The reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. (17:12-19)

There were ten lepers who met Our Lord Jesus Christ as He was entering a village. Lepers are people who have a disease called leprosy. It is relatively uncommon in the first world countries but it is a disease that affects the skin. It is also contagious. When someone developed this disease it was akin to a death sentence because they were forced to live far away from the healthy people within their families and within the community. So they travelled together in packs of lepers.

These ten lepers saw Jesus and we are told that they “lifted up their voices” and said “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” For me there are at least 3 significant points we can take from this reading. The first is that it is necessary for each one of us to lift up our voices to God in prayer. We may not need to say many words, but the words that we say have to come from a genuine depth in our hearts, we need to follow the example of the lepers and lift up our voices, or the voice of our hearts to the Lord. It only took 6 words to grab hold of the attention of the Lord Jesus that day. 6 words changed their lives. The lepers who were completely cut off from the world around them and from their own towns and families somehow found a way, with merely 6 words, to receive the blessings of God incarnate. The words they used are familiar to us, especially to those who have practiced the Jesus prayer. This is an alternative version of the same prayer. Jesus, have mercy on us. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.

Our Orthodox tradition of spirituality and prayer tells us that these words, when repeated by one who is truly struggling to live according to the Lord and within the life of the Church, will open up new dimensions and avenues for increasing our knowledge of God and receiving grace to heal us. So these words should really be second nature to us. We should have them ready all day, at every moment. At the first sign of trouble, “Lord Jesus have mercy on me.” At the first sign of temptation or bad thoughts “Lord Jesus have mercy on me.” When you wake in the middle of the night with anxiety and worry, “Lord Jesus have mercy on me.” When you feel spiritually rotten and unable to do work, “Lord Jesus have mercy on me.” When you are preparing to undertake any work or project, “Lord Jesus have mercy on me.” When you are worried about someone, such as a friend or one of your children, “Lord Jesus have mercy on (name).” For spiritual inspiration, for renewal and for the cleansing of heart, we raise our voices with the name of Jesus Christ. The name of Jesus is so powerful as the Apostle Peter reminds us, “…there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12

Next we should take notice that after Our Lord heard the pleadings of the lepers, He gave them instructions. We notice that they immediately responded to His guidance. They obeyed without hesitation! How many times has the Lord tried to help us and to heal us but we refused to be healed? How did we refuse? We did not immediately follow through with obedience to His teachings and to the teachings of His body, the Church. The one is the extension of the other. If you love Christ, you must love His bride and His body, the Church for which He gave His life on the cross.

St. Cyprian of Carthage writes, “one cannot have God as his Father unless he has the Church as his mother.” It means that we show honor, reverence and deep respect to the teachings of Christ and His Church. We can’t piecemeal the teachings of the Church or of Our Lord Jesus Christ and pick and choose what is convenient for us. If we pick and choose it means that we worship our own minds and feelings, not the living God. So if you find someone who claims to love Christ but they don’t believe the teachings of the Church on basic theology and morality, you should run far away, because that person cannot help you or teach you. They won’t offer healing for your soul. Everything is given within the teachings of Christ and His Church for the healing of our souls and not to coddle our feelings or stroke our egos.

Frequently God shows us what we ought to do to be healed, He reveals things to us either through our reading or in our prayers or through the guidance of a priest or through the wisdom of a fellow Christian or some other avenue. How do we respond to that? With hesitation, with doubt, with a spirit of contradiction, or with faithful obedience?

Now as the lepers went away in obedience to the Lord, they were healed of the physical illness. This is remarkable on it’s own, but something even more remarkable happened at that moment. One single leper, who was a Samaritan, not a Jew, turned back and went to the Lord Jesus Christ to offer thanks and praise. He was so moved, so overwhelmed by what Christ had done in healing him that he fell on his face at the feet of Jesus and gave thanks.

It is such a powerful moment because this man was the only one who turned back to give thanks to God and it is even more powerful because we now know that this many was not a Jew. He was not of the people of God. Yet in his heart he was faithful and he showed the demeanor and the actions of one who truly knows God. How often has God answered our prayers? How often has God showed each of us mercy? How often has God healed us, in our souls and our bodies? Yet, if we are honest with ourselves, we don’t often give God the glory or praise which is due to Him. As the children of God, it is our task and our life to give thanks to God in every situation and condition. That might surprise us. We might be inclined only to give thanks when things are going well in our opinion, but that is not correct. God is always working on behalf of His children, even when we don’t pay attention or recognize this.

As St. Paul writes to the Ephesians, “giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ..” (Eph 5:20) When the leper returned it pleased our Lord greatly. It likewise pleases Him when we come with gratitude and give Him praise for His many rich mercies. Only step back for a few moments and you will see the Lord’s hand all over your life and you will have many reasons to thank Him.

Finally, I leave you with a quote from St. John Chrysostom who writes,

“Let us give thanks to God continually. For, it is outrageous that when we enjoy His charity to us in deed every single day, we do not acknowledge the favor with so much as a word; and this, when the acknowledgment confers great benefit on us. He does not need anything of ours, but we stand in need of all things from Him. In point of fact, thanksgiving adds nothing to Him, but it brings us closer to Him. For if, when we recall the contributions of men, we are the more warmed by affection for them; much more, when we continually bring to mind the benefits of the Master towards us, shall we be more earnest with regard to His commandments.” + St. John Chrysostom, Homily 25, Homilies on the Gospel of St. Matthew

May each of us be like the Samaritan leper, filled with this gratitude to Christ for all of His great work towards us and may this gratitude be convertedinto acts and lives filled with holiness and love. AMEN.

Source: Sermons