This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Life of Elisha” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, February 12, 1989.
About this sermon
The unnamed village of Luke 17:12 becomes a picture of every sinner: because of the fall, we are the lepers standing at a distance. Christ’s unity with his church in the victory of the cross is what finally saves those who were lost.
Sermon transcript
Scripture reading in Isaiah chapter 11. We are starting with the tenth verse of reading to the conclusion. Hear the word of God. Then it will come about in that day. that the nations will resort to the Ruth of Jessup, who will stand as a signal for the peoples, and his resting place will be glorious.
Then it will happen on that day that the Lord will again recover the second time with his hand the remnant of his people, who will remain from Assyria, Egypt, Thathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, and from the islands of the sea. And he will lift up a standard for the nations, and will assemble the banished ones of Israel, and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart, and those who harass Judah will be cut off. Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah, and Judah will not harass Ephraim. and they will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines on the west. Together they will plunder the sons of the east and will possess Edom and Moab, and the sons of Ammon will be subject to them. And the Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the sea of Egypt, and he will wave his hand over the river with scorching wind, and he will strike it into seven streams and make men walk over dry shoals. And there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant of his people who will be left, just as there was for Israel in the day that they came up out of the land of Egypt.” Then turning over to Luke’s Gospel, Chapter 17, beginning with verse 11. And it came about while he was on his way to Jerusalem that he was passing through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.
As he entered a certain village, there met him ten leprous men who stood at a distance. They raised their voices, saying, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. When he saw them, he said to them, Go and show yourselves to the priests. And it came about that as they were going, they were cleansed. Now, one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back. Glorifying God with a loud voice, he fell on his face at his feet, giving thanks to Him that he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answered and said, Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine, where are they? where none found who turned back to give glory to God except this foreigner.
And he said to him, Rise. Go your way. Your faith has made you well. Praise God. Our Father, for the strengthening of your people, Your word is sent forth and it is declared. We trust with power. It is declared to your people. As it is. Declared are not those whom you have ordained unto eternal life. Brought near. And father, we know that.
That word is also given for the structuring of your church. Therefore, while we would pray for those laborers that you raise up for the harvest, we would not forget to intercede on behalf of those that you give to the Church for rule and for the purpose of administrating health. So around the world, Lord, if there are those who are given that office of eldership and those also who are given responsible responsibility as far as the diaconate is concerned. Bless and keep them, Father. May they rise to the occasion of their office and fulfill their responsibilities, and that gladly.
And in all of this, Lord, may your people be wonderfully blessed, having the word and having right and proper oversight and having that support that comes through help that is always scanning the needs of the people of God in order to be of service. We pray these things through Christ our Lord.
Last week we dealt with verse 11 of this seventeenth chapter in Luke, and in this verse we observed a double movement. That double movement involves the twofold journey. On the one hand, the journey of Jesus, towards Jerusalem, on the other hand the coming, the eventual journey of the Church from Jerusalem. And that all packed up into this verse.
We noted the natural order of the sequence of the names mentioned in the passage. But that natural order would have been from the north to the south. As Jesus made his way from Galilee to Jerusalem. So we would have expected Galilee mentioned first, then Samaria, and finally Jerusalem, as he makes his way towards the great city. Now it isn’t that Luke is ignorant of the geography of Palestine, but he does, with deliberate intent, reverse the order of the names in the sequence in the verse. so that we have here Jerusalem mentioned first and then Samaria and finally Galilee and if we translate appropriately and literally the last part of that verse what we have is Jesus passing through the midst of Samaria first of all and then Galilee which makes no sense geographically to us because Jesus is moving north to south.
Now the intention of Luke is so that we might see the two journeys simultaneously. The journey of Jesus north to south, but then the journey of the Church south to north. It is this way. Jesus carries the Church’s journey in himself. Jesus carries the eventful journey of the church within himself as he moves to his appointed destiny. But the church also carries Jesus’ journey to the cross within herself as she moves towards her appointed destiny.
Narrative in scripture is never seemingly their narrative, near narrative. For even the telling of the story is meant to instruct, to communicate doctrine. The scene then is set. for the story of Jesus and the Ten Lepers. And in it, in keeping with what we have said so far, we would find, we would expect to find, not just an instance in the life and ministry of Jesus in which he demonstrates his power and his compassion while on his journey to Jerusalem. No. That, to be sure, but more as well. For in this story we will find that anticipation of the Church’s journey as she carries the message of Jesus and his cross from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. A premonition of the coming fullness of the Church’s mission. in the story of Jesus and the Ten Like Us.
That’s verse 11 for us, and now we move on to verse 12. This may take us a while. Luke tells us in verse 12, Now it’s going to help if you have your Bible with you and are able to look at these things as we move along through the verses. Luke tells us in verse 12 that Jesus has entered what Luke describes as a certain village. The language of Luke is quite deliberate, and it’s not meant to suggest to us that Luke is ignorant of the Palestinian landscape and its geography and its particular villages and cities.
But the anonymity of the village serves a purpose, heightening the universal significance of the village and the events that take place here. A certain village. A knowns village. A village which you may well then be likely to rename. A village upon which you can superimpose your own village. your own circumstance, if read properly, with right intent. Unnamed then, anonymous, this village reaches out beyond itself. And by root of this, the ends of the earth are again touched.
Adding to this anonymity is the fact that we are told that Jesus is passing through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. So as regards the village, we can’t even be sure whether it’s a Jewish village or an American village. That’s not pointed out for us. It’s not delineated for us. We are told that in this certain village, Jesus was met by ten lepers, or their ten lepers met him.
The construction now places the emphasis upon the actions of the lepers. They seemingly take the initiative. as if they have gone out deliberately to intercept Jesus as he moves towards Jerusalem. And as verse 13 proves, these ten know who Jesus is. They’ve heard of him. They have received information about him, and it appears that they have believed him. So when he approaches the village, they are prepared, they move out to intercept him, they recognize him, they call him by name, and they make their approach to him.
But the text tells us they had to still end at a distance. They draw near, they recognize Jesus, but nevertheless they stand at a distance. The distance is prescribed. Now as to its exact measurement, just how far distant they had to stand, that was a matter established by circumstance and tradition, the tradition of the elders. But that they had to stand at a distance was prescribed.
That was in keeping with the law. The leper had to live apart. He was set outside the camp. Outside of the community, he was ostracized from the people. The law so stipulates. Numbers, chapter 5. Leviticus, chapter 13. And how thorough and complete this ostracism was. Not only was the leper ostracized from society generally, but he was ostracized from the temple and its worship specifically. So here is the circumstance.
The lepers drawing near, but then running into a barrier, a barrier that is established, distance prescribed, and that by the law. Now the introduction of the matter of the law has fired the imaginations of some, for they have seen in relationship then with the letters themselves the number 10 bearing a correspondence to the law itself. As there were ten letters, so there are ten commandments. The ten being representative, then, of the legal administration, the administration of the law. The story, so it is suggested then by some, takes on greater proportion than we would have ordinarily imagined.
The distance at which the lepers stand, despite their desire to come near, suggests the distance at which the law keeps even those who wish a blessing of God through Christ. But does the law do this because it is possessed of some sort of inherent malevolence? Because it is inherently the product of a mean-spiritedness that takes delight in keeping those desirous of blessing at bay? God forbid! To quote someone else on the law. Quite the contrary.
Do we not know that the commandments, the law itself, is righteous and good, and that the cause of the distance now, spoken of here, is not found in those who, is not found in the law, but rather is found in those who stand at a distance? In this regard, then, the disease of leprosy stands for the impurity and the deformity of sin. It is our sin that keeps us at a distance. The law, being God’s righteous centering, serving to ensure that we do not trespass, All we can do then, given this circumstance, is what these poor, wretched lepers did, cry out to Jesus, the Lord, for mercy. Of His grace, as the story progresses, so we learn of His grace, of His unmerited love His undeserved favor, of His grace, He responds. Out of His grace, He has pity upon us.
Now, you have probably noticed that I have progressed from speaking about leprous Jews and Samaritans outside a certain village that lay in the path of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem speaking about sinful people that virtually lay in the path of the Church’s journey to glory, speaking about sinners such as ourselves. And the reason that I have done that is because leprous Jews within Israel are reminders to Israel of their chronic debilitation due to sin. Her chronic debilitation due to her moral degeneracy, the compromise of her character.
But the leprous Jew is no better off than leprous Samaritans, isn’t it interesting? And Jews who hate Samaritans are here bound together with a Samaritan in their common uncleanness. What is there to distinguish them, really? So the leprous Jew is no better off than a leprous Samaritan, and together they are no better off than leprous Gentiles. We might even well expect a Gentile to be part of this company. For just as leprous Jews were cut off and kept at a distance, so Samaritans and Gentiles are cut off and cut and kept at a distance.
Certainly, we ought to see Israel in her sin in this story, as if Israel in her totality is leprous. But similarly, we ought to see the totality of sinful humanity. The whole world accountable before God. The whole world those seeking redemption kept at bay, at a distance, and that by the righteous law of God.
Profoundly, then, deeply, can we not conclude, beyond the Jew, past the Samaritan, we ourselves are these letters. Should you not learn how to read yourself into the text? Should you not come to understand how the Bible is not just the story of ancient people, but your story? And how you yourselves are participants in the history of redemption. Profoundly then, deeply, past the Jews, beyond this Samaritan, is it not true? You are a leper.
For though the law kept you at bay, at a distance, God now in the mercy displayed through the gospel has extended to you forgiveness and cleansing. and you have been brought near. There’s another dimension. There’s another dimension to this whole story as suggested to us out of this 12th verse. We have already looked at the suggestion that the number 10, the 10 letters, reminds us of the law as an administration. We kept at a distance as these were by the law. But the fact that there are 10 letters takes us in another direction. Are we only to see in that number ten a reference to the administration of God’s law? Some in dealing with this number have seen its significance in relationship to Israel’s past history. the geography that is peculiar to that past history.
You see, the territory presently traversed by Jesus is the territory of the northern tribes. And how many tribes were there? in the northern kingdom. As there were ten northern tribes for the kingdom of Israel set up against the two tribes of the south in Judah. So now here we are presented with ten in the territory that was once the territory of the ten northern tribes.
What do we make of the Samaritan in the midst of these Jews? Is that not also suggestive of Israel’s past history? For we know that the Samaritans were those who were transplanted from Assyria back into the decimated territory of the northern tribe, after the ten northern tribes had been taken away into exile by the Assyrians. So this Samaritan in the midst, together with the proximity of Samaria itself, For this story brings into view the territory of the ten northern tribes and the Samaritans themselves, who were those transplanted peoples from the Assyrians after the ten northern tribes were overrun, their capital destroyed, and they taken into captivity in 721 B.C. Do we then proceed in these ten leopards the Ten Tribes.
If we do, to what end? I know how we have ordinarily thought of things as regards those Ten Northern Tribes. In fact, entire religious movements have been generated around the destiny of the Ten Northern Tribes. We have been told that they live in England, that they were the American Indians, that they came out of Asia. Whole religious movements have been developed around the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel.
But what does Isaiah say? That’s why we read the end of Isaiah 11, and that’s not a passage that stands in isolation, but is representative of any number of other passages that you find throughout the Prophets. What of the lost tribes of Israel, Ephraim? As they are described at the end of Isaiah 11, what happens to them? Are they lost? Are they gone? Are they forgotten? Not according to Isaiah.
For Isaiah in that passage speaks about a restoration of even those tribes and a melding together again of Ephraim and Judah for an incomparable day of conquest and glory under the regency of that one who comes forth from the stem of God. Indeed, then, as the gospel goes forth, remember the twofold movement that’s going on here. As Jesus is descending into Jerusalem, the Church is ascending out of Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. And Jesus is going down from Galilee, so the Church is moving to the ends of the earth.
All of that compressed now into this passage. Do you see it? As the gospel goes forth, will it be? Will it be into a world in which there is no connection for that gospel, no preparation for it at all? No, you see, as that gospel goes forth, it shall be for the gathering of all of God’s displaced children.
And as we hear this, we also learn that their displacement was by His design. Certainly they were judged. They were displaced, but by His design. So that when they come and present themselves before Jesus, It may be seemingly by their own initiative as it was for these lepers, but in the final analysis, is it not plain and clear to us that they have been drawn, prepared unto this end, so that the glorious destiny that has been promised them and spoken of by the prophets would be fulfilled?
There are no loose ends. There are no loose ends to God’s sovereign plan and purpose. None. And though they all be sinners handed over to death through debilitating skin-caused disease, yet all who are appointed for salvation shall come. And when they cry out, Jesus Master have mercy on us. They will be answered. Have you asked an answer? Are you any less reckless than those spoken of here? Are you not a sinner kept at bay by God’s righteous commandments? Have you not received mercy? Well then, respond as an old ignorant Samaritan. He rose to Jesus’ feet, praising Him for so great a salvation. Amen.
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