October 28, 2001 Luke 17:11-19
11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”
14 When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.
15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.
17 Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”
Dear Friends and Children of Our Savior,
It often troubles me to go through an instruction class - Bible Information Class - Confirmation Class - or even a Sunday morning Bible class - and see an individual or group answer questions on a piece of paper - but ask no questions - express no fears or concerns. I fear that I am producing an army of catechetical soldiers - able to recite doctrines and tell me what Original Sin means, but have no inkling of what it is and how it affects them. How could it be that a congregation of 120 people has not had one sin bother them so much or temptation as to call their pastor over it or bring it up in a Bible class? There has to come a time where the doctrine goes from the head to the heart. Either we are completely holy or we are completely blind. Could it be that nobody is struggling with sin? Or are we too proud to admit our weaknesses and sins?
The request of the lepers in today’s text reflects men who were in dire straits. They weren’t too proud to ask for help, and even beg for it. Oh that God would install such an attitude in us, where we would cry out to the Lord –
Jesus, Master, Have Pity On Us!
Ten men who were suffering from leprosy approached Jesus and called out to him yelling, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” What do you think of the word “pity”? It isn’t a very positive word is it? When we refer to someone as “pitiful”, it usually implies that they are too lazy to help themselves and they want other people to take care of them. For instance, when my son comes crying to me that his fork fell on the ground, I consider him to be acting in a “pitiful” manner - because he could very easily pick up that fork, clean it off and use it, instead of crying about it. So if we were to ask someone to have pity on us, that would imply that we are in a seemingly helpless position which we have gotten ourselves into.
In biblical times, people often looked at leprosy and other diseases as punishment for specific sins. It would be kind of like if you got AIDS in today’s world from a blood transfusion, some would assume that you got it from leading an immoral lifestyle. But such is not always the case. Leprosy was a contagious skin disease that was very common back in those times. It resulted in the formation of lumps, sores and other deformities on the skin and limbs of a person - often causing a person to literally fall apart at the seams. The disease can be transmitted in a number of ways, and it usually had nothing to do with the kind of lifestyle a person was living. It was more a matter of what some would call today “dumb luck”.
What’s the question we often ask when things like this happen to us? We think to ourselves, “why is this happening in me?” When the World Trade Centers were bombed, the world cried out “how could God allow this happen?” But notice what these men do. They don’t call out, “JESUS, WHY did this happen to us?” They simply said, “Jesus MASTER - have PITY on us!” Instead of blaming Jesus for the condition they were in, they humbly asked him for help. In faith, they turned to Jesus their Master realizing that he was the only hope they had left.
Isn’t this life of the lepers a good illustration of the spiritual condition that we were born in? Psalm 51 verse five says, surely I was sinful from birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. After the fall, God looked at mankind and said, every inclination of his heart is only evil all the time. Not only were we born with sinful flesh, but our minds our hearts and our souls were also contaminated with sin within and without. And so we live in the world that – like a person with leprosy - is falling apart - both materially and spiritually. Children are suing their parents, parents are murdering their children, terrorists are killing thousands of people, and the economy of the world is going down the tubes. There are many people in the world blaming God for this condition. But he wasn’t the one who ate from the tree. He wasn’t the one who broke the rules. Man was. And it doesn’t do any good to shake your finger at God and get angry at him for what’s going on in the world. It would be better to follow the lepers who said, “Jesus, Master, Have Pity On Us!”
When the ten lepers called out to Jesus for help, how did he respond? He didn’t say, “I don’t have time for you. You deserve what you get.” Or, “here’s a quarter - go to the doctor and get that checked out.” With a message of hope he said to them, “go show yourselves to the priests.” The only time and an Israelite would show himself to a priest would be after he had gone through a period of uncleanness and was now ready to be pronounced clean. So in faith, the ten lepers went to the priests, and along the way they were healed. Jesus had mercy on them and saved their lives.
Isn’t this another great illustration of how Jesus deals with us? We come before him pitiful, diseased, ugly to look at, and dying. And what does Jesus do for us? He doesn’t only tell us to go and “show ourselves to the priests.” He tells us to “throw ourselves on the priest.” Jesus beckons you to take all your sins and throw them on him. Isaiah 53:4 explains what this means as it says, Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. On the TV show called the X-Files, they had a story about a family that used to keep an ugly looking creature in their basement. And what was even stranger was that people would bring their sick and dying family members over to see this creature and they would come back healthy. When Scully and Mulder went to see what was happening, they found out that this creature was able to take people’s infirmities on himself. So if they came to him and had cancer, he was able to take the cancer and his body, suffering a few days, and then vomit the cancer out. So as this creature lived on, it became uglier and uglier as it was contaminated with diseases, until it finally took on the disease of death and died. It was a strange story, but I thought it was a good illustration of what Jesus does with our sins. He doesn’t just heal us up our guilt and sin by giving us some medicine. When Jesus went to the cross, he had to take on our infirmities, our sins, our guilt, and our punishment. But instead of staying in the grave, our Savior rose from the dead. As our High Priest, Jesus sacrificed himself in our place. And now we are completely holy and perfect because Jesus took our sins on his shoulders and gave on us his holiness in exchange.
