When I think back to my first date with my wife, Julie, I wonder how different things would be if she started out the date by telling me all the rules I have to follow: “You have to be on time for all our dates. You can’t look at other women. You have to check with me before hanging out with your friends.” Thankfully, this wasn’t the approach she took. Instead, we first got to know and love one another by breaking bread together, by dancing together and by talking with each other.
The relationship came first and the rules came later. When the relationship comes first, then the rules can be understood within the proper context of helping us stay in right relationship with one another. In light of this analogy, we can more fully grasp the meaning of today’s Gospel reading where ten lepers were healed, but only one was saved. To see this deeper meaning let us look between the lines of this Gospel reading.
The first lines of today’s Gospel reading say, “As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem, he traveled through Samaria and Galilee. As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him.” These men with the disease of leprosy were required to follow the laws or rules set out for them in the Jewish law. They were cast out by society having to leave their homes, their jobs, their places of worship, their families and their friends. While following these rules protected others, these lepers could not be healed from this terrible disease by just following the rules.
The Gospel continues saying, “They stood at a distance from him and raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!” The Jewish law said that these men could not come to the priest until after their leprosy had already been healed. The priest’s job was simply to have the lepers follow 8 days’ worth of rules in order to validate that the leprosy was healed before fully welcoming them back into society. Notice the difference here with Jesus, our high priest and redeemer. You don’t have to already be healed to come to him. We, like the 10 lepers, can come to him as we are. Each of our transformations begin and progress through a relationship with him.
The Gospel picks back up with Jesus responding to the request of the ten lepers, “And when he saw them, he said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” When Jesus saw them, he didn’t do what all the other people did when they saw lepers, he didn’t turn and run away in the opposite direction. No, Jesus’ love isn’t cautious like that. Jesus doesn’t think about what he will lose by putting himself out there. Like you find in all good relationships, Jesus simply puts the needs of the other first.
The Gospel continues saying, “As they were going they were cleansed.” Notice that our God is not an on-demand God. Our God is an on-time God, because God’s timing is always perfect. A well-known priest says God responds to all prayers with one of the following three responses, “Yes” “Not Yet” or “I’ve got a better plan.” This is an example of God’s response of “not yet.” Jesus didn’t cleanse these men as soon as they asked for help. Jesus’ approach brings into play here an essential element of relationships, which is trust. Jesus invites us to have faith and trust in God’s goodness and perfect timing. We must be like the lepers and trust that Jesus will also respond to our prayers with his grace and goodness in his perfect timing. For those of us who have more patience with Amazon’s two-day shipping than we do with God delivering on our prayer requests, this Gospel reminds us to trust in Jesus; trust that he is always on time with responding to our requests of him.
The Gospel picks back up saying, “And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.” Here is another essential element a relationship, which is gratitude. When it comes to showing our gratitude, it is important to recognize not only the gifts we’ve been given, but to also recognize who gave us the gifts. It’s not enough to simply feel grateful. We should be compelled to show our gratitude with our words and deeds. Those nine lepers who were healed by Jesus and did not come back to him must have been so focused on going to the Jewish priest to follow the eight days’ worth of rules to validate their healing that they completely lost sight of pursuing a relationship with the one who healed them.
The Gospel continues saying, “He was a Samaritan.” This man was a double outcast. He was an outcast among outcasts. He was a reject among rejects. Not only was he cast out from society for having leprosy, but even when he went to go live with the others who had leprosy, he was still an outcast among even them, because he was also a Samaritan. Jewish society rejected Samaritans. Not only did the Jewish people look down upon Samaritans for being what they would have negatively called racial half-breeds, but they also disagreed with Samaritans about how to interpret the Word of God and how to worship God. Samaritans were bitterly hated by the Jewish people and the Jewish people avoided social contact with Samaritans whenever possible. Because of his status as a double outcast, he would have been desperately craving true human relationship. Instead of living out faith in a way that is just driven by being a follower of rules, this man would have been more inclined to live out his faith in a way that is primarily driven by pursuing a relationship; a relationship that embraces Jesus not only as “Master” but also as “Messiah.”
The Gospel continues, “Jesus said in reply, “Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine?” Notice here that just following all the rules in the world won’t heal an ungrateful heart. It is only by pursuing a deeper relationship with Jesus, the giver of all we have, that an ungrateful heart can be healed. Jesus loves those who come to him with a grateful heart. The person who came here today, not to just to check the box, not just to follow the rule and fulfill the Sunday obligation, but because they feel compelled to pursue the relationship in the same way a boyfriend travels a long distance to see his girlfriend.
Next, in the Gospel, Jesus says, “Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?” This word “foreigner” was written on the outside of the temple’s outer walls forbidding this Samaritan, under the penalty of death, from entering the temple. If the Samaritan just focused on this manmade rule, he would have had to either stay outside God’s house or if he entered God’s house, he would have died. And yet, and yet, by pursuing the relationship, he got to lay at the feet of God and hear Jesus speak the words, “your faith has saved you.” Just like Jesus will leave the 99 to go find the one lost sheep, Jesus is especially fond of the one who leaves the nine to go find Jesus. I can imagine Jesus looking at this man and thinking to himself, “this is a man after my own heart.”
The last line of today’s Gospel says: “Then he said to him, ‘Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.’” While ten men were healed, only one man received the additional miracle of being saved. A grateful heart is a magnet for miracles. The moment the Lord heals something in our lives, there is something else in our lives that needs to be revealed and healed. This is why it is so important to continue returning to Jesus with a grateful heart, to pursue the relationship instead of just following rules.
John Henry Newman, who is the patron of campus ministry and who is being canonized as a saint this weekend, put it this way, many people cast off their faith and do not endure in their faith he says, “because they never have tasted that the Lord is gracious; and they never have had experience of His power and love, because they have never known their own weakness and need.” Our faith is not about just following a bunch of rules. Our faith is about pursuing a relationship with Jesus.
For those who know only of faith as being just a bunch of rules to follow and know nothing of having a relationship with Jesus, I feel sorry for them. I feel sorry for them in the same way I feel sorry for a child who has been robbed of knowing and loving their father and experiencing his unconditional love for them. The rules are meant to help us stay in right relationship with Jesus and our brothers and sisters in Christ. So how can we put the relationship first in the way we live out our faith today? How about we start much in the same way I came to know and love my wife: breaking bread, dancing and talking.
Our faith is deeply personal and the breaking of bread is deeply personal. When Jesus gives us this food of eternal life he speaks to each one of us, saying “this is my body, which will be given up for you.”
Dancing: Let Luke’s beautiful music move us. In the same way a couple has their own love song, these songs are meant to be our love songs with Jesus.
Talking: Talk heart to heart with Jesus in prayer about our gratitude to him for all he has given us and let him speak to us. Let him whisper into our hearts the truth that when he died on the cross, it wasn’t just about the loss of life, it was about the gift of life. It was about the gift of life for the man with an attitude of gratitude 2,000 years ago and for each and every one of us who come to him with grateful hearts today.
If we come to Mass just to follow the rules, just to check the box, just to fulfill the Sunday obligation, we are missing out on so much. We are missing out on an opportunity to have an intimate encounter and deeper relationship with Jesus. Let Jesus draw each of us deeper into his own life. Jesus desires a loving relationship with each of us that will live on forever.