Several years ago, AMC first produced
a TV series about a dystopian version of the United States following the
survivors of a zombie apocalypse. The
premise of the show is that a mysterious pandemic virus causes the dead to rise
as zombies. Contact with the zombies
passes the virus to living hosts. The
unfortunate person who is exposed to the virus becomes fatally ill, and returns
as a zombie known as a Walker, a short form of the show’s title, The Walking
Dead. Unfortunately for the characters
caught in this nightmarish alternate reality, there is no cure for the virus
with which they now contend.
The show quickly became a cult
phenomenon and is now in its tenth season.
It turns out that Americans have developed a past-time of being
startled. This seems to be the privilege
of living in the Western world where medical care has made illness and death a
rare thing. Mankind however has not
always had such a cavalier attitude about the idea of sickness and death.
This week’s gospel reading
provides us a glimpse into the terror that sickness and death held, and deep
down still hold, for us. Our reading for
today comes to us from Luke 17:11-19.
“While he was on the way to
Jerusalem, He was passing between Samaria and Galilee. As He entered a village, ten leprous men who
stood at a distance met Him; and they raised their voices, saying, “Jesus,
Master, have mercy on us!” When He saw
them, He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the
priests.” And as they were going,
they were cleansed. Now one of them,
when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud
voice, and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed?
But the nine—where are they? Was
no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?” And He said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well.”
The specter of leprosy was
terrifying to the ancient world. Just as
the zombie virus of the Walking Dead universe, leprosy seemingly came out of
nowhere and had no known cure or treatment.
Leprosy, known to us today as
Hansen’s Disease, is a slow growing infection that attacks soft tissues and
nerves. The disease causes the skin to
become patchy, discolored, and ulcerous.
The nerves of the affected area swell causing the area to become numb,
and susceptible to unnoticed injuries, even as the surrounding areas become
swollen and painful. Over time,
appendages may be re-absorbed by the body causing the shortening or loss of
fingers and toes, and even the soft tissue of the nose and face. The disease even attacks the corneas of the
eyes, often resulting in blindness.
Having encountered people overseas suffering from symptoms closely resembling
descriptions of leprosy, I can tell you that encountering this disease in
person will stop you in your tracks.
Today, we treat leprosy using a
host of antibiotics and steroids.
However, in first century Roman society, there was no cure to this
affliction.
The only means of dealing with
this disease was a potentially lifelong quarantine of the unfortunate leprous
person. Leviticus 13 describes the
ancient Israelite means of diagnosing a potentially leprous person, and
describes how the person would be declared unclean, and quarantined for further
evaluation.
Leviticus 13 provides a somewhat
sanitized version of what this procedure should look like. However, historical accounts and archeology
show us a bleaker reality than we might glean from these passages. Persons confirmed to have leprosy, were
isolated in every sense of the word.
Having been declared as unclean, they could not participate in the rites
of temple worship that connected them to their nation and their God. Having a disease that was thought to be
highly contagious through human contact, these people were frequently expelled
from their homes to live on the outskirts of town, often in caves or
cemeteries. Lepers were separated from
their friends and family members so completely that they had to declare aloud
to passersby their status by shouting, “Unclean!” Passersby would take all precautions to avoid
even coming into the general proximity of the afflicted person. Having lost the ability to engage in commerce
or make a living, lepers frequently sought out and formed their own communities
of the afflicted just so that they could scrape together the means to
subsist. Without hope of a cure, and suffering from a
progressive disease that would eventually take them, these people had no
hope. They truly were the Walking Dead
of their age.
Alone, afflicted, all but
dead. This is the place of desperation
from which the ten lepers encounter Jesus.
The group cries out to Jesus,
“Master! Have mercy on us!”
Then we see Jesus’ response, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” By his word, the ten lepers are
healed.
Just imagine it. The tough scaly patches on their skin, once
numb and impervious to feeling, became supple and tender again through Jesus’
word. Fingers, toes, facial
disfigurations are restored to their once youthful appearance by his command. Eyes that were once sickly, milky, and blind,
clear and are opened again by his voice.
The ten lepers leave at once,
rejoicing at their miraculous healing to offer the cleansing sacrifices
stipulated in Leviticus 14.
