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Going beyond. Over the course of June, we have used the theme and texts from this year’s Vacation Bible School as our focus for worship. Starting at the beginning of June, we have looked at different point each Sunday - going beyond with faith, boldness, and kindness. We have explored the ways that in each of these stories, the characters have gone beyond expectation, and the results have been even more than could have been imagined.
Today we look at going beyond with thankfulness in this healing story found in the Gospel according to St. Luke. And along the way, we will look at the ways that Jesus was also going beyond in today’s story - beyond expectations, beyond social norms, and beyond religious norms.
In our story today, Jesus has begun his journey towards Jerusalem. He is traveling between Samaria and Galilee when he enters a village. As they have been walking Jesus has continued to teach his disciples. He has just been discussing with them what it means to have faith and all that faith can accomplish. Though we started our reading today in verse 11, if we look back to verse 6, we have the well-known passage regarding faith the size of a mustard seed. Jesus then continues that teaching with an interesting note about not thanking servants for doing that which is expected.
This presents us with an interesting segue to this healing story. The ten lepers here on the outskirts of the village are literally outcasts. To be sick, particularly with skin affliction like this, is seen as a punishment. Obviously if you are sick, you must have done something wrong in order for God to afflict you in such a way. They were labeled unclean and could not approach or be close to anyone who was considered clean. And so those with leprosy were literally cut off from family and community. They were often mistreated and had to rely on what little bit of generosity they could find.
And so, when Jesus was near, they approached to the acceptable distance for outcasts such as themselves to address someone that was not like them. They called out to Jesus, “Jesus, Master, show us mercy!”
They address Jesus as Master, a title that up to this point in the Gospel of Luke has only been used by the disciples. Now we could debate how it is that they recognize Jesus. Perhaps they had heard rumors. Perhaps a passerby had mentioned that Jesus was coming into town. Perhaps some of them had seen Jesus before they had been afflicted and knew who he was. Whatever the case, they recognized him as one with the power to heal them.
“It is important to Luke that Jesus be portrayed as recognized especially by those who are considered ‘other.’”¹ They may be outsiders, but they recognize exactly who Jesus is even as his disciples and closest followers sometimes fail to see who Jesus really is. This highlights Luke’s focus on those that are on the margins and their inclusion in the kingdom that Jesus is here to usher in.
Once they have called out to him Jesus sees them. It is important that the gospel writer makes this explicit. How often do you think people walk by this group without seeing them? And then, without any flourish and without another thought, Jesus simply says to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” This is the normal route for those with illnesses to once again be able to rejoin society. Once healed, they must present themselves to the priests and be declared “clean.” So Jesus is simply telling them, “Do as the Law tells you.”
They turn and go in search of the priests - exactly as Jesus directed them to do and exactly as the Law tells them to do. This is a perfectly normal reaction to their circumstances.
Along the way, they are healed. By the time they reach the priests, they have been made clean. The priests will be able to declare them clean, and they will be able to rejoin their family and friends and the rest of society once again. For those who have been treated as outcasts and separated from all they know, I imagine they were filled with excitement when they realize they are now clean. Not knowing how long they have had to live as outsiders, it is hard to blame them. Who doesn’t want to return to their families and friends and be accepted by society?
But one of them, upon realizing they have been healed turns back to offer praise to God and to thank Jesus. Then the gospel writer goes a step further. Not only was this man a former leper, he was also a Samaritan. So he was doubly marked as an outsider. Not only had his disease marked him, but his identity as a Samaritan marks him as an outsider as well.
Now of course, it is interesting to note a couple of things here. First, the other nine, the ones that did what was expected and went to the priests to be declared clean, were also healed. The healing miracle did not depend on their thankfulness. Their actions were completely appropriate to the situation. They were healed but the priests needed to declare them clean in order for them to rejoin society. Without the word of the priests, they would still be considered outcasts no matter how clean they looked.
Second, the tenth man’s identity as a Samaritan also does not keep him from receiving God’s blessing. He is just as healed as the other nine. But he goes beyond the expectations of the Law by returning to give thanks and praise to Jesus and God. The others did just as was expected of them, but this one man went beyond expectations.
Jesus’ response is interesting. On the one hand, he makes note of the absence of the other nine. “Weren’t ten cleansed?” We have to assume that Jesus is here making a point for the disciples’ benefit. As mentioned before, the previous few verses in this chapter have Jesus making the point that one does not thank a servant for doing that which is expected of them. In this case, Jesus, who Luke portrays as a servant throughout, does that which is expected of him - he heals those who are in need. Even though he is making a big deal of it, he is also saying there is nothing wrong with this.
