This week our nation will mark 25 years since the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center in New York. There are a lot of sad stories associated with that day. There were also a lot of heroes on that day. One name worth remembering is Rick Rescorla. Rick was already a hero before that day. He had served in the British Military and then earned a Purple Heart in the US Army in Vietnam. Following that, he became the Vice President of security for Morgan Stanley.
He took his job seriously. He warned about security vulnerabilities in the World Trade Center parking garage, three years before a truck bomb went off there in 1993. He also warned about potential attacks from the air. When the day did come, he led the evacuation of 2,700 Morgan Stanley employees, while singing “God Bless America” on a bullhorn.
“Rick, your folks are out. You’ve done what you need to do,” everyone said. “There’s more people in there. I have to get them out,” he replied. And he charged back into the burning building before it collapsed.
Some people are just different. It takes courage to not just go along with what everyone else is saying and doing. In Latin, the word for a herd is grex. To be outside the herd is to be egregius – which is where our English word egregious comes from. We don’t usually use that word in a good way. But sometimes we need to be egregious, outside of the herd, in a good way. It takes courage to act differently and stand up for what is right.
The man we meet in Scripture today wasn’t a hero for saving anyone’s life that we know of. But he was a hero of sorts. He had a heroic faith that showed in him doing something different from what everyone else was doing. He’s remembered for it as a good lesson for all of us. He alone turned back from the others to show his gratitude. And a grateful faith clings courageously to Jesus.
Our Gospel for today is a well-known account from Luke 17. This is the story of the ten lepers. At this time Jesus was traveling to Jerusalem. The land of Samaria was right in the middle, in between the Jewish region of Galilee in the north and Judea in the south. Jesus was passing along the border between Samaria and Galilee, and this would indicate that he wasn’t taking the most direct way to Jerusalem, but was following a more round about path, which would give him more opportunities to reach more people with the Gospel. And that’s exactly what happened here.
At the entrance to a certain village ten men with leprosy met him. The term “leprosy” in the Bible could actually describe a number of different skin diseases. Most weren’t fatal, at least, not directly. But they were very icky, and they were incurable. So even the Old Testament law included rules about how to handle these sorts of diseases. Lepers were required to live outside of the town. They were required to keep their distance from other people. They were required to announce their disease by saying, “Unclean! Unclean!”
That’s why they were near the entrance of the town. They weren’t allowed to go in. That’s why they stood at a distance as Jesus approached the town. And with as much voice as they could muster, which might not have been very much, since leprosy can affect the vocal chords, they cried out “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
This is a simple thing but at the same time it is a wonderful display of faith. This is exactly how we should pray to our Lord and Master, Jesus when we are in need. It doesn’t need to be a long prayer with many eloquent and flowery words. A simple, “Jesus, have mercy!” is enough.
The way that Jesus responded shows that there was nothing lacking in their prayer. But even more than that, it shows how great Jesus’ mercy is. It’s very interesting to see how Jesus answers their prayer and at the same time he tests their faith. As true God he could have healed them any way that he wanted to. He could have snapped his fingers. He could have said, “Be clean” and been done with it. But instead, he told them to go and show themselves to the priests.
They would have understood right away what he was saying, The Old Testament law required that they show the priests that they are healed before they would be allowed to re-enter society. But Jesus was telling them to go before they were actually healed. He was telling them to trust him, that even though right now they couldn’t see any healing, by the time they reached the priests, their request would be granted.
Why would Jesus test them like this? He does the same with us all the time, doesn’t he? He tells us to pray to him. He promises to hear our prayers and to answer them. He promises that in everything he will work for our good. And yet so often we say our prayers, maybe pleading with him for something with all our heart, and then find ourselves walking away without any evident results.
At that point the question goes to us. We have offered our prayers and made our requests. We have seen Jesus’ promises. Will we trust him at his word? Will we believe that he has heard our prayer. Will we believe that what he does is truly the thing that he knows is best?
It’s easy for us to think that if our Lord truly cared about us then he would simply grant our requests with the snap of his fingers. What is less obvious to us is that he tests our faith like this out of his love for us and for our good. Faith needs to be challenged in order to grow. It needs opportunities for courage. Jesus didn’t send these men away to see the priests with leprosy still on their skin because he didn’t care. He did this so that they would have the chance to put their faith in the words he spoke even when it did not match what their eyes were seeing.
And Luke tells us the results. “As they went away they were cleansed.” Not one of these ten men argued with Jesus. They listened to him. They did what he said. They went. They were healed.
Luke’s account could have ended right there. Some men in need showed a bold faith. Jesus heard their prayer and healed them. The end. Except there’s a little more to the story than that. Because one of these ten men did something egregious. He didn’t follow along with the herd. These other men had displayed faith in their time of need, yes. But in their joy they forgot the one who had healed them.
Luke says
15One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice. 16He fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, thanking him. And he was a Samaritan. 17Jesus responded, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18Was no one found to return and give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19Then he said to him, “Get up and go your way. Your faith has saved you.”
Luke reveals a surprising detail here. “And he was a Samaritan.” It’s interesting, isn’t it, that in their suffering those old rivalries didn’t mean so much. Jews and Samaritans never mixed, except here in this colony of lepers. It just goes to show that at the end all of our grudges and rivalries don’t really mean much. We’re all under the same curse, the curse of sin. We’re all scraping our way through this life, suffering under the same illnesses, faced with the same temptations, bearing the same guilt. We’re all heading to the same end, the grave.
Jesus didn’t distinguish between these men when he healed them. You would never have even known that this one man was any different, except for when he came back. Luke doesn’t tell us what it was like when he turned around. Were these ten men all running off, every man for himself, heading to Jerusalem as fast as their feet could carry them (which would be several days)? Or were they walking together as a group? Did they suddenly go back to their old prejudices, now that they weren’t sharers together in their suffering? Or did this one man, this Samaritan, suddenly stop, while the others looked at him with confusion, and say, “I have to go back.”?
We can only speculate on those details, but one thing that is clear is that this one man was different. He didn’t just go along with what everyone else was doing. He went back. He glorified God with a loud voice, one that certainly had no more rasp from his disease. He fell on his face at Jesus’ feet. He thanked him.
The other nine were just doing what Jesus had told them to do, right? “Go, show yourself to the priests.” That’s what they were doing, right? But the action of the Samaritan shows what they were missing. There’s plenty of time to go see the priests. You have your whole life ahead of you, thanks to Jesus. And that’s just it; thanks to Jesus.
Think of your own life. Your God and Lord has blessed you in so many ways. As Luther says in his explanation to the First Article of the Apostle’s Creed:
I believe that God created me and all that exists, and that he gave me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my mind and all my abilities.
And I believe that God still preserves me by richly and daily providing clothing and shoes, food and drink, property and home, spouse and children, land, cattle, and all I own, and all I need to keep my body and life.
And more than that, he’s given you his Son. Jesus came into this world for you. He wasn’t a hero by accident. He came here to die, for your sins, to give you life. By his cross your sins are paid for. In your baptism that old disease is washed away. You aren’t “Unclean! Unclean!” anymore. You have your whole life ahead of you, thanks to Jesus. And that’s a life you get to enjoy now in the peace of his forgiveness. And it’s a life you get to enjoy forever in heaven with him.
Jesus praised this man, “Your faith has saved you.” A grateful faith clings courageously to Jesus.
— Pastor Seth Georgson