At this time of the year, we usually have a rash of kids catching cold. What’s the first thing parents are told when their kids get sick? Keep them home so they don’t spread their disease. Our readings today speak about another, much more serious disease – leprosy – that had devastating effects on those who were afflicted with it. And, unlike today when we have medication to treat it, there was no cure in the day of our Lord. It is a disease that causes serious deformity and even death. Since it is contagious, those who were diagnosed with the disease were banished from the community. The afflicted had to live apart from the people and, if anyone approached them, they had to cry out “unclean, unclean” to warn the people to stay away. This disease affected them physically, with painful inflammation and severe nerve damage. It affected them socially, cutting them off from contact with others, even their families. And, it affected them spiritually, cutting them off from worship in the Temple.
In today’s Gospel, we hear about Jesus encountering a group of men with leprosy. What’s curious about this encounter is that the men are not shouting, “unclean, unclean!” as they were required to do. Instead, they called out, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” Somehow, they had heard about Jesus and his healing power and hoped against hope that he would not run away but heal them. And, as we know, Jesus did heal them.
The story of these ten men offers a model for each of us in our faith journey, and what it means to be a Christian. Our journey of faith often comes with three important steps. We come to Jesus when we are in need. Jesus shows his love and care for us and we receive new life. We are then called to respond in gratitude and go out with a new mission: to joyfully share the message of Jesus and the promise of new life to others.
The first step in their faith journey is that the lepers came to Jesus with a need. They were suffering and hoped that he would free them of their affliction. In their encounter with Jesus, they experienced our merciful God’s blessing on us – the blessing of seeing us and our deepest needs. Throughout the Gospels, we see that Jesus is always attentive to, aware of, even searching out those who are suffering and those who are left out or abandoned. And, in his tender love, he heals them and restores them to full life.
The second important step in the faith journey is to return to Jesus with thanksgiving. And that’s where this story becomes an important lesson for us. These men cry out loudly for pity, and Jesus gives them a challenge: “Go, show yourselves to the priest.” In those days, priests were the only ones who could verify if someone had been healed of leprosy.
A priest would inspect the patient and if he didn’t see any evidence of the disease, he would announce that the patient had been healed and restored to the community again.
So the leprous men are on their way to the Temple when they are miraculously cleansed of their leprosy. Nine of the men presumably returned to their normal lives. They had been healed. The curse of uncleanness had been removed and they couldn’t wait to get back to living the life they had once known. Only one of them, a Samaritan man, returned to thank Jesus. The one man who returned to thank Jesus wasn’t even a Jew; he was a Samaritan. This Samaritan, when he saw that he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. There’s another really good lesson in this story. If your cry for help is loud, let your praise of God be even louder!
That kind of gratitude naturally turns to joy, which is another one of the defining marks of a Christian. Many Christians reach the first part of the faith journey, bringing their need to Jesus who, in his mercy, hears them, and then never go any further. They do not live in thanksgiving and praise. They do not return to Jesus and pour out their praise to God. We miss out on the greater blessing God could do in our lives when we take our blessings for granted, when we return to our old lives without experiencing and expressing our gratitude to Jesus for the salvation and hope he has given us.
And that leads us to the third step in our faith journey, which is to go forth with a new mission. We come to Jesus with a need. We return to Jesus with praise and thanksgiving. Then we go forth from Jesus with a new mission – the mission to spread his name and his truth, and the promise of new life – to others.
Let’s look at the lepers’ story again. While the ten lepers were on the way to the priests, they were cleansed. Nine went back to their old lives. One returned to Jesus with loud cries of praise and thanksgiving. And Jesus looked at that one man and said, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.” You have healing. You have restoration. And now you have salvation. Rise and go – others need to hear your story.
We gather around our Lord’s Table to offer the Eucharist – which, as I’m sure you know, means “thanksgiving.” Like Naaman in today’s first reading, we know that our God is the one, true God and we worship him alone. We give thanks to God for all that he has given us. We thank him for restoring us to health – most importantly, spiritual health – and praise him for all that he does for us. And, let us rededicate ourselves to be like the one leper, to go and joyfully proclaim to everyone we meet the saving power of our loving God!