The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

October 14, 2001

By
The Rev. Ann M. Smith

Reading: Luke 17:11-19

Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. His journey takes him through the region between Samaria and Galilee. Galilee is familiar, safe and acceptable. Jesus has lived in its small villages. He has walked its gentle slopes. He has made friendships with its people. Samaria, on the other hand, is foreign, unknown and dangerous. It is off the main route. There in that desolate setting an encounter takes place – an encounter with the lost of society.

Keeping their distance – the fifty-yard prohibition – ten lepers call out to Jesus. Word of his miracles has reached even this wilderness place. "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" In their pain they cry out to him. Jesus hears their suffering.

"Go and show yourselves to the priests," he tells them. The priests will certify that they are no longer contagious. Then they will be able to resume their normal place in society. Jesus has given them a way back into the society from which they have been banished.

They do as they are told, all ten of them. They don't hesitate. They trust this healer. They go on their way filled with expectation. And they are healed. They have one immediate concern and that is to go to the priests, show themselves and then get on with their lives. One of the ten remembers to say thank you. It seems a simple gesture, one which is drilled into our heads by our mothers in our childhood. After all, "Don't forget to say thank you!" is one last reminder as the children jump out of the car to go to a friend's party. Why was it just this one person, this Samaritan, a foreigner, who took the time to show gratitude?

The gospel writer rephrases the Samaritan's 'thank you'. Jesus says that he came back to give praise to God. Then Jesus offers him more than a miraculous healing. He offers him wholeness. He offers him salvation.

As with much of Scripture we are intended to see the subversive qualities of the kingdom of God. Lepers were outcasts of society. Samaritans were treated with contempt. Yet this person, both a leper and a Samaritan, embodies the love of God in a way that transforms his life. It is a simple but disturbing story that lives itself out daily in our society. For in our society are many lepers and especially at this moment in history, many Samaritans.

After all, you don't expect the Samaritan to be the one who is grateful. You wouldn't expect the Samaritan to say thank you. After all, you all know what 'they' are like. Since the recent bombings don't we hear many such stereotypes? All of a sudden we all knew what Muslims were like. We all knew what they believe. We became wary of their presence in our community. There were backlashes against people whom we have considered our neighbours.

"You know what they are like", we say of refugees who seek asylum in our country. They are 'those kind of people' wanting to come to live here. They are waiting for the right moment to unleash their terror against us. But in our more rational moments we know that they are people fleeing injustice. They are looking for the kind of freedom that we take for granted. They are hoping to make something of their lives so that can give something back.

"You know what they are like," we say of people who are poor. During Theological studies, I did two Social Justice placements, one in street ministry and the other in a Food Bank. I often worked at the intake counter taking personal information, looking up files, and making recommendations as to what help was needed with a particular client. It was obvious to me as I worked that as a society we attach a great stigma to poverty. Most people did not find it easy to come in and ask for help. The counter was at the entrance to the building. I often saw people pacing in front of the building for several minutes before they came in. We always gave them something. They simply had to state what they needed. So ask yourself, why did they find it difficult?

I certainly wondered until I did the plunge – spent a weekend as a street person. Then suddenly I understood the feeling of shame and degradation that accompanies asking for help. Part of that feeling comes from inside us, but most of it comes from the attitude of society towards those in need. 'We all know that they are in need because they spent it all on booze. They are in need because they simply won't work. They are lazy.' More than once during my work in the Food Bank I heard one of my co-workers say: "She didn't even say thank you for all our help."

The Samaritan did say thank you. That was a miracle in itself. Nine others did what Jesus told them to do and were healed. The tenth leper went beyond the obedience of the others and showed in his life what true faith is. He recognized God's handiwork.

Throughout history many have called out to Jesus. Jesus hears them. He hears the pain of our mistakes, diseases, accidents, deaths, broken marriages, tragedies. Jesus who knows suffering and rejection stands in solidarity with us in the real pain of life. He offers healing. How we respond is up to us. For Jesus offers, not only healing but wholeness, salvation that transforms our lives, that brings us into the very kingdom of God.

If we are to accept that one of the themes of the story is gratitude, then I suspect it is about how we can best show our gratitude to God. How do we come to a true sense of gratitude even when we have "leprosies" in our lives that need to be healed? How do we stop seeing the leprosies in other peoples' lives and start seeing people created in God's image? For that is when we will start to address the needs of a broken world and our own complicity in the situation. That is when we will find ourselves returning to Jesus to say thank you and finding that we are not only healed but whole, made well, transformed and saved.