The Grateful Samaritan
A sermon
delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson
October 13, 2013
at Gordonsville
Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia
Luke 17: 11-19
Let us pray,
Help us to see despite our eyes
Help us to think outside of our minds
Help us to be more than our lives
For your eyes show the way
Your
mind knows the truth
Your
being is the life.
Amen.
11 On the way
to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12
As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their
distance, 13 they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on
us!” 14 When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves
to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. 15 Then one
of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud
voice. 16 He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him.
And he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made
clean? But the other nine, where are they? 18 Was none of them found
to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he
said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.” [1]
So often we talk about the parable of the Good
Samaritan. The church I grew up in, in Waldorf Maryland was named after that
famous character, who decided to care more about the man lying beaten and
robbed in a ditch, after two others, two priests had passed right by on the
other side of the road, but in this text, we see another Samaritan, whom I have
decided to call the Grateful Samaritan. There are many similarities between
these two Samaritans, and I would say that all the well known ideas about
Samaritans apply to this guy too. He is a part of a hated race, a people seen
as unfaithful traitors, lower than low, to be looked down upon. Just like the
Good Samaritan he is here compared with others who act very differently from
him, setting him up as the example of positive behavior. Here we have a story
about 10 lepers. They come up to Jesus and ask for to be cured. Jesus sends
them to find priests. On the way they are healed. Nine of the ten are not heard
from again, but the one, this grateful Samaritan, returns to Jesus, simply to
praise God, thank Jesus, and to proclaim his gratitude for Jesus for everyone
to hear. It says he came back, offered thanks, in a loud voice, and then
prostrated himself at the foot of Jesus. Jesus is like, weren't there nine of
you? Is the only one to come back and praise God this foreigner? Again a
Samaritan, just like his good counterpart, this grateful one, does what nine
others don't do, he simply returns to say thanks!
Now this isn't the first leprosy healing that
takes place in the region of Samaria. In the Old Testament reading that Paula
read for us this morning, we see another one. In this one the commander of the
Aramean army, a man named Naaman is healed of his leprosy by the prophet
Elisha, which results in Naaman giving glory to God, though like this
Samaritan, Naaman was also considered a "Foreigner." There are some
other parallels between the two stories. The biggest one is the fact that there
really isn't a whole lot to the healing. Basically in the New Testament one,
Jesus just says, hey guys, go find a priest, and the next thing you know these
guys are healed. In the Naaman one from 2 Kings, Naaman is just told to go wash
himself in the river and he will be cleaned. In both you get the idea that the
people are skeptical of the process. Naaman is like, really, is this all I have
to do. I've been swimming in rivers before and it hasn't helped, and wouldn't
one of these other, bigger, cleaner rivers be better? Why this one? He almost
doesn't go through with it, but then he does and his life is changed forever.
Why is it that we want our healings to be elaborate? Why do we want our life
changing moments to be extra momentous? We seem to want to mark the occasion
with a struggle, we want our medicine to taste bad. . . Is it because we think
that where there is no pain, there is no gain, where there is no struggle there
is no reward. If you feel it you know it's working. . . like that Selson Blue
dandruff shampoo commercial, it's the tingle that shows it's working, but in
that case. . . the shampoo, the stuff that makes it tingle has nothing to do
with the dandruff medicine. It's not the medicine it's the menthol. . . Why
does that marketing work? Is there something in human beings that makes us want
to feel that something is working? Is it because we have a need to earn the
healing? That we need to feel we have something to do with it for it to count? Does
this have something to do with why we have trouble showing gratitude? Is it at
all connected? If we help ourselves, then it is expected that we get the rest
of the help on the way. But with Jesus it isn't always like that, and Grace
like we'll sing in a minute, is of course amazing, but also free, easy, without
struggle, at least for us, the price was substantial, but it has already been
paid. Like Jesus says, it's the faith that heals him, not the action. The
action comes afterwards, in that prostrate moment of gratitude.
