Numbers, numbers, numbers, charts, percentages, speed, mileage, number of ‘clicks’ to your destination, costs, debts, profits, discounts, votes, days til Christmas. Sometimes, it feels like we’re surrounded, as if all of life can be summed up by our numbers: age, weight, height, bone density, cholesterol, blood pressure, tax bracket, post office box, cell number. We love them for the stories they tell: will that hurricane hit land as a 4 or a 2? How many hectares of land are currently on fire?; what’s happening these days with the COVID case count? It seems we can quantify anything, for good purpose often, or just because it’s interesting: 1 out of every 10 adults is left-handed; 10% of the world’s population lives on an island; 1 tenth of US citizens have tried recreational marijuana - with 435 representatives in the House & 100 in the Senate - do the math; 10% of Canadians who identify as Christian, attend worship every week, either in person or online.
Numbers and statistics don’t tell a complete story, but they are indicators of trends; they point to how we are choosing to spend our time & resources, and therefore reveal what we value. Why do the 10% keep coming back to church every Sunday, and what are the other 90% missing? Interesting, when we look at the numbers in this personal encounter with Jesus in Luke, the percentages are the same.
Jesus is currently traveling between Samaria & the Galilee. Ten lepers see Him - recognize Him, as He’s traveled and taught extensively in this region. They call out to Him, “Have pity on us!” Did they ask to be healed? No, they want money, as confirmed in the original Greek → the ancient verb ‘have pity’ literally means, ‘give us money, we’re poor’.
Jesus’ healing power was widely known at this time & they do honour Him by using the title, “Master”. But maybe they’d been on the street for so long, rejected as unclean and living on the edge of society, that they couldn’t conceive of ever being cured of their affliction. They were conditioned to beg, and even though they were not welcome in the marketplace, somehow money would be the answer for them.
We still do that in 2023 – if I have enough money, it will comfort me through my trials; if we throw enough money at an issue, it’ll just go away - poverty, homelessness, racism & other discriminations, abuse & domestic violence, reconciliation with our Indigenous neighbours, etc. And yes, life costs what it costs - housing, food, health care, clean water – but no matter how high we stoke the payments, is that going to satisfy the depth & scope of human need?
What does Jesus do here? He stops to understand their single greatest deficiency, the thing that feeds their despair: the need to belong. Lepers weren’t allowed inside the city walls or into villages, or at worship, or inside anyone’s home, including their own family -> their rejection was absolute. The only way to regain acceptance was for the rabbi to declare them, ‘clean’.
So Jesus makes it possible for them to have what they truly need -> to be welcomed back into full community with the priest’s stamp of approval. It’s the journey that accomplishes the cleansing, and there’s an entire sermon, perhaps a sermon series, in vs. 14: “As they went, they were made clean.” Jesus didn’t blink or wiggle His nose or wave a wand to make healing instantaneous. They had to participate in their own healing and trust His instruction, even though it would have made no sense at all.
Then ONE of the 10 returns to praise God and say, ‘thank you’. Luke makes a point of saying, “and he was a Samaritan.’ Oooo, aaaah, goes the listening crowd - murmur, murmur - no way! Samaritans are dirt, considered inferior of character AND of faith quality by the Jewish people. Jesus is left shaking His head, asking His questions as if He didn’t know the answers. He says to the one former leper, “Your faith has made you well.” Which is interesting, because he was already cured of leprosy when he fell at Jesus’ feet. However, there’s a big difference between ‘no longer sick’, and ‘well’.
That entire final verse is stunning, in the original Greek. “Rise and go”, He commands and that seems simple enough in our English translation. However, Jesus uses the verb for ‘rise’ that actually means, ‘rise from the dead’, or ‘to come back to life’. “Go” is the same verb for, ‘live’, or ‘conduct your life as one reborn’.
The other nine certainly got more than they asked for, and they’re physically healed. But they didn’t receive all that Jesus wanted them to have: the gift of His peace, a sense of God’s power working in their lives, and a wholeness of heart & spirit, not merely in body. And the difference is…? Gratitude; gratitude brought the one back to Jesus. But this was not a general vague, loosey-goosey feeling of appreciation. This was a clear, intentional, convicted, excited from the soul, Thank You!!!, to Jesus; this Thank You was heard and felt in Heaven itself, I would guess. It was the gratitude that brought the man to faith, to the understanding - the knowing - that Jesus did this for me, that He knows my heart & responds to what I truly need, and in His response, is the offer of new life. It is in this knowing of Jesus, in accepting all that He offers with trust and reliance on Him, that we are well.
Let me tell you about Helen.
Helen was a member of my first congregation and by the time I was ordained & inducted, they were well into the planning for Helen’s 100th birthday. She lived on her own in a condo - not a seniors’ residence - and greeted the new minister with a shot of sherry when I visited. Apparently the male ministers before me were poured a dram of single malt scotch, but whatever. She was not impressed that she had to give up driving at 94. In her mid-80’s, her family had forced her to give up horse-back riding in case she took a fall. Well, she’d never fallen off a horse in her life, but she complied. So she took up cross-country skiing instead. When I asked, ‘why that sport?’, she looked at me as though it were obvious and said, “Because it’s something I’d never tried.” In the 4-plus years that I served there, Helen went from self-sufficient to almost blind, from walking without aid into a wheelchair full-time after a bad fall, and from fully independent to hosting PSW’s three times a day for two hours each. It was impossible for her to be comfortable at church, so the Sacrament of Communion came to her.
No matter what happened, no matter how severe the obstacle to mobility or independence, no matter how much she seemed to be relinquishing control of her own body, no matter the extent of her daily pain, Helen spoke in tones of gratitude in faith. She verily shone with joy and thankfulness when she shared the adventures of the past 10 decades, when she talked about the paintings she had created around her home in better days before her hands started to tremble, when she spoke of God’s blessings in her life today, in the moment of your conversation with her.
To look at her, she was not a ‘well’ woman - shrinking into the wheelchair, unable to focus on anything or anyone anymore, increasingly isolated by her diminished hearing, spilling every cup, eating with her hands because she couldn’t find her mouth with utensils, relying on personal helpers & medical aids for all of her daily functioning. Helen continued to smile & glow with positivity and ordered Christmas presents for all the PSW’s to show her gratitude. She knew the constant presence of God while everyone else saw a woman living alone. She was grateful for God’s comforting voice while we all thought she was deaf. We saw a weak woman in a wheelchair, but she was enjoying a faithful daily walk with Jesus. Helen passed onto glory in her 106th year, in her own bedroom, watching the sun come up on a new year, January 1st.
What makes us well? A life of faith isn’t easy or trouble-free, and certainly we’re not all enjoying perfect physical, or mental, or emotional health this moment. So as Christians, what is our definition of wellness? The leper was cured but only well when he gratefully realized the relationship Jesus was offering: absolute understanding of his needs & unconditional valuing of his life, through pure love. The leper didn’t even know, as we do, that Christ would go to the cross for him. May we be encouraged to live in gratitude, today especially but every day, grateful that Jesus knows our hearts, that His response flows from love, and that all will be well. Amen.