A new start

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" (Luke 17:11-19a).

In today’s Gospel lesson, we are introduced to ten men afflicted with leprosy. Leprosy is a terrible, incurable disease. It shows up on the skin as a dry spot in which there is no sense of heat, cold, or touch. The disease infects nerve endings and cripples them, causing loss of muscle strength, loss of sensation, and loss of circulation. It leads to clawed hands and deformity of the feet, and may paralyze muscles of the face, eye, and neck. Large eroding ulcers can form, causing loss of fingers and toes; sometimes the condition of the limb is so bad that amputation is necessary. Lepers occasionally suffer from bouts of fever, but the disease mainly results in ever-worsening disability and disfiguration.

Leprosy is not a highly infectious disease; long term exposure is needed for it to spread. Most adults appear to be immune, but children are very susceptible. It is a slow disease; it may be years before an infected child starts showing any symptoms, and many grow into adulthood before the leprosy is recognized. A baby born to a leprous mother has little chance of escaping infection unless it is separated from her; a father is almost bound to infect some members of his family if he lives with them. Tragically, the fear of separation makes families conceal the disease and thereby increase the danger of its spread.

Leprosy is passed on by living closely with others, and it is incurable. For these reasons, Jewish law was very clear—the leper had to live in isolation for the rest of his life. Lepers would camp in caves and cemeteries—any place that was off the beaten path. And lepers would often gather together, regardless of nationality or religious background—loneliness and misery makes brothers of us all.

Such was the group in today’s Gospel lesson. In a desolate area bordering Samaria and Galilee, men from both nations had gathered for companionship and mutual support. They had lost everything—family, home, and employment. Worst of all, they were not permitted to bring the annual sacrifice to God’s house and hear the announcement that their sins were forgiven. They were miserable and without hope.

Then Jesus came walking down the road. At last, a glimmer of hope! They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" Obviously, these men still had friends who cared about them. Those friends from the nearby town had heard the reports about Jesus, of how He spoke about God’s love and demonstrated its power through mighty miracles of healing. So when word came that Jesus was approaching, the lepers came close—not close enough to break the law that protected everyone’s health, but close enough for their desperate voices to be heard.

Jesus did hear. Filled with love and pity, our Lord replied: "Go, show yourselves to the priests." God’s ancient law, given through Moses, gave instructions on many things, including leprosy and how to respond to it. When the ten men arrived at the Temple, the priests would use God’s law to verify that the leprosy was gone, a step necessary in order for them to be allowed to return home.

The ten men took Jesus at His word—they immediately set off for Jerusalem, and as they went, they were cleansed. They listened to Jesus and responded in faith—faith that was rewarded with healing along the way. Jesus makes this clear when He says, your faith has made you well.

These men were given a chance at a new beginning in the fullest sense of the word. There is a saying that ‘you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.’ These men would have a new appreciation for the members of their family, whom they had not eaten with or held in their arms for such a very long time. When they returned to work, gone would be any grumbling about long hours and low pay. And they would be absolutely thrilled to attend worship freely, to hear of God’s promises and to have their sins forgiven!

I’d like you to notice something significant. We don’t know anything about these men, but we can make a few educated guesses. Leprosy was a sentence of death; when a leper was sent away, no one expected him to return. And we have no idea how long some of these men had been living in isolation. So what did they have to look forward to, after Jesus healed them? If they were employed in town, would their bosses have held their jobs for them? Not likely! Would these men still have a house awaiting their return? Not necessarily—a poverty-stricken wife might have had to sell her home in order to make ends meet. Would the former lepers have family waiting to welcome them back? Maybe—but with a husband seemingly condemned to death in the wilderness, some wives might have gone ahead and remarried, while in other cases family members might have died or moved away. There was no guarantee that these ten men could just pick up their lives where they had left off.

