The Strange Leper
Luke 17:11-17
September 13, 2020 anno Domini – Redeemer
Last week the Samaritan was Jesus. This week the Samaritan is you.
Last week we heard of the Good Samaritan who stopped to help a beat up guy. The Good Samaritan saved the guy’s life, poured oil and wine on his wounds, brought him to the nearest emergency room, and paid the whole bill to restore him to health. That’s what Jesus does for you. You were dead in your trespasses and sin. You get pummeled in life because your sin robs you, beats you, messes up your plans, and will finally kill you. Unless of course Jesus gets to you and that is what He does as the Good Samaritan. He came at just the right time to save you. By His death He pays the price of your sin. By His resurrection He declares, “Whatever your debt I have paid. Whatever your curse you are blessed in Me. whenever you die you will yet live.”
This week the Samaritan is you. Or rather Jesus desires that you be the Samaritan. Jesus is not a little disappointed that he only receives a tithe of the men he healed. Only 10 percent returned and of the ten the other nine had more reason to return. They were Jews. They had met their Messiah. He fulfilled a prophecy not only before them, but to them. He cleansed lepers. He cleansed them.
This year we ought to have a better understanding of what those lepers endured and what Jesus gave them. Leprosy was a private pandemic. Once you got it you needed to socially distance yourself from everyone, not six feet, but more like 60 feet or 600 feet. You couldn’t even be with your family. Menards wouldn’t let you in with two masks, double gloves, and a hazmat suit.
We now have a taste of what enforced isolation does. Many businesses are finished and livelihoods are ruined. Suicides are spiking as people lose their jobs, cannot get mental health care, or simply are more alone than before. It is not good to be alone. Calls to the National Alliance on Mental Illness are up 65%. I have read the suicide rates are up almost 50 percent.
Husbands have not been able to be with their wives during childbirth. Families could not grieve together over a loved one’s death. Grandparents are kept from their grandchildren and many elderly are locked away in fear and have lost seven months of their limited time on earth.
Lepers suffered far worse. There was no hope for a vaccine. No hope that a new president will end the pandemic on day one. No chance that there would ever be a normal. A leper would never see his daughter or his granddaughter. He would never return to work. He would never be able to take off his mask. The restrictions on his life would get tighter and tighter until he died alone. To understand how a leper was treated, walk through downtown Saint Cloud yelling, “I’ve got Covid.” Or wear a mask that says, “Covid Positive” on the front and try getting into Olive Garden or Home Depot. (BTW those are illustrations, not instructions.)
Our pandemic is not leprosy and leprosy is not sin. Sin is far worse than both. Sin is the cause of both, but in both leprosy and enforced isolation we see the rotten fruit of our sins. Sin tears you apart from other people. Boyfriends get their girlfriends pregnant then leave or worse stay and beat them. Husbands and wives get bored with marriage and have affairs which rip their union asunder. Children get an education and rebel at everything their parents and pastor taught them. Our ears itch for dirt on “those people” and the media brings the manure spreader of innuendo and slander to soil us. Every sin you commit hurts someone and isolates you from others.
Jesus came to reunite sinners with the true God. That is why He often visited those who were isolated – the Lepers, the deaf, the blind, the prostitutes, and the dead). He came for you. He walked down our road of death, where the law mandates that we be isolated from God for all eternity. Jesus was quarantined for 40 days in the wilderness after His baptism. He was tempted to think only of Himself. “You’re God, act like it!” the Devil dared. Jesus did act like it. For the true God is not for Himself He is for you. He did not socially distance Himself from the least, last, losers, and lonely. Jesus cleansed the lepers with His Word. He forgave sinners by His Word. He raised the dead by His Word. Ironically this wonderful Word of Jesus is spoken from the worst silence in history. Jesus was led like a lamb to the slaughter. He never once spoke is His defense. He was silent for you. Then He endured the ultimately isolation for sin – He suffered the hell of His Father’s silence and rejection. God owes us nothing. He doesn’t owe us a response to our prayers, a morsel of daily bread, one moment of joy, or a less than one percent chance of dying from Covid-19 (which are your statistical chances in Minnesota if you’re not in a nursing home.) What we are owed is the silence which God the Father gave His Son on the cross. By that silence to His Son the Father speaks of your election, “I choose you to be my own,” of your justification, “All is right between us,” and of your liberation, “I have set you free from sin, death, and hell.”
You are freer than the lepers of the text. They were simply free from leprosy. You are set free from sin. You can now build up what you have torn down and heal those you have wounded. You are forgiven so now you can forgive. You are going to live even though you die – so you do not need to be afraid of death, locked up in your room like the disciples when they thought Jesus was dead. Jesus isn’t dead. He is alive. Covid 19 cannot separate you from life any more than cancer, the flu, old age, or a car accident. That does not mean death is easy for Christian or that we fool around with it. Death is the curse of sin. But it isn’t permanent in Christ.
10 men walked out of Leper cemetery in the text. Can you imagine the joy of their freedom? Nine guys did what most people do with Jesus – they see Him once (one a lifetime, once a year, once a week) and then get on with life. One guy was strange. That’s the mark of Christ and those who follow Him.
Christ is strange. He is the Good Samaritan who helps the guy that everyone walks by – He helps you. He doesn’t just give you a night at Holiday Inn Express. He gives you a room in the heavenly mansion. His gifts are not for a few days, but for eternity.
Christians are strange. That has been the case since Christ Jesus rose from the dead. We believe in a guy who walked out of the cemetery. There’s nothing to be afraid of – so be strange. Don’t cower in fear with world. Live in faith toward Christ. Make your faith more important than your fun. Confess your hope in Christ instead of Trump or Biden. Remember your Lord is risen and has been ruling all the world for 2000 years. His Kingdom endures. Don’t be concerned about giving your children or grandchildren a large inheritance. Be concerned that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is continually preached to them so they can inherit life with you.
You have a strange Lord and a strange faith so live a strange life in the name of Jesus. Amen.