WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE LEPER?
FATHER JIM FOSDICK
ST. MARY OF THE SNOWS ANGLICAN CHURCH
OCTOBER 14, 2007
Lord of light - shine upon us. God of love fill our hearts with your wisdom. Holy Spirit, bring yourself closer to us in my words and how we hear them, in our thoughts and how we think them. Use this time - and use us to accomplish your good will. Amen.
I was talking to a member of the parish this week and she described a bad day she was having. I prayed with a parishioner’s son who was hospitalized after being bitten by a brown recluse spider. These bites result in a flesh eating infection sometimes requiring amputation…no doubt a bad day. At the Mission I prayed for healing for a man with a bloodclot in his leg that was causing intense pain. Another bad day. I could list many more, and if we think for a minute I’m sure each of us can remember a bad day or a difficult time in our past. Maybe you’re going through a bad time now. The Bible never promises our lives will be free from pain and difficulties, quite the opposite it says we will have many trials and tribulations in this life. The secret to a successful life is knowing where to turn for help when you have a problem. That’s the lesson we are going to learn today from a man who had leprosy.
Our gospel began, Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” When he saw them, he said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.
One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him - and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go, your faith has made you well.”
As you study the New Testament you find Jesus performed many miracles and He taught many lessons. Led by the Holy Spirit the Gospel writers had to be selective about what they included. If the gospel writer or for that matter a writer of any book of the Bible, wrote down a particular account then it’s worth spending a little time to see the lesson being presented. On the surface, Jesus heals ten men of leprosy and only one returned to thank Him. In addition to this miraculous healing, there are some valuable spiritual principles to be found. I want us to look below the surface because I think there are a number of important lessons we can learn about ourselves from this seemingly simple report of Jesus experience with 10 lepers.
You may think a lesson about lepers is pretty irrelevant today…leprosy is pretty unheard of in the 21st century. In biblical times, leprosy was a terrible problem. The word was often used to describe a variety of skin diseases, but doctors believe most of the people suffered with what we now call Hansen’s Disease. It starts with a white patch of skin that becomes numb, so much so that the victims cannot even feel a needle piercing the spot. The patch begins to spread all over the body and often manifests itself on the face, so the disease is impossible to hide. It then begins to form spongy tumors on the face and, at the same time, attacks the internal organs as well. The nerve endings become numb so the victim cannot tell when something is hurting him, like fire burning his hand. The leprosy itself was not fatal, but many lepers died from other diseases they contracted because of their weakened condition.
Lepers were called “the walking dead,” and were kicked out of their homes and villages and forced to live in colonies with other lepers. They couldn’t work or worship at the temple.
So here’s the connection I want to make. We’re all lepers. We’re born with a disease that eats away at us. If we don’t deal with it we eventually become numb and it gets easier and easier to hurt ourselves and others. The disease we have is sin and so long as we are carrying it around with us we are the walking dead.
The same question faces us that faced the lepers. What am I going to do about this disease I have that’s killing me?
These ten men banded together and decided they wouldn’t just give up and die, so they got up and headed toward Jesus. When they found Jesus they didn’t engage in small talk; they cried out as one voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” Continuing with the analogy that the lepers are like us, they could have acted differently. It would have been easy for these ten lepers to look at each other and think, “We’re not so bad, we’re all in the same condition.” One of them could have said, “My leprosy is not as bad as his, so I’m doing okay.” Instead, they said, “We’ve got a big problem! We’re going to die! We need to get some help!”
Too many people today are living in denial. They don’t want to admit their need because they look around and they can usually find someone worse than themselves. Because we live in a spiritual leper colony called America, there are plenty of chances to think, “I’m not so bad. I’ve never robbed a bank, I’ve never murdered anyone. I’m not a drug pusher or a child molester. In fact, I’m better than most of the people I know.”
