Sermon – 12th October 2025
Primary Texts:
2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15c
2 Timothy 2:8-15
Luke 17:11-19
Both our Old Testament and Gospel readings today focus on healings from leprosy. Both of those healed are Gentiles (or non Jews). Both encounter the power of God from a distance. Both respond to their healing by expressing great gratitude to God and worshipping him.
In our reading from the second book of Kings, Naaman is a successful military commander in the army of the King of Aram. The nation of Aram was on the north-eastern side of Israel, in what is now the southern parts of modern-day Syria and the north of Jordan. Aram was at times one of Israel’s enemies. Namaan, despite his life being successful in many ways, struggles with a chronic skin condition. There is no indication that his skin condition is due to any sin on his part.
He is pointed in the direction of a Jewish prophet by a young woman who has been taken captive during an Aram raid on Israel. Rather than going directly to the prophet, Naaman writes to the King of Israel. Namaan seems to think his healing needs to come from someone with power and influence, but the King of Israel refuses to play God in this situation and casts aside his request. Somehow, the prophet Elisha hears about Naaman’s request and the king’s refusal and a message is sent to Naaman to come to see Elisha.
Namaan arrives with horse and chariots, and in a full display of power and position. Much to his shock Elisha doesn’t even come out of his house; he just issues instructions for him to follow. You can imagine that this man with great power is used to being treated with deference and is clearly quite taken aback by Elisha’s approach, and flies into a fit of rage. He is expecting some dramatic display of power and magic hands! Instead, Elisha simply sends him off to the Jordan River to dip in seven times.
Finally, his people convince him that if he was willing to do something difficult to be healed surely he should be willing to follow Elisha’s advice and dip in the Jordan River as prescribed. He somewhat begrudgingly agrees, and perhaps to his surprise, he is healed.
His healing leads him back to Elisha, professing the greatness of God and acknowledging that this God of Israel is more than a tribal deity but a God of all the earth.
Moving to the Gospel reading, we find Jesus moving towards Jerusalem and he is passing through the region of Samaria and Galilee. This naming of Samaria indicates that something interesting might be coming our way. As we know from the story of the Samaritan woman at the well and the Good Samaritan, Jews and Samaritans didn’t mix. We also know that previously, Jesus had tried to travel through Samaria and be turned away (Luke 9:52-53). On the outskirts of town, ten lepers see Jesus and call out to him. “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
In the Old Testament, anyone with a skin condition was considered leprous. However, scholars suggest it was probably not the leprosy we know today. Leviticus 13 gives instructions about how to deal with skin diseases, but they relate to ritual purity rather than social purity. People who had any skin disease, including eczema and boils, were excluded from temple worship.
By the time we reach the New Testament times, the religious fervour and militant following of Old Testament purity laws had been layered on with any number of extra rules and regulations. This meant that those with skin conditions were not only barred from temple worship but also banished to the outskirts of society. This reduced many people to a life of social isolation, unable to work and needing to beg or scavenge to survive. A simple skin disease could result in exclusion from family, social networks, employment and worship. It was also much more common by this time to assume that an illness or disease was associated with some sin in the person’s life. Not only would people be pushed to the margins of society, but they would be blamed for their condition. It was also common to think that such a condition of ritual impurity was contagious and could hinder a ritually clean person from their worship. These lepers found themselves in a very bad way.
Restoration to full participation in society and worship could only come when they were healed of their illness. This healing was declared by visiting the priest and showing that their skin no longer had any signs of disease.
Living in this area, there are many times when I need to drive through the Greenlane roundabout. Often, that journey happens at a snail’s pace because of the traffic. In the last few years, there have often been people sitting on the median island begging. It is very tempting to look straight ahead and entirely pretend I can’t see them. When the lepers call out from a distance, Jesus both sees them and speaks to them. He does not do his best to avoid contact. This engagement with people cast to the margins of society shows again that the Kingdom of God has a revolutionary edge – it will pull in those cast out and make whole those who have been deemed to be unfit. When Jesus sends the ten to the priest, he is effectively telling them that they have been made clean. Similarly to our Old Testament reading, there is no fancy show of power and healing. Rather, Jesus instructs the men to go and present themselves to the priests. There is no fanfare, no laying on of hands or special words. This is not so much a miracle story; perhaps there is something else going on.
Next, we hear that one man saw that he was healed and came back to thank Jesus. He has discovered his healing and come back to the source, praising God in a loud voice. But here is the plot twist: this is not one of the Jewish lepers, it is the Samaritan. It is always hard not to read tone into biblical texts. When Jesus says – Where are the other nine? Is the only one to return this “foreigner”? Is there a bit of a sting in the “foreigner”
The Jewish lepers have done the right thing; they have presented themselves to the priest and are now ceremonially fit to be reintegrated into family, society and worshipping life. The Samaritan would still have been excluded from worship by virtue of his ethnicity. So, he returns to Jesus, the source of his healing, to offer praise directly to God and he lies at the feet of Jesus to thank him. Where previously he was forced to stay at a distance, now he can draw near to the one who offers him his life back. His gratitude finds its appropriate home in Jesus. He could have just gone and told everyone else he knew how he had been healed, but he returned to thank the giver of this good gift.
So what can we take away from these two men and their healings? Firstly, I would suggest that God’s love and care for all people are on display again in these texts. No one is unseen or beyond the compassion of God.
Secondly, we too need eyes to see those around us who are pushed to the margins, and find ways to slow down, see them and speak to them. Even if it is as simple as a smile for the person at the roundabout.
And finally, regardless of whether we need healing or not, hopefully, we have encountered the love of God, and it should give us pause to move our lives toward gratitude and thankfulness. It is too easy to be swamped by the cares of the world and lose sight of the small gifts in each day. We don’t need to wait for miraculous healings to find things to be grateful for. As an act of worship, you may choose to call to mind something in each day that is a good gift from God. A smile from a stranger, a phone call from a friend, a tasty meal or the company of a good dog.
May our desire to seek and find the good gift in each =day reorient our lives towards gratitude for the goodness of God and restore in us hope that God’s kingdom is here now and coming again.