The People Jesus Helps

Fifteen years ago now, Robert Coles published a book called The Spiritual Life of Children. Coles is a child psychiatrist. His book is mostly descriptive. He seeks to describe the inner landscape in which children encounter God in their own lives. He asked one nine-year-old girl which Biblical story meant the most to her. She responded, not with words, but with a drawing. The drawing had two parts. One side showed a typical house and field with plants sprouting from the soil… a concrete, familiar setting. In the other portion of the picture, two figures faced each other. One wore a simple robe carefully ornamented with bands of purple. The other figure had tattered clothing and red sores all over his body. Asked to comment on her picture, after a long pause all she said was: "If you are really remembering Jesus, you remember the people he wanted to help." If you are remembering Jesus, you remember the people he wanted to help.

Another way to say much the same thing might be: If we really want to bring Jesus to life in our lives… If by remembering Jesus we seek to make Jesus real… we might best start by focusing, not so much on Jesus, but on the people he wanted to help. Today’s Gospel reading gives us a tool, a story, with which to begin.

To some degree, this approach goes against a common assumption among church folk. We often assume that to be good Christians, we need to be more Christlike. We need to do what Christ did. We often view Christ as the supermodel of Christian living… the ultimate role model for us. Like Christ in today’s Gospel, we should help the needy and outcast. But being a Christians isn’t about being Christ. It’s about knowing Christ. And we may best come to know Christ by focusing on the people he helped. Focusing on the people Jesus helped. Not just as potential objects for our ministry or our outreach, but as people who knew Jesus. The people who Jesus helped knew Jesus. They are our true role models.

Can you see a Samaritan leper as a role model? The Samaritans were foreigners, viewed with suspicion and disdain. And lepers were ostracized from all social interaction. But with the Samaritan leper in this story, it wasn’t who he was or what he had that mattered. It was what he did.

And the most important thing he did was to recognize and acknowledge Jesus as the source of his healing and salvation.

"When Jesus saw the lepers he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him."

The most important phrase in this passage is probably the simple statement, "He saw." The Samaritan leper saw. This reading is really more about one person’s conversion, than it is about ten peoples’ healing. The Samaritan leper saw; he saw what had truly happened. What did he see? Presumably he saw a certain set of physical facts. He undoubtedly noticed that the physical symptoms of leprosy were gone. The difference between being ritually clean or unclean was very carefully governed at that time by specific diagnostic criteria set down in the book of Leviticus. Thus the Samaritan could look at himself and see that he would no longer be diagnosed as unclean. He would no longer be required to ostracize himself from society.

But he also saw much more. This one particular leper saw the hand of God. He saw that God had been present in his own life. Something had happened in his life… some symptoms had gone away. But he saw beyond the physical features of that event to an amazing, wonderful, deeper meaning. He understood this event to tell of God’s presence and care in his life. He knew he had been touched by God. A moment of recognition, awareness, conversion. He knew himself to be a person helped by Jesus.

Look upon your own lives. Examine yourselves as the Samaritan did. Look at all of the events and features of your life. Do you see the hand of God? You have been blessed. Jesus has been present in your life. Jesus is with you now. The Samaritan saw. Do you? Or like the other nine lepers who were healed, do you see only the physical features of your life, only the touch of human accomplishment? Do you value what life offers only as it affects you, blind to its deeper meaning? God has given us all so much… the very heartbeat and opportunity of life. The gift of joy and wonder. The power to create. Patience and endurance in times of trial. The gift of hope… hope that ultimately no sin is unforgivable and no wound beyond healing. In these things, the Samaritan leper saw himself touched by God; he recognized himself as a person helped by Jesus. Do you?

When the Samaritan saw, he immediately responded. He turned back to Jesus, and praising God, prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. The Greek word Luke uses here is eucharistia. Seeing himself as a person helped by Jesus, his immediate response was to celebrate in thanksgiving.

The young girl who drew the picture of Jesus and the leper later went on to say a bit more about her picture. "The leper was there in the desert. Jesus was tired. He’d walked a long way through the night. He was hoping He could find a place to rest—but then He saw the leper, and his heart went out to him and then He stopped and spoke with the man, and He healed him. Then He could go and rest, and maybe get something to eat. Probably the leper felt much better. Maybe he went and ate with Jesus." It’s a wonderful thought that perhaps the Samaritan Christian and Jesus sat down together to rest and celebrate with a meal. A Eucharistic meal of thanksgiving.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus’ final words to the Samaritan are: "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well." In other translations, it reads, "Your faith has brought you salvation." The Greek word implies rescue from impending destruction or from the threat of some overwhelming power. The Samaritan escaped that threat. The other nine lepers received remission from the symptoms of leprosy. The Samaritan, who saw something they did not see… who saw himself touched by God… who knew that it was Jesus who helped him… the Samaritan received salvation. He received the new life of Christ.

And then, the Gospel tells us, Jesus sent him on his way. Sent him on his own particular way. To be the person God called him to be. To do the work God had given him to do. To be the bearer of Jesus’ touch to others. To live as a Christian.

There are many ways to describe the Christian identity. We describe the nature of our Christian belief in the creeds. We proclaim our commitment in the vows and covenant of baptism. We are the Body of Christ. We are seekers. We are followers.

The Samaritan in today’s story gives us another way to think of ourselves. We are people who know we have been helped by Jesus. And who continue to look to Jesus for our help. Try living with that identity for a while. You are a person whom Jesus helps. For the Samaritan, that awareness was the beginning of a new life.

A young girl said: "If you are really remembering Jesus, you remember the people he wanted to help." We are the people Jesus wants to help. Remembering that is the beginning of new life for us.

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