It
is the same sort of gift of inclusion that a lonely teenage girl on of the side
of the dance feels when, out of nowhere, someone comes up, takes her hand, and
whisks her away toward the dance floor.
“Someone cares enough to dance with me too?”
It
is the same sort of gift of inclusion that the homeless veteran feels when
someone cares to sit down with a cup of coffee to converse, listen, and
help. “You would waste your time on me
too?”
The
tenth leper, the Samaritan, the enemy, walks away with the others expecting to
be cut off from the healing that Jesus has to offer because that is just what
happens when you are a hated Samaritan living in a Jewish world. But, to his surprise, he looks down and notices
that Jesus has included him too. He too
has been healed from his leprosy. He too
has been noticed. He too has been loved. He too has the chance at a normal life. He has been healed too.
Jesus
is like that you know. Jesus actually follows
his own teachings and loves the enemy as well as those who are not. Jesus does not distinguish between the
deserving and the undeserving before he sets out to heal. Jesus heals the Samaritan, even though
Samaritans are known to worship in the wrong way, in the wrong place, and
associate with the wrong people.
It
is as if Jesus would be willing to go to the cross for people like that
Samaritan man. It is as if Jesus loves
the world, and not just those who with the right religion. It is as if Jesus actually cares that people
like him be saved. And, it is that sort
of unconventional and unexpected love of Jesus that causes a saving faith to
well up inside the formerly leprous Samaritan.
But, that type of faith does not well up in the other nine.
Just
to be clear, Jesus loves and heals all of the lepers. All ten people, sequestered to the edge of
the village because of their leprosy, are healed after they shout out for Jesus
to show mercy. None of them had to prove
anything to Jesus in order to deserve this healing. None of them had to demonstrate their
incredible faith in order to be touched by the holy.
I
would like to note even further that the other nine lepers listened closely to
Jesus’ words and did exactly what Jesus told them to do. Jesus told them to go and show themselves to
the priests, as required by their religion to prove that they were clean, and
they went away and did exactly that. They
did nothing wrong.
The
only difference that I can see between the nine and the one is that only the
one Samaritan expected that the gift was not for him. Only the Samaritan had reason to believe that
he would be excluded like every other time.
But, when the Samaritan looked down and saw that he was healed too, he
could not help but come back with a heart of gratitude and praise for what
Jesus had done.
Now,
you cannot manufacture this type of gratitude.
It is like forcing your kids to sit down and write thank you notes for
their Christmas gifts. It is the right
thing to do, but the actual sense of gratitude might be somewhat lacking as you
force them with pre-scripted words of appreciation.
The
difficulty of showing gratitude does not stop with children though. I have heard many Christians express how they
know they need to be more grateful, but someow fall short.
They
have surely read, as I have, all the studies that show how much better the
mental health of people is who show gratitude.
Gratitude makes our brains healthier.
It decreases pain levels. It
allows for better sleep. It relieves
stress. It reduces anxiety and
depression without medication. And,
gratitude can even increase your levels of energy. But, even with all the scientific evidence of
effectiveness and the encouragement from the scriptures, people still tell me
that they struggle with making it happen.
How
do you make yourself be grateful? You
cannot just make yourself feel something that you do not feel; can you?
In
order to get at that question, I want to point out one more thing that I noticed
about the Samaritan that I saw lacking in the other nine. Maybe you saw it also. He was the only one who looked down and saw
that he was healed. This is such a small
detail, but it is huge. The other nine lepers
walk off, because they were told to, but they walk off without noticing that
they were healed. It is only the
Samaritan who looks and notices what God has done.
Here
is the thing. God is at work and doing
things in our lives all the time. There
are a multitude of things that you could notice throughout any single day that
God is doing. There are a multitude of
things that could cause you to turn back and praise God.
Those
who suffer from acute asthma can tell you how grateful they are for the simple
gift of breath. But, it is only those
with acute asthma who look and notice.
Those
who have lost legs and arms can tell you how grateful they are to have prostheses
that restore their lives back to something that looks like normal. But, it is only those who have lost limbs who
look and notice what a gift they are.
Having
your eyes opened to look and see is a gift from Jesus in and of itself, because
the faith that gratitude creates comes from the act of stopping, looking, and
seeing all that God has done.
In
worship we sometimes get to see a young child accepted as a child of God
through Holy Baptism. It is a gift from
a loving God that draws the child into a holy family. Note, that like the lepers, nothing had to be
done by the child in order to be given this beautiful gift. It is a gift after-all. But, we do pray that throughout the years
parents, sponsors, and the church itself will be able to help the children to stop,
look, and see the grace of God that has been given.
We
help others stop and notice because Jesus stops and notices. Jesus sees you also. Jesus loves you also. Even if…even if you are not the one who is
usually included with everyone else, Jesus sees you and gives you healing
too.
May
you see the grace that Jesus pours out on you even today. And when you see, may you hear Jesus’
words: "Get up and go on your way;
your faith has made you well."
No comments:
Post a Comment