"Your Faith Has Made You Well"

21st Sunday after Pentecost (Ordinary Time/UM Kingdomtide), C
October 13, 2013
Luke 17:11-19

Introduction


Today’s Gospel reading is the Healing of the Ten Lepers. It has the characteristics of a typical miracle story. It begins with showing us a particular human need: There were ten lepers who are in need of healing. It also shows us the act of Jesus: Jesus hears their prayer and heals the lepers. The usual miracle story concludes with the person healed or the people around expressing their amazement (or fear) of the power of Jesus. But in this miracle story, one of the lepers who had been healed returned to Jesus and gave glory to God. This tells us the one of the fittest responses when one experiences the miracle of God is thanksgiving.

I. The human need: Leprosy. (Luke 17:11-12)

While Jesus was on his went to Jerusalem, “he passed thro’ the confines of Samaria and Galilee” (John Wesley New Testament) and as he was entering into a certain village, he met ten lepers “who stood afar off”.

In the Torah, the way lepers were treated was very severe. Leviticus 13 and 14 contains the laws regarding leprosy (or “infectious skin disease” as the New International Version translates the Hebrew phrase נגע צרעת  nega’ tsara’at, ‘the plague of leprosy’).

He is a leprous man, he is unclean; the priest shall surely pronounce him unclean: his plague is in his head. And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and the hair of his head shall go loose, and he shall cover his upper lip, and shall cry: 'Unclean, unclean.' All the days wherein the plague is in him he shall be unclean; he is unclean; he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his dwelling be. (Leviticus 13:44-46, Jewish Publication Society, 1917)

There is a whole book in the Talmud on the laws concerning leprosy, called Tractate Nega'im.

This explains why the ten lepers were outside of the village (“without”—or outside—“the camp” as the Torah says) that Jesus was about to enter and that they had to stand “afar off”.

It is in this condition that the lepers “lifted up their voice” and cried out to Jesus: “Jesus, master, have mercy on us.” (v. 13)

II. The act of Jesus: The cleansing of leprosy. (Luke 17:13-14)

The lepers said, ιεσους επιστατα ελεησον ημας, Iesous, epistata, eleison imas. The word epistata (translated as ‘master’, in the sense of ‘one who stands over’) is a word only used in the Gospel of Luke. (It is used six times: 5:5, 8:24, 8:45; 9:33, 9:49, and here in 17:13). Meanwhile, the other words translated (the most common) as “master” is διδασκλος, didaskalos, ‘teacher’ and κυριος, kurios, ‘lord’. While Luke also uses didaskalos, he alone uses the title epistatēs. This means that the lepers recognize Jesus as “master” who alone can heal them of their leprosy. They use a formula that has since been used as a prayer: eleison imas, ‘have mercy on us’. In the Greek Orthodox Church, there is a prayer called the Trisagion (the ‘Thrice-Holy’):

Ἅγιος ὁ Θεός, Ἅγιος Ἰσχυρός, Ἅγιος Ἀθάνατος, ἐλέησον ἡμᾶς.
Agios ho Theos, agios eschuros, agios athanatos, eleison imas.
Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us.

--They did not directly ask to be healed or to be cleansed, but they asked for him to have mercy on them.

Jesus hears their prayer and gives them an instruction: “Go, shew yourselves to the priests.” In the Torah, a person who has been healed of their leprosy to go and show themselves to the priests, who examine them and declare that they have been healed. Leviticus 14 contains the regulations regarding those who have been healed of leprosy:

And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: he shall be brought unto the priest. And the priest shall go forth out of the camp; and the priest shall look, and, behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper… (Leviticus 14:1-3)

…the priest will now prescribe rituals for the healed lepers to undergo in order to be finally declared “clean”. This includes animal sacrifices and the setting free of a dove (probably to symbolize that the leper has finally been ‘set free’).

Jesus did not instantly heal the ten lepers and tell them, “Go, you are now healed”; he said “Go, shew yourselves to the priests.” And as they were walking, the Bible says, “they were cleansed” (v. 14). Here, once more, Jesus is seen to have power over disease, even over one as terrifying as leprosy.

