“AND WAS MADE MAN”
Saint Luke 17. 11-19
14th Sunday after Trinity: 25 September Anno Domini 2011
Fr Jay Watson SSP
"And it came to pass…" well, yes…BUT-by Divine Plan. The Lord wasn't just wandering around and suddenly decided to go to the city of Jerusalem. He was going to Jerusalem to die; to die for sin; to die for your failings. He was going to Jerusalem to keep the Law, to satisfy justice and righteousness, and to reverse the corruption of nature-man's and the earth's! He was going to Jerusalem to destroy disease and even death itself. He would do all this by allowing His own innocent Body to be infected and cursed by the disease of sin and by letting death claim His own life.
He entered into a "certain village" to give a "foretaste of the feast to come" and to give a glimpse of just Who the wandering Rabbi from Galilee truly was.
The only good thing about having leprosy was that its poor victims no longer trusted in themselves and their own abilities. When one's chest is covered in lesions, open sores and rotting skin, then one no longer desires to "puff it out" in pride and self-worth. When one's back is sloughing off in puss-filled chunks one isn't quite as keen on patting it in arrogance and preening.
The Ten Lepers were ten lepers, but they were more. Those men signified for all time that the number 10, which represent the Commandments-the Law, saves no one but only destroys. They did not obey God's will. They sinned every day, before they became lepers, while they were lepers, and even after their miraculous healing.
They broke ALL 10 of God's desires every day. And like you they would receive the wages of their work. You have leprosy too and you will die. Your leprosy may go by another name, but (and with apologies to the Bard) decaying flesh by any other name is still decaying flesh.
They did not find the Lord; rather He came to find them. They did not decide to "get better" He healed them with His Word.
But first we read: "And they lifted up their voice…" (The Church is always a choir never a soloist; always a harmonious SATB and never a virtuoso performer) and prayed: "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us."
This morning you joyously take them at their professed confession and acknowledge that they knew Who Jesus was and what He had been doing. To call the Nazarene "Master" and to ask for His "Mercy" is an indication of at least incipient and flickering faith-a trusting in His goodness.
Christ came to fix everything including: disease, aging, pain, suffering, family loss, loneliness, ostracization, and leprosy! Every single miracle that the Lord did was a "Transfigured Flash" of His full Godhood and His total control over physics, nature, science, life & death, and the sum of the entire created universe. Jesus made Adam's flesh perfect and Jesus could, can, and will restore that flesh perfect and glorious at the Last Day-the resurrection of all flesh. And in the interim, such as on that fateful day in 30 AD, Jesus healed 10 very sick men and made their skin, their "outsides" new and lively again. For the remainder of their earthly lives, even as they aged, and possibly encountered many other medical and physical problems before their death, they were FREE FROM LEPROSY!
They were delivered from their "body of death" with but a word from the God/Man-the Word made Flesh. All of you are likewise delivered from sin with but a Word from The Word: "I baptize you in the Name…"; "In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus, Christ I forgive you all your sins…"; "The Body of Christ, The Blood of Christ for thee." For as the Reformer reminds you: "where there is forgiveness of sins there is ALSO life and salvation." Where there is forgiveness of sins, leprosy has no final disfiguring affect and death has no lasting sting.
Sure, the 9 Jewish men who were cleansed did not come back to give a personal thanksgiving to the Lord. Were those 9 joyous and cleansed men any worse than anyone else-no they were not. By nature you tend to forget the good that God does for you and the daily bread with which He provides you with. Let us simply focus on the "stranger," the one who can legitimately represent all Gentile Christians who have been saved and cleansed by Jesus through His Grace, by faith in Him alone!
This emphasis on the one who returns is just for you-the faithful who are regularly gathered by Christ the Word employing the Holy Ghost to gather you in this "certain village." The man who returns doesn't just thank Jesus. The Samaritan doesn't just come up with an impromptu "I just want to say" about what "just what was on his heart." His thanksgiving is pure devotional, confessional, sacramental, and liturgical prayer IN ACTION. He does liturgy and he does rubrics. He confesses Christ and Him Crucified with heart, mouth, and body. He shows you a pleasing, good, and, as our bulletin weekly tries to gently remind you, a "salutary" way to let "custom" and "habit" serve and demonstrate your soul's inner faith!
He, like we, fell at Jesus' feet for he too recognized that Jesus-Savior wasn't just a man-Savior, but was God in the Flesh. He confessed with his whole body what his heart and mouth were confessing…what Joshua, Peter, Martha, and Thomas confessed: "my Lord and my God!" His knees did what ours do, not by way of Law, or mandate, or hectoring, but by way of joyous constraint. The Samaritan believed that his Healer was Messiah, the "Christ of the Living God!" He believed though through a "glass darkly" what the complete Evangels and creeds have now delivered to all of you; that Jesus was Incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and made MAN… "Homo Factus Est," WAS MADE MAN…for you and your salvation. The Man/God Jesus took your Leprosy from you! The Man/God Jesus died for you! The Man is God…God Incarnate.
Come to His Altar to receive His flesh; His Body & Blood, for "The Lord hath made thee whole."
In the Name of The + Father and of The Son and of The Holy Ghost