‘Seeing’ is Believing

Trinity 19 – Holy Communion at St Giles 10 October 2010

Gospel Luke 17

Jesus Heals Ten Men With Leprosy

¹¹ Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus travelled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. ¹² As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance ¹³ 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."

This is the Gospel of the Lord.
All Praise to you, O Christ.

Sermon

It’s telling that if you type ‘Martin Luther’ into a search engine on the Net, most of the results that come up relate to Martin Luther King and not the 16^th C Dominican friar. The real Martin Luther protested the sale of indulgences and sparked the Reformation in Europe by posting on the church door of All Saints Wittenburg his 95 Theses.

This Martin Luther, amid the white heat of ethical and liturgical reform was once asked what was the nature of true worship. His reply was ‘the tenth leper turning back.’

Luke’s account of the healing of 10 lepers takes place in the region between Samaria and Galilee. That would be like saying today that an event occurred in the region between Palestine and Israel. Geographically there is no such region, but I think we can all grasp the significance of where the event took place.

Theologically, Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem and the cross. What happened along the way says more about the Kingdom he is about to establish after his death than its precise location.

Did you notice anything odd about what Jesus did? 10 leprous men stood at a distance and called out to him. Jesus did not approach or touch them, but told the men to go and show themselves to the priests. This is presumably what they would have done had they already been healed – giving thanks, offering sacrifices according to the law.

Believing, they turned and went. The gospel doesn’t say so, but I think we can conclude their faith played a part in their cure.

One man, seeing he had been healed, never made it to the priests, but turned back to give thanks to Jesus. The odd thing, for me, is that Jesus then complains about the other 9 for doing what he told them to do. They obeyed, and went to show themselves to the priests. It seems a tad disingenuous that the one man who disobeyed – a hated Samaritan – was commended for turning back to give praise to God.

Like the others, his faith made him well. The Greek word sozo can also be translated saved. ‘Your faith has saved you.’

Immediately after this account comes a passage about the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven, which I think is significant.

What I want us to see this morning, though, is what occurred at the very point when the tenth leper was healed. It says as soon as he saw he was healed, turned back… As soon as he ‘saw’…

Seeing is believing. All the lepers were healed, but only one ‘saw’ his cure in a particular way. He was the one who shouted in a loud voice.

The Samaritan leper ‘saw’ the origin of Jesus’s power. He returned to give praise to God. The other nine may have only attributed their cure to an itinerant preacher and healer, of which there were many.

Seeing in this way causes him to change direction. He veers from his previous course. And he turns from the old faith of the Temple towards a new revelation in Jesus Christ. That must have appealed to Martin Luther.

Think about all this made me ask certain questions about how we see our faith.

· Faced with human need, do we see demands or gifts?

· Faced with God, do we see a stern judge, or do we see ourselves as beloved children?

· As we look to the future, do we see a fearful uncertainty, or faithful discipleship in the loving arms of the Father and God at work in our lives and in the world around us?

How we answer these types of questions depends on how we see and believe. How we see dramatically shapes our outlook on faith, and so profoundly affects our behaviour.

At the outset of the story, 10 lepers are outcasts. Socially, religiously, economically and in every other way. They are in the region beyond – neither in one place nor another. A region that does not exist.

Jesus notices them, and draws them in. All re-enter society. They are made clean – acceptable once again. But only one remains outcast – he is still a Samaritan. Yet he was the one who saw in a special way. So he was not just ‘healed’ but ‘made whole’ or ‘saved.’ He might not have been restored to society – but he was restored to God – in the true sense of the alternative meaning of sezoken he was ‘saved.’

In Luther’s eyes, he was the tenth leper who turned back. Then, as now, turning back, changing direction, turning away from the conventional path, makes all the difference.

Seeing – is believing.

Amen