The One Who Came Back

21^st Sunday after Pentecost; Yr. C, October 13, 2013

2 kings 5:1-3, 7-15c; Psalm 111; 2 Timothy 2:8-15; Luke 17:11-19

Sermon preached at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church

            I was a leper.   You may not believe me because I look so good now.  But I was.  No one would come near me.  I would call out whenever I came near a village.  Unclean!  Unclean!  Beware!  And people would scatter in front of me.  They would run for safety and cover their faces.  Some would throw stones at me and chase me away from the village.  I was an outcast … an untouchable … ashamed … unclean.

            But then I found my brothers. 

They were lepers too.  We were all outcasts, so they didn’t seem to mind that I was a Samaritan.  We found that if we walked together, we could help one another along the way.  If one of us tired, the rest of us could help … find a stick for walking … or water for refreshment … or shade for a rest along the road.  And with all ten of us together, most people would give us a wide berth.  They were less likely to throw stones or spit at us or call us foul names unless we tried to enter a village.  Ten lepers together were dangerous.  Best just to let us pass by and be gone.  Even bandits on the road left us alone.  They knew we had nothing of value, at least nothing worth risking their lives for. 

              Those brothers kept me sane.  We’d walk and talk for hours.  Share what little bread came our way.  They knew the pain of that hideous disease.  They knew the shame of it too.  Sometimes we’d tell stories to cheer ourselves on the journey.  We had no home.  No one would take us in.  We were wandering alone.

            But then we heard that the healer was on the road too.  The one they call, Jesus.  He was walking to Galilee with his friends.  We wondered if we might see him.  We wondered if he might notice us.  Maybe he cold heal us.  I see the doubt in your eyes!  But it’s possible.  We’ve heard the stories.  They say he healed a man of leprosy already. (Lk 5:12-14)  If this Jesus can help him, maybe he can help us too.  One man was lowered down through the roof of a house by friends.  He was paralyzed, but came out of the house walking on his own two feet! (Lk 5:18-26)   It’s true, but I see you’re not convinced yet, are you?  

This Jesus even healed a man on the Sabbath.  The Pharisees really went after him for doing that!  A man with a withered hand was in the synagogue where he was teaching.  The Healer saw him, and asked him to come forward … told him to stretch out his hand.  And he made that hand whole again.  Yes, healed it right up. (Lk 6:6-11)  We believed those stories.  I believed them.  If he could heal those others, he could surely heal us.  He could surely heal me.  Of course, the chance of us crossing paths was a small one … but stranger things have happened.

            So we walked on together, begging as we went.  And surprise of all surprises, one morning we saw him.  He was with his friends entering a village.  Of course, we couldn’t follow him in.  That would be suicide.  The villagers would never permit that.  So, we yelled from a distance.  “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”  We would have said more, but the Healer barely even looked at us.  But I know he saw us because he called over to us.  He said, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.”  Now that seemed a strange thing to say, because he knew we were lepers.  Everyone knew we were unclean.  The priests would want nothing to do with the likes of us.  So as we watched him walk into the village, we talked among ourselves.

            What should we do?  What did he mean?  Did he really want us to go to the priests as we were?  Didn’t he know what would happen?  Several of our group wanted to wait by the village gate until he left, to call out again … perhaps louder, maybe getting just a little closer.  But in the end … we decided to go … together.  We’ve been thrown out before.  What did we have to lose?  So we laughed at our own folly, and started walking down the road.

            It wasn’t long before we were tired, and needed a rest.  That was when I noticed Timion.  I took his hand and turned it over in my own.  His skin looked fresh and new.  I felt the new softness of it, and my mouth dropped open.  “Timion”, I said.  “What happened to your hand?”  He hadn’t noticed a thing!  His eyes were wide with disbelief.  He threw back his hood and we all gathered to see.  We looked on his face, bright and shining with excitement.  He was clean!   One by one, we looked on each other, and all ten … yes, all ten of us were healed.  It was a miracle for sure, but how?  We were just walking, as we had walked for months together.  How had this happened?  None of us knew.  None of us could explain it, but the priests wouldn’t ask for an explanation.  They would look, and declare us clean! 

            It was too good to be true.  We cried we were so happy!  Quickly, we thought.  Let’s go to the priests.  Then we can begin new lives.  We can return to our families.  We can return to our work.  We can leave this horrible existence behind us.  But my heart was so full of gratitude that I called for them to wait.  “Wait, wait everyone.  We have to go back and thank the healer.”  I knew it had to be his doing.  “Wasn’t he the one who had sent us to the priests in the first place?  Didn’t he tell us to go?  We must go back and thank him.”  But the others, they weren’t convinced.  “How can we know it was him?  There was no trembling of the earth, no lightning, no signs.  We were healed on the road as we walked.  It could have been something else.  Perhaps another god.  We’d look stupid going back now.  Best to go and see the priests, be declared clean, and later we can figure out just how it happened.” 

But I knew.  I could feel it within my heart.  That man, Jesus, had done it. I was sure.  So I watched as the nine went off without me, and I turned joyfully back toward the village shouting God’s praises the whole way.

            It took a little while, but I found the Healer.  I threw myself at his feet in front of everyone. There was a time when I would have cowered before these people, but not today.  My shame went the way of my leprosy.  I was clean, clean in body and soul.  I was whole.  I poured out my thankfulness.  I was bursting to tell my story, but before I could even begin, the Healer spoke.  “Were not ten made clean?  What of the other nine, where are they?”  I could not answer for them.  They had gone on. “Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”  The others gasped, and I did too.  I am an outsider no longer.  I feel it in my heart.  I belong with this man.  Just as I was about to tell him so, he spoke again.  “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”   I did get up, because I am anxious to return home.  I went and found the priest, but I know it was not the priest who healed me.  Jesus did, as I walked on the road with the others.  I put my trust in the God he proclaimed, because now I am whole.  Now I will see God’s work in every little task of the day … in every step I take … in every person I meet.  Now I know that God is here among us, not far away … that God works miracles in the ordinary walk of our life … and that has saved me for good.

Amen.