“When Faith is Enough” - Luke 17:11-19
October 14, 2007
Dr. Michael C. Yarbrough

          Or imagine that your brother was sick.  Imagine that as the days passed, the disease caused your brother to drift from fever to coma – and then, from coma to death.  What if the medical help you sent for didn’t show up until after the funeral?  What would your faith be like as you sat in the family parlor greeting guests – in the midst of the pain, the anger, the disappointment and the tears?  How much faith would it take to bring your brother back?

          Or imagine that you were a woman who had been hemorrhaging for twelve years.  Imagine that you went to the best doctors your money could buy, you tried each of their “cures,” but the bleeding has continued.  You are a “bleeding woman,” in a culture that insists that you are not only physically sick, but you are also ritually impure, and because you are ritually impure, you are not permitted to even come into your church.  It doesn’t get much worse than that.  Imagine that you heard about a faith healer who has done some fantastic things, and he’s coming to town.  How much faith would it take for you to be healed?

          Or imagine that you are a Samaritan with leprosy.  Imagine that you are living in a sort of “dead zone” with other lepers outside the village that used to be your home.  Your disease is not something that will ever go away – there is no cure.  It eats away at your skin.  Fingers, toes, nose and ears drop off.  You are considered by everyone to be socially and spiritually dead.  And yet, one day, a holy man approaches.  How much faith would it take for you to ask for help?  Would you have enough?

          In both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament, there is a continual thread that runs from the ancient beginnings of Genesis through to the apocalyptic end times envisioned in Revelation.  It is the thread of biblical faith.  It is the idea that faith is the living of life in trust that God’s promises will ultimately be fulfilled – even though there is not one tiny shred of evidence that it will happen.

          In the Bible, faith is knitting baby booties before you are pregnant.  In the Bible, faith is looking Jesus in the eye and saying, “Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died.  But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.”  In the Bible, faith is pushing your way through a crowd, wedging your hand through the packed bodies, and touching the dirty, worn fringe of Jesus’ coat.  In the Bible, faith is standing at the roadside and daring to say, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” – and then following some surprising (some might even say “crazy”) instructions.

          The ten lepers of Luke’s story behaved as good lepers were supposed to.  They kept their distance, spoke politely, and asked for mercy.  Maybe that day, they were expecting a kind word, perhaps a coin or two, or some leftover bread from lunch.  Instead, a puzzling thing happened.  Jesus said, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.”  Isn’t that odd!

          Jesus hadn’t done anything to take away their disease.  No anointing with oil.  No spit and mud.  No washing or baptism.  He just said, “Go.”  Go?  That’s what people do when they’re already well!  The temple priests that Jesus was talking about were the official religious witnesses who pronounced someone clean in the eyes of the church and of God.  Jesus told the lepers to act as if they had been already cured.  And what is just as surprising is that they did!  They acted, even though there was no visible evidence that the disease was gone.  They acted on the promise of a healing!  That’s amazing obedience and trust!

          As they walked – (or maybe they even ran) toward the local synagogue, all ten lepers were healed.  One man, a Samaritan, having gone a little way on his journey, hesitated.  He turned around, and ignoring Jesus’ instructions, came back to say “Thank you.”

          Jesus then surprised everybody again.  “Where are the rest?” he wanted to know.

          (I beg your pardon, Jesus, but did we miss something here?  Aren’t they doing exactly what you told them to do?  They’ve gone to the priests to receive confirmation of their cure!)  In fact, shouldn’t Jesus be a little irritated at this one who couldn’t seem to follow directions?

          Instead, the Samaritan got a second gift.  This foreigner, whose brand of Judaism actually didn’t require him to go to a priest, dropped to the ground in front of Jesus to say thanks.  In that moment, all good manners shuffled down the dusty road with the ritual and tradition of the nine.  The Samaritan poured out his joy and lavished on the thanks for a new life restored.  This “outsider” had seen through the miraculous cure to the one who gives new life!

          “Get up and go your way; your faith has made you well,” Jesus said.  In the nuances of the Greek text, what Jesus was really saying to the Samaritan was that his faith brought him more than a cure for his leprosy – he now has been made whole!  All ten were cured.  This one was healed – body – mind – and soul.  This man has received something better than a respite from disease – he has his salvation!

          Because of their humble, stumbling but trusting faith, an old man and woman named Abraham and Sarah were given a son.  Faith brought blessings, even to ancient, Middle Eastern nomads.  I guess the kingdom of God is even for them.

          Because Martha could hold on to the possibility of hope and call it faith, her brother, Lazarus, was raised from the dead.  Faith brought the unexpected joy of life in the midst of death, even to a pair of spinster sisters and their brother.  I guess the kingdom of God is even for them.

          Because an anonymous sick woman would believe that a simple touch would somehow connect her to the power of God, she was healed of an illness that she had lived with for twelve years.  Faith brought the possibility of a healthy life, and a return to church, even to a suffering woman in a loud and dusty crowd.  I guess the kingdom of God was even for her.

          Because one Samaritan leper slowed his run to a trot, paused on the road, and trotted back to give thanks at Jesus’ feet, he received the complete healing of faith.  The faith of Samaritan foreigners even can open the doors of heaven through which flow spiritual wholeness.  I guess the kingdom of God is even for them!

          God takes the smallest – most minute – hint of one’s faith – an amount as small as the tiniest mustard seed – and unleashes unlimited creative power to fulfill the most amazing promises – and sometimes, the results of God working through our faith will surprise us all.  It is in these moments – these life-changing encounters with God – that “faith is enough.”  Praise God!

          Let us pray:

          O God of our ancestors – and God of our descendants: God of married couples and of non-traditional families: God of men – and women – and children – and foreigners: your human family is bigger than we can imagine.  But today – for a moment – we acknowledge that family and place ourselves within your omnipotent arms.  Take our small faith.  Use that faith to bring relief to our own suffering, and the suffering of others.  We pray it in the name of our Lord, Jesus.

Amen.