“TRINITY 14 2024”
Saint Luke 17: 11-19
14th Sunday after Trinity: September 1 Anno Domini 2024
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
The problem, or rather, a problem in the Church is that there is too much historicism. Now history is good because it shows the truth from the past; that it is helpful to those in the present is realized only by those who know it and follow it. True history is fact. It is what it is. But historicism is a weird, fetish-like, worship of details, personalities, or epochs totally out-of-context. Being enmeshed in “knowledge-for-knowledge sake” for the Christian is like being consumed in Levitical fasting thrice a week, counting footsteps on Saturday, and tithing dill, mint, and cumin.
Yes, there are times when the details truly matter, when the proper interpretation of the Greek word is important, or when the text of the Septuagint and the Apocrypha should be consulted along with the Hebrew. Sure.
But too much has changed over 2,000 years, or more, to really rely on geography, topography, and so called “ethno-culturo” reconstruction studies. Kenneth Bailey is not as helpful as he thinks he is because Palestinians from the 20th/21st century are not 1st century Jews and Samaritans. And all of the fabricated and kabalistic nonsense written in the late first century (and later) Talmudic texts was written by enemies of The Christ.
So, who really cares what exact type of leprosy the 10 men had. Does it matter how long each on had it? Do we need a yearly explication of what modern “science” tells us; or of Father Damian amongst the natives; or bells, face-coverings, and body-parts dropping off. No historicism, only His story. Only Christ’s eternal story of redemption. It is a story arc that is both historical and eternal.
Besides, none of you have leprosy. Urticaria (hives), rashes, “athlete’s foot,” psoriasis, or all the other conditions TV maladies that ‘big-Pharma’ is hustling, do not matter.
There were a lot of people sick in Christ’s day. Always were; always are; always will be. Sickness, whether it be leprosy, cancer, mental illness, family dysfunction, or just loneliness and depression, are symptoms. As sinners you sin. The wages of sin is death. Something has to break this inexorable march towards death and darkness…and damnation is one is without faith, or un-repentant. But it is not a something but a someone.
Unlike most of the pagan “so-called religions” with their endless cycles of “rinse and repeat,” Christianity—the path of Christ, Who is THE WAY—the faith has a course and a “telos,” an end.
It is not the bogus “karmic wheel” of man’s fevered imagination, but rather a wheel of Jesus’ person and work which rolls through all the decay and rot (and “leprosy”) of sins all the way to peace and everlasting life.
The true horror for the 10 men was not that they were sick, or even in pain, but rather that they were “outcasts,” separated from their Church, their “sacraments” and from hearing the Word of God. Their problem…was themselves. The reason many of us have problems, illnesses, and messed-up lives and home situations…is ourselves. When we do not come to Church to receive His gifts; when we do not read His Word and sing His Psalms, and daily remember our + Baptisms (drown our ‘old Adam’ in repentance) we are no better than lepers who never have Christ come into their lives. But they did. He came to them as He comes to you; as He came to you at The Holy + Font. It is His water, flowing from His wounded side, from His sacred heart—His precious Blood—which washes you as clean as Naaman was washed by the same Word of God from the mouth of Elisha.
You are the lepers. Jesus is your cure. When you whine and complain, besmirching the joy of His Gospel, you are lepers. When you lust, lie, gossip, and hold hatred and grudges in your heart, you are lepers. Well, actually, when you wake up in the morning, you are lepers.
You are His children and He wants you healthy and clean. Leave the unsanitary conditions of the world and your old nature (habits, behaviors, and self) and bathe in Him. His Word of forgiveness is your washing of + regeneration. Jesus is your “leper King.” He became leprosy for you.
He kept The Father’s Commandments that you do not keep. You say you will obey, like the first son in the parable of being asked to go into the field to work by his father—but did not. He was treated like a leper by the Pharisees and their ilk.
When He suffered and died for you on the cross—He was leprosy, he was covetousness, he was larceny, idolatry, murder, heart-disease, arthritis, COPD, cancer, bi-polar disorder, ungratefulness, and all of your sins. The Apostle does not say He became “like” sin, though to be sure He carried all your trespasses on His wounded bloody back, but that “He became SIN” [2 Cor. 5. 21]. The God/Man Christ Jesus became the leper King so that you, RIGHT NOW, are the pure and undefiled—forgiven and restored—child of The Father might be white as white, clean as clean, righteous as righteous…IN HIM.
Now that you are totally clean, show yourselves to the priests, i.e., come to The Holy Altar and have Him speak the cleansing and restorative Word to you once again. Fall at His feet and be at Peace—in Peace—Peace in you. Jesus!
In The Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost
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