With it being Thanksgiving it’s a given that I’m supposed to talk about being thankful or gratitude as it’s called in theological circles. Being thankful is good for us. That attitude of gratitude can conquer a world of troubles. I’m reasonably sure there would be no problems in this world such as war, poverty, abuse, crime, racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, etc., if we were predisposed to pondering on our blessings and feeling thankful most of the time. Our mental and physical health would be so much better as well. With gratitude being so good for us, why is it so hard to be grateful? Why does being thankful have to be something we have to stop ourselves and take the time to count our blessings? It doesn’t seem to come natural to us. It takes effort.
On the other hand, what does seem to come natural to us is feeling awful. Oddly, we have forgotten that the basic meaning of the word awful is “to be filled with awe”, with reverence, worshipful. We should be filled with awe. But due to humanity’s sin-diseased nature, we twist the meaning of feeling awful to feeling absolutely terrible. Feeling awful includes a lot of not good feelings – shame, guilt, dysphoria, anxiety, anger, bitterness, loathsome, lonesome, unlovable, covetous, greedy – I could go one. We’ve all had our share of feeling awful.
Let me tell you about someone who felt awful but found the cure - this here leper. Life as a leper in Bible times was horrible and it’s not so great now either. If you have ever had the pervasively wicked feeling of “there’s something wrong with me”, then welcome to the world of the leper. Leprosy was a very misunderstood skin disease which in time made a person look and smell like the walking dead. Skin lesions, rotting extremities, pale flaky skin, facial features deforming – a person literally looked like death. And so, people back then believed the disease was a curse on a person for secret sins and so lepers were regarded as being bad people, cursed by God. Since they looked and smelled like death, they were not allowed to come to the Temple to be in the presence of the God who gives life. Since people believed the disease was contagious, they made lepers live away from people and usually in small colonies that smelt worse than a duffle bag full of hockey gear. There was a religious term for the state of being cut-off from the presence of God and from other people – unclean – and being unclean meant they were untouchable because uncleanness could be passed on. So, people shunned and shamed them and they felt ashamed - awful.
Well, Jesus and his disciples were out in the middle of nowhere, when a colony of ten lepers approached him wanting him to show them mercy, wanting him to do what only God could do, that one thing that would make life right – heal them. Interestingly, Jesus didn’t do anything specific to heal them like touch them as he had done with other lepers. He simply told them to go start living the way they would if they were healed and clean. For a leper, the first thing you had to do if you were healed was to go see the priest who would pronounce you clean. That pronouncement made it so you could return to life in community and come before God. Jesus’ cure for them just seems to be if you want to live, then quit acting like lepers and get on with living. That’s helpful advice for many of life’s situations. Get on with living.
So, as they took those first few steps of getting on with living as if they were healed, they were made clean. They had come to Jesus in hope that he would do for them what he had for others like them. Then, in taking those first few steps of faithfulness to Jesus, by doing as he asked, they were healed. There was no longer any reason for them to feel shame or to be cut off from the presence of God and from human community.
One of the lepers, upon realizing he was now healed, began to praise God loudly and he turned around to go back to Jesus. He threw himself on the ground at Jesus’ feet in worship and began to thank him. In those first few steps of faithfulness to Jesus, this leper found his awfulness transformed into worshipfulness and thankfulness. So, he turned around to “God”, to Jesus, to go back and give thanks. In his encounter with Jesus, he discovered that there is a God who does care about him and that there was nothing, not even the death-resembling disease of leprosy, that could separate him from God’s love and healing mercy that can be found in Jesus and his way of life.
Coming into the present, this is a particularly hard time to live in if you are somebody who truly feels awful. The world will tell you there is no God so cure your own awfulness by self-soothing and doing what you think will make you happy – be self-minded. Being self-aware and self-accepting are good because those qualities help us with relationships, but being self-minded tends to backfire with leaving a lot of hurt people in your wake
I might be old school but I think the cure for awful comes from outside oneself and is discovered in a relationship with God and with others. It is knowing oneself to be a beloved child of the God who actually does care about everything, everybody, and little ole me too. God loves us each and actually can heal our overwhelming feelings of awfulness. Turning to Jesus and being worshipful (awestruck) and thankful is crucial to wellness for us human beings whom God created to enjoy Him, and life, and each other, and even ourselves.
When I hear what happens next in our reading, I am a bit shocked. Only one of them came back, Jesus seemed shocked too. What happened to the other nine lepers. Did they go on to live that healed life? Did they not realize they were clean and continued to live as lepers? Did they go to the priest? Why were they not also moved to worship and to thankfulness? We’re left hanging. For some reason, they weren’t moved to worshipfulness and thankfulness as this leper…but hey, such are we most times we’re healed of something.
Jesus says to the man who came back to worship and thank him, “Get up and go on your way, your faithfulness has made you well.” “Saved you” is what it says in the Greek. There is a difference between simply being healed of awfulness and living the new life that God has created in, through, and as Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit. This man’s loyalty to Jesus expressed by faithfulness in his beginning to do what Jesus said led to his being restored which led to his worshipfully returning to thank Jesus. Jesus had not only removed the “awfulness” of life that the man experienced as a leper, he saved him, made him whole. He wasn’t just healed, but more so made alive with the “New Life” we find in relationship to God which can’t help but overflow with the joyful worshipfulness and thankfulness that comes upon us when we realize we are in the presence of the God who made us, loves us as no one else can, and who saves us.
To close, AA has a catchphrase that you often hear people say when telling their story. It goes “I got sick and tired of being sick and tired.” Similarly, if you’re sick and tired of being awful, come to Jesus and he will lead you to feel worshipful and thankful; filled with awe at the awesomeness of God. Amen.
