DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
St. Luke 17:11-20
(1/20)
For the 34th Sunday after Pentecost (Sunday of the 29th
Week)
Afar
Off: St. Luke 17:11-19, especially vs. 12:“Then
as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who
stood afar off.” During
biblical times, lepers were constrained to keep out of villages and far away
from contact with others. Isolation
was the only known way in those days to prevent the spread of the disease. That practice of radical separation
continued until quite recent times.
To provide for the care of lepers, before modern medical practice
developed more effective treatment, leprosaria were established by the Federal
government even in the
This
ancient policy of isolation found its way into the prayers of the Church, which
all Orthodox Faithful will recognize: “As Thou didst not refrain from
entering and eating with sinners in the house of Simon the leper [Mt. 26:6], so
also vouchsafe to enter the house of my humble, leprous and sinful
soul.” In our inmost depths,
we know that our sins against the living God, like leprosy, create that deadly
condition of heart and soul that separates us from our saving God. It is out of this experience of
distancing that we are led to cry with the tax collector, to whom the Lord
Jesus gives voice in His parable: “God be merciful to me a sinner!”
(Lk. 18:13). We realize that it is our sins that may
well bring us to the torments of Hades, where we will only be able to see
“Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom” (Lk.
16:23).
Lepers
that we are, each repentant Christian readily finds himself in the company of
the ten lepers who stood afar off.
With them, we can only be quick to lift up our “voices and [say],
'Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!'” (Lk.
17:13). And best that we do
so! For, as of old He still says,
“'Go, show yourselves to the Priests.' And so it was that, as they went, they
were cleansed” (vs. 14). What
is striking in the present account is not that they went to the Priests for an
official declaration of their healing.
After all, the official inspection and certification of cleansing would
enable them to return to human society, but the important matter we should not
miss is that one of them turned, first of all, to Jesus “when he saw that
he was healed...and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face
at His feet, giving Him thanks” (vss. 15,16).
That
tenth leper was already healed of his leprosy, but he disdained to make the
visit to the Priest His first priority - even to his Samaritan Priest. Rather, since he discerned in Jesus the
presence of God, the Source of all healing, he “fell down on his face at
His feet, giving Him thanks” (vs. 16). Who else but God alone can forgive our
sins, can heal us of our manifold diseases, can trample down the gates of Hades
and lift us up to Abraham’s bosom?
St. Peter is quite right in reminding us that “the promise is to
you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our
God will call” (Acts 2:39).
If you
heart is troubled, your strength has failed you, and the light of your eyes is
not with you so that even your friends and neighbors and your nearest of kin
stand afar off from you, do not despair (see Ps. 37:10,11 LXX)! God is with you, attentive to the voice
of your cry. What He teaches in
this account is His eternal message, even what He revealed through Jeremiah the
Prophet: “ I Am a God nigh at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off” (Jer. 23:23).
Learn from the Samaritan leper: nothing should separate you from the
living God! He is ready to heal
you. “When thou shalt turn and mourn, then thou shalt
be saved” (Is. 30:15).
Swiftly
let Thy compassion apprehend us, O Lord; for we are greatly impoverished. Help us, O God our Savior; deliver us
and forgive us our sins for Thy Name’s sake.
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