The Thankful Leper
12th. Sun. of Luke Dec. 5, 2021; Luke 17: 12-19;
Today we are given the 10 Lepers to consider. Leprosy throughout the scriptures represents sin. Miriam, Moses sister is afflicted with Leprosy after criticizing Moses; Elisha’s servant Gerhazi is afflicted with Leprosy after asking Naaman for a reward after Elisha refused one for curing him of Leprosy; King Uzziah is struck with Leprosy after illicitly censing in the Temple…Leprosy represents sin in the bible. We hear, (Rom. 3:23) “For all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God.” We are all Lepers and in need of healing. Although our inner Leprosy is hidden from human eyes, it is ugly and deformed when exposed in the light of God. These 10 Lepers knew they needed help. They were petitioning Christ, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” – the Jesus prayer, the essential prayer of the Church. Reaching out to God in our need is always the first step.
The 10 Lepers were “standing afar off.” Their Leprosy meant they couldn’t associate with the rest of the people. This is a picture of us enmeshed in our sinful and isolated lives. In isolation, communing only with ourselves, we live in Hell. In the Church, in communion with everyone, with the saints, the angels, even with Christ Himself, we are in the kingdom. We transition from our isolation to the kingdom in very same manner as our 10 Lepers today. Crying out to Christ for His healing and mercy. Going to see the priests and being received back into the kingdom of God through repentance, confession and thanksgiving on the 8th day and giving God the glory!
Christ fulfilled everything. The Old Testament is full of types and foreshadowing’s of Christ. His arrival here on earth in the flesh ushered in the new age “Rejoice for the kingdom of God is at hand.” and death is destroyed! We gather in the Divine Liturgy on the eighth day (Sunday), the day of Resurrection, to give thanksgiving and worship and to celebrate our communion and life in Christ! When you come to confession to Christ, and show your Leprosy, your sin, to the priest in the Church, he tells you “Behold child, Christ is here invisibly receiving your confession… I am only a witness bearing testimony before Him of all things which you say to me.” It is to Christ Himself you come. The priest places his stole over your head and says: “Now, having no further care for the sins which you have confessed, depart in peace.” You are completely cleansed and forgiven! We have such a blessed opportunity for healing with confession and communion, and it is all completely covered under the Orthodox health care system. The premiums have been paid in full on the cross by our Saviour Jesus Christ. It is finished! No one who comes is turned away. What a sad waste, if we don’t take advantage of the transformation our dear Lord wants to give us: Life and life more abundantly!
Of the 10 lepers whom Christ sends to the Priests, only the Samaritan – the heretic hated by the Jews – recognizes that here is Christ the Messiah, and returns to give thanks and glorify God. Here we see yet another Samaritan heretic get it right while the other nine who were of God’s chosen people, completely miss it. This should be a very sobering revelation to us here in the Holy Orthodox Church. We are the new Israel. We can trace the birth of the Orthodox Church and her teachings in an unbroken line all the way back to Christ, to the day of Pentecost and the teaching of the 12 Apostles. Even further, we have the incarnation of Christ being prepared for and prophesied from the beginning of Genesis on throughout the entire Old Testament. We have faithfully protected the fullness of this original faith, passing it on to every generation of the Church through 20 centuries now, in continuity and without alteration. We are the Church which Christ established and which the gates of Hades will not be able to withstand as we attack them. But how do our actions compare to those “Samaritans” outside our blessed community? Thank God, through His grace we have found refuge and are safe in the ark of the Church. But is this the goal, to just take refuge, to congratulate ourselves that we have found protection? How do we live? Are we actively engaged in helping the poor, co-suffering with Christ for the life of the world, offering them the medicine of salvation and immortality…or do we see the “Samaritan’s” doing a better job? Gandhi once observed that having read the sermon on the mount he had found the most beautiful and godly description of truth. But whenever he met those who claimed to be followers of the Christ who taught these things they were the most terrible representatives.
Our calling is to join with Christ and pray for the reconciliation of all people with God. To pray even for our enemies. The whole world! How is this accomplished? There is no patented formula, God’s blessing and plan for each of us is to be found in our individual circumstances, our daily encounters. We are to give thanks in all things. We sing in the 3rd Antiphon every Sunday, (Matt. 5:10) “Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake.” Is that what we picture receiving when we ask for the blessing of God? To rejoice and be exceedingly glad for being slandered and persecuted? “Thank you Jesus for this revilement,” is not usually our go-to reaction when someone scolds us and calls us an idiot for acting in a counter-culture way as we follow Christ. We hear Christ tell us, (John 16:33) “…in the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” How did Christ overcome the world? By hanging on the cross and dying, and we are to take up our cross daily and do likewise. We will be sure to encounter much suffering and tribulation as we are surrounded with a broken, sinful world, full of tragedy and death. And we ourselves, as broken human beings, create more of the same. So many blessed opportunities to take up our cross!
This world’s chaos and darkness is not God’s doing, it is an inevitable result of living apart from Him and doing our own thing. God transforms our tribulations and sorrows into life and healing, by being with us always, everywhere and in all things. We can experience God’s love and peace amid circumstances that we would not consider to be loving, joyful, or peaceful, by somehow intentionally, in the middle of all the mess, turning to God with thanksgiving and worship. Granted, we sometimes need to vent and let God know our frustration before we can choose this counter-culture response to the circumstances in our lives. As my dear brother priest of blessed memory Fr. Philip Speranza often remarked, “We are to be giving thanks for all things – often through ‘clenched teeth.’” Ultimately this is how we demonstrate that we truly trust God in all things. That we trust that, (Rom. 8:28) “…all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” We live our faith by offering to Him in all things, thanksgiving and worship.
Like the 10 Lepers in today’s gospel, we too are given blessings, that we may learn to thank God. But we should take note of just how sad it was, that today’s Jewish Lepers did not return and give glory to God. As baby followers of Christ, let us try to learn the joy and freedom of thanking God for all things, by at least starting with thanking Him for all the things we are happy with. At meals, let us remember to give thanks. When things go well with us, and our families, and our friends, let us give thanks. When a truly remarkable answer to prayer occurs, let us call the priest and come to the Church to offer a Molieben of Thanksgiving. But as we mature in Christ, the goal is to learn to be able to (1 Thess.5:16-18) “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” This applies in the middle of circumstances we can’t possibly comprehend. In sickness, tragedy, even in death, may we learn to turn to God for comfort, knowing that these circumstances are not the end of the story. That even death itself has been transformed into the entrance to true life. That God is always with us to the end of the age.
The final words of many of our most precious and holy saints were recorded to be “Glory to God for all things.” May our hearts be filled with thanksgiving and worship as we grow ever closer to Christ, and may we join the Samaritan Leper who returned to give glory to God! Glory to Jesus Christ!