Then something else happens. The one man least expected to understand what
has just happened, the one least likely to “get it,” returns and falls at
Jesus’ feet, worshipping him in abject thanksgiving. The man whom the Jews would say did not have
the word of God, knelt at the feet of the Word of God, knowing and
understanding that it was God himself who had delivered him from his
affliction.
Jesus marvels at this unexpected
devotion, and finally tells him, “Go, your faith has
made you well.”
Interestingly, the verb that
Jesus spoke, which we translate as “has made you well,” is the Greek word Σώζω
(pronounced Sόzo), which is normally translated as “to save, to deliver,
to rescue.” It is the same word from
which we derive one of the normative title we use for Jesus, the Savior. It is the word we use to describe the role
that Christ takes in saving us from sin.
And yet, in our day and age, we
tend not to associate sickness and death with sin. We oftentimes look at this account as a
miraculous event of healing. We fail to
see the link between deliverance from sickness, and salvation from sin.
To the ancient Israelites
however, this was not so. To the first
century Jewish mind, sickness, death, and sin were related. Examples abound where this is the case.
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In the account of the Fall, Adam and Eve are
warned that in the day that they eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, they will surely die.
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In Deuteronomy, when Moses reminds the
Israelites of the Sinai covenant, he warns them that before them are the
choices of life and prosperity, and death and adversity.
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In Romans, Paul tells us that through one man,
sin entered into the world, that death came through sin, and spread to all men because
all men sin. He tells us that the wages
of sin is death.
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Similarly, in Ephesians Paul tells us that we
are dead in our trespasses and sins.
In the scriptural view sickness,
death, and sin are intimately linked, inseparably so. In order to deal with sickness and death, sin
must be dealt with.
In the scriptural view we are all
afflicted of sin, and hence we too are hopelessly ill. We are the Walking Dead. As Paul tells us in Romans 3, “For all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
It is through the mirror of the
law that we see that we too are lepers, the Walking Dead, without hope or
cure.
I look at the First Commandment, you
shall have no other Gods. I see in the
mirror of the law that I fail to fear, love, and trust in God above all
things. In doing so, I see the scaly rough
patches of skin where youthful flesh should be.
I look at the Fifth Commandment’s
decree, you shall not murder. I see in
the mirror of the law that I should fear and love god so that I do not hurt or
harm my neighbor in his body, but help and support him in every physical need,
and see that I fall short. In doing so,
I see fingers and hands fashioned by God to help and support my neighbor,
shortened and rotting by the failure to follow His will.
I look at the Eighth Commandment,
that You Shall Not Bear False Witness. I
see in the mirror of the law that we should fear and love God so that we do not
tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation,
but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way,
and see that my words fall short. In
doing so, I see lips meant by God to speak well of my neighbor and speak truth
in all my dealings, ulcerous from failure to follow this command.
The list goes on and on. We are the lepers, we are the Walking Dead. Helpless and hopeless. It is in this realization where we encounter
Christ. It is in knowing our
hopelessness and helplessness where we come to repentance and seek the healing
hand of Jesus.
Paul who in his epistle to the
Romans told us that the wages of sin is death, also tells us that the free gift
of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. In
Ephesians, Paul tells us that even when we were dead in our sins, God made us
alive together in Christ Jesus, raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him
in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
In Revelation John tells us that at the end of all things, when Christ
returns, that sin, death, and the devil will be destroyed. He tells us that there will be no more crying,
no more pain, and no more death.
Christ died on the cross that sin
might be dealt with, and that the power of sin, death, and the devil over you,
and over the world would be broken.
In baptism, you were healed,
saved, and delivered just as the lepers in Luke’s gospel were. Your leprous sinful flesh was made tender and
new in Christ. Through confession and absolution,
you are told just as the ten lepers, “Go,” for you are now well! When we celebrate Communion, we rejoice at
the feet of Jesus that we are healed!
All of this you have received through faith.
Today if you look in the mirror and staring back
at you is an image of the Walking Dead, afflicted by sin, look to Christ. I proclaim to you today, on behalf of the one
who healed the ten, “Go, your faith has made you well.” 
