Saving Faith

Jesus’s message of restoration buts up against his critique of the status quo. Now, he invites us to see that faith can save us; and we can save faith.

as the space between us narrows so do our excuses
Proper 23C
Luke 17:11-19

Saving Faith — Photo by **Caleb Oquendo** from **Pexels**

Jesus is walking between two lands: Samaria and Galilee. Think about that. Between.

When my family drives up to Michigan and we get to the welcome to Michigan sign, we cheer. We’re getting close to grandparents. But that line is clear. One side is Indiana. The other side is Michigan.

When we go north to Alpena I always point out the 45th Parallel sign. Every time. The kids love it. I’m a broken record. On the one side, we’re closer to the equator, then suddenly, {Bam!} we’re closer to the North Pole. It’s like its magic!

our borders

We have taken for granted that our world is divided up just like this. Each bit of physical space is taken up and possessed by somebody or something. Our borders but up against another border. We stake down markers if not fences and walls to define them. This here is my territory. On the other side, there is yours.

This week we saw what happens when a nation moves across one of these borders when Turkey attacked Syria. Even if one is trying to claim some bit of land is rightfully theirs at some point in time, someone else has it on their side of the fence. So, of course, guns and bombs.

In our modern world, everything, even the natural order of the world is bound by these borders.

But in a world before countries (what we call nation-states), there was literally unoccupied land. Or perhaps, disputed or shared land. The land outside of cities and fortresses, unless vigorously defended, is not really anyone’s. It exists between.

Jesus is walking between the borders.

And in this space, between the borders, you’ll find two kinds of people. People traveling and people cast out of their city. Literal outcasts.

This place outside the borders is the only place for people who are not allowed within them. There is a literal, physical space being occupied and traversed here.

And just because we don’t have real borderlands anymore doesn’t mean we are unable to cast anyone out or lay claim to other people’s possessions, or worse, their dignity and lives.

We don’t have land between our borders, so outcasts literally have nowhere to go. We cast them out and into occupied land.

The Ten Lepers

“As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him.”

They can’t follow him in. He’s passing through a border they can’t cross.

The NRSV helpfully reminds us that “The terms leper and leprosy can refer to several diseases.” These aren’t ten identical people from a single identity group. These are ten people cast out because the culture fears them. Self-preservation.

And these ten have found common cause, a group with something in common: they’re all outcasts. They all have some disease for which isolation is prescribed. And shunning is mandatory.

So they no longer have access to family or friends. And no livelihood. They are just left out to the elements.

And these people know Jesus. By name and reputation. They have clearly heard the stories of the miracle worker. And here he is! In the flesh!

“Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”

They shout. The same thing the rich man called out to Abraham in chapter 16.

“Father Abraham, have mercy on me”

Master, have mercy on us.

And Jesus tells them to go to the priests. Cross the border, outcasts, and present yourselves.

Can they even do that? Isn’t he supposed to be the healer?

But as they approach the city, one of them realizes his disease is gone. Or, as it says, they have been made clean. They have been purified already. Somehow. Now they can return home. There is nothing left to do, but get the approval; like papers stamped and authorized. Make it official.

And while the nine continue to follow Jesus’s directions to go see the priests, one of them runs back. He throws himself to the ground, disobediently thanking Jesus.

“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?”

Um, that’s a weird “you’re welcome,” Jesus.

No thank you

You can hear why that’s weird, right?

I think it sounds so much more like a Mom complaining her teenager has forgotten to write thank you notes than it does like Jesus. Especially after he just taught about forgiveness.

It sounds too rule-bound for Jesus. Too petty.

But what if we read it without the scold? What if we removed the judgment from the statement? And while we’re at it, take note that Jesus does not ask why he is not being thanked. He’s asking about the thanks going to God.

So let’s hear it again.

“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?”

This statement is not a scold, but an observation.

Nine of them listened to Jesus. They did as he directed.

Only one didn’t. A Samaritan, who wouldn’t get the purity approval of a priest anyway. That’s not his custom, not his land. Even clean, the people wouldn’t allow him to cross that border.

Of course, it doesn’t reference the makeup of the other nine. Maybe there were other samaritans going to Samaritan priests for approval. That’s certainly possible.

But what concerns Luke is not balance in testimony, but the provoking truth of Jesus’s boundary-crossing. He heals without concern for background, tradition, or national origin. He is widening the circle so more people can come in. So that more people can be saved.

Saved by Faith

This Samaritan, healed and cleansed by Jesus, threw himself on the ground at Jesus’s feet. And Jesus takes note of who is before him. And who isn’t.

This group, which bonded over their outcast identity, is gone. No doubt the cleansing has restored them. They can go home, see their families, Mom and Dad, maybe their kids. Then they’ll look for work. Maybe someone will hire them. Maybe. If the fear doesn’t linger. The suspicion and the superstition doesn’t simply go away because we say so.

This man has no group, just gratitude. Laying there, his face is planted in the dirt like a weed.

“Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

go on your way

We’re not sure which way that is, but it isn’t like the others. It isn’t back as if that is the only option. There are others. Jesus’s way, perhaps?

The better translation of this statement is

“Get up and go on your way; your faith has saved you.”

Perhaps even saved him from returning home, unchanged.

There is more than healing and restoring. Jesus’s actions help God save him.

your faith has saved you

A faith as small as a mustard seed can toss a tree into the sea. And that small faith can save us.

Sharing God

It is easy to stretch this metaphor of Jesus walking between the borders. Even easier to ignore that he has a home of origin and a national identity. After all, this is what gives this teaching its true bite. It is more potent because he is Jewish and not Samaritan or neither. He has a team! And he is commanding his followers on that same team to rewrite the job description. Because the status quo is killing them.

Our God isn’t just for people within our borders. And our God isn’t just for people within their borders. Our God isn’t really ours! We don’t get to own God as if they were land guarded with walls and guns. We have to share God like we share the road with people who look like us and those who don’t.

And we continue a tradition of living this command with gratitude. A command to widen the circle, expand the embrace of God until everyone knows God’s love and mercy.

That’s our job: removing the barriers and reducing the obstacles to entry.

So it doesn’t matter whether or not you’re in or out of the closet,
What clothes you wear,
How you present to the world
Or what heritage you claim,
You are beloved. You are God’s beloved.

We are so fixated on the rules and our social order; who to blame and who to fight with; if we were suddenly cleansed I wonder if we’d play it out the same. Would 90% of us follow the instructions, get our papers stamped, go back home and live the same life we had before? Unchanged by the miracle?

Would even 10% of us run to Jesus in gratitude?

Maybe that’s now; today. Maybe God’s inviting us to change. So then it wouldn’t just be about size of our faith, the style of our faith, or even the idea that we have or don’t have faith.

Jesus’s words are for us: