Thanksgiving Day
Samaritans. They were a kind of Jew that most Jews did not think were really Jews. And, as such, they did not enjoy respect or the privilege of a place among the Jews who despised them. They were outcasts owing to the fact that they thought God had chosen Mount Gerizim for his dwelling place whereas the rest of the Jews were convinced that God had chosen Mount Zion.
When I was writing my book on Amish Country tourism, one of the things I learned is that those who are near theologically are, perhaps, the greatest threat. Take the Old Order Amish. One of the chief reasons that the Old Order Amish are determined not to offer Sunday School is that New Order do. To be Old Order is not to be New Order.
In this story from Luke’s Gospel we have ten lepers—all suffering—who come to Jesus asking for him to heal them. And they are blessed by his generous grace.
Importantly, Jesus does not grill them before he heals them. There is no quid pro quo. He doesn’t ask them to testify that they believe he is the messiah or that they believe his teachings about loving their neighbor or turning the other cheek. No—he just heals them out of his infinite grace for sinners who are in pain, are outcasts, who desperately need his healing.
But that is not the end of the story. As Luke tells it, nine of them go off happy for their healing. They go off to enjoy their readmittance into mainstream life. They are no longer outcasts or social pariahs. And they mean to enjoy that and make the most of it.
Just one of them returns. He has been transformed by Jesus’ grace. And he wants to express his gratitude. On Luke’s telling, the one former leper who bothers to thank Jesus is a Samaritan. One of those Jews who were seen as not Jews by Jews.
We know well that this is not the only story in Luke’s Gospel that puts the outcast Jew—the Samaritan—in a favorable light. While others pass on by the man who is suffering at the side of the road and who is unclean, it is the Samaritan who shows compassion. It is the Samaritan who saves his life. So very Jesus like.
I think, perhaps, Luke is putting to us a question that we who say we follow Jesus are obliged to consider. What if my neighbor is a Christian of another stripe? What if my neighbor has a different take on the Eucharist or the Sermon on the Mount or the meaning of Christ’s Passion than I do. What if my neighbor is a Jew? Or a Muslim? What am I to do?
In the end, the question is about gratitude. If I really get it that I do not deserve to be saved, to be forgiven, to receive God’s grace and if I get it (for me this has been the hardest part) that I have actually received that grