Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text (Lk 17:11-19)
Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks.
Prayer: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Our gospel reading today seems to be simple enough to understand. There are ten lepers, who cry out to Jesus, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us”. And when they were healed, only one of them turned back and gave glory to God. And not only that, but the man was a Samaritan.
And we can easily look at this passage as one about thankfulness. And I think this is right. We so often receive so many gifts from God, and most of the time most people don’t think to thank him for them.
But I’d like to focus on two words in the reading today: the first one is mercy. Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.
And the second word is glory. Jesus says, “Was no one found to return and give glory to God except this foreigner?”
Mercy and glory. In a sense, our whole existence as Christians focuses around these two things. We ask God for mercy, and give glory to God. But also we show mercy to others. And Jesus says, “They will see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”
In the first place, we might expect people to give glory to us. But the works didn’t belong to us in the first place. St Paul says that our good works “were prepared by God for us to do”, and that “it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
But back to these two little prayers: “Lord, have mercy”. And “Glory to God.”
And you’ll notice that regularly in our church service we have two prayers just like this next to each other. First we sing, “Lord have mercy” and then we sing “Glory to God in the highest”. And in our reading they are also both together. First the lepers say “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us”, and then the one leper returns to “give glory” to God.
We read in our reading today: “On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance, and lifted up 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 went they were cleansed.
The expression “Lord, have mercy” or “Master, have mercy on us” was not first of all a religious phrase. Instead, it was what beggars would have said if they wanted something from a person who passed by. Even today, apparently, in many countries where there are a lot of beggars, there are many of them who still use this turn of phrase, “Lord, have mercy.”
I remember there was a man at my home congregation at Magill in Adelaide, whom I had a discussion once with about the words “Lord have mercy” in the words of the liturgy, in the church service. And he said, “Why is it that we confess our sins to God, and receive the forgiveness of sins, and then we ask God for mercy again?” And I’ve often thought about this.
Sometimes the words “Lord have mercy” mean “Lord forgive me”. But actually, much more than that, they mean “Lord help me”. And everything we have in life, and everything we receive in church comes from God’s mercy. God’s the one who gives things to us. And we are beggars, sticking out our hands, waiting for God to walk past and fill them.
So when we come to church, and we say, “Lord, have mercy” we take our place on the side of the road, and say, “Lord we are beggars, help us.” In fact, Martin Luther’s last words were “We are beggars, that’s for sure.”
Who knows actually whether the ten lepers knew that Jesus was able to heal them from their leprosy? Maybe they thought that he could help them in some way, but did they really expect to be healed?
Who knows. Anyway, they were healed and their prayers were answered.
When we come and say, “Lord have mercy” we put ourselves into God’s hands. And when we open our hands to God, and say, “Lord have mercy”, who knows what he might do? We might say to God, I want this part of my life fixed, and this part, but he wants to heal you totally and thoroughly. We might want one little sin forgiven, but he will forgive the whole lot. We might want one little temptation taken away, but instead of taking it away, he wants to lead us through it and give us a victory over it. Did the Virgin Mary expect Jesus to turn the water into wine when she said to the servants, “Do whatever he says”? Probably not. Did the lepers expect a complete healing from their disease? Maybe not. Who knows what our risen Lord Jesus can do when we put ourselves in his hands and say, “Lord have mercy”?
But there’s this other word in our reading which if you blink, you miss it. This word is “glory”.
First of all, we read: “Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Was no one found to return and give glory to God except this foreigner? And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”
Now in my translation of the bible, it reads that the man “praised God” and “gave praise to God”, but in Greek it actually says, “he was glorifying God” and he “gave glory to God”.
So what does this mean?
In the Bible there are a number of expressions like this which have a very strange meaning in English. For example, what does it mean “Bless the Lord, o my soul”? Hang on a minute, you might say – I thought God blessed us! Why are we saying, “Bless the Lord”?
When we say, “Bless the Lord” we are saying that all blessing, and every blessing comes from the Lord. That’s what it means “Bless the Lord”.
