St. Luke 17:11–19
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The ten lepers asked for precisely the right thing: mercy. They saw Jesus. They knew who He was—they had heard about Him. 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, 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.
So, what were these ten lepers asking for specifically? 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? Were they crying out for the forgiveness of sins, for salvation from God in the flesh? Maybe it was a bit of everything. We don’t know exactly what they had in mind for Jesus to do, but the important thing is they trusted in Jesus to do it. They didn’t ask for something specific, they asked for mercy. And they trusted that whatever mercy Jesus gave, that would be the right thing for them.
See, Jesus answers even imperfect prayers. He doesn’t wait to answer only if you get the words just right, or say them enough times, or get enough people praying, or ask for just the right thing. Jesus is merciful already just by listening to our prayers. And so He is just as merciful in answering them.
So what do we pray for in the Kyrie? We might pray for forgiveness. We might pray for cleansing from our sins, and cleansing from the sins that others have done to us. We might pray for healing, for our families, for our jobs, for our church, for our country, for the world. That short, little prayer, Lord have mercy, encompasses all of that. The Kyrie is the Church’s prayer that combines all her prayers. That’s why we pray it in every liturgy, at every Divine Service, and also at the prayer offices, Matins and Vespers. The Kyrie acknowledges that we are sinful and ruined people living in a sinful and ruined world. We need the mercy of Jesus for everything, and so we ask for it because we are in the presence of our King, and we are confident that He will hear us and answer us.
Now, 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 saw that the liturgy wasn’t over yet! He went back and 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, “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 his worship demonstrated his faith. He went back to the One who saved him. He knew whom 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 would offer Himself as the sacrifice for all sins. All that was left for this man to do was glorify, praise, bless, and thank this Savior.
Our liturgy also teaches us to follow the example of that faithful Samaritan, and so we go 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.
One of the things our liturgy does is it 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. One of the reasons our liturgy has stood the test of time for so long is that it teaches us that the Bible is about you, it’s for you—it’s your story. The liturgy puts us in the story, in the place of these real, historical people and events. So, we sing the Psalms with King David. Like blind Bartimaeus, the Canaanite woman, and these ten lepers, we cry out, Lord, have mercy. We sing Glory be to God on high with the angels at Bethlehem. With Zechariah, we sing Blessed be the Lord God of Israel. Our souls magnify the Lord with the Mother Mary. With the seraphim around God’s throne, we sing Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Sabaoth. We shout Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, to greet our coming King with the Palm Sunday crowd. With John the Baptist, we behold Jesus, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. And we sing of the Lord’s peace as we depart with old Simeon. You are part of the one whole Church throughout all the ages. You have the same sins. And you have the same Savior. So, we sing the same songs.
Jesus, our merciful Lord, is just as present with 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 mercy and forgiveness, His Spirit and peace, His life and salvation. Why would we want to go anywhere else?
This then is the point of worship. Worship is not so we can pay God back for what He has given us (as if we could). It is not because He needs our thanks and praise. But we worship God in order to be with Him. Like that one Samaritan, we come back to the merciful Lord. We come back to Jesus and stay with Jesus, glorifying and thanking Him. And we get more from Jesus. And that isn’t selfish—it’s what God wants us to do.
One of the traditional prayers to pray before receiving the Lord’s Supper is taken from 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: receive more of the good gifts that He wants to give you. Like that one Samaritan we want to be with Jesus, the One who has mercy and gives it to us.
Our liturgy repeats the Samaritan’s pattern of prayer for mercy and song of glory. We do it first with the Kyrie and the Gloria in Excelsis. But then we do it again, even more so, 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 to us, with those words, that bread, that cup of wine. He gives His body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. 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 to God. 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. Amen.