On the other hand, he also makes note of this one’s status as a foreigner and therefore an outsider. “No one returned to praise God except this foreigner?” “In calling him a foreigner, Jesus identifies him as a person of a different race, a person who is not one of the kindred, a person who is not Jewish and is thought not to belong or to matter. In giving mercy to someone beyond the familial and familiar, Jesus models that his mission is not relegated only to a singular...group. His mission is meant for all peoples.”²
When we look at this text, we find that Jesus healed the Samaritan, named the Samaritan, and in doing so allowed him to return to his community as a Samaritan. He didn’t ask for the Samaritan to renounce his beliefs and become Jewish. He didn’t heal the other nine and leave this one unhealed.
Not only that, but Jesus goes a step further. Where his previous two questions were meant primarily as rhetorical questions for his disciples to wrestle with, he now addresses this man directly. “Get up and go. Your faith has healed you.” It is his faith that has healed him, faith that he developed as a Samaritan. This is not the faith of the Jews, but the faith of someone considered an outcast, an outsider, one who does not matter. While this is said directly to the Samaritan, these words are again meant for the disciples. As mentioned before, the previous conversation just a few verses earlier in the text had included talk about what could be accomplished through faith, even faith as small as a mustard seed.
This connection back to that part of the story does two things. First, it serves more or less as a literal example of what Jesus had told them. Faith, even that which may be considered tiny, has the power to heal. Healing is not dependent on a particular amount of faith or even a particular variety of faith.
And second, “neither faith nor healing is limited by borders or boundaries, whether those boundaries are geographical, religious, social, combinations of these, or otherwise.”³ God is not only available for those that are already in the faith as we recognize it. God is available to all.
Jesus cares about us whether we are in the “in” group or we are outcasts. Jesus comes to us in our particularities whatever they may be. “For those who recognize Jesus, understanding that he cares deeply for our particularity, our identities, and our differences is at the heart of the gospel message.”⁴
And for those of us that follow Jesus now, we are also called to heal all those that seek healing regardless of where they are and what they believe. “We are to share mercy with outsiders without asking them to assimilate to our ways....”⁵
As we look at this healed leper, this Samaritan, we are able to see how he went beyond expectations to give thanks. All that was expected was to present himself to the priests that he could be declared clean. As an outcast on more than one level, he was not expected to stop and give thanks. And yet he did.
And as we dig deeper, we see he is not the only one going beyond expectations. Jesus as well is showing how we are all expected to step beyond the borders and boundaries that we place around ourselves. Healing is not dependent on being part of the "in" crowd. Faith in God is not limited to people who look, act, and believe a certain way.
Nor does faith or healing require someone to become other than they are. Jesus cared about the Samaritan. He made a point of healing and including him. Jesus made a point of showing that the Samaritan’s status did not exclude him from God’s love or grace.
I want us to consider two important thoughts as we go about our lives this week. I want to ask which of us here is perfect? Which of us here is worthy according to the Law? Which of us here deserves God’s love? Which of us is loved by God?
Hopefully we all realize that we are included in that last one. And for our inclusion regardless of our status or whether or not we deserve it, I for one am eternally thankful.
But beyond recognizing our own imperfections, I also want us to remember that we have been called to continue the ministry that Jesus began. We have been baptized into the body of Christ, and that means that we must continue the work that Jesus started. “Who matters to Jesus should matter to us. What matters to Jesus should matter to us. In [our] time, we must ask: Whom are we pushing out of our village? Who is [considered] a pariah now? Who are the lepers and Samaritans of the twenty-first century?”⁶
Who are the ones we put on the margins today?
Who are the ones that are excluded because of what they look like or what they believe?
Who are the outsiders?
Are we loving them beyond expectations without asking anything in return?
Which lives matter to Jesus? In this particular story, Jesus says that this Samaritan's life matters. This doesn't deny that anyone else's life matters, but Jesus makes a point of including this outsider and naming his particularity.
As we consider what is going on in our world today, we must ask ourselves where would Jesus stand?
I think we can pretty safely say, based on our story today if nothing else, that Jesus would be going beyond what was expected to include those in need.
As the continuing body of Christ in the world, our call is to stand in that same space. As those that follow Jesus, do our actions in the world lead others to praise God and give thanks?
Our call as Christians is to go beyond expectations to help those in need.
May we continue to be the presence of Christ in the world for which others are thankful.
May we continue to go beyond.
- Nancy Lynne Westfield, “Luke 17:11-19 - Commentary 2: Connecting the Reading with the World,” in Connections: Year C, Volume 3 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2019), 389.
- Westfield, 389.
- Richard W. Volz, “Luke 17:11-19 - Commentary 1: Connecting the Reading with the Scripture,” in Connections: Year C, Volume 3 (Louisville: WJK Press, 2019), 388.
- Westfield, 390.
- Westfield, 390.
- Westfield, 390.