Ten Minus Nine

“ And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole. ”

If you had leprosy, would you want to be cured? If you had been cured of leprosy, would you be thankful for it? Would you be willing to change your life's direction after such a miraculous cure?

Everyone would automatically say, “Yes,” to those questions, I'm sure. But are you really willing?

Leprosy is a horrible condition, a chronic bacterial infection of the skin, the membranes, the eyes and nerves in the hands, feet, skin and extremities. It is spread by air-bourn droplets from sneezing or coughing. In its most extreme forms, a horrible wasting away of flesh is followed by loss of limbs and slow death. Today it is curable and no longer requires quarantine for victims. The irony of the leper is that, because he loses sensation in his skin, hands, and feet, even before the flesh is much more affected, he has essentially lost his hands, feet and skin for he no longer really knows that they are there.

Ten men came to Jesus to be healed of their leprosy. In those days a leper was required to live apart from other people. Jewish Law stated that: “ the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean.” “Command the children of Israel, that they put out of the camp every leper.” Lev. 13:45 Num. 5:2 If a leper went into remission and was somehow healed, the priests were to certify the healing. Lev. 14:2-3 Life as a leper was hardly life at all, life as an outcast, a pariah; it was a slow dying without much hope. Jesus sent the ten lepers away to have them certified by the priests that they were healed and on the way their leprosy disappeared. No doubt nine men showed the priests their healthy skin and were given a clean bill of health. Nine men were happy. Nine men got to return to their families, resume their former walks of life, start where they'd left off. It was happy days for the nine.

But there were ten lepers. One was not Jewish, or would not have been considered so by the Jews. He was a Samaritan. Samaria, at the time the northern kingdom was overrun by the Assyrians 700 years before, lost its Jewish population and was settled by various races and religions, becoming a hodgepodge of races and religious practice. The Jews despised them. What the priests would have said to him was uncertain. As a Samaritan, he was free from the Law. So, when he realized that he had been healed after praying to Jesus, he had gratitude for One only, and he began to run back to Him.

Jesus met him and asked where the others had gone. He knew the answer, of course, for He had sent them to the priests, obeying the Law. Jesus obeyed the Law completely. But the Law couldn't heal these men. If they were healed, they owed the thanks to Jesus and His Father, not the priests, not the Temple, not the Law. It is strange to think that only the Samaritan realized that, but this miracle is recorded in Scripture for us to consider why only one came back to give thanks.

This was Jesus' great problem. He was sent to bring the Good News of salvation to God's chosen people. It should have been happy tidings to all of them. But God's people were satisfied with the Law, the status quo , and their rendition of the religion they'd received from Moses and the Prophets. To the Jews of His day, there was nothing needed except perhaps getting rid of the Romans. They might call out for Messiah to come, but they really didn't want anything new, for anything to change. Jesus brought change, and it really shook a lot of people up. They didn't like it. He was asking too much of them.

Ten lepers were healed, but only one came back to give thanks. Thanksgiving was central to Old Testament worship. The sacrifices of Judaism were given with thanks to God. The Psalms are filled with the greatest expressions of praise and thanks to God. For centuries the Jews remembered their deliverance from Egypt into the Promised Land with thanks. Giving thanks is also a natural part of Christian worship. When we realize what we have been forgiven, what Jesus did for us, what grace is ours, and the happy future life we are promised, we give God great thanks and praise. Eucharist means thanksgiving in Greek, and we thank God for this Sacrament of Life. But while it is natural and appropriate for us to render true thanks to God, the very form of worship and the familiar pew, the old songs, the beauty of Liturgy can distract us from what is going on beneath the forms. The forms can become the reason for all of it. “We come to do this, because this is what we do.”

Jesus' frustration with His own people made him exclaim once, “many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.” Luke 4:27 “Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper.” 2 Kings 5:1 This pagan general came to Israel to find the one man he'd heard might heal his plague. Elisha, testing his humility, didn't even come out to see him, but sent word through a servant to go wash seven times in the Jordan and he would be cleansed. Naaman was angry about his treatment, but his servants convinced him to do as the prophet said. He was healed and came back to Elisha with gifts in order to thank him. Jesus cites this familiar story to the Jews to provoke them, for the Gentiles were receiving His message, while the Jews were resisting the grace of God.

Ten lepers were healed of leprosy, but nine of them stopped right there. The physical healing was enough for them, and they returned to their former lives untouched by the greater thing that had happened, and something greater still that might have happened to them. No one could command leprosy to leave a person and make it so unless God was acting through him. This man was at least as great as Elisha. But the nine went on to see the priest. This man had healed not one, two or even three at once, but ten. One might be a fluke, a coincidence. But ten healings at once proved that it came from him. The nine disregarded it. They never felt the loss of what might have come from that day. They were healthy. That was all.

Ten lepers were healed, and nine simply lived out what was expected. One man, however, got a better, deeper healing. Leprosy deadens its victims, makes them insensible to their extremities, to their rotting flesh and open sores. They don't really know how sick they are, and they wrap the wounded flesh in rags to hide and contain it. So they don't see it, either. If the society around them had been neutral about it too, these lepers might have been able to pretend completely that they weren't sick at all.

How many sicknesses exist in our society today that we try to ignore, that we redefine as health , that we are unwilling to address as sickness? Sure, AIDS is treated as a civil right instead of a seriously infectious deadly illness. But how about obesity ? I was stopping at a Burger King this week— not to eat —and noticed signs for the new Triple Whopper with Cheese . I asked a very pleasant, very overweight worker how many calories one of these had, and she walked me over to a notice on the wall that showed the caloric content of their products. The Triple wasn't there because it's new, but an easy calculation from the single and double Whoppers with Cheese rendered 1320 calories for one of these babies. With fries, it comes in over 2000. Don't ask me what a milk shake would add, or even an extra large Coke. But we're fine. If Jesus were to heal ten 300lb., people, would they thank him, or go back to BK for a triple, fries and a shake, Super-size it please?

Are we sick and can we feel it ? Do we need to be healed? If we know the help we need, and we get it, will we be thankful ? True thanks means accepting the changes that come with the healing. Help a person off of welfare and they have to make it on their own. Many do. Some fall back into the comfort of having no responsibilities, no choice but to live marginally. These often become our homeless. Thankfulness is feeling your extremities , knowing the sensation of living, having pain responses as well as pleasure. Pain is a great gift, for it tells us of danger and injury . The pain of guilt should be enough to convince us that we need forgiveness, but more, a change of life. Too often we deaden the pain and disregard the consequences of our sins. If Jesus were to forgive us, we'd be glad perhaps, and go right back to do it all again.

Ten lepers were healed by Jesus, and nine went back to Burger King. It's what we do. Ten minus nine left one, one thankful soul. Jesus saw his faith, was happy for the man. St. Paul enjoins the Galatians to walk in the Spirit, not in the flesh. Here flesh is like the diseased flesh of a leper, rotting with adultery, fornication, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, etc. Galatians 5:19-21 Last night Giti read this and told me that Paul listed the top two as adultery and fornication. I replied, “They still are.”

If we really want to be healed, forgiven, made new, given another chance, we have to know we are sick with these diseases, and ask Christ to heal us, and when we are healed, realize Who did it, thank Him and walk in the changed nature. The Samaritan did just that. Jesus saw that, and declared, “Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.”

PFH+