St. Luke 17:11–19
In the name of the Father and of the + Son
and of the Holy Spirit –
Who was a neighbor to the ten lepers? The
One who showed them mercy. That would be Jesus. The Lord God of Israel –
merciful and compassionate, abounding in steadfast love. His mercy endures
forever.
The ten lepers asked for exactly
the right thing: mercy. They saw Jesus. They knew who He was – they had heard
about Him. They believed. So they lifted up their voices. They prayed. “Jesus,
Master, have mercy on us.” Kyrie eleison.
That’s a part of our liturgy. Kyrie eleison – Lord, have mercy. We
sing it after the Introit: Lord, have
mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. In the ancient world, when a
king was passing through a town, often the poor would gather along the road and
cry out like these lepers: Kyrie eleison
– Lord, have mercy. They were asking for help, for protection, for food,
money, and whatever else their king might give them. What specifically were
these ten lepers praying for? They recognized Jesus as their King, their
Master, but what kind of mercy did they have in mind? Were they just begging
for money? Did they want Jesus to heal them because they had heard about His
other miracles? Or were they crying out for the forgiveness of sins, for
salvation from God in the flesh? Maybe it was some of all these.
We don’t know exactly what they
had in mind for Jesus to do, but they trusted in Jesus to do it. And whether
they meant it this way or it was a blessed coincidence, they prayed for mercy
to the Merciful One. Jesus answers even imperfect prayers. He doesn’t wait to
answer only if you get the words just right or say them enough times. Jesus is
merciful already in listening to our prayers. He is just as merciful in
answering them.
So what do we pray for in the
Kyrie, when we lift up our voices, Lord,
have mercy! We might pray for pardon and forgiveness. We might pray for cleansing from our sins, and cleansing from the
sins that others have done to us. We
might pray for our families, our jobs, our country, the world. That short, little prayer, Lord have mercy, encompasses all of
that. It acknowledges that we are
sinful and ruined people living in a sinful and ruined world. We need the mercy
of Jesus and so we ask for it because we are in the presence of our King, and we are confident in how He will
hear us and answer us.
One of the ten lepers, 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 he was a Samaritan. This healed
Samaritan performed three acts of worship:
He glorified God – singing praise to God. He bowed down before Jesus – he worshiped Him. And he gave thanks to Jesus – he recognized Jesus as the Giver of
the gift. And this gift from Jesus
turned out to be even more than a simple healing. Jesus tells the Samaritan foreigner, “Your faith has saved you.” This man, although he was not a true
and good child of Israel, he had faith in Jesus for his salvation. And so he returned, glorifying and
thanking Jesus. He went back to the
One who had saved him. He knew who he
should give thanks to. It wasn’t
necessary for him to go all the way to the Temple and the priests in Jerusalem. He had the true Temple – God in the
flesh – right there in front of him. He
had the true High Priest – the one who gave Himself as the sacrifice for all
sins. All that was left for this man
to do was glorify, praise, bless, and thank this Savior.
Like that faithful Samaritan we
follow our liturgy from a prayer for mercy to a song of glory. First, we sing
the Kyrie – Lord, have mercy. And
then, confident in our Lord’s merciful answer, we glorify Him and give Him
thanks. Glory be to God on high! We praise Thee, we bless Thee, we worship
Thee, we glorify Thee, we give thanks
to Thee, for Thy great glory.
Our liturgy teaches us that we
are in these Bible stories. They are not made-up, they are not just moral
lessons, and they are not just historical documents about people long ago. The
liturgy teaches us that the Bible is about you – it is your story. The liturgy
puts us in the place of these real, historical people and events. So we sing
the Psalms with David. We cry to the Lord for mercy with blind Bartimaeus, the
Syrophoenician woman, and these ten lepers. We sing glory to God with the
Bethlehem angels. We sing Blessed be the Lord God of Israel with Zechariah. Our
souls magnify the Lord with the Mother Mary. We sing Holy, Holy, Holy with the
seraphim. We shout Hosannas to greet our coming King with the Palm Sunday
crowd. We look to Jesus, the Lamb of God, with John the Baptist. And we sing of
the Lord’s peace with old Simeon. Your story is the same as for the whole
Church throughout the ages. You have the same sins. And you have the same
Savior. Jesus, our merciful Lord, is just as present to us now as He was to
that Samaritan. We have Jesus – God in the flesh – right here in front of us with
His Word and Sacraments, giving us His Spirit and peace, His mercy and
forgiveness, His life and salvation. Why would we want to go look for Him anywhere
else?
This then is the point of
worship. It is not in order to pay Him back for what He has given us. As if we
could. It is not because He needs our thanks and praise. But we worship Him in
order to be with Him. Like that one Samaritan we return to the merciful Lord. We
go back to Jesus and stay with Jesus, glorifying and thanking Him, in order to
get more from Jesus. And this isn’t selfish – it’s what God wants us to do. In
Psalm 116, we ask the question, What
shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits to me? What can I possibly
do for the Lord in exchange for all that He has done for me? The answer: I will take the cup of salvation and call on
the name of the Lord. There’s really only one thing you can do in return
for the Lord – receive more of the good gifts that He wants to give you. Like
that one Samaritan we go to be with Jesus, and we want Jesus to be who Jesus is,
the One who has mercy – and gives it to us.
The liturgy repeats the
Samaritan’s pattern of prayer for mercy and then song of glory. We saw it first
with the Kyrie and the Gloria in Excelsis. But then we do it again, even
clearer, around the Sacrament of the Altar. In the Agnus Dei we lift up our
voices to Jesus, praying for mercy: O
Christ, Thou Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the world, have mercy
upon us. And He gives His mercy – His salvation – to us with just a few
words, a bit of bread, a sip of wine. He gives His body and blood for the
forgiveness of sins to hearts that believe and look to Him. And we are saved. So
we bow down like the Samaritan, at the feet of Jesus, worshiping this merciful
God who is present with us in the bread and wine.
And then, once more like the
Samaritan, and for the rest of the liturgy, we sing glory and thanks. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to
the Holy Ghost. O give thanks unto
the Lord for He is good. And His
mercy endureth forever. We give thanks
to You, almighty God, that You have refreshed us through this salutary gift.
Bless we the Lord. Thanks be to God.
In the Holy + Name of Jesus –
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Charlotte, IA
September 6, 2015
