Of lepers and foreigners

      Quite a fascinating read. Jesus, with very little inducement, heals ten leper’s. To us today we would accept that without question. Jesus did this. Jesus is acting in accordance with his own character. It is a sign of how we too are to act. If not actually healing, then by accepting faults and forgiving. 

     That Brings me to another bold point. In regards to forgiveness ( healing ) Jesus had something to say about it in yet another passage of Scripture. When questioned about how many times we should forgive, “up to Seven times?”, he said ‘not seven times, but seventy times seven times’ (Mt. 18:21-22). In other words, an infinite number of times. Jesus doesn’t even say a ‘reasonable’ amount, he says 70x7 times. Jesus is equally generous in His healing in our reading today. Ten leper’s healed. 

      And as if to zing us, who is the one that comes back? The Samaritan, the one that the observant Jew or Temple elite would label as a sinner, a less-than-Jew and other unflattering names. It’s why the story of the Good Samaritan is so powerful. Yet here we are zinged again as the translation of the Samaritan is a “foreigner”. Seems very timely to us to speak of foreigners, healing and forgiving. But let’s be real, there are a lot of foreigners or immigrants. Too many? What would Jesus do?  Certainly, welcome the foreigners. After all, ‘we were foreigners and captives ourselves’ as Jews. There are numerous references admonishing us to not only welcome the foreigner but to treat them as one of our own. But shouldn’t we be reasonable about this? Remember how Jesus cured the ten lepers? What about forgiving 70x7? Is that reasonable?

      It seems that Jesus is trying to let us know that God’s love is unlimited, inclusive, boundless, infinite. Are we not called then to act the same way? It seems counter intuitive and counter cultural this mass and total embrace of foreigners, of sinners, outcasts and the marginalized. Yet that is exactly what Jesus teaches us to do.

      For Forgiving ourselves, forgiving and embracing the ‘other’ among us, in Christ’s name, we pray.

Luke 17:11-19

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’ When he saw them, he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were made clean.Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, ‘Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’ Then he said to him, ‘Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.’