Time after Pentecost- Lectionery 28
2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15; Luke 17:11-19

Grace to you and peace…

If you were asked the question: “What one man-made object is visible by eye from a space capsule orbiting earth,” would you know the answer? If your answer is the Great Wall of China, you would be correct. It is ironic that the one thing we can see from space that has been built by people is a wall, a boundary to keep certain people in and certain people out.

That’s not the only such wall, of course. You are probably aware that there is a controversial wall being built right now by Israel, a security wall they call it, separating what they claim to be their borders from the Palestinian land and people. It is symbolic of the division that continues to exist in that region of the world. Closer to home, there is ongoing controversy about our own country’s borders, what kinds of walls should exist, and immigration policy in general.

The issue of barriers and separation of people is not a new one. It is central to understanding both the Old Testament and Gospel lessons read this morning. I’ll focus mainly on the gospel, first looking at the barriers that existed, then at our Lord’s response, and finally how this ancient story of healing and cleansing might impact our thinking today.

Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, where he would ultimately die on the cross for all the sins of the world that separate us one from another and from God. He was passing by along the border between two regions, Samaria and Galilee. Now we’ve heard of this Samaria region before in Luke, especially from the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10.

The story tells us that as Jesus entered a village, he is met by 10 lepers who stood at a distance. This is a situation filled with walls and barriers. In fact, I see at least four, perhaps there are even more.

First, there is the physical illness of leprosy. We rarely see it today, thankfully, but at the time it was the most dreaded of all the ancient diseases. It was a skin disease that ate away at the body and left its victims often maimed and disfigured. There was no known cure. People feared it, because they did not understand it. Much like when the HIV/AIDS virus was first identified here in the early 80’s, people were afraid of those with the disease. There was a barrier between the healthy and the unhealthy.

Closely related was the social barrier caused by this disease. Leprosy was believed to be highly contagious. We now know that’s not true, but that was the thinking at the time. The lesson makes it quite clear that as these lepers approached Jesus they stood at a far distance. Jewish law clearly prescribed that a leper could not get within fifty yards of a clean person. Everywhere these poor men journeyed they heard familiar words yelled out: “Unclean,” “Leper.” And then some would hurl stones at them to keep them away. So it was that they not only had to live with their physical illness, but they were also socially isolated. They could only live with others that had the same disease. They had to live with loneliness, being outcast and separated from the community. That can do more to drain a person’s energy for living than the most horrible of diseases.

There’s a third wall that isn’t so immediately evident. It’s a religious separation. Jews considered those with leprosy unclean and impure. Beyond that, we learn that one of these lepers was a Samaritan. In their common misery, the religious barriers between Jew and Samaritan lepers went away. They were all lepers. It didn’t matter if they were Jews or Samaritans. They were forced to live together by their illness and situation. But as Jesus approached, he was certainly aware that not all the lepers were Jews. The rules were he, as a Jew, along with the disciples, were not to associate with Samaritans, especially a Samaritan leper. Samaritans didn’t believe in God in the same way as the Jews. So, religious differences, religious barriers, also are in play in this story.

And finally, there are racial differences. Samaritans were ethnically different from their neighboring Jews. This had to do with their different histories, the forming of another race of people. We all know race impacts how we view one another and can be another barrier between people.

So, as Jesus and the disciples looked out at these 10 men with leprosy, walls were everywhere. They were physical, social, religious, and ethnic. Everything about the situation says stay away, don’t go there, turn the other way, avoid.

But what does Jesus do? He enters into the situation. He does the opposite of what any good Jew would be expected to do. Like a marathon runner breaking the tape at the finish line, Jesus breaks every barrier of separation between these lepers and everyone else.

He starts with the social, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” Initially that may sound strange to us, but the fact is that the priests of that day were also public health officers. If a person had been cured from an infectious disease, he had to present himself to the priest to receive a health certificate. No doubt the lepers were puzzled by Jesus’ command. The healing had not yet taken place. Why bother to get a certificate of health when you haven’t been cured? Yet, they believed his words and they did as he commanded.

As they did so, the physical healing occurred. The wretched sores that scarred their hands and faces began to vanish. Their flagging strength began to return. Luke simply says, “And as they went they were cleansed.” Like the leper Naaman in our first lesson, who was washed in the River Jordan and healed, these lepers were cleansed of their disease. The physical barrier went away and so did the social, as they now could return back to the community.

In the same way, the ethnic and religious barriers were removed. The Samaritan leper was cleansed right along with the Jewish lepers. In fact, only one of them returned to thank Jesus. Only one of them had his faith commended by Jesus. It was the Samaritan. The one that would typically be most left out and shunned by others, the one with the differing religious beliefs, was the one who became a model for faith. What a twist that is. It doesn’t say he converted and became a Jew. It simply says that Jesus told him, “Your faith has made you well.” He was healed with all the others and becomes a model of faith.

There are two key things I think we can take from this lesson, both personally and as a congregation. The first is that we need to be very careful not to exclude other people from our lives and from our church. There is a strong temptation to only want to associate with and include people that are just like us. We can pretty easily put up walls that effectively keep others out. It’s easy to fall into judgment, judging others that don’t meet our particular standards.

But that’s not what Jesus does, in this lesson and elsewhere. He breaks the physical, emotional, religious, and ethnic barriers that would normally keep people away. He consistently demonstrates inclusion of those normally left out, not exclusion. He brings in the dishonest tax collectors, uses the normally shunned Samaritans as examples of goodness, reaches out to the poor, includes women among his closest followers, and welcomes sinners of all shapes and sizes. We better think long and hard about leaving anyone out, for that’s not what Jesus demonstrates. I suppose that if someone is a real danger to the community, a significant threat, exclusion might be necessary. But that’s rarely the case. The only people that really seemed to upset Jesus were those that thought they could judge others, because they thought they were better and more righteous. Jesus had very little patience for that, which is why he was so hard on the scribes and Pharisees. I know that as humans this issue of who is included and who is excluded can get controversial. But it seems pretty clear to me from lessons like today that it would be better to err on the side of inclusion, than exclusion, for that is what Jesus does time and time again.

The second thing we can take from this lesson is to be continually thankful for the blessing of God’s grace in our lives. At some level, every one of us is like the diseased leper in need of cleansing. We all need to be washed, made clean, and restored again to the community. That’s why it is so wrong to judge and exclude. Each of us, in some way, sins against God and others, and continues to do so. To judge and exclude another for something they may have done, or even continue to do, is not right, because we all do it in some way.

The language of Baptism fills these lessons. Naaman is washed in the river. As the lepers leave Jesus they are cleansed. The beauty of our Lutheran understanding of Baptism is that it is God who cleanses and forgives in the water and Word, and we are urged to continually come back to that, to continually remember our Baptism, to continually be cleansed. It’s about daily receiving grace, and being thankful every day, for without that grace none of us could possibly have any hope before God. I really think the key to a loving, inclusive heart is gratitude for God’s grace that saves us. If God can do so for us, surely he can do so for all.

Walls and barriers are everywhere. You can even see one from outer space. But today we have seen how Jesus breaks through the barriers, cleansing the lepers, even the foreigner, and restoring them to life. May we seek to follow his example, knowing that he has first broken through the barriers to heal us. Amen