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“On Behalf of the Nine”
Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7; Psalm 66:1-12;
2 Timothy 2:8-15; Luke 17:11-19
Rev. Sandy Nuernberg
Oakland-Cambridge Presbyterian Church, Cambridge, WI
28th Sunday in Ordinary Time -
HIV/AIDS Awareness Sunday
October 14, 2007
Please pray with me, O
God, as we hear your Word and try to discern its meaning, allow your Holy
Spirit to come upon us and help us not to be ashamed or hesitant to help the
untouchable or the unlovable. Lead us to reach out to those whom others
shun and declare as outcasts, for we know your Son Jesus Christ reaches out
to everyone. AMEN.
In most situations today, isn’t it
noteworthy what nine out of ten together, accomplish in a certain way? We’re
coached, led, that it’s a ‘team’ effort, not an individual effort. If we have
faith together, good things will happen. At times the score of the game was what
the offense did, not on what the defense didn’t do. And it is especially
remembered if it’s a win on the road, not at home. In sports, statistics tell us
that home wins are a necessity and, perhaps because of cheering fans, easier
than road wins!
We have all these factors in mind
in our miracle-like text from Luke long ago; Jesus healing the ten lepers, the
only place it’s told. This isolated majority calls out for mercy and pity to
Jesus and accomplish something together; in this case being healed and returning
into society, into community. It’s a story of one clean Jesus, on the offensive,
liberating those unclean on the boundaries of life, physically and socially.
Importantly, Jesus was not in his home territory of Galilee but once again
traveling toward Jerusalem in the ‘in-between’ places. Most importantly, Jesus
was not among hometown fans; in fact, his effort at healing these outcasts was
entirely individual, wasn’t it? What are we to make of all of these factors?
Specifically, if the majority wins or rules, what happens on behalf of the rest,
the nine?
Clearly, the point of the story
seems to be about gratitude in wholeness; but isn’t it attitude too? Our text is
about thanksgiving in faith in the context of healing; to become whole! It seems
to me to be about ‘seeing is believing,’ and not so much in the leprosy being
healed, but in the realization of faith in Christ. Faith in Christ for
salvation; this is in the healing, the wholeness! The question is, who cares?
Well, we know one does care, the
Samaritan, that foreigner after first crying out at a distance, and then as he
falls to Jesus’ feet in thankfulness. He recognizes Jesus as the Christ. Then
comes Jesus’ familiar questioning: weren’t ten made clean, where are the other
nine, and was ‘this foreigner’ the only one to praise God? There is a similar
story of the one leper healed earlier in Luke
(5:12-14) where Jesus touched and cleansed a man and told him to
go to the temple-priest and make an offering. In antiquity, returning to the
priest was the law occasioned to become clean
(Lev. 13:47-49) after examining the garments. Also, these stories we
remember are similar to the woman sweeping for the lost coin in ten, or the lost
sheep in one hundred (Luke 15). The
numbers used represent ‘whole’ numbers.
The themes here and throughout
Luke are generally that Jesus is looking for those lost, ‘what are you looking
for’, but here the lepers are cleaned as they return to the priest. These
ten are put in a situation of choosing for themselves to give gratitude to Jesus
as the Samaritan did, or going on their way in life and nothing changes. I
believe this is a story helping us understand our own choices in life,
faithfully and fully recognizing where God is in our lives spiritually. The
Samaritan’s gratitude was in life-giving communion with God in the ways of
Christ Jesus. It was also his attitude in doing it. It seems the nine chose to
go back to their original ‘ways’ of life. Finally, this is what is frustrating
to Jesus; one out of ten are gracious enough and have the ‘attitude’ to show
praise!! Indirectly, Jesus might be asking them/us: why not make wise choices in
our faithfulness to God’s love and grace in our spiritual lives–rejoice, pray,
give thanks as we are cleansed day by day?
Martin Bell, a poet, a musician
and composer, an Episcopalian minister and writer has an interesting explanation
to what happened to the nine whom Jesus healed. I wasn’t familiar with Bell
until our Presbyterian pastor’s met this week at our weekly lectionary meeting,
and he was noted as kind of ‘sounding off’ for significant scriptures for adult
understanding. ( Bell, Martin, Return of the
Wolf, The Seabury Press, 1983, N.Y., p.39-44). Bell gives his version
of our gospel story and then excuses for each of the nine; one was frightened,
he didn’t understand. Another was offended because there wasn’t any
‘requirement’ before he was healed; in other words it was all too easy, this
becoming whole physically again. The third didn’t want to be cleansed–he needed
his own ‘identity.’
The fourth forgot! The fifth just
couldn’t find it within himself to say ‘thank you.’ The sixth, (are you
following yet?) a woman, hurried so fast home because she was ‘free’ and wanted
to tell her family. The seventh wanted not a thing to do with any miracle
connected with ‘Jesus.’ It might have happened that he was cleansed but how and
why were still questions. The eighth leper ran and told of the Kingdom of God
was here because Jesus healed him. Last but not least, the ninth leper no
one knows about, except upon returning from the priest, he was cleansed
( Bell, Martin, “ Where Are the Nine?”, The
Way of the Wolf: The Gospel in New Images, 1983,p. 39-44). But my
question is, don’t these surely sound like people we know? Excuses, excuses,
excuses. Jesus could have loved the one’s actions at his feet, as he said, ‘Go,
your faith has healed you,’ or he could have despised the nine who walked away.
Don’t we have excuses in not
including outcasts, those afflicted from a sound body and mind, those we feel
are ‘unclean’ in our selective understanding? But God knows, we know God knows
all about our intentions before we utter or perform them. And Jesus performed in
social, psychological, and spiritual boundaries not dared by other Jews,
Samaritans, or anyone else. He makes it a point to be with the ‘untouchables’ in
society, and encourages us to challenge ourselves, spiritually and physically,
to do the same.
Our good news, or perhaps good
‘stuff’ of the gospel is in the gratitude we have in our thankfulness to our God
who loves and is with us. In our attitude in making wise decisions, and even in
Jesus’ forgiving us in making unwise decisions. In our ‘in-between’ places, as
with Jesus, we are taught that the foreigner, the Samaritan, and the outcasts,
the lepers are to be included in God’s Kingdom? Our faithfulness is making wise
Christ-like choices in our lives, as Jesus’ boundaries, our boundaries are
perhaps on behalf of the nine, or the one. And Jesus’ love, our love is perhaps
on behalf of the nine, or the one!.
Thanks be to God. AMEN.
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