Shouting with Gratitude: Luke 17:11-19

  1 11-13It happened that as he made his way toward Jerusalem, he crossed over the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten men, all lepers, met him. They kept their distance but raised their voices, calling out, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!"

 14-16Taking a good look at them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests."

   They went, and while still on their way, became clean. One of them, when he realized that he was healed, turned around and came back, shouting his gratitude, glorifying God. He kneeled at Jesus' feet, so grateful. He couldn't thank him enough—and he was a Samaritan.

 17-19Jesus said, "Were not ten healed? Where are the nine? Can none be found to come back and give glory to God except this outsider?" Then he said to him, "Get up. On your way. Your faith has healed and saved you." (The Message)

Commentary on Lectionary Readings

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7

Psalm 66
2 Timothy 2:8-15
Luke 17:11-19

My wife and I had been married for a number of months by this time, but we still lived with the uncertainty of my legal status in the country. Things got complicated since my entry into the country had been unorthodox and the process of immigration anything but smooth. From movie-like interrogations to medical examinations, the wait and the uncertainty had us thin with exhaustion. But that glorious day came when, within the morning mail I received what in Canada is known as a Certificate of Landed Immigrant Status, a long page, grainy with bureaucratic importance, with colors like those found in thousand-dollar bills. My emotions took a wild ride that morning. I remember first feeling a little numb, like this was not actually happening at all. I felt like when you retell a dream you've had the night before. But then the tangibility of the document brought me back to earth and I realized that it was done –that the process had ended and I was now allowed to stay in Canada and pursue my new life there. It never occurred to me that, out of gratitude, I should go back to the government office and shower the clerk with kisses. Neither did I feel moved to write a formal letter of Thank You to the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism in Ottawa. What I felt instead was an enormous debt of gratitude to God, whom after many months had granted me my prayer: to stay in a country not my own.

Gratitude is a rather elusive concept.  At Christmastime our parents make us feel guilty when they consider we are ungrateful while opening presents. Soldiers shame us into gratitude when we question our country’s motives for aggression. We may even feel inadequate ourselves when our only response to someone's kind act is suspicion rather than gladness and thanksgiving. It is no surprise that many people are confused about gratitude.  Gratitude is distinct from guilt, shame, joy, contentment or relief. But mystery lingers: why do so few people experience gratitude while others, faced with the same circumstances, do not? Ten lepers, burdened with years of marginalization, considered unsuitable for good company due to their illness and their ethnicity (Samaritans!), approached Jesus while on his way to Jerusalem and begged for mercy the way some homeless person may “hit” tourists for money. Jesus sends them to the priest for a formal “check up.” The ten were healed along the way. But only one (and behold, a pagan foreigner!) returned to Jesus shouting with gratitude. Was the command to see the priest considered a brush-off and met with an off-camera curse? Did Jesus realize that the most compassionate priest in Jerusalem would have had a hard time seeing these ten, and was likely to send them back to their own temple (Mt. Gerizim) with their own people (the Samaritans)? Was Jesus not aware of the institutionalized racism and injustice of his day? Jeremiah, used to living between cultures, reminds us of the struggles immigrants face, and calls the exiles to respond with patience, industry, confidence and magnanimosity while waiting on God for their deliverance. Paul in his letter to Timothy writes regarding the Christian’s unquestionable loyalty to Christ even on the face of Caesar's "salvation," the Roman Empire’s mantra known as Pax Romana. And Luke in his narrative gives us the picture of the common Christian: an outsider healed and saved by Jesus; a bold, even boisterous follower exuding gratitude. Jesus calls this man "an unworthy outsider who has come back to me gratefully to give God glory." Some of us may become ill, suffer exilic displacement, experience the dislocation of sin and the systemic oppression of those in power. Eventually we may become aware of our need, see Jesus at a distance, run to him for mercy, obey his command and even receive his healing love. But Jesus goes farther, deeper yet. Salvation comes only when the leper recognizes the giver in the gift. There is no priest (Samaritan or Jewish), place (Mount Gerizim or Zion) or man (King Herod or King Caesar) we can run to for this kind of salvation. But when we experience this love, this salvation in Jesus, it is impossible not to run back shouting with gratitude to give him glory.

 Pastor Alejandro Sotres