That leads me to my next question: "What
happens to the other guys?" We read that they got healed too, but reading
it the second time, and pairing it with the Old Testament reading, I started to
wonder if it stuck, if they really are healed. I have to admit, that I prefer to
think that all 10 are healed, but nine of them seem to show no gratitude, no
thanks. Much like needing to feel a healing, gratitude is something that human
beings struggle with, especially when it is gratitude directed towards God. The
Bible is full of human beings straying from God, though God again and again
saves us, heals us, provides for us, sets us free, and so much more, afterwards,
we forget, we move on. We pray and pray for God to come, step in, intervene, do
something, and then he does, and the problem goes away, and we forget. The
biggest example is probably the Israelites being freed from their bondage in
Egypt. For hundreds of years they pray for a deliverer, and finally get one in
the person of Moses, but they are barely out of Egypt and the ungrateful
grumbling occurs, they even go so far as to ask to go back to their chains. In my own life I can think of times lying in
bed worrying about something, praying about it, begging for things to work out,
and then it does, and the next night I go right to sleep. I have no trouble
falling to sleep after its over. Worry keeps us up at night, but when it comes
reprieve and release we fall right to sleep. It happens in my life again and
again, so I completely understand the issue and own that it is a part of me, I
often forget gratitude, in the wake of everything turning out right.
Now I put myself in the place of these 9
lepers. They have been suffering for years, they have been hurting for some
time, shunned by everyone, a major source of fear, denied any physical contact
with other humans. And then they are healed. Could you imagine the feeling?
Once dead, to be brought completely and instantly back to life. It would be
easy to get caught up in the moment, having been given a new chance at life,
you can see how people would get caught up in living. And that is what it's all
about isn't. You've got a chance at life, you realize how precious it is, and
now you get to live. Do you remember why?
It is interesting to me that this passage
follows directly last week's in the Gospel of Luke because last week's
scripture lesson also included important words about gratitude. Do you remember
it: verses 7-10
7 “Who among
you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep
in the field, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’? 8 Would
you not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve
me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink’? 9 Do you
thank the slave for doing what was commanded? 10 So you also, when
you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves;
we have done only what we ought to have done!’ ” [2]
Do you thank a slave for doing what
was commanded, for doing what is expected? Why does this directly precede this
story about the grateful Samaritan? Is there something about this idea of it
being expected? Do we expect our blessings from God? Do we feel that we have
earned them? Are we good enough people? Have we grown so accustomed to living a
charmed life that we simply expect for things to go well, expect God to step in
and bless us, to set us free, so that when He does, we don't feel grateful. Do
you expect the next breath to come? Sure, I think we all do, so we rarely are
grateful when they do. We expect the sun to rise each day, so we are rarely
grateful when it does. We expect to be healthy, so we are rarely grateful when
we feel good. What are the things in life that you just expect as given? Are
you grateful for them, maybe? 1 in ten. Do you go out of your way to thank God
for them, proclaim in a loud voice to the world that God is great, that God is
Lord, that God is good and loves? Or no. . .
Maybe the Samaritan is grateful
because he doesn't feel he is chosen. . . he doesn't feel like God cares for
him, and then he learns otherwise. I think we are all here because we in some
way have felt that God loves us, that God cares for us, that God is a major
presence in our lives. Since we see that as an expected part of our lives, many
of us church goers since birth, have we lost simply being grateful? Every week
we go through the Prayer of Confession and the Assurance of Pardon, is
forgiveness for our sins so expected that we just take it all in stride? We say
our prayer, we have our moment of silence, we are forgiven, we sing Gloria
Patri and we go about the rest of the service. Do we let ourselves lie
prostrate at the foot of Jesus, thanking him for being set free? I have to
wonder why not. . . what do you think? Let's take a minute to stop then right now, what
we are doing, look at what he has given, and be grateful, truly grateful. There
is so much that we can be grateful for. Take a minute to yourself, and then
I'll conclude aloud.
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