So when you come to Jesus and humbly cry out to him “Lord, Master, have mercy on us,” Jesus responds, “I did have mercy on you. I had your sins put on my shoulders, I became what I was not, a filthy sinner, so that you could become what you were not, a holy saint.” Instead of going to the priests, Jesus tells us to go to the cross, find comfort in your baptism, and through faith in him to become whole.
I. We are contagiously sick and dying
What a wonderful thing our Lord has done for us! Just as he healed the ten lepers, Jesus has healed us from a contagious disease of sin that was taking us to hell! Imagine how happy the lepers must have felt! In an instant Jesus had turned them from ugly outcasts with no future in this life to healthy members of society once again. They could once again return to their friends and family and live seemingly normal lives!
But how did the lepers respond? One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.Only ONE out of the ten came back to thank Jesus for what he had done.
You can’t help but wonder why on earth the other nine didn’t go back? Was it because the Samaritan decided he would? Once their leprosy was gone, did they go back to their prejudice against the Samaritan and not want to travel with him? One might have said, “I was starting to feel better anyway.” Another, “I’ll go thank the priest.” Another, “I need to tell my family first - they haven’t seen me for so long.” What ever their excuse was, it wasn’t a good one. The first thing they should have done was to return to Jesus and thank him as the Samaritan did.
This response of the lepers really hits us between the eyes, doesn’t it? In a country where we are given so many blessings, a majority of Americans have no church home. What is worse, is that we are following their example. Forget about the fact that we have more than enough food, plenty of clothes, and good health. Remember what Jesus went through to make you holy. He was living comfortably in heaven and he could have stayed there if he wanted to. But instead, he chose to take on human flesh, be bathed in your sin, and be punished on the cross in your place. How would you expect someone to respond who has not only been saved from death, but from hell? Thankful, right? Happy? If anyone SHOULD be thankful, it should definitely be us who have been brought up to know what Christ has done for us. Yet barely over 50% of our membership finds time to come and give thanks every Sunday. We tell God, I can’t give thanks this week, maybe next week when I have more time. In a few months I’ll be able to thank you with an offering, but not right now - I have too many bills. We complain if the church service lasts longer than an hour, but we are excited when a sports game goes into overtime. We react the same as Mr. Dunce would when he is told that a hen has laid an egg. When we hear that Jesus died for us, we say, “oh, that’s nothing new! Who doesn’t know that?”
When the Israelites complained in the desert, how did God respond? The LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. When you give someone something for their birthday, or you work hard for them and get no response, how do you respond? In anger, you might never give that person another gift. Or you might not work for that person again. Therefore, what should we say? “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”
How will Jesus respond? Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” Jesus was disappointed, wouldn’t you say? Surprised, that out of the ten men, only a foreigner came back to thank him. If anyone should have thanked him, it should have been the Jews who had faith in him, but they didn’t. Someone once said, One should pity the blind, but it’s hard to do if the rascal is the umpire. Notice - that Jesus didn’t take their health away from them - even though they SHOULD HAVE been thankful. He didn’t give them the leprosy back. Instead, he had pity on them. Instead of punishing them, he went on to the cross to remove their greatest infirmity and leprosy of sin. He forgave them. And on top of it all, he appreciated the thanks of the one man - the Samaritan - who most would have thought was the least likely to give thanks.
There are some nights where I wake up at one or two o’clock to the cry of my daughter yelling, “daddy, daddy.” When I go into her room she tells me, “I want some chocolate milk.” After I plod into the kitchen to get her some, I hand her the cup and say, “what do you say?” She replies, “thank you daddy.” Even though I have to prompt her to say it, I still accept her thanks and it makes me happy to hear her say it. Isn’t it wonderful that Jesus is much more forgiving? After God lambasts us for being unthankful, shows us very clearly why we should be thankful, and then tells us what to say and how to do it - and even gives us the POWER to do it - he then ACCEPTS our thanks. Instead of sending poisonous snakes, he continues to forgive and be patient with us - and he accepts the thanks we bring. Why? Because like the Samaritan we go in faith. With faith in Christ, we are God’s holy children. As much as we whine, complain, and moan, God still accepts the thanks that we do bring - as seldom as it may by - and as selfish as it may be. Jesus answers our prayer for pity with mercy. As our true Savior, he forgives us for shallow thankfulness. And that’s our motivation to thank him all the more.
II. We are conspicuously lacking praise
An Indian fable says that a mouse was in constant distress because of its fear of the cat. A magician took pity on it and turned it into a cat. Immediately it became afraid of the dog. So the magician turned it into a dog. Immediately it began to fear the tiger. So the magician turned it into a tiger. Immediately it began to fear the hunter. Then the magician said, “Be a mouse again, you have only the heart of a mouse and I cannot help you.”
In pity, Jesus turned the lepers into healthy humans again. In pity, Jesus turned us from sinful children of the devil into children of God. He answered the lepers cry for mercy, and he answered ours long before we ever prayed it. This gift, like the magician’s wand in the Indian fable, is made to turn us from pitiful sinners into thankful Christians. Has it done it’s trick on you? If not, you are to be pitied. If so, thanks be to God for his mercy! Amen.