III. The human response: Giving glory to God (Luke 17:15-19)

A. Giving glory to God. As human beings, one of our responses when we experience the power of God is giving him glory. As the lepers were going to show themselves to the priests, one of them, when he saw that he was healed (or more precisely, ‘cleansed’; Greek καθαριζω katharidzō) he turned back and “with a loud voice glorified God” (v. 15, 18). The word used here is δοξαζω, doxazō, which is where we get the word “Doxology” (literally, ‘word of praise’). Among us Protestants, the Doxology is the Trinitarian stanza sung after the offering. There are actually two Doxologies: The “lesser” Doxology is the Gloria Patri:

Greek:
Δόξα Πατρὶ καί Υιώ καί Αγίω Πνεύματι,
Καὶ νῦν καί αεί καί εις τους αιώνας των αιώνων. Αμην.
Doxa Patri kai Huiō kai Pneumati,
kai nun kai aei kai eis touc aiōnas aiōnōn. Amēn.

Latin:
Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto.
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper,
et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

English:
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be;
world without end, Amen. Amen.

...and the “greater” Doxology, which is called the "Glory to God in the Highest". It based on the angels' song at the birth of Christ, is often used as the opening hymn in Roman Catholic masses:

Latin:
Gloria in excelsis Deo. Et in terra pax hominibus bonæ voluntatis.
Laudamus te; benedicimus te; adoramus te; glorificamus te.
Gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam.
Domine Deus, Rex coelestis, Deus Pater omnipotens.
Domine Fili unigenite Jesu Christe.
Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius Patris.
Qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Qui tollis peccata mundi, suscipe deprecationem nostram.
Qui sedes ad dextram Patris, O miserere nobis.
Quoniam tu solus Sanctus, tu solus Dominus,
tu solus Altissimus, Jesu Christe.
Cum Sancto Spiritu in gloria Dei Patris. Amen.

English:
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will.
We praise You, we bless You, we adore You, we glorify You,
We give thanks to You for your great glory,
Lord God, Heavenly King, God the Almighty Father. Lord Only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father,
You Who take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
You Who take away the sins of the world, hear our prayer.
You Who sit at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us.
For You alone are holy, you alone are the Lord, You alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ,
With the Holy Spirit in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

Among Protestants, the stanza sung to “Old Hundredth” is commonly called "the" Doxology.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
praise him all creatures he below;
Praise him above, ye heavenly hosts,
praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

The reason that we sing the (greater) Doxology after the offering is that we are praising God “from whom all blessings flow”, from which we get our offerings. We are offering only what God himself has given us.

B. Giving thanks to God. Another response that we can give when we experience the power of God is thanksgiving. One of the lepers, when he noticed that he was healed, returned to Jesus, “fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks” (v. 16). And this one was a Samaritan. The word used here is ευχαριστεω, eucharisteō, where we get the word “Eucharist”. During the liturgical renewal in The United Methodist Church in the late 80’s and 90’s (as expressed in our denomination’s official rituals, The United Methodist Hymnal, 1989 and The United Methodist Book of Worship, 1992), it was recognized that Holy Communion should be an integral part of worship. It is encouraging that more and more United Methodist local churches are now practicing weekly Eucharist. (Here in the Philippines, the practice is spreading in the Ilocos region after pastors there have studied This Holy Mystery.) I pray that this practice spreads to more and more of our local churches. Above all acts of worship, I believe that Holy Communion is the grandest way we can show our thanksgiving to God.

Conclusion

One of the ten lepers who cried out to Jesus for healing, only one returned to give thanks to Jesus: and he was a “stranger”, a Samaritan. (We can presume that the other lepers were Jews.) He receives and additional blessing: “Arise and go, thy faith hath saved thee”. In other translations, “thy faith hath made thee whole (KJV)” or “your faith has you well (NIV)” or “your faith has healed you (Recovery Version, 1985). The Greek word used here is σωζω, sōzō, which is can be translated as ‘to be saved’ is also the same word for ‘to be healed’. Not only has the Samaritan recognized Jesus as “Master”, in fall down before him, he recognizes Jesus as God. So in this story, all ten were “healed” but only one was “saved”.