October 9, 2022 Sermon
Sermon title: "The Faithful Foreigner"
Scripture: Luke 17:11-19
(Other lectionary choices include Jeremiah 29:1 and 4-7, Psalm 66:1-12, and II Timothy 2:8-15.)
Luke 17:11-19
Jesus Cleanses Ten Lepers
11On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, 13they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" 14When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were made clean. 15Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. 17Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? 18Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" 19Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."
The person who wrote Luke's Gospel is thought to be a Gentile, the only Gentile whose writings we have in the New Testament. (In addition to the gospel bearing his name, it is also thought that he wrote the book of Acts.) All the other New Testament writers were followers of Jesus and believers, of course, as was Luke. But they all started out as Jews, and Luke did not. Therefore, one might argue, and I think it's a good argument, that Luke is concerned for the OUTSIDER. Earlier in his Gospel he tells the story of the Good Samaritan - certainly the quintessential "outsider" - and we find that story in no other Gospel account. I say all this as a preamble of sorts to today's reading: Look who comes back to thank Jesus: the one SAMARITAN in the group of lepers. And Jesus notes this and appears to be just a little miffed that the JEWS he healed did not come back and thank him, but the SAMARITAN did.
Do you think the person who wrote Luke felt like an outsider? I can't say, one way or the other. But we DO know from some of Paul's writings that the early church wrestled with the idea of who was welcome and who was not. There were some followers of Jesus who had started out as Jews, and some of them thought that one had to become a Jew first BEFORE becoming a Christian. The Apostle Paul thought NO, one does NOT have to become a Jew first in order to be a bona fide believer, and Paul's view won out. But there WAS that tension in the early church, and perhaps what Luke wants to point out is that actions and faith of a so-called "outsider" are every bit as valid as those who were sort of born into the faith.
I may have mentioned before that in broadcast journalism the early thinking was that one had to become a PRINT journalist first before reporting on the radio or TV. Why? Because that's what THEY had to do! Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite were PRINT journalists first before they ever sat behind a microphone or in front of a camera. So, there were those who thought that was the ONLY way to go. The same in the early church: there were those who said that since I had to be a Jew before I was a Christian, EVERYBODY has to be a Jew before becoming a Christian. Thankfully, that position died out.
This passage has so much to say. First of all, it's about gratitude. Be thankful for what you have, even if it's not very much. Secondly, it's about healing. God wants to heal EVERYBODY, even the Samaritan outsider. And God also wants to heal even those who are UNGRATEFUL. Jesus could have taken back the healing of the nine lepers who did NOT return to thank him, but he didn't. Such is God's love for all. Jesus and God love us with a "divine love that risks betrayal," according to the commentator Martin Franzmann. And one more thing......another commentator, John Oberdeck, says this: "What was different about the Samaritan's faith, as opposed to the others who were also healed? The Samaritan recognized all he received was undeserved and by grace. For him, the debt of gratitude was real."
Do you hear a little fragment of a hymn in your head right now? I do. It's from "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name." The line is, "Hail him who saves you by his grace, and Crown him Lord of all."
A Lutheran chaplain in Oregon, Jacob A. Scott, notes that all through the Gospel according to Luke, Jesus shows mercy to some unlikely people. And then he goes on to list those whom Jesus helped. There is a centurion whose daughter was in dire straits, as I recall, and there was even one person who was possessed by demons, we are told. "Soon, he will bring salvation to the house of a tax collector, Zacchaeus. {{And I plan to preach about that in a week or two!}} It is probably safe to say that these lives would be otherwise unremarkable, save for their encounters with {Jesus}. The Samaritan and his band of lepers share some important characteristics with this cast of unlikely characters in Luke and the other Gospels. They could expect little compassion or mercy from the people around them. Yet Jesus has already performed many miracles throughout the region, so it is not surprising that they have heard the stories about him."
We heard in the Scripture lesson for today that only one person, a Samaritan, came back to thank Jesus. In doing so, he showed up the Jews who DIDN'T come back. I learned in preparing this sermon that the word Judah in Hebrew means "praise"! Isn't that interesting? Jews are so named because they come from the tribe of Judah. Makes sense, right? What do you call a person from Judah? A Jew, of course! So, the Jews' very name reminds them to praise God, and in this case they didn't. It was the SAMARITAN who did! Is Luke saying something between the lines? Is he saying that those whose very name means "praise" FORGOT to praise God, and yet the Samaritan DID? I don't know, but it's an interesting thought.
But let's not spend a lot of time criticizing those who didn't thank Jesus. How about you and me? Do we thank God for all he has given us? Every mouthful of food, every breath of air, every note of the music we love all come from God! Do we thank him enough? How about the smiles on the faces of the people we love? Aren't those gifts from God, too? I just thought of another hymn, and we have sung it in this church: "All good things around us are sent from up above, then thank the Lord, then thank the Lord, for sending all his love." That's the chorus; I think it starts with, "We plow the fields and scatter the good seed on the ground...." But I think you get the point. Everything we have is from God.
There is something else here. When Jesus tells the Samaritan to "get up", he uses a word or words that mean RESURRECTION. In the story of the Prodigal Son, also found in Luke's Gospel, when the younger son comes home, his father says that the son "was dead and is alive again." NEW LIFE had come to this Samaritan, new life through a faith he didn't even know he had! See? I think Luke is saying. Faith and healing go hand in hand. Faith means trust. So, trust God. And be grateful. Be thankful. That's what it means to be a believer. Trust God and be thankful.
One more thing: we Christians sometimes like to think that it all began with Jesus, but it didn't. It began with God and the Old Testament. This is from Psalm 103: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget NOT all his benefits." Look at that! Benefits from God LONG before Jesus! Bless the Lord, O my soul! Amen.
Pastor Skip