These men were given a second chance at life, but Jesus did not restore everything they might have lost. Instead, our Lord gave them a chance to take stock of their lives. Had one of them been a criminal in the past? Years isolated as a leper might change one’s perspective on living outside the law. Was one of them a cruel man who used to beat his wife and terrorize his children? With the new start made possible by Jesus, perhaps he started treating his family better. Maybe some of them were not very religious; perhaps their devotion to God was squashed by a passion for money, political influence, or simply having a good time. Would years of living death change their priorities?

We don’t know the backgrounds of these ten men. We don’t know how years living as outcasts changed their view of things. But this we do know—for nine of them, God was not their highest priority. They were in a rush to be reunited with family, check out the household finances, throw a party to celebrate their miraculous recovery. But where was the thankfulness to Jesus for this new start? Only one returned to praise Christ for the gift of a new life.

This incident points right at us—at every Christian who has had sins forgiven. Sin is our leprosy—an incurable disease we got from our parents.

Just as leprosy eats away at the ability to feel pain, sin eats away at our ability to feel guilt. The longer we live, the more insensitive to sin we become—evil behavior that used to bother us becomes increasingly tolerable, even acceptable. Sin makes it possible for us to hurt others and feel little or no guilt for doing so.

Just as leprosy disfigures its victims, so does sin make us ugly—ugly because of the things we think, say, and do. Even the most beautiful of people make themselves unattractive when they spend all night drinking and snorting cocaine; it is hard to see anything pleasant in a face when its mouth is filled with profanity and hatred. Sin ruins our vision, making good things look boring and evil things look like fun.

Just as leprosy causes the body to decay and die, sin constantly eats away at our souls and leads to eternal dying in hell. Jesus said, out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. These are what make a man unclean (Matthew 15:19-20). In fact, sin makes us dead inside, as Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter two: you were dead in your transgressions and sins. Sin is the bride of death.

God gave us birth—He brought us into this world to be a part of His family. But sin isolates us from God and each other, and on our own we cannot survive for long—the leprosy of sin is fatal. So Jesus came to us—He listens as we cry "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" In response, He directs us to God’s house, and on the way He cleanses us—cleanses us of sin by the blood He shed on the cross as He died in our place. And when we arrive at church, we hear the Good News--your faith has made you well. That’s the cure for sin—faith in Jesus as the one who saves us.

But what happens then? By forgiving our sins, Jesus has given us a new lease on life. But do we appreciate this new start? Do we look at the members of our families and say, "I appreciate them so much—I want to treat them better"? Do we look at the sins we’ve committed and grow sick at the thought of repeating that kind of disgusting behavior? Or do we treat repentance like the person who takes cholesterol medication but doesn’t change his eating habits? Does the new chance offered by Jesus really change our priorities, or do we leave church and rush back to living life the way we always have? Jesus has forgiven your sins, thereby healing you of the rot in your soul; does gratitude move you to make Jesus more important than anything else in your life, important enough that thanking Him and praising Him is foremost on your mind?

Jesus said, Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me (Matthew 10:37-38). He also said, No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money (Matthew 6:24). The Son of God died that you might live. Do you show your thankfulness by singing God’s praises in church every chance you get? Does gratitude prompt you to read the Bible regularly? Do you demonstrate your thankfulness through what you put in the collection plate? Do you honor Christ’s love for you by going to Him in prayer for guidance before making important decisions?

When Jesus enables us to start over, it is an opportunity to look at life differently—that is what repentance is all about. We don’t ask for mercy so we can keep on sinning—that would be like an alcoholic who has a successful liver transplant and celebrates by getting drunk. We know that we cannot stop sinning until we die, but repentance is about changing our attitude towards sin. When we are truly repentant, we reject our sins as unnatural and deadly to our spiritual health instead of embracing them like an old dear friend. Repentance is about examining our lives, thanking Jesus for what is good while asking His help to rid us of the bad.

Are you one of the nine lepers who went away cured, but had no time to show Jesus gratitude for His wonderful gift? I pray that thankfulness will move you as it did the Samaritan, who, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. May you be filled with joy at the new start Jesus gives you through His blood, and may that joy cause you to fall at Jesus’ feet and thank Him with all your heart.