Brothers and sisters, before Jesus can help you, you must quit fooling yourselves and admit you have a problem, but that’s not enough, you must cry out to Jesus. All the twelve-step programs agree the first step for recovery is to admit “I am an alcoholic. I am addicted to pornography. I am addicted to cocaine.” But that’s not enough, you must seek help. Before you can have a relationship with Jesus you must say, “I know I am a sinner! Lord Jesus, have mercy on me! Help me Jesus!”
I read about a woman who was in the hospital when she got a bad report. She was so mad at God she went into the hospital chapel to tell God off. She was angry because she thought God had been fooling people by telling them He was a God of love. As she approached the front of the chapel she tripped and fell on her face. When she looked up she read what was engraved on the bottom step of the altar. It said, “God, be merciful to me a sinner.” At that moment, God broke her heart and she realized she had no business blaming God, instead she should be asking for His mercy, so she did. And God healed her.
Have you done that? Have you been making demands of God? Or have you come to a place of total surrender where you’ve said, “God, be merciful to me a sinner?”
Here’s something you may not have noticed in our gospel. Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem to die on the cross to redeem mankind, yet He still had time to stop and help these ten men. God is busy holding the universe together, but He still has time to hear your cry for help. Instead of laying hands on them, He simply said, “go show yourself to the priest.” Leviticus 13 has some very detailed regulations about how a Jewish priest could declare a person to be clean or unclean. These ten men knew they were unclean, they had already been declared to be lepers. Jesus brought them to a crisis of faith. They could have said, “No, Jesus, can’t you touch us or something, or say some words?” Or they could have looked at their infected limbs and said, “What? We aren’t healed yet! Just look! Besides, I got checked last month, and I’m no better off now than I was then!”
Instead all ten of them did as Jesus commanded and headed off to see the priest. They acted in faith. And as they were going, they were healed. There is a powerful lesson about faith here. It wasn’t until they stepped out in faith and obeyed Jesus, that they experienced His healing power. Jesus gave them the Word–they stepped out in faith and as Jon Madden would say –BOOM they were healed! That’s when it happened. They didn’t stand there and say, “Well, after you heal me Jesus, then I’ll go show myself to the priest.”
That’s the way faith works. Faith is trusting and obeying God even if you don’t have any visible, physical evidence supporting your decision. Faith is the opposite of knowledge. If you know something by visual evidence you don’t have to have faith in it. I know I can walk on solid ground. It isn’t faith to believe I can do so. I love the story in Matthew 14 about the disciples of Jesus out in the boat in the middle of a stormy night, and Jesus came walking on the water to them. They were terrified and thought He was some kind of a ghost. But Jesus told them, “Don’t be afraid.” Simon Peter who was always shooting off his mouth blurted out, “Lord, IF it’s really you, tell me to walk on the water with you.” Jesus said, “Come on!” Now here is a picture of faith: Peter threw his leg over the side of the boat and he started walking toward Jesus. Now you may think Peter was walking on water, but really he was walking on faith. Jesus told him to step out and walk, and He did. If Jesus hadn’t told him to step out on the water, and if Peter hadn’t had faith in what Jesus said, Peter would have sunk like a rock. And when Peter took his eyes off Jesus and started looking at the wind and the waves, he probably began to think, “This is impossible! There’s no way I can be walking on this water.” When he took his eyes off Jesus and began to doubt, then he began to sink. Jesus grabbed him and said, “Oh you of little faith, why did you begin to doubt me?”
Faith is walking on the Word of God. Faith doesn’t need any evidence, it simply obeys. The Bible is full of God’s directions on how we are to live, but with every single directive, He also provides the power to accomplish it. Our job is to step out in faith and simply obey Him. Years ago, I read a quote about faith that I think sums up what I’m trying to say: “Faith is coming to the edge of all you can see and feel and taking one more step into the darkness–trusting that God will either catch you or teach you how to fly!”
What is it today that God is telling you to do in faith? What are you waiting for? Step out in faith and obey Him, and only then will you experience His mighty power.
On the way to the priest, one of the guys looked at the other and said, “Hey Reuben, your skin is clean!” Then he looked at his own hand, and the color and life returned. They began to look at each other and suddenly they realized they were healed. Can’t you see them jumping up and down hugging one another?
