Five Simple Words

“And he was a Samaritan” (17:16). A brief, but powerful statement. A narrative splash of cold water intended to shock and startle all who hear Luke’s account of the ten lepers. In five simple words – “And he was a Samaritan” (17:16) — Jesus obliterates the lines in the sand that we draw to distance, shun, judge, and to keep the “them, they, those people” at arms’ length.

What is so startling about five simple words – “And he was a Samaritan” – some of you may ask? For one, devout Israelites shunned Samaritans, the shirt-tail cousins in the family tree that nobody talked about. Before the collapse of the Northern Kingdom in 721 BCE Samaritans were insiders too. But everything changed when Samaria was invaded and the Assyrian king deported the religious leaders, professionals, and educated elite. In time, those left behind drifted from the faith. Samaritans adapted to their changing circumstances. New religious leaders emerged. Samaritans intermarried with foreigners and unbelievers. Not surprisingly, their long-lost Israelite cousins shunned and scorned their “unclean” cousins following their return from exile. It didn’t help matters that Israel’s prophets condemned the people of Samaria for their pride, wickedness, and rebellion.

So, imagine yourself hearing Luke’s account of the ten lepers for the first time, especially the punch line: “And he was a Samaritan” (17:16). And then ask yourself, “What is the text saying to us today about the inclusive nature of God’s saving action in Jesus Christ?”

One of the first things that strikes me about today’s gospel text is the location. As Jesus makes his way from Galilee to Jerusalem he passes through “the region between Samaria and Galilee” and enters a village (17:11). Interesting, don’t you think? Any well-informed listener could tell you that such a place doesn’t exist. Yet, by constructing a narrative buffer zone between Galilee and Samaria – Luke creates a liminal space where the world of Jesus’ past – his ministry of preaching, teaching and healing in Galilee intersects with the world of Jesus’ future – his betrayal, crucifixion, and resurrection in Jerusalem. And it’s here, while passing through this border zone, where Jesus encounters ten lepers. After all, much of Jesus’ earthly ministry has to do with making the unclean clean again.

In Jesus’ day, lepers were the ultimate outsiders. Fearful that the contagion of leprosy would infect the entire community, lepers were expelled from the community following a pronouncement by the priests (Leviticus 13-14). Lepers, unclean outsiders, lived in isolated settlements with other lepers.[1]

Sadly, lepers had no choice but to accept their fate. Given the fact that they could not work, lepers dared not rock the boat too much, lest they forfeit the handouts and charity needed to survive. As a result, lepers followed the rules. They were obedient and compliant. Lepers retreated to their segregated encampments. Lepers announced their presence — declaring “Unclean, Unclean!” — as they begged for food or made their presence known.

Notice in Luke’s account, the lepers didn’t even break protocol when they heard that Jesus was in their village. Though Jesus’ reputation as a wonder-working healer and teacher surely preceded his arrival, the lepers kept their distance. “Jesus, Master,” they cried out from a distance, “have mercy on us” (17:13); pleas for mercy that captured Jesus’ attention.

Jesus surely sees what everyone else did – a group of ten lepers covered in lesions, no doubt a gruesome sight. Yet, unlike the others in the crowd, Jesus also sees beyond their hideous affliction. Jesus sees ten beloved children of God in need of all the mercy that they could get. And then, after Jesus matter-of-factly instructs the lepers to “Go and show yourselves to the priests” (17:14), something remarkable happens. Barely noticeable at first. Perhaps an incremental healing of skin and limbs. One of the lepers notices God’s healing work. And because he sees what is happening, the tenth leper does something extraordinary as his nine companions continue on to Jerusalem to show themselves to the priests as Jesus instructed them to do. Seeing that he was healed, the tenth leper stopped dead in his tracks, turned around, and began praising God with a loud voice (17:15). And, after having found Jesus, the healed leper falls at Jesus’ feet in thanksgiving (17:16). It is an act of profound worship that prompts Jesus to ask: “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to praise God except this foreigner?” (17:17-18) Yet one more reminder of the upside down nature of the kingdom of God.

Jesus looks at the double outsider – the healed leper, the despised Samaritan – and declares: “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well” (17:19). Or, put another way when translated from the original Greek, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has saved you” (17:19).

Can it be, did Jesus just lift up this despised double outsider – a leper and a Samaritan – as an exemplar of the faith? Yes, for in Christ, the lines that we draw to distance ourselves from others, especially from “them,” “they,” and “those” people are obliterated.

Today’s text from Luke’s gospel reminds me of something one of my favorite seminary professors used to remind “holier-than-thou” seminarians: “Remember, whenever you draw a line in the sand by pointing fingers, casting judgment, or by “playing God” by deciding who is or is not deserving of God’s grace and mercy, you can be assured of one thing – Jesus is not standing with you, Jesus is standing on the other side of the line.”

The fact of the matter is, we are all “lepers” in need of healing, mercy, and restoration to a right relationship with God and with one another. Note how Luke’s Gospel frequently references the outsider – the poor, the widow, the tax collector, the sinner, and the Samaritan to highlight the inclusive nature of God’s saving love.

“And he was a Samaritan” (17:16). Five simple, yet powerful words. Words crafted to break through the fear of the other in a hate-filled world – a world that all-too-easily forgets, ignores, or minimizes the breadth and depth of God’s love in the person of Jesus the Christ. A love that comes to us and gives us life in simple, everyday ways at both the best and worst times of our lives. In the waters of baptism. In the healing touch of someone who cares for us.

As the ten lepers were cleansed by Jesus’ healing words, the Living Christ comes to you now promising forgiveness, mercy, and healing. The Living Christ comes to you now, inviting you to the Lord’s Table where all, insiders and outsiders alike, receive the Body of Christ and drink from the cup of salvation for the forgiveness of sin. For the Living Christ does what we cannot do, restores us to a right relationship with God and with one another. And, having been nourished through Word and Sacrament, God’s Spirit sends us – spiritual lepers in need of God’s mercy though we may be – to be the body of Christ in a world filled with injustice, oppression, and hatred.

[1] Barbara Brown Taylor’s essay, “The Tenth Leper” in The Preaching Life (1993) informed both the trajectory and tenor of this sermon. I commend it to you for your own enrichment.