When we say, “Glory to God” we are saying that all glory belongs to God. When the leper glorifies God, it means that he acknowledged that God was where this great glory came from.
But what does it mean, glory? Does it simply mean, praise, and honour?
In the Old Testament, in the book of Exodus, we read about how Moses asked to see the glory of God. And when Moses asks this, he is asking to see the fullness of God’s majesty.
We read: “Moses said, “Please show me your glory”. And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you the name “The LORD”. And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”
Moses asks to see the glory of God, but he is not allowed to see God’s face.
Also, at the end of the book of Exodus, when all the Israelites had built the temple for God, we read, “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.”
Now one thing, which is really strange. In the Old Testament, there are no psalms or prayers which say, “Glory to God”. There are plenty of “Praise the Lord”s and “Bless the Lord, o my soul”s but no “Glory to God”s.
It seems as though the first time this was said, was when the angels came down from heaven to the shepherds in the fields, and said, “Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth among those with whom he is pleased.”
And another thing, it seems as though in early Christian worship, this was one thing that was quite distinctive. Christians sang lots of songs, saying “Glory to God”. But the Jews did not.
And still today, we have a lot of expressions like this in our service. And we almost don’t notice it. But first of all, we say, “Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning is now, and will be forever more. Amen.” Then we have “Glory to God in the highest,” and later on in the same song we say, “we give thanks to you for your great glory” and then we say, “You alone, O Christ, with the Holy Spirit are most high in the glory of God the Father”. Then when we read the gospel, we say, “Glory to you, O Lord.” And then we sing, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth and full of your glory.” And at the end of the Lord’s prayer we say, “The Kingdom and the Power and Glory are yours.”
What’s so Christian about all this? What’s so distinctive about Christians saying “Glory” all the time?
Well, those 10 lepers, when Jesus turned and looked at them, and healed them from the leprosy, when they saw the face of Jesus, they saw the glory of God, which even Moses wasn’t allowed to see. And there was only one of them that recognised it. And he didn’t just go back to Jesus to thank him. He went back to him to say, “I know that you are God.” It’s just as when Thomas knelt before Jesus and said, “My Lord and my God”.
We read that the leper glorified God with a loud voice. And how do you think that he gave glory to God? Did he look up at the sky, and say thanks to God? No. Let’s read what it says. “Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks.”
And instead of sending him back to the temple, to show the priests, he sends him on his way, and says, “Your faith has made you well.”
You don’t need the glory of the Lord at the temple. You’ve got the glory of the Lord in my human body, says Jesus. And there was only one man who noticed it. There was only one man who saw it.
St Paul says, “The fullness of God dwelt in Christ bodily.” Jesus is the temple of the living God. We read in John: Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
So as you sit in church, notice all the times where it says “glory.” Because when we glorify God, and sing Glory to God, we are saying to Jesus, “We know that you are risen from the dead. And we know that you are standing among us. We know that you have washed our sins away in holy baptism. We know that you, Jesus Christ, the King of Glory, were crucified on the cross for us, and that now you are here standing among us, to breath out the Holy Spirit on us through the forgiveness of sins, and to feed us with your holy and precious blood.”
All of these things, we recognise only through the Word of God. The sheep hear Jesus voice. And if the lepers were healed when they said those powerful and dangerous words, “Lord have mercy”, anyone would think that we are standing in heaven itself when we say, “Glory to God in the highest”.
But then St Paul does say that our “citizenship is in heaven”. And he also says that “we are seated with Christ in the heavenly places”.
So come on, you bunch of beggars, lepers, and schleppers, it’s time to take our stand in the presence of God like we do every week, and say, “Lord, have mercy” and “Glory to God in the highest.” We are beggars, and we are sing with the angels. We are sinners and we are saints. We are dead in our sins, but we are forgiven. We are wasting away every day, but putting on immortality every day. We are fighting with the devil, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
That’s why St John says, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ, king of glory, you were crucified for us and you have risen from the dead for us. Bless us with your Holy Spirit this day, as we recognise you standing in our midst, healing our wounds and forgiving our sins. Lord, have mercy! Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. Amen.
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