11 On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. 12 And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance 13 and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” 14 When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. (Luke 17:11-14 ESV)
We’re going to do some imagination this morning. I want you to imagine what it would be like to stand in the sandals of those in this story. First, we’ll stand in the sandals of the 10 lepers. Second, we’ll stand in the sandals of Jesus. Third, we’ll stand in the sandals of 1 of those lepers who returns.
First, imagine yourself standing the sandals the 10 lepers. You share something in common with each other. You may be divided by income or age or race (after all there are Jews and Samaritans among you). But everything that used to divide you seems to have fallen away. What remains is the one thing you share in common: your crisis. Your leprosy.
The disease “leprosy” in the time of the Bible is not the same disease that exists today. The word then referred to a range of skin diseases. But it is nonetheless a serious disease. Leprosy presents you with a three-fold crisis.
First, it is a physical crisis. Your health is at stake.
Second, it is a social crisis. You were declared to be ceremonially unclean (Le 13:8, 11, 22, 44). You have to live now in a separate house (2 Ki 15:5). You are cut off from God’s temple (2 Ch 26:21). You had to shave your head, rip your clothes and cover your lip ( Le 13:45). If anyone approaches you, you must cry out “Unclean!” to warn them of your condition (Le 13:45).
The 10 of you are living in your own little camp outside the village. You’ve lost connection with your family, your classmates, your coworkers, and your church friends. This is a social crisis.
Third, it is a spiritual crisis. The Hebrew word for leprosy (sara?ath) literally means “a smiting,” because people believed that if you had leprosy, it was a sign that God has smited or punished you.[1] You feel like your connection to God has been severed.
The ten of you share this three-fold crisis. It’s what you have in common.
Crisis is what we all have in common, isn’t it? As someone once said (no seems certain of the origin of this phrase), “Be kind; everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” What unites us today with people around us is the reality that we’re all living in crisis–one we’ve just survived, one we’re currently in or one headed our way.
And what we’re looking for is relief. We come to Jesus seeking relief. “Mercy” is the word the 10 lepers use: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” What we have in common is not just a crisis. What unites us is also our desire for mercy. Relief. Say those words out loud: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” What do those words stir up in your heart? What crisis is raging in your life? What relief are you seeking from Jesus these days?
Relief from a bully?
Relief from a broken heart?
Relief from loneliness?
Relief from uninvolved parents?
Relief from infertility?
Relief from a child with challenges?
Relief from busyness?
Relief from the demands of aging parents?
Relief from a dead-end job?
Relief from a harsh boss?
Relief from an empty house?
Relief from a cancer diagnosis?
Relief from the pain of loss?
Relief from debt?
Relief from stress?
We come to Jesus seeking relief.
And Jesus hears. He has come for many reasons. One of those reasons is to give mercy. He’s come to give relief. In fact, he’s so quick to give it that you almost miss it. Jesus doesn’t perform some elaborate rite. He just tells you to go and show yourself to the priest. And as you go, in that instant, you are cleansed. The crisis is past. I’m
We come to Jesus seeking relief. And Jesus provides the relief we seek.
What mercy has Jesus shown on you? What crisis has Jesus calmed? What relief have you experienced from him? How would you complete this sentence? “Jesus, Master, thank you for giving me relief from _______.”
Now, let’s put ourselves in the sandals of Jesus. Let’s imagine that we as individuals, we as a church, are in the sandals of Jesus.
And just like Jesus, we and our church are confronted with people in crisis, aren’t we? People in our village, people in our city, people in our region, people in our state, people in our country, people in our world are in desperate need of relief. Like Jesus, we hear many today crying out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” What unites the people around us today is a shared crisis and a shared desire for mercy, for relief:
Relief from poverty.
Relief from racism.
Relief from sex-trafficking.
Relief from terrorists.
Relief from failures.
Relief from natural disasters.
Like Jesus we are surrounded by people seeking relief. And, like Jesus, we are moved by their plea. And, like Jesus, we decide to act.
That’s been the story over and over at Highland. Like Jesus we seek to provide relief. We hear the cry and we do what we can to bring some mercy.
We recently heard the plea of second graders at LaRose Elementary: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” So we responded. We’re striving to send 65 adults down there to tutor those students.
We recently heard the plea of those 12,000 inmates incarcerated within an hour and a half from our building: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” So we responded. We’re striving to send volunteers to 3 prisons to bring relief to inmates.
In some ways, that’s what our Outreach Contribution is about today. It’s standing in the sandals of Jesus and hearing the pleas of homeless and pregnant mothers, of orphans, or the unemployed and us providing mercy. Relief. Like Jesus, today we provide relief.
But there’s more to the story. Let’s remain in the sandals of Jesus and keep listening:
15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; 16 and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” (Luke 17:15-19 ESV)
Imagine yourself still in the sandals of Jesus. You’ve been touched by the crisis of these 10 lepers. They’ve come seeking relief. And you grant it.
But you want to grant more, don’t you? That’s what’s so frustrating about the 9 who have not turned back. You’ve got more to give them. But they didn’t turn back to get it.
And that’s what’s so refreshing about this 1 leper who did turn back, isn’t it? He didn’t just treat you like some divine doctor – showing up for an appointment and then heading out, prescription in hand. He turned back. He turned back and praised God with a loud voice. He turned back and fell on his face at your feet. He turned back.
And that is the language of relationship. All of that language–turning back, praising, falling on his face–is the language of worship and devotion and relationships. He turned back because he wasn’t just interested in getting relief from you. He was also interested in having a relationship with you.
