We are Christ-centered Friends who equip and encourage all people
to respond to God's love and transforming Spirit.

What do you see?
by Faith Marsalli, October 10, 2004

Luke 17:11-19

As some of you know, I grew up in southern California and I also lived in Rome, Italy for two years. I guess you could say that I am fairly accustomed to the sights and sounds and smells of the big city-the craziness of traffic at all hours of the day-and this overwhelming sea of humanity everywhere you go. I remember right after Bob and I married and we moved to Portland, Oregon, that Portland seemed like such a small town in comparison to L.A. You can just imagine what I thought when I moved to Klamath Falls.

During my mid-twenties I worked as a sales rep for a jewelry company and my work often took me to downtown Los Angeles. As in any large metropolitan city, along with the working crowd, there would always be the homeless on the streets, many with untreated mental illness, people of every race and color and need imaginable. My usual tendency was to walk as fast as I could from my car to my destination without looking at anyone and never making eye contact with someone. I think this is what my mother had always told me to do. "Just act confidant, like you know where you are going and no one will bother you."

Our gospel story this morning reveals that Jesus' approach was quite the opposite of mine as a 25-year-old woman. Jesus didn't seem to have any problem with giving people eye contact. In fact, Jesus seemed to always be seeking out the marginalized and disenfranchised of society.

In today's text, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. Just as there are many roads that lead to Los Angeles, or Rome, or Portland, there are dozens of roads that lead to Jerusalem. Map Quest would instruct a traveler to stay on the main highway and avoid the crowded villages and heavily populated places. Jesus, however, picks the path that enables him to encounter numerous folks with numerous needs

Jesus enters the village, walking along its center street. Women are buying food in the market. Merchants are enticing the crowds with their wares. Children are running and playing. Life is bustling as usual in the middle of the day in this dusty village. And ten lepers painfully enter on the edge of the road, yearning to encounter this healer they have heard so much about.

In those days, lepers were considered outcasts and unclean. The law required that they had to live outside the camp. If anyone approached a leper, the leper was supposed to cry out, "Unclean, unclean." Most people just ignored lepers.

When these men with leprosy saw Jesus, they cried out,
"Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!"

Jesus turns around and sees the sick men sitting nearly a city block away. The most accurate translations of the original language show Luke identifying the ten not as lepers but as men who had leprosy. The difference is subtle but I think it reflects a humanizing and dignifying of their personhood.

Having a daughter with Down syndrome, this really resonates with me personally. I can't tell you how often people will refer to Sophia as a Down syndrome and not a teenage girl who also happens to have Down syndrome. How easy it can be to just put labels on people and not really see who they are.

Jesus walks closer, he sees them, he acknowledges their presence and he tells them to go to the temple and see their priests. Jesus knew that in the law if a leper was fortunate enough to recover they had to be declared clean by the priest before returning to their community.

In a blink of an eye, the men are made clean. Scales fall off. Eyes open. Pain subsides. Business continues as usual. Nine men proceed on their way. But one man turns back.

The act of seeing plays a vital role in this story.
First, Jesus saw the men with leprosy. Jesus saw their need and then he responded to their need.

Do we really notice whom we see in the course of our day? Are we reluctant to look at the suffering of others? Who do we see when we drive through this neighborhood to come to the Friends Church? What is our response to what we see?

But often persons in need simply do not catch our attention. That may even be the case right here in this room this morning. Sometimes our needs are hidden from view. Have you ever thought the irritable co-worker that is driving you nuts at work may actually be facing a health problem or trouble on the home front?

As people of faith, are we seeking to keep our eyes open to the needs of people around us? Naturally, we can't help every needy person, but whom are we being called to compassionately respond to?

Secondly, there was the one leper out of the ten who saw that he had been healed. I wonder if the central event of this story is not the healing but the response of one leper when he saw that he was healed. There seems to me to be some connection to his seeing and being made whole. What does he do when he realizes he is no longer sick? He runs back to show gratitude. This one man who was healed of leprosy didn't just celebrate his good fortune. He returned to thank God and fall on his face before Jesus. His gratitude was an expression of faith.

Jesus tells the grateful man,
"Rise and go; your faith has made you well."

So, this second act of seeing in the story involved the recognition of God's grace. Ten were healed, only one recognized the healing for what it was, resulting in inward wholeness. I wonder if gratitude might be the purest measure of one's spiritual condition.

Generally, I find my own inability to be grateful reveals an unhealthy focus on myself, and a blindness to God's grace in my life, or maybe even sometimes the underlying attitude that I deserve more than I ever get, so I don't really need to be grateful. I end up being just like the nine men who experienced God's grace but went on their way and forgot to say thank you.

Gratitude is all about seeing God's grace in my circumstances. Is there any better measure of faith than a sense of wonder and thankfulness?

Another thing worth seeing in this story is that the grateful man was also a Samaritan. Jesus makes a point of this. A Samaritan, the one most ostracized and hated by that society becomes central to the story about God's grace. Jesus emphasizes that God's love and grace can sprout up anywhere in anyone.

This isn't the first time a Samaritan becomes the center of one of these gospel stories as an example of authentic spirituality. Remember the story of the Good Samaritan back in Luke 10? Remember how all the religious guys passed the man who was wounded, half-dead on the side of the road. It was the Samaritan who came near him and saw his suffering and responded with compassion to his need.

Who are the Samaritans in our modern culture? I'm sure we all could come up with a list. The liberal, the conservative, the Arab, the Jew, the Christian, you name it. We all have our scapegoats. Fortunately, our scapegoats can help us to see our own shadow. This person might be living in our own home; they might work with us, or go to school with us. Who are the people we push away, the people we write off as hopeless and beyond redemption? Do we truly believe God's love and grace can sprout up in anyone?

If this story is about seeing, are we willing to look at ourselves this morning? What I am discovering is that the need for healing isn't always in that other person.

In conclusion, let's take a few moments to quietly reflect on this past week. I believe our seeing clearly involves a decision to be fully conscious and aware of what is going inside us. Here are a couple of thoughts for us to consider in silence.

Who have I encountered this past week with an obvious need? What did I do with what I saw? Am I being nudged to respond to that need?

Who are the Samaritans in my life? Where do I need to ask for God's healing in own attitude towards a person or group?

How have I seen God's grace and healing in my own life recently? Let's not forget to express our gratitude.

Lord; help me to see the people that you are calling me to reach out to with compassion. Help me to see my own shadow and need for healing. Help me to see the ways your grace and healing has touched my life and to cultivate a grateful spirit. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.