Jericho.

Each one, in their own way, was outcast, socially and spiritually, from man and from God. And in each case, Jesus said, “Your faith has made you well, or saved you.” Although in all cases He used the same word, which carries with it the meaning of saving, wellness, and above all wholeness. I want to comment on that later.

But now let’s look at this faith. “Your faith has made you well.”

Faith is perhaps the most precious of our possessions. We know it is a gift from God, but nevertheless, and paradoxically, God Himself treasures the exercise of that gift above all others.

Let me ask you this question: Do you aspire to have great faith? If you do, or if you now think that you should, do you realize that all the great trials and all the suffering you experience under the hand of God, are opportunities to exercise your faith, and exercise it in a way that triumphs, that wins?

Listen to what the apostle Peter says about faith, “Now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, (let me emphasize that) being much more precious than gold that perishes, it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Faith is a precious commodity, a gift from God, treasured, loved, and honored by God, now, and certainly on the great day when Jesus will appear. Will God honor your faith? Well, here is some evidence for you. Read Hebrews 11, read of all the trials and struggles of the Old Testament saints, and then ask yourself how they conquered. The answer of course is, by faith. And God has set down the list of their conquests of faith continuously in print for 2000 years that we may admire them, and be encouraged to follow that faith, precious in the sight of God.

Now let me return to a theme I mentioned earlier, and that is the added dimensions to healing and cure. Jesus said, “Your faith has made you well.” That word “well”, as I mentioned, means wholeness, complete restoration. Being well is life in the kingdom of God that Jesus brought, living in the expectation and reality of full deliverance.

Each of the four accounts where Jesus mentioned faith and wellness, is followed, either directly or after another related narrative, by Jesus’ conversation about the kingdom of heaven. Luke 7 the forgiveness of sins. Luke 8 the resurrection of the dead. Luke 17, the call to suffering. Luke 18 & 19, a wholeness that includes both physical healing and salvation.

The Samaritan returned to Jesus, and became one of those, like the disciples, who found in Jesus entrance into the new kingdom, for Jesus was breaking into the old and establishing the kingdom of God on earth. This story’s definition of healing includes more than just a cure for leprosy. It describes a particular sense of wholeness, one that recognizes God, who created the world and elected Israel as a player in human life, on that sees the eschatological, the final and complete saving and healing presence of God in Jesus Christ.

For the healed leper then, community, restoration to social relations with others, is not merely human intercourse, it is the church, participation in the body of those who recognize Christ as Head, the place where outcasts and aliens find a home among the disciples of Christ.

Wholeness is given not merely by therapy, but by forgiveness; it recognizes the essential incompleteness of man without the saving work of God. Cure and healing are given not only for the sake of one’s own well-being; they are gifts of a Christ and teach us that life is found as it is given away (Luke 17:33), following Christ who models a mission of one who came not to be served, but to serve.

Many definitions of holistic and traditional healing know of the need to care for the spiritual dimension of life—often however with little content and no way to test the truth or value of such spirituality. Biblical healing sees a spiritual dimension to life because it sees a human person created in the image of God. It sees that because of sin and its consequences, man needs far more than creation can offer. Biblical healing recognizes a distance between man and God, the reality of alienation between man and God, and therefore between man and man.

God’s intervention in this world is to overcome this alienation in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Healing and saving, healing and mission, are intimately and integrally related. Is the church in the healing business, apart from the vocations of some of its members? Was divine healing only a reality in the time of Christ? God does mean for people to be well, and he provides for it not only through creation and human vocation, but also through the ministry of prayer and the proclamation of the renewing power of God’s Spirit in and through the gospel of Christ.

Church ministry will not so much focus ministry on human potential as on the new life given by the death and resurrection of Christ and presented in word and sacrament. Jesus does not provide healing through ecstatic experience or unlock the secrets of creation known only to Him. Jesus embodies the very presence of God, and in that presence sin, death, and the devil cannot abide.

So, let us remember mercy, gratitude, faith, and the church’s ministry to bring wholeness. And let us come to the table now, in humble faith, knowing our need for mercy, in great thankfulness for God’s great gift of his Son’s sacrifice, and in complete assurance that the work of Christ’s Spirit in us will bring us all to complete wholeness. Amen.