That’s why he praised God. That’s why he fell on his face. That’s why he turned back. He wanted relationship.
And that’s so exciting. Because this is ultimately what you’re after. You didn’t come from heaven to earth just to heal skin. You came to heal hearts. You came not just to give relief. But to give relationship. You came because you ultimately want to see all people doing what this 1 is doing: praising God and falling at your feet.
But that’s a challenge for us. Because like Jesus, we accelerate to provide people relief that comes from Jesus. But unlike Jesus, we hesitate to provide people relationship with Jesus. Christian author Andy Crouch writes these prophetic words:
These days I do not often meet Christians so passionate about evangelism that they question the need for doing justice. I am much more likely to meet Christians so passionate about justice that they question the need for evangelism…Meeting the physical needs of the poor wins attention and affirmation from a watching world. Naming the spiritual poverty of a world enthralled to false gods provokes defensiveness and derision from those who do not even believe there is a god … Our secular neighbors care, many like never before, about relieving human need—and more of them than ever before are indifferent or hostile to the idea that Jesus is the way, the truth, the life and the one who meets the deepest human need. In short, working for justice is cool. Proclaiming the gospel is not. [Andy Crouch, Playing God, 82]
On a day like today, when we give so generously, it’s often “relief” that pulls at our hearts. We’re moved by the plight of the fatherless. We grieve at the pain of the poor. And, in many ways, supporting these ministries that relieve such needs has become “cool.” We’ll put the pedal to the metal to provide relief to people.
But we often hesitate to take it a step further. We’ll put the brakes on when it comes to leading that fatherless child or poor person into relationship with Jesus. We’ll serve in the name of Jesus. But we won’t share the name of Jesus.
Yet relationship is ultimately why Jesus came. And that’s why we support a missionary named Kostya in Ukraine, missionaries named Nathan and Karen in the Philippines and missionaries named Jab and Becky in Papua New Guinea. Their primary work is the long and slow work of not only providing relief, but also of leading those they serve into relationship with Jesus. They are trying to get people to turn back. And that’s true for many of the ministries we might characterize as relief ministries. HopeWorks, Agape, and Timothy Hill Children’s ranch are ultimately not merely interested in cleansing lepers. They want to see those same lepers fall on their face before Jesus and praise God with a loud voice.
As we stand in the sandals of Jesus, this story urges us to build on this emphasis. It’s something we need more of here in Memphis. We need to not only be looking for opportunities to bring relief to people in Memphis. We need to be maximizing opportunities to also lead people into relationship with Jesus. Each of us needs to not only serve others in the name of Jesus but also share the name of Jesus. We are not here just to cleanse skin. We are here to help people fall at the feet of Jesus.
For one last time, let’s change sandals. Imagine yourself now in the sandals of this 1 leper who did turn back. You’ve been cleansed. You got relief. You got mercy. But you turn back. And you praise God with a loud voice. You turn back. And you fall on your face at Jesus’ feet. You turn back. And you give thanks to Jesus. You’re the only one who turns back.
You’ve turned back because you’re one of those rare people for whom relief is not enough. When it comes to this thing we call faith, you want more than just relief. You want relationship. What you’re ultimately after surpasses relief. What you want is relationship with God through Jesus. What we seek from Jesus is relief. What we need from Jesus is relationship. And you’ve turned back because you realize that you need more from Jesus than just mercy.
BUt do you realize that? That’s the real question of this text, isn’t it? Many of us are really more like the 9 than the 1. We just want some Jesus’ help with our parenting. We just want some Jesus’ help in making some friends at church. We just want some Jesus’ help to ensure we have a ticket to heaven. I recently took my daughter and two of her college friends to a time of worship at a church near their campus. They had been studying for an upcoming test when I picked them up. One of them jokingly said, “I’m glad we’re going to this worship service tonight because we need Jesus’ help on this test!” But what she said jokingly many of us mean seriously. We really just engage Jesus to get some help with some crisis. But beyond that, we’re really not all that interested in Jesus. So we stay immersed in our daily lives of changing diapers and punching a clock and doing homework and running errands. And we don’t engage Jesus until the next crisis comes. We’ll do whatever it takes to get some relief from Jesus in the midst of a crisis. But most of us won’t even lift a finger to build and nurture a relationship with Jesus.
But that’s what this story is calling us to do. It’s inviting us all to turn back. To realize that this thing called faith is not just about getting a little relief from Jesus. It’s ultimately about falling on our face before Jesus. This story is calling us to turn back.
What are you doing to turn back? What are you doing to treat Jesus more than just a dispenser of mercy? How are you falling at his feet?
Are you reading Scripture?
Are you engaged in prayer?
Are you spending time alone with him?
Are you drawing near to him in private times of worship?
Are you listening for his guidance?
Are you seeking his will?
What are you doing to turn back?
Let me encourage you to attend to that this week:
- 1. Do one thing each day this week to “turn back” and nurture your own relationship with Jesus. Make a decision that this week you’re not just going to turn to Jesus to get his help with some crisis. Turn back to him to deepen your relationship with him. Carve out some time for prayer. Read one of the Gospels. Done one thing each day this week to “turn back.”
- 2. Sign up for Quest. Quest is a new discipleship track for adults that runs Wednesday nights January – May next year. Open to men and women, it’s an intense experience designed to help you focus solely on deepening your relationship with Jesus. Lawana Maxwell and I are facilitating Quest and we’re taking the first 20 men and the first 20 women. Sign ups start Dec. 6.
Would you say this out loud with me? “Jesus, what I seek from you is often just relief. But what I need from you is relationship. Help me turn back this week.”
