“A living death”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Luke 17:11-19 (Forward, p. 18) CEV p. 1085

I cannot imagine what it must have been like for lepers back at the time of Christ. Scholars tell us that this was not ‘true’ leprosy, the leprosy or Hansen’s Disease as it is presently known. (Now, is this simply because archaeologists have not found any skeletons with its tell-tail deformity that far back? That would seem to me to be a rather sketchy form of logic or reasoning and would suggest that the disease as we now know it is something entirely new! Not very likely). No, according to the pundits what the ancients called leprosy was simply a kind of skin disease, something not that transmittable and easily cured, but because of their primitive and limited medical understanding still quite feared. To me, this sounds rather patronizing, but that’s another story.

Anyway, the diagnosis of leprosy was like a sentence to a living death. The leper was forced to separate him or herself from all of society, no job or work, no temple or synagogue worship, no contacts with family or friends. They were forced to live apart, to live outside any community and to constantly call out to warn people away. If not forgotten—which was probably often the case—they were certainly shunned and forced to live off the good graces of the community in terms of the food and drink they needed. It was a terrible, lonely existence, and so, no wonder that we find a totally disparate group huddled together, one Samaritan in the midst of 9 Jews, in today’s story.

And no wonder, having probably heard something about Jesus and His wonder-working power, they immediately sought Him out to ask Him to heal them. Here, however, we find something interesting. In a previous encounter with someone who was leprous (Matthew 8:1-3 and parallels), Jesus was face to face with the man, and, in contradiction to the Mosaic law (Leviticus 5:3) actually touched the man. Here, in today’s account, Jesus does nothing of the sort. So, why the difference?

We are never told the reason but let me make some suggestions. In the earlier situation, the man had already broken the Mosaic law by entering the crowd, coming up to Jesus and kneeling at His feet. By these actions, he demonstrated his faith in Jesus and His miracle-working power and exhibited his determination to get healed, regardless of what it took—yes, even if it meant transgressing some of the well-intended minutiae, minute details, of the Mosaic law. And lo and behold, Jesus went even further and touched him.

In the present story, however, all ten men stuck to the Law and its requirements and maintained their distance, and so, in effect, Jesus honoured that concern, that observance of the Law, by not coming close to them Himself. Instead, He called them out to exercise their faith, to demonstrate it, in yet another way. In both cases, Jesus calls the leper or lepers to go to the priests to be examined and have the cure certified—which was the only way to legitimately be restored to community. In the earlier case, this was only after the man had been cured! Yes, by then, the results were evident and so, going to the priest was just the follow-up to an already completed cure. However, in today’s case, there were as yet no visible results. In fact, it was just the opposite; it was as they went, as they stepped out in faith, that they were cured.

So, what this says to me is that our prayers to God, to Jesus, our entreaties, do not have to take a specific form or pattern. God is not bound by such things, but honours faith wherever it comes from and in whatever form it takes. And so, we are encouraged to come to Him in prayer, believing as these men did, that He is not only there for us, but also that He listens and cares and wants to help us—yes, probably much more than we could ever expect or dream of or imagine. Our situations may not be as serious or debilitating as these men’s ‘living death’, but He still is there and wants to help in whatever way He can. Amen.

Forward notes: “Then Jesus asked, ‘Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they?’” (verse 17)

“I have often wondered what happened to the other nine lepers. Did they live their whole lives regretting that they had failed to offer thanks for the gift of life they were given? Did they ever seek Jesus out to say thanks? Did their failure to show gratitude keep them awake at night? Or did they believe that their suffering entitled them to something better?

“We live in an entitled world. As modern people, we believe that we deserve the life we desire. When suffering comes, it’s a terrible unfairness, and when we are restored, it’s less a gift than a restoration of our expectations. There are an infinite number of hopes that have failed to materialize in my life, sometimes as a result of my choices and sometimes those of others. The loss of those hopes can be terribly painful. Choosing to see the loss as an injustice only causes us to miss out on what we actually have. It’s better to be grateful for our healing than resent our suffering.”

Moving Forward: “How does this passage change your understanding of suffering and gratitude?”

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