At this point, we don’t know what happened to 90% of the group. Perhaps they journeyed on to show themselves to the priest, or maybe they ran back to their families–we don’t know. One of them could have said, “I want to see if this really lasts.” Or, “I was getting better anyway, I knew it was just a matter of good exercise and diet.” But we know from Jesus’ response only one of them did the right thing. He wasn’t content just to go to church and see the priest, he turned and ran back to Jesus and fell at His feet to give Him thanks. He wanted to thank Him and be with Him.
Falling at someone’s feet is a picture of submission and worship. Mary spent time at the feet of Jesus when He came to have supper at her house. The woman at Simon’s house spent time at the feet of Jesus washing His feet with her tears. In the book of Revelation, the 24 elders, who represent all the redeemed of all the ages will bow before the Lamb who is on the throne. It is good to spend time at Jesus’ feet. Here’s the key point: Ten men were exposed to God’s power, but only one sought a personal relationship with Him. Nine of the men were content to receive the blessing of God, but only one of them cared enough to return to the source of the blessing to worship God. That’s so true today as well. God’s blessings are poured out on all people, not just His children. Jesus said God makes it rain on the just and unjust alike. But only a relatively few people are interested in having a personal relationship with God.
Have you found you only come to God when you need something? Or maybe you use God like a spiritual 911 call? “Help, God I have an emergency, bail me out!” God loves you and wants you to spend time with Him. He desires for you to worship and fellowship with Him.
The man threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked Him. The most amazing thing about this miracle is that out of ten people who were healed, only one came back to say, “Thank you.” Jesus even took note of this in verse 17. He asked, “Were there not ten who were cleansed? Where are the other nine?” Note his next words carefully because He is identifying Himself as God. He asked, “Was no found to give praise to God except this foreigner?” When the man came and fell at the feet of Jesus to say, “thank you” Jesus said it was giving praise to God. Some revisionists say that Jesus never claimed to be God. Well he did here. I think God must be saddened by how few people actually express thanksgiving to Him. Many Americans are too busy to stop and acknowledge God and simply say, “Thank you, God.” Or they have convinced themselves they deserve everything they have, so why thank God?
The Bible says, “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” In adult ed we’re learning that what is God’s will for my life is the wrong question. It’s too me oriented. If you want to know what God wants you to do, start by reading his Word…the Bible. Then pray asking God to show you what he’s doing in the world and join Him in the work. When you see God at work give thanks. Give thanks because it’s God’s will that you give thanks as the scripture says in all circumstances. If you aren’t obeying that portion of His Will for your life, what makes you think He’s going to reveal any more than that?
The key is to give thanks, not merely to feel thankful. Now, I’m certain the other nine lepers were thankful about being cleansed. How could anyone not feel thankful after being healed of a deadly disease? But only one of the ten did the right thing by coming to Jesus and expressing thanksgiving. There is a tremendous difference between simply feeling gratitude and expressing gratitude.
With God, don’t just feel thankful: Give thanks! The Bible says in Hebrews 13:15, “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise–the fruit of LIPS that confess his name.” It says “the fruit of lips” not “a warm, fuzzy feeling in your heart.” Don’t just feel it, tell God how thankful you are. But you aren’t just to thank God for the good things in life. First Thessalonians 5:18 says we are to give thanks in all circumstances. Whatever happens, you can always find something for which you can give God thanksgiving.
If you are going through a time of pain and difficulty, why don’t you try to find at least five things about your situation for which you can thank God? Paul writes, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good.” If we try to see the good we have a better chance of seeing it. I’ve often wondered as I read about this healing of the ten lepers if Jesus was trying to tell us about the 90% of us who don’t thank God enough. Don’t be like the unthankful crowd. Determine that you are going to be like the one man who returned and gave thanks to Jesus.
