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‘C’   //   Pentecost 21   //   10-14-07   //   Celebration of Worship, Northside Presbyterian 

• Jews are bad
• Gratitude is good, ingratitude is bad

• Various skin conditions
  • Disfiguring
  • Contagious
• Early infection control
  • Show priests
  • Leviticus 13 – diagnosis and quarantine
    • 45-46: The person who has the leprous^* disease…. shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.
• Cleansing, re-admittance to society  à Leviticus 14

• Luke – 4 sections
  • 1 – Intro – 6 pp
  • 2 – Galilee, up til Transfiguration – 10 pp
  • 3 – Journey to Jerusalem – “set His face resolutely toward Jerusalem” – 12 pp
  • 4 – In Jerusalem – 8 pp
• Galilee/Nazareth way in the north, to Jerusalem: 70 miles. Like walking from Indiana to Ann Arbor
• Through Samaria

• Geographical Samaritans vs religious Samaritans
• Followers of the same God, of Mosaic Law, but with a few differences
  • They – not the mainstream Jews – are the keepers of the “true” Law
    • Like fighting with my brother

• They asked for mercy
• He sent them to the temple to see the priests
• On the way, they were cleansed (healed, cured)
• 9 continued on to the temple; one came back
• (lepers’ POV)
• He fell on his face beside Jesus’ feet, thanking him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was none found returning to give glory to God, besides this outsider?” Then Jesus said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has healed you."

• First, as far as thankfulness, Jesus remarks not on the Samaritan’s thanking him – what Jesus finds important is that he is giving glory to God.
• Greek sozo – “saved” 90% of the time in the New Testament
  • E.g. story set in Galilee, where Jesus visits Simon – a  Pharisee –  for dinner. A woman – a woman whose moral standing is questionable, at least in Simon’s eyes – sits behind Jesus and bathes his feet with her tears, dries them with her hair, kisses his feet and massages them with scented oil. And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” Sound familiar?  “Go on your way; your faith has healed you.”
  • It’s the same word for healed, saved, and made whole, which suggests that these two ideas are related.
  • So the KJ ending may be the most complete: “Your faith has made you whole”
    à gets at both these ideas.

• Parable of servant doing as he’s told comes right before:
• Story of 10 lepers 

• We are not called to “do the right thing”, to do what we should do, to obey the rules. Just like the story of the servant who does what he’s supposed to do. Or Jesus’ disappointment in the 9 who, yes, followed the law, but yet, in Jesus’ view, they fell short.
• What we are called to do (Luke 10:25-28) is “love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”
• Just like in the story of dinner with Simon the Pharisee – “Jesus said, “Do you see this woman? Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much.” The depth of the woman’s forgiveness reflects, and is reflected by, the depth of her love.
• Of the 10, the one who returned was the one who showed that he understood the Great Commandment of Love à he lived up to the most important part of the Law, the Greatest Commandment.
• What the Law offered him as a cleansed leper – “if you go to the Temple, you will be restored” – what was his by right – he gave up.
• No – he didn’t just go to church – he came to Jesus to love and serve the Lord.