Reflection on Luke 17:11-19

The tenth leper is out there.  If you were to go out into the world of your everyday life and look closely, you would see him or her.  The tenth leper would be the one who is following Jesus and thanking Jesus out in the grocery store, or at the bar, but would never step into a church.  Skeptical?  I assure you that the tenth leper is out there.

I, on the other hand, am not like the tenth leper.  I am a proud member of the other nine lepers.  Well, proud might be overstating it, but when I find that I am lost, when I find that I am in pain and in need of healing, I know exactly where to go.  I go to church.

This past weekend I did exactly that.  After a day of vacationing at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire dressed up like a pirate, walking around with a turkey leg in one hand (biting off huge chunks with the corner of my mouth) and my granddaughter in the other hand (who was also biting off chunks of turkey leg and chewing like an old-time king) I needed some much neglected relaxation and restoration.  So, along with my wife and granddaughter, I went to church.

You must understand, I am up in the pulpit leading all the time, and there are some times in life that I need to be the one to whom the sermon is directed.  Sometimes I need healing.  Sometimes I need to be in the position of asking for forgiveness and receiving those words of assurance, “your sins are forgiven.”  So, I obviously did what I have been told to do since I can remember as a child; I went to church.  I Googled “churches near me,” on my phone, found one that had a nice website, and I went.  My grandmother would have been proud.  I am firmly in the company of the nine lepers.

When the lepers called out to Jesus for healing, Jesus told them to go and show themselves to the priests, and they would be healed.  In the ancient world, showing yourself to the priest would prove that you were no longer sick.  With that clean bill of health, you would no longer need to tell people to stay away.  With that clean bill of health, you would be restored back to your community.  Desperately desiring to hug sons and daughters and eat with old friends, the nine did exactly as they were told by Jesus and went to church.

I have to admit that the church I visited was not exactly the most welcoming of churches.  An usher handed me a bulletin without saying hello.  I sequestered myself in one of the back pews because I had one of those noise boxes that most of us call “a child.”

“Shh, whisper,” I said.

“Ok, Opa, I’ll whisper in church” she shouts.  “Oooo look, look, look, her hair is huge!”  

I was somewhat relieved when nearly everyone in the church fulfilled their God given duty to be quiet, reverent, and keep to themselves during this exchange.  The only problem was that they kept to themselves, before, during, and after worship, and made certain not to say “hello” or “good morning” or “how’s your day” to us visitors.  I will let that lack of hospitality sink in for a second so that you can ask yourself, “Is that the experience of someone who visits my church?” 

Ok, now that you took a brief moment of self-reflection I will continue my reflection, because that is not the point of this reflection.  The point is: even with the lack of basic kindness to a visitor, I still heard the word of God spoken to me, I prayed along with the community to the Lord and expressed the desires of my heart, and the Lord touched me as the soft bread…his body…graced my lips, and the wine…his blood…found its way past my mouth and into my soul.  In that meal, I looked down at myself and found that I was healed.  I was brought back from the dead by Jesus, and sent away to continue my ministry.

You see, the nine lepers did not do anything wrong.  They listened to Jesus, did exactly as they had been told, and went to church.  In doing so, they found their healing.

But, where was the tenth leper?  “Weren’t there ten of us?” they must have asked themselves as they arrived in front of the priest.

Well, the tenth leper was with Jesus.  The tenth leper was with God.  The tenth leper had gone back to cry out, “thank you Jesus!”  The tenth leper would not have felt welcome standing in front of a priest.  He was a foreigner.  He was of a slightly different religion.  He was not a part of this community.  He would not have felt welcomed had he gone to the priest.

I have grown up in the church my whole life, so I am used to the rudeness of church members, but I have seen the faces of those tenth lepers who do stumble in somehow on Sunday mornings.  They try to hide.  They mostly do not feel warm.  They do not feel welcome.  No one sits with them.  No one talks with them.  No one helps them through the church service.  And, if the sermon preached just happens to be one of those destined for the trash bid that always seem to coincide with the day visitors are present, then all hope is lost.  Those tenth lepers try to find a way to escape the horrible experience before the choir director notices them and asks them to join.  “Fresh meat!!!”  

The sad thing about it is: they probably did not find the healing that they were looking for.  It takes a lot of courage to visit someplace new, and it probably takes a lot of pain to motivate someone to do it in the first place.  They are the tenth leper, and they do not feel at home in church or at home in religion, and we look at our empty pews and ask, “Where is the tenth leper?”  “Where are the parents with small children?”  “Where are those in pain?”  “Where are the sinners?”  “Where is the tenth leper?”

Now, I would like to point out: we in church ask, “Where is the tenth leper?” but this is not the question that Jesus asks.  Quite to the contrary, Jesus asks the question, “Where are the other nine?”

You see, Jesus is not bound to the confines of a church building.  Jesus is not bound to the confines and beliefs of any particular group.  Jesus is not bound up in the church.  Yes, Jesus is present in the church, but if you are willing to place a bet on where you will find him on any given day, it would not necessarily be on the church property.  Rather, it would be with those who need a physician.  Jesus said, “I came not for those who are well, but those who are sick.”  Jesus is present, out there, walking around in your daily lives, offering healing and hope outside the walls of an institution.  Jesus is out there and he is asking, “Where are the other nine?” 

So, I ask you, if we are in the church; and Jesus is out in daily life with the people who are hurting; then where should we be looking for Jesus?  We will find Jesus when we see the tenth leper!  

Jesus is with the tenth leper, with the outcast, with the one crying out for healing, with the one who would never feel free to step foot inside the church building.  God is at work out there, and somehow, in some way, our own wholeness as disciples of Christ will be found when we answer Jesus question, “Where are the other nine?” by leaving our confining institutions, by leaving the confining thoughts of our own beliefs, and run up to Jesus and say, “Right here Jesus, we are right here!”  The tenth leper is out there, and so is Jesus, offering healing to all who call out.