ASPERGES ME, DOMINE

Luke 17: 11-19

There is a famous Guidepost story that is told by Patricia Houck Sprinkle. It first appeared in 1978 and tells of a plain, old shoemaker’s awl that is on prominent display in the French Academy of Science. What make the awl so special? It was the awl that fell one day from the shoemaker’s table and put out the eye of his nine-year-old son. Soon, the child became blind in both eyes and was forced to attend the school for the blind. When the shoemaker’s son grew up, he thought of a new way for the blind to read. It involved punching dots on a paper, and Louis Braille devised this new method by using the same awl that blinded him to create a whole new reading system for the blind. There will be a falling awl in each one of our lives. The choice is ours as to how it will affect us. In Sprinkle’s words, "When it strikes, some of us ask, ‘why did God allow this to happen?’ Others ask, ‘How will God use it?’"

When we are stricken with disease, the question we should ask is not "Why is this misfortune happening to me?" Rather, we should ask, "God, how will you use this misfortune?" seeking to take on a positive attitude that will bring about productive results. In the Gospel of John, chapter 9, there is a mention of a man, who was born blind and eventually gets his vision restored by Jesus. This man asked whether his blindness was the result or a punitive action taken by God for his own transgressions or the sins committed by his parents. To this question, Christ would reply that the sole purpose behind the man’s blindness was to bring forth and uncover the glory of God that is, to enable God’s work to take place through the man’s physical disability (John 9: 3). No matter what physical ailments or disabilities we are burdened with, I want each one of us to remember that God allowed such misfortune to befall us to cure and conduct His work through us.

There is a famous saying in Latin, "Asperges Me, Domine.’ It means ‘cleanse me, O’ Lord." This phrase was a hackneyed cliché during the era of Jesus, since people tended to get dirty often and quicker due to traveling on dusty dirt roads. Today, our spirits are no different if we do not seek Jesus and request Him to wash our spirits and bodies with the holy water, our bodies and soul will become soiled and dirty. I hope that this morning, each one of us can seek Jesus and pray to Him, "Lord, please cleanse my soul and my body!"

In reading today’s scripture, we learned that on His was to Jerusalem, Jesus comes upon a group of ten lepers; the Bible records that when they asked for His mercy, Jesus cures these men of leprosy. However, nine of the lepers, who shared same ethnicity as Jesus, were so overtaken and excited by their healing that they just went about their ways, showing no signs of appreciation or gratitude. Only the leper from Samaria comes back to Christ to thank Him for His mercy. As we all know, Samaritans who are a mix between Jews and other foreigners were discriminated against and looked down upon by the Jews. The nine lepers, who should have rightfully gave thanks and praise to Jesus failed to do so; rather, the one person who did not have to show such signs of appreciation did so. Through today’s scripture, we must pray to God to forgive us and to cleanse us for failing to thank God for His grace and blessings. We must not become half-healed those who are healed viscerally, but not spiritually as Christians. Today’s gospel casts three meanings or messages at us.

First, the healing of the ten lepers took place through their faith. When they came up on Jesus on the road, they due to their status as the incurables could not come near Christ; rather, they stood off in a distance, shouting "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" to ask for their salvation. When they asked for mercy, they could have been asking for Jesus to cure the incurable leprosy; or since they had starved for several days they could have been asking for nourishment or money. The important fact is that these 10 lepers had heard that Jesus cured almost all types of disease or afflictions around Galilee, and felt that Jesus was the only one who could help them. The most important thing that we must have, in order to cleanse ourselves of all disease, sickness, evil, or demons within us, is the faith that our Lord can cleanse us in its truest sense.

Second, Jesus asks these 10 lepers to substantiate their faith through acts of submission. In verse 14, Jesus commands the lepers to "Go, show yourselves to the priests," asking them to demonstrate their faiths by performing specific acts as directed. Throughout history of mankind, across all natural and man-made boundaries and borders, leprosy was considered a severe punishment levied by the Heaven. Jews believed that leprosy was a disease condemned to children of those who disobeyed Moses’ Laws and failed to uphold the authority of the priests in another words, children of heretics. Apart from being a viscerally incurable disease, leprosy was also considered an ailment of the spirit. Due to the contagious nature of this disease, lepers were separated from their families and doomed to live in isolated, quarantined area without contact with the outside world.

The rights and entitlements of lepers were completely stripped from them; to add salt to the wound, they also had to abrogate their religious rights, not being allowed to offer or participate in worship services to God. The book of Leviticus, chapters 13 through 14, lists in detail the specifics surrounding Hebrew Law concerning leprosy. When lepers happened to walk through a city or a population center, as it is listed in Leviticus, 13: 45, they had to tear their clothes, let down their hair, cover their upper lip, and shout, "I am corrupt! I am corrupt!" so that other people could avoid them.

Since leprosy was considered a disease of the mind or the soul the ultimate authority to diagnose or cure the disease rested with the priests. This is why Jesus commands these men to go show themselves to the priest. The ten lepers, after carefully listening to Jesus’ diagnosis and treatment believing every word of it approach the temple to be seen by a priest; it is then that they discovered their cure and freedom from leprosy. This account is very similar to the account we read, about the commander of the army of King of Syria, Naaman, who cures his leprosy by doing as he was told: To wash his body in the River Jordan seven times.

In order for our souls and bodies to be healed through God’s grace, not only do we need internal faith, but the courage to prove our faith by performing specific acts of submission. Only then will we experience the miraculous healing powers of God, the faith working through our praxis.

Third, although all ten lepers were cured, only one came to express thanks to Jesus. Bible scholars pay particular attention to the plural word ‘priests,’ instead of singular ‘priest,’ in verse 14 of today’s scripture. Bible scholars interpret this particular usage of the word ‘priest’ to mean that the nine Jewish lepers went to the priest at the temple of Jerusalem, and the remaining Samaritan leper went to the holy site of Samaritans, to visit the priest at the Holy Site of Mount Gerizim. Regardless, the nine Jewish lepers, despite being cured of their incurable disease, forgot to express thanks to Jesus and went about on their separate ways. The sole foreigner of the group, the Samaritan, returns to Jesus to express thanks and to give praise and glory to God for healing his disease. Upon seeing the Samaritan man return, Jesus asks him, as recorded in verse 17, "

Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?" seemingly unable to hide His disappointment. In verse 19, Jesus adds, "Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well," proclaiming that the Samaritan received total healing cleansing of the spirit and the body. The fact that this man was Samarian a foreigner by birth, and the fact that he was blighted by the socially unacceptable disease of leprosy made him a double social outcast; however, through acts of submission he substantiated his faith, and by giving thanks and praise to the Lord Jesus Christ for healing him understanding that the Lord is the One capable of all healing he was able to save his own soul.

The Lord is the One who cleanses us. He cleans and repairs our damaged bodies first. Then he heals the disease of our spirits fear of sin, fear of death cleansing our soul of all impurities. Cleansing of us by God can only take place when the following three things happen. First, we must have faith in God. Second, this faith must be substantiated, or proved, by specific acts of submission or obedience. Third, we must understand that the one who cleanses our souls and bodies is our Lord that all basis of healing rests with Jesus Christ. We must be able to return all praise, thanks, and glory to our Lord for his mercy and healing powers.

I pray, in the name of our Lord, that this healing power of God which can cleanse us be with all of us. Amen. Let’s greet all those around us to the front, back, left, and right with the phrase, "Asperges Me, Domine."