October 9, 2016 Text: Luke 17:11-19
Dear Friends in Christ,
How do you feel about your place in society as you sit in the pew this morning? Is your voice and actions making a difference? Are you being swept over by the opinions and loudness of those seeking changes – and not for the better?
Today in our text we have mass groupthink. A problem many of us deal with on a daily basis. How can we break away? Where is the answer? Majorities impress us too much. It is still true that God and one make a majority. Let that sink in. God and one make a majority. The Samaritan comes back with thanks. The other nine are comfortable together in not returning thanks. What to make of the Samaritan is he . . .
“A LOUD MINORITY – OR MAJORITY?”
Let’s first get at what these men were suffering from –leprosy. It starts with discoloration of a patch of skin white or pink and it spreads to others parts of the body. Spongy, tumor-like swellings grow on the face and body. The disease starts to affect the internal organs along with the skin. Marked deformity of hands and feet occur. Sensory nerve endings no longer respond to heat or injury. Remember biting your lip before the Novocain wore off and then regretting it later? Leprosy would last from ten to twenty years before death. The disease was emotionally and spiritually devastating. These men were isolated – they were in the minority.
Yet, they do have some belief in Jesus. “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” Were they aware of previous healings? Was Jesus the conduit to leaving their miserable existence? Was He a miracle worker and nothing more?
Jesus heals – but not in an instant. He allows some time to pass. He wants their faith to grow. What about your infirmities? Ever get anxious, impatient? “This too shall pass” make take years. God wants our faith to blossom and strengthen in might.
After the healing, they do something as a majority. All ten go to the priests to show them that they are healed. Jesus healed in different ways according to the condition of the sick person. These men only believed in His healing power. Jesus desired to advance their faith to something better. Jesus feeds their faith with His Word. They would have been fools not to act on his word, to stand around and debate about it.
Now comes the defining moment in the text. Who will turn back to give thanks to the Healer for the healing? Nine are happy for the return to health. In the heart of one, out of faith, he shouts his praise and falls at Jesus’ feet. He looks like the minority but remember – God and one are always the majority. For this foreigner, his faith has made him well.
The nine lepers who didn’t return were spiritual, calling Jesus “Master” and looking for him to dispense a favor; it was all about them. American remains highly spiritual, it’s just that more and more are practicing their spirituality apart from the institutional church. You can’t miss it in our pews on Sunday morning. Like the nine, people claim to have faith but it is self-centered and self-determined, not the obedience of faith. Jesus’ praise for the Samaritan, “your faith has made you well” has a double meaning – health and salvation. “Your faith” is not the hearer’s subjective feeling but outwardly directed trust in Jesus.
Like the nine, many spiritual Americans see faith as a means to a better place in earthly life, with Jesus the master dispenser. Yes, faith does improve our earthly lot but the deeper meaning is the eternal salvation that Jesus gives to those who trust in Him. Many spiritual Americans acknowledge Jesus as “Master” seeking a better life in this world, but do not bow their broken lives and empty hearts before Him. “Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”
You too have been healed. Sin has invaded and made a mess of your body and your mind and your actions. It eats at you little by little by little until you stand deformed before a Holy God. You need to call to the Master, “have mercy on me.” And He responds. He heals. He forgives. He cleanses you from your disease. The weight of your transgressions is released from your body. Now, what will your reaction to this good news be?
What would you have done if you had stood alone against nine? Through the Holy Spirit you can turn against the self-serving spirituality of many Americans to the true Church’s outspoken witness to Jesus Christ. Then we will be the loud majority, not because we shout it over others, but because with God on our side we are always in the majority. The few will be the exalted. The narrow door has our Lord.
I completely understand the Samaritan. Being in the minority does not bother me. I can go into a crowded room and sit on the other side and I am comfortable. I know who I am, the Lord made me left-handed for a reason. Peer pressure is no problem – a different uniform as a 6th grade baseball player because I made the 8th grade team, passing on the marijuana cigarette as it is passed around a room at my fraternity, not communing at a visiting church because I didn’t talk with the LCMS Pastor. I know the Samaritan. But I also understand that for many of you, looking my way right now, don’t know if you could do what this foreigner did? You’re comfortable not rocking the boat, not offending; you want to live in your little PC world. In today’s world, for the Christian, that just doesn’t fly. Now you speak volumes by being here in worship. You have come to worship your Healing Creator. Now we take that message to “spiritual” America, the ones who are healed but want to keep walking to their eternal doom. They are walking by or driving by the Healer, the One who can eternally heal. Never feel like the minority. God and you are always the majority. “Rise and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”
Amen.