Luke 17:11-19
11 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he entered a village, ten men with a skin disease approached him. Keeping their distance, 13 they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14 When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16 He prostrated himself at Jesus’s feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? So where are the other nine? 18 Did none of them return to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”
This is not a “Jesus telling a story” sort of parable, but a “Jesus living a story” sort of parable. Regardless, all parables are meant to tell us something about the way God works. In this one, ten lepers yell at Jesus from across the street. They weren’t being rude. By law they couldn’t get any closer. Jesus hears their shouts and tells them to go and show themselves to the priests. Sounds odd, but back then priests doubled as dermatologists and only they could decide if you were clean or not. As the lepers walked away they were healed and in that instant Jesus shows us something about the way God works. God works in unconditional, indiscriminate, reckless, and radical Grace. Notice, Jesus doesn’t ask where they’re from. Doesn’t know who they are or what wonderful or awful things they may have done in their lives. Doesn’t care if they believe the right things or the wrong things or nothing at all. God’s Grace makes them whole, simply because BEING WHOLE is what they needed. None of them got themselves right with Jesus first. They were all made whole simply because MAKING CREATION WHOLE is the way God works!
As they all noticed what had happened to them, one turned around and came back praising God and thanking Jesus. Mind you, this was NOT what Jesus told them to do. Jesus told them to go show themselves to the priest. This guy though… a foreigner from the shit hole country of Samaria didn’t listen to Jesus and instead came back to say thank you. This little piece of this story is here to swing the sledgehammer of total, unconditional, unlimited, indiscriminate, reckless, and radical Grace a second time in the hopes that God’s Grace might actually break through our thick human skull condition. Samaritans were outcasts because of where they were born. Leprosy could be healed. Being a Samaritan was terminal. YET here we are taught something else about how God works. God’s Grace is given even to those who don’t follow directions and even to those the world labels as “terminally other.”
The label the world had slapped on him was “Samaritan”. What label has the world has slapped on you? I know. There’s more than one. Same. But let’s deal with the biggest one first. We’ll deal with the others after that. What we’re going to do is to take that line: “And they were a Samaritan”! and each of us is going to stick the label the world has slapped on US into that “Samaritan” slot. So, I’m going to say “And they were a…” and together we’re all going to each say out loud the biggest label the world has stuck on each of us. Ready? “And they were a ___________ !” Got the next label the world has slapped on you ready? Okay, here we go. And they were a _________ ! (repeat as many times as needed)
For people who have had each of those labels stuck to them in this life… this parable INSISTS that we hear that God’s Grace is ABSOLUTELY AND WITHOUT QUESTION, PRECISELY for people with THAT label! This parable is demanding that we hear that God’s Grace is ABSOLUTELY AND WITHOUT QUESTION PRECISELY… for YOU!
That fact is ten thousand percent true, AND also ten thousand percent difficult for us to hear, accept, and embody. This was Naaman’s difficulty in the first lesson. He was told by Elisha that God’s Grace was for him, but look at all he had to go through before he could even begin to hear that truth, let alone accept that truth, let alone finally embody that truth. He went through denial that this could possibly work. Anger that Elisha would not see him in person. Bargaining over which rivers were better. Depression that he had foolishly dared to have hope. Then finally… with the help of the people around him (point at all the people in the congregation)… the people who stuck with him through thick and thin AND who kept encouraging him to keep stepping toward a new life AND I’m sure encouraged him to not give up after immersing himself just once… or twice… or three times but to keep going even if it took seven whole times… even if it took seventy times seven times. Only then did Naaman finally arrive at a place where he could accept himself as a recipient of God’s gift of Grace.
“But Pastor Erik” you say, “those are the stages of grief. Why would we need to grieve the loss of these horrible labels the world has maliciously slapped onto us?” Why? Because we’ve all grown very used to those labels over these past 30… 60… 90 years. They are not kind labels… but they are very, very, VERY familiar. Often so familiar we have no idea who we might be without them. So to be rid of them means they must die and when anything that close to us dies, it means we must do the very hard work of grief and loss. That work isn’t easy. That work doesn’t go in a straight line. That work is done for as long as that work needs to be done… but it must be done, because new life can only happen when the old life has died. (A different parable… the parable of the cross… teaches us that hard lesson. But that’s another sermon.)
For today the take home message is that you are NOT the label the world has slapped on you, familiar though it may be. YOU are worthy of God’s unconditional, unlimited, reckless, and radical Grace… and you have been GIVEN God’s unconditional, unlimited, reckless, and radical Grace… not for anything YOU have done or not done… but simply because giving unconditional, unlimited, reckless, and radical Grace is how God works. May you and those around you here do that hard work together. Supporting and encouraging one another to let the harmful labels the world has slapped on you finally die… familiar though they are… and get to a place where you too can accept who and Whose you genuinely are… Because what you genuinely are is nothing less than a beloved and wonder-filled child of God. Amen.