Jesus pointed out that the one man who returned was a Samaritan–a foreigner. He acted differently than 90% of the other lepers. I believe there is a powerful lesson there for us as well. People who have entered into a personal relationship with Jesus don’t act or think like other people. We are always in the minority about the way we act and think. We never quite feel at home in this world, and we shouldn’t. The Bible says, “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.” It doesn’t matter where you came from; it’s your destination that’s important. Although we are citizens of Eagle River, Wisconsin, and America, our main citizenship is in heaven. That’s why we often feel like foreigners in this place. Whenever I’m away from my wife at continuing education or some clergy meeting, I always feel the “tug” of my home. I realize I’m only away for a short time, but soon I’ll be returning home. I feel the same way about heaven. This world is NOT my permanent home, and I often get homesick for heaven. Peter writes: “I urge you as strangers and aliens in this world to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.” (I Peter 2:11)
Just as this one man, a foreigner, acted differently from the crowd, so should we. A marching band was performing in a parade. All the band members were walking in perfect rhythm except one guy who was totally out of step. Upon closer examination, you could see wires running to his ears. He was plugged into his I-Pod and it was playing a different tune than everyone else was hearing. That’s a picture of us: we are marching to a different beat than this world because we are listening to different music.
Listen again to Jesus’ final words to this man in verse 19. He said, “Rise and go, your faith has made you WELL.” Concentrate on that last word; the original Greek word is sozo which means “saved.” It’s the same word the Philippian jailer used in Acts 16 when he said, “What must I do to be saved?” The word means to “be made complete or whole.” Jesus didn’t come to earth to heal people of diseases; otherwise He would have established a hospital. He came to this world to seek and to save the lost. He came to make people whole.
For some time now I’ve been involved in healing ministry. In the last year I’ve witnessed some incredible healings. The question arises, why does God heal people? I don’t think he heals them because he wants them to get over paralysis or a spider bite. He heals so that they or someone else can see the power of god and be saved. 100% of the time God’s primary concern is salvation. That’s why in healing the paralytic Jesus first forgave his sins. That gave him eternal life. Getting him to walk was just to demonstrate to us that God has the power to do that so we will believe he has the power to raise the dead. Here’s the result of our gospel miracle: Ten men were cleansed, but only one man became “whole.” Ninety percent of them only received a small portion of what could have been theirs, and only one received salvation.
Brothers and sisters, Jesus wants to do more than just help you with the current affliction you’re dealing with; He wants to make you whole and complete. When I went to Cursillo our scripture verse theme was Philippians 1:6, “He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it…” (Philippians 1:6) It’s a process. Have you simply approached Jesus because you want eternal fire insurance, or are you continuing at His feet daily so He can make you whole? I don’t know why you came to church today, but I know why Jesus showed up here today, He wants to make you whole! When I pray for someone for healing I pray very specifically for the particular problem they have but I almost always also ask that they be made whole and perfect as God created them to be.
So I want you to take three lessons away from this gospel lesson about the 10 lepers. First like the lepers you need to recognize you have a disease. You’re a sinner. Second you need to go to Jesus to be healed. You need to ask for forgiveness for your sins and promise to follow Jesus as Lord. Third, when Jesus saves you, and He will, you need to throw yourself at his feet and thank him. You need to spend time with him so he can continue the process of making you whole.
One of the things that has happened to me since I was saved is God has really softened my heart. I cry at movies now. I used to pride myself on being tough now I see both pride and tough as sins. I’ve watched some movies over and over again. One movie I’ve watched every year at Christmastime for at least 50 years is It’s a Wonderful Life with Jimmy Stewart. I always cry and the reason is simple. In the movie God saves George Bailey’s life and he gets his family back. That’s exactly what God did for me. He saved my life and I got my family back.
I was as good as dead, and Jesus touched me and He gave me hope. He not only cleansed me of my sin, but He is making me whole. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be like those nine men, I want to be the one who says, “Thank you, thank, thank you, Jesus, for what you have done for me!”
As the old hymn says, “Thank you Lord, for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to me, thy great salvation so rich and free!” Amen.
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