Luke 17: 12-19
It is so easy for human beings to
find a way to keep score, to focus on where we stand in relation to other
individuals and groups. We probably do
that in order to feel better about ourselves along the lines of “Well, at least
I am not as bad as they are.”
The Jews of the first century had such
an attitude toward the Samaritans—the people they loved to hate. And it would be hard to find someone lower in
social standing in that day than a Samaritan with leprosy, a skin condition
that made its sufferers religiously unclean and complete social outcasts. So just imagine how shocking it was that the
Samaritan leper was the only one of the ten who returned to thank Christ for
healing Him from that dreaded disease. In that time and place, this was an outrageous
story.
Maybe this man was so thankful
precisely because he had learned not to expect compassion from anyone and that
he could take no blessing for granted. He surely felt out of place walking with
Jewish lepers to the temple in Jerusalem, for that is not where the Samaritans
worshiped and presumably he would not have been welcome there. Nonetheless, he
obeyed the Lord’s command and was healed.
And he alone took the time and effort to return to thank the One who had
changed his life.
This man’s healing is an icon of the
good news that we celebrated at Christmas and Epiphany and that is at the very
heart of our faith. The healing of the
Samaritan leper from a terrible disease manifests our salvation in the God-Man
Jesus Christ, which extends to all who have put Him on in baptism. As
the healing of the Samaritan leper shows, God’s mercy extends to everyone who
receives Jesus Christ with faith, repentance, and gratitude. Regardless of what anyone else does, we want
to be like that leper, receiving God’s blessing in humility and responding with
true thanks. But in order to do that, we have to find healing for our sins, the
diseases of soul that have disfigured us and corrupted our beauty as those whom
Christ has clothed with a garment of light in baptism.
The truth is that we all struggle to wear
that robe of light, to embrace Christ’s healing, for we so easily fall back
into the ugly sickness of sin. If we are
honest, we will see that we fit right in with the Samaritan and the other
lepers who were right to call out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” We need their humility and sense of
dependence upon the Lord’s grace for a healing beyond what we can give
ourselves. The daily prayers found in any Orthodox
prayer book say the same thing, and the Jesus Prayer should always be in our
hearts. Our prayer life is not a matter
of just mouthing words, but a true plea for forgiveness, healing, and strength
from the depths of our souls concerning the challenges that we face each day. There is nothing more fundamental to the
Christian life than daily personal prayer in which we are fully present to the
One born and baptized to save us. The
more we open our lives to Him, the more fully we will be aware of our personal
brokenness and constant need for His mercy.
The struggle to live faithfully can certainly
feel lonely and frustrating. Sin so easily isolates us from one another and
also from ourselves. Even if we manage
to keep secrets from others, the burdens of guilt and shame are profound and
can separate us at a deep level from those closest to us. They easily become unhealthy obsessions that make
us feel as unclean as a leper who thinks that no one could understand his pain
and that no one could possibly heal his wounds.
That is one of the reasons why the sacrament of Confession is such a
blessing and a relief, such a source of strength in our journey to live the new
life in Christ. In Confession we are reminded
that we are not left alone in isolation to struggle with our sins, for the
priest is an icon of the Lord, conveying His mercy and providing guidance for
the healing of our souls. If we want to
be healed like the Samaritan leper, we will come to Confession regularly,
naming our sins, especially those of which we are most ashamed and which we
would like to keep hidden. We will kneel
before Christ in humility, bare our souls, and be assured of His forgiveness,
if we are truly honest and repentant.
Like everyone else in the Orthodox
Church, a priest goes to another priest for Confession. This sacrament is a therapy
for our healing, as well as a reminder that we are members of a Body united
together in love and mercy. We do not
have to suffer alone, in isolation as though we were the only one who ever
sinned. We each have a slightly
different version of a common struggle.
Our sins are not nearly as unique as we are tempted to think, and there
is great power in hearing a human voice say that we should give no further care
to the sins we have confessed, for they are forgiven in this world and in that
which is to come. Christ says to each of
us in Confession through the voice of a priest, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”
The Samaritan is also an example for
us in his obedience because he actually did what Christ told him to do, to head
toward Jerusalem to show himself to the priests. Here we have another powerful image of the
Christian life, for we open our lives to the Lord’s healing by obeying Him, by
keeping His commandments.
A murderer does not become an icon
of Christ’s salvation by continuing to murder. A proud person does not become
humble by continuing to be proud. And we will not experience victory over any
sin in our lives if we simply give into it or make up excuses to justify
ourselves. No, we have actually to
repent, to reject actions, thoughts, words, and habits that we know are
wrong. We may experience the greatest
struggle of our lives in doing so and feel nothing but pain and frustration as
we fight our passions. We may fall flat
on our faces a thousand times and wonder if we will ever find peace and
joy. When that happens, we must take our
attention off ourselves and put it on Christ.
For if we are obeying Him as we best we can given our current state of
spiritual health, then we are just like that Samaritan leper going to Jerusalem
in obedience to Christ’s command, regardless of how we feel about it. He calls us to obey and be healed, which is
different from being perfectly at ease.
Have you ever gone to physical therapy after an injury or worked out
when you were not in shape? That was
probably not much fun. Have you ever done the right thing in life even though
it was hard and you did not particularly like it at the moment and worried how
things would turn out? If so, you know
that there are times to focus on something much more important than your
fears. That is what the Samaritan leper
did and it is what we must all do if we want to find healing for our
souls.
It is never popular, but still
true: We simply cannot expect to find strength
and transformation if we do not obey the Lord.
If we do not pray at home and at church, practice fasting and other
forms of self-denial, give to the poor and needy, forgive those who have
offended us, keep a close watch on our thoughts and actions, and struggle
mightily against our familiar temptations, we really cannot expect growth in
the Christian life. If we are not
actively seeking to become living icons of Christ’s salvation, we will not grow
in holiness. Like the leper, we must do
our part in order to open ourselves to the mercy of Christ, to put ourselves in
the place where His new life shines in ours. And that is always the place of humble obedience.
We should put out of our minds the
thought that we are obeying an abstract law of religion or morality, for our
Savior is a Person Who knows us better than we know ourselves. We should turn away from obsessing over
whether we are doing anything perfectly, for that reflects only our pride. We should not be bogged down by the thousand
excuses that run through our minds about why it is more important do something
else than to follow Christ. At the end
of the day, we simply need to be like that Samaritan leper who called for
Christ’s mercy and then did what the Lord told him to do. Despite our many imperfections and
corruptions, that is how we too will be able to hear those blessed words: “Rise and go your way, your faith has made
you well.” We should not make obedience
any hard than it really is.
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