Quite often when we look at the account of the healing of the 10 lepers, we think of the nine who didn’t give thanks as ungrateful. Perhaps they were. But we have to hand it to them, in this: They had known and owned their previous condition: unclean, leprous, and helpless…and when they heard that Jesus was coming, they went to the right person to cry out for help.
Leprosy was a nasty and painful wasting disease. It first attacked the skin, producing boils and scabs; turning it white and yellow. A person’s hair would fall out. Frequently, the nose and lip would be eaten away. The bones and joints would dissolve. Eventually, after long-suffering, death would occur. During that time between the diagnosis and death one would have to endure the social stigma, the isolation, and the permanent separation from society and those whom you loved, with the knowledge that you would most likely never get better.
According to the Law of Moses, if you had even the slightest symptom of leprosy, you had to be stripped and examined by the priest. If you were pronounced unclean, you were to quarantine away from the community, away from your wife or husband, children and parents and friends, and away from the temple and its sacrifices. This wasn’t like a 2 week quarantine like in 2020 with the coronavirus. This was a lifelong quarantine. Unless… what you had wasn’t leprosy but some other skin disease. If it were some other disease, it would get better, and once it was gone, you could show yourself to the priest and be welcomed back into the community.
This wasn’t the case for the ten leprous men. They had leprosy and were still quarantined outcasts, separated from their family, friends, and homes. The lives they used to live were gone. They were quarantined until death.
But they went specifically to where Jesus would be; the place of mercy. To the great high priest, the sacrifice to be, with the last of their hope. Standing at a distance, they lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us” (Luke 17:12-13).
We know this prayer. Along with the Lord’s Prayer, it’s one of the most common prayers we pray to God. This cry asking for mercy is the essence of our faith in Christ. It is a cry of desperation, in trouble, trial, illness, and tribulation. It’s a cry acknowledging the death sentence of our sin, our desperate need for salvation from God and no other. It is the cry of one who is afraid of receiving the full weight of what sin deserves: isolation and quarantining from God, from His gifts, His presence. It acknowledges that one is worthy to be cast out from the holy assembly and community, sentenced to die a horrible never ending death in hell. This prayer for mercy relies upon the grace of God in Christ Jesus. There is hope in that cry of faith. That is why the cry of prayer goes out to the Lord even this day in all our trials, troubles, and needs. We seek the Lord to cry out to God for grace and mercy, completely reliant upon Him in order to receive forgiveness from sins for the sake of Jesus.
Leprosy and the way it was treated in the Old Testament, points to that greater disease that affects us all: sin. Sin is disobeying God’s Law in your thoughts, words, and deeds. It’s deadly and incurable, without Christ. You can’t shelter-in-place or mask-up to avoid it. Every person since Adam has been infected by it when we were conceived and then it grows by our own sinful act or inaction.
Unable to remove it, we’re completely reliant upon the mercy of God for rescue, relief, and restoration. And so, we cry out with the lepers, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us” (Luke 17:12-13).
We see our dependency upon Him in all things, not just for forgiveness. We see our dependency upon Him to rule and bring order into this world, where conversation is met with violent reaction, as people celebrate any violence, murder, and cruelty, as protests wrack the country, as violence continues between Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Gaza, and in other places around the globe, “Lord have mercy.”
We see our dependency upon Him as sudden storms created mudslides this week in parts of this community, as fires struck this area last year, as people wonder and worry about earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, drought, and the list could go on, “Lord have mercy.”
We see our dependency upon Him as we suffer illnesses, broken relationships, financial strains, hardship, and even death. We pray: “Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy.”
In the face of their adversity, the ten lepers rightly cried out to Jesus. Their adversity taught them they couldn’t rely upon themselves. “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us” (Luke 17:13).
“When He saw them, He said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests'” (Luke 17:14). Jesus had mercy upon these men, for as they went, they were cleansed (Luke 17:14). Yet, God’s mercy isn’t dependent upon the faithfulness of one’s cry for mercy. God is merciful because of His love in Christ Jesus. However, we see in this account how so many people respond to God’s mercy. Joy in receiving it, but ingratitude and forgetfulness regarding who granted the blessing afterwards. Despite this forgetful ingratitude, Jesus does not remove the healing.
“Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, ‘Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?'” (Luke 17:15-18).
The nine lepers wanted mercy from God. They cried out to the God-Man Jesus for mercy in their time of need. However, once it was provided, they felt they no longer needed Jesus. In their minds, He had served His purpose, and then they forgot Him.
Does this sound familiar? It should. We see this ingratitude all the time. Sadly, we’re guilty of it too. Quite often us Christians are just like this in relation to God. We cry out to Jesus for mercy when we need Him. But once life’s troubles have passed, we easily forget Him. Our cries for mercy cease when our immediate troubles cease and we never return to thank and praise Him. And if we do, our thanksgiving is often short-lived.
To the nine, Jesus responds with a rebuke, but to the Samaritan who had returned to Jesus, who praised God with a loud voice, and threw himself at Jesus’ feet giving Him thanks, Jesus says, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well” (Luke 17:19). Literally, Jesus says, “…your faith has saved you.”
Fellow redeemed, God would have you continually go to Him in faith both in your time of need and when you’re well. So that you would live by faith in God every day, knowing and rejoicing that He is merciful for Christ’s sake. As your High Priest, Jesus doesn’t stigmatize you because of your sin, He does not cast you aside when you cry out in repentance, He does not relent in His mercy, instead, He willing comes to you. He bears the leprosy of your sin and the death it brings. He’s the true High Priest who offered up His own body on the altar of the cross to pay what your sins deserve, and His death and resurrection holds within it the cure and the way to cleanse you from your sin. He’s the One acceptable sacrifice who appeased God’s wrath. Through His holy and precious blood, He paid for and covered all your sins. He restored you to fellowship with God, even as we celebrate and receive that fellowship here in the Sacrament of the Altar. Through His blood, He richly and daily provides you with all that you need to support this body and life.
Jesus and His mercy aren’t merely a means to an end. He’s your beginning and your end. He’s the Alpha and the Omega. Go continually to your High Priest Jesus. Go to where you know He promises to be: in His church where His Word and His presence is preached, heard, and given. Continually cry out to Him, “Lord have mercy.” Receive the healing which the true Priest Jesus has earned for you by His death on the cross. Fall on your knees before Him. He is present in His church, at His altar, at His font, and in His Word for the forgiveness of your sin. Go show yourself to Him who heals you of your sin. Glorify Him with a loud voice in your songs. Give thanks to Him in your prayers. Show mercy to those around you. Return to Him, receive, and give thanks.
Thanksgiving is the natural response to faith. Christians complete their prayers and cries for mercy with uplifted voices of thanksgiving. Worship attendance, presence in this community that gathers around the Word and Sacrament that is the response of grateful faith. Christians gather where Christ is. Christians go to where Jesus is to hear their Lord’s Word and to receive their Lord’s Sacrament. They come together with other repentant sinners begging for mercy, to receive that mercy, and to respond in thanksgiving.
Two weeks in a row we have heard accounts of Samaritans. Last week in the Good Samaritan and this week in the Samaritan that falls down and worships Jesus as God. Two weeks in a row we see that the divine character of Jesus is to show this mercy to all who ask. So too, Jesus has come to show His mercy, every week, every Divine Service, in the midst of every trouble, all so that you can know His love and mercy, for you to be cleansed of your sin by His blood, to live in His grace by faith until we are brought to the place of complete and total healing: eternal life in the glory of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Pr. Aaron Kangas