20 Pentecost, Year C

Proper 23 -- Ruth 1:1–19a; Psalm 113; II Timothy 2:3-15; Luke 17:11-19
A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, October 10, 2010

“SAINT MAKING”
(Homily text: Luke 17: 11 - 19)

Ever think about how a saint is made?

I’d be speaking, of course, of the making of the major, "capital S” saints, people like St. Peter and St. Paul. I’d also be speaking of the "little s” saints, people like you and me.

Here before us today is an event which results in the making of a saint, a Samaritan man who’d not only been healed of his leprosy, but also came into a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

“Jesus, Master, have mercy on us,” they cry out.

Before we get into the process of the making of this Samaritan saint, let’s take a moment to notice a couple of things about the encounter between Jesus and this group of ten men.

First of all, let’s correct something in our Revised Standard Version’s translation. Today, we read “On the way to Jerusalem, he (Jesus) was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers.” The better translation of “ten lepers” would be “ten leprous men” or “ten men who had leprosy”. This is an important distinction, I think, and something we will come back to in a moment.

Second, let’s notice how often the verb “see” is important to the exchange between Jesus and the ten leprous men. Luke tells us that “When Jesus saw them, he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests’.” And then, “One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice.”

Third, we would not be giving Luke due notice if we didn’t take note of the fact that it is the most unlikely of the ten men, the despised Samaritan, who comes back to thank Jesus for his healing. In this respect, the event before us today is very similar to Jesus’ parable about the Good Samaritan.

Fourth, the ten men are outsiders. They are unclean by virtue of their condition.

Now, let’s go to the nature of the encounter between Jesus and these ten men who were afflicted with leprosy. For in the encounter itself, we can learn a lot about the business of the making of saints.

As Jesus enters the village, He is met by the ten men, who (most likely) have seen Him coming.

They may also have heard something about Jesus, for they call out to Him by name.

What they do not do is to do what the Book of Leviticus requires them to do, which is to call out to anyone who is nearby “Unclean, unclean.”

We can speculate about the nature of their greeting, though we can’t be sure why they said what they did. Perhaps they’d heard that Jesus had been healing others, and had not been afraid to come into contact with them.

Or perhaps, as one commentator suggests, they were merely asking for money, since, due to their condition, they were unable to work.

We can’t be sure about the reason(s) for their actions.

But we can be reasonably sure, I believe, that they knew that Jesus could help them somehow, for their appeal is quite personal. It is addressed to Jesus directly.

So, the saint-making begins. It begins with the appeal of the men in need to Jesus, who is the source of help.

Now, we come back to the issue of the ten men with leprosy, or, as it would be correctly translated from the Greek, “ten leprous men.”

Let’s remember that the ten men are men, human beings. They are not merely objects, that is, lepers. Jesus sees the men as men, as human beings, who are worthy of consideration, care and help.

Jesus’ attitude with regard to the ten men differs sharply from the attitude of the Jewish elite of His day, who would have taken great care to avoid the ten men, for fear of becoming unclean themselves. In this respect, the practices of many pious Jews in Jesus’ day would be analogous to the actions of the priest and the Levite in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, the two men who pass by the wounded and beaten man on the other side of the road. Pious Jews of 2,000 years ago would have avoided any contact with the ten men. Here again, the issue of one of being clean, or unclean.

And so, the saint-making continues: Jesus presents the ten men with a test of faith: “Go and show yourselves to the priests,” He says. Of course, Jesus’ instruction is in keeping with the provisions of the Book of Leviticus. A priest had to certify that a person had been healed of their condition.

But notice that no healing has yet taken place!

Luke reminds us that the ten men set off to see the priest, but they are healed only while they are on their way. The first move – made in response to Jesus’ command – belongs to these saints-to-be. They must take that first step in response to Jesus’ command.

Now, the saint-making is complete as the Samaritan – the most unlikely of the ten to act properly (at least by the standards of the Jews in Jesus’ day) – comes back to thank Jesus for his healing.

And Jesus confirms the importance of the role of faith in saint-making, as He says, “Go your way, your faith has made you well.”

What lessons are there for us in today’s Gospel reading?

Perhaps we might reflect on our own saint-making process, as a good place to begin. Recall the steps with me, as we apply them to our own recollection of the saint-making process:

1. We recognize our need, and our inability to help ourselves: We come, like the ten men, calling out to the Lord, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”

2. Jesus sees us as human beings, and responds: The Lord sees us as men and women, boys and girls. He does not see us as objects. The conditions that are part of our lives do not mask our humanity to God. For example, if a person is one who shoplifts, we tend to call them “shoplifters”, while God would tend to see that person as a person who shoplifts: steals. God – through Christ – is willing to enter into a personal relationship with us, recognizing that no condition that might be present in our lives is beyond correction and healing.

3. We respond in faith: It’s important to put our foot forward, responding to God’s love and mercy which precedes us. Doing so is an act of faith, for the evidence of God’s saving and loving actions may not be noticeable at all, at this point.

4. The relationship is complete as we enter into a deep and personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

We are now saints!

Now, having done these four steps, we are equipped to assist God in making more saints,
sharing what God has done for us in our lives with others.

The saint-making continues!

Thanks be to God.

AMEN.