Homily: Luke 17:11-19 (28th Sunday after Pentecost)
Written by Sdn. David Murphy (edited by Fr. Anthony Perkins)
Given at St. Mary’s (Pokrova) on 23 December 2018
The Gospel text before us today is a strange one. It is a miracle of the Lord, but not one where he touches someone, or tells them to get up, or even tells them that they are healed. He doesn’t do any of those things. In fact, the account of St. Luke does not even describe the actual healing at all. We are simply told that “as they went, they were cleansed.”
That’s it. No word of power, no command to rise and walk, no making mud and rubbing it on the eyes, no nothing. According to text, the only thing the Lord says to them at all is “Go, show yourselves to the priests.”
And then there is this powerful line, the one that we are focusing on today;
“And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.”
“As they went, they were cleansed.”
Jesus tells them what to do, they go off to do it, and somewhere along the way between Jesus and the priests, they are healed. The went and were made whole! After who knows how many years in isolation because they were lepers, they are miraculously cleansed and thus restored to their communities. They can now rejoin their families, loved ones, friends, neighbors, — everything they have missed. Their humanity is restored. The weight of sickness and separation is gone. They are able to live a life of joy and freedom. The kind of life that God desires for all His children.
This truly is a miracle: the restoration of community and communion between people long separated! Few things are more miraculous than this.
We could use a miracle. We are so heavily burdened by the weight of our oppression and suffer mightily in our loneliness and estrangement from our dearly beloved; an angst that is felt most heavily during this holiday season.
So how do we get our miracle? How do we get our healing? We know, like these ten lepers, that it can only come from Christ. There is no question about that, if for no other reason than that we have tried every thing else. Healing and reconciliation are found in Him.
The question is: How do we get him to heal us? It’s not like we can imitate the lepers, find out where He will be, and cry out to Him as He comes by.
Or is it?
Christ is as much in our midst as He was in the midst of those lepers two thousand years ago in northern Israel. Moreover, the Good News is that He has already told us so many times what we need to do to be healed – we just haven’t really had the ears to hear it! Moreover, we don’t have to hope or wait for a miracle, there is a real sense in which it has already been accomplished – it just waits for us to become part of it.
After all, Jesus ‘finished’ everything on the Cross and then triumphed over death, hell, and the grave. And He extends the promise and the power of His resurrection life – to everyone who will unite themselves to Him and follow His commands.
We have given our lives to Him, now what is it that He is trying to tell us to do? We have cried out to Him as He is here in our midst saying the same words of longing that the lepers said in today’s Gospel lesson; “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”
He is the High Priest who knows the pain of our sickness and separation and He is the One with the power to heal it. And what does He command? As we silence our minds and open our ears to hear His command, what does He ask of us?
Again, think back for a moment to our ten lepers. It was as they were on their way to do what Christ told them to do that they were healed. When they started out to go find the priests, they were still lepers. They acted in obedience to Christ before any healing had taken place at all. They trusted Him at His word and demonstrated that faith by being obedient to Him.
So what is the Lord asking us to do today so that we might be healed? He is ready and waiting, merciful and loving, extending His healing touch. What do we need to do so that we can receive that healing? So that we can know His joy?
- Who are we angry with, or against whom who have we been holding a grudge?
- Is there someone we know we have wronged, but just can’t make ourselves apologize and come clean?
- Do we have patterns of sin in our lives that we are allowing to go unchecked and untreated?
- Is there a hard but needed conversation that we have been avoiding for a long time?
- Are we part of patterns of behavior in our families that are unhealthy?
- Am we avoiding major changes in our lives that we know we need to make but are just too afraid or too lazy to do?
It is important for us to remember that as Christ calls us to obedience, He also equips us and makes us able – by His grace – to do what He has asked of us. We aren’t in this alone. He is always with us, and He has also given us one another.
The Lord told the lepers to go and make their way to the priests. When they left they were still lepers, but on the way they were made clean and restored to their community.
He has told us to take our own sins, to confess and repent of them – and show ourselves to the priests.
Let us make the story of the lepers our own story, especially this most crucial part;
“And so it was that as they went, they were healed.” And then, like them, may we also find healing, reconciliation, and joy through Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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