A lot of the TV shows and movies we watch have heroes and villains. It’s a natural categorization of people – the goodies and the baddies. Even in police dramas we not only have the cops and robbers but we’ll find in the interrogations that police will divide themselves between good cop and bad cop. So as we read bible stories it’s easy to categorise the characters as either good or bad – hero or villain. But sometimes we unfairly categorise people in our bible readings as bad or evil without understanding what Jesus is teaching us. Take for example the Pharisees. So often we hold them up as the evil Pharisees when in fact they were the ones who upheld God’s laws of holiness. But, unfortunately, in their zealousness they often hurt people all in the name of defending God’s holiness – perhaps that’s how people often see the church in her attempts to uphold God’s righteousness. The pharisees upheld the laws of holiness but often disregarded the need for justice and welfare and human need.
Sometimes, we as the church, can become insensitive to personal situations as we uphold the Ten Commandments. Or take the rich man a couple weeks ago. There is no indication that he was an evil person but rather distracted by his wealth – in much the same way that Martha was distracted by her many chores but we often make her out to be not as good as Mary who chose to sit at Jesus’ feet. But Jesus never made that value distinction. And in today’s Gospel reading it is easy to hold up the 9 lepers as unappreciative and cold hearted because the Samaritan was the only person healed to come back and thank Jesus.
But as we look at the reading the other 9 were simply following the rules set out by Moses and in fact obeying Jesus’ direction for healing – “Go and show yourselves to the priests’. In much the same way that the priest and Levite in the parable of the Good Samaritan were not evil – Jesus never said that – but rather people misguided as they did not want to break the rules for serving and entering God’s holy temple by becoming unclean through coming into contact with a dead body. They placed the holy requirements above the needs of their neighbour. What we see in this story of the 10 lepers is not the difference between good and bad but rather expectations and gratitude. Sadly gratitude is lacking and has been replaced by expectations. It’s my right to have this.
We also saw that in Namaan who was sent to Elisha to be healed of his leprosy. He was, as we read, commander of the army of the king of Aram – a great man and in high favor with his master. Because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. Namaan, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy. He was sent to Elisha for healing and Elisha obliged. Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean. But instead of gratitude Namaan became angry because of his expectations. I thought that for me he would surely come out and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy! Note that expectation – “FOR ME” Fortunately for Namaan his servants spoke common sense to him: If the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, `Wash, and be clean’?
Gratitude helps us to acknowledge the many gifts, large and small, that have been given to us by others especially God rather than focusing on our expectations. Our world today sadly has many expectations. It’s my right to own my own house – it’s my right to have the latest model phone or car – it’s my right to be served immediately and not have to wait – and the list goes on. In our gospel lesson for today, we have a story of gratitude found in an unlikely person because he had no expectations as a Samaritan Leper. We have the healing of the ten lepers, and in Jesus’ day lepers were quite literally cut off from the community because of their physical illness. The leper was to be removed from sight and isolated from all communal and religious contact.
In Leviticus, the law says, “The leper who has the disease shall wear torn cloths and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry, ‘unclean, unclean.’ He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he is unclean; he shall dwell alone in a habitation outside the camp.”
As a Samaritan leper he had no expectations to receive healing from Jesus. Do our expectations make us unable to see the blessings of God. It’s my right to have this so when I receive it I am not in a state of thankfulness for what I have received. Why should I thank or tip the waiter. He was just doing his job and getting paid for it. It’s even more challenging when there’s a need for humility, like Namaan. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?
Maybe you’ve been challenged with humility to accept a lower blessing. Like a person who loses a high paying executive job and is offered a lower menial job and feels embarrassed or insulted rather than appreciative. So, as Christians, we need to listen to what Paul says to the Philippians so we can see the blessings that God has placed in our life where he says: Have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a human, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! By humbling himself and not using his divine nature for his own advantage he was instead given the name above all names. No expectations but true glory given to him.
So even if we don’t achieve what we expect we should receive we can still count our blessings as St Paul says in today’s reading – Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, so that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. The saying is sure: if we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he will also deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful– for he cannot deny himself. There are so many expectations in people’s lives today that when they receive less than what they expect they believe it’s an injustice rather than seeing the blessings that are there. Like Namaan. Whether he was healed in the rivers of Damascus or the river Jordan – what difference would it have made? The end result was the same. Whether he was healed by Elisha magically waving his hands over his leprosy or belittling himself by washing himself 7 times, what’s the difference – the end result is the same.
And so for us as Christians – some live a life that on the surface seems free from hardship while some live lives from one illness to another. Some live lives in luxury while others scrape to just get through – like the Rich Man and Lazarus. But at the end of the journey our destination is the same – eternal life in heaven. And when we remember all that God has done for us – sacrificing his own son – him who had no sin became our sin so we could become his righteousness. When we consider, what are humans that you are mindful of us. When we consider it was while we were yet sinners that Christ died for us. As we consider that our present suffering is not worth comparing with the glory that awaits. Even a glass of cold water would be received with gratitude let alone eternal life.
Gratitude enables us to see the good in everything. Expectations will always let us down because there will always be someone with more and better. There will always be something better that advertising convinces us that we need. God is a gracious God who gives us more than we ever deserve or expect as Luther says in his small catechism – All this God does out of his fatherly and divine goodness and mercy though I do not deserve it. Therefore I surely ought to thank and praise, serve and obey him. This is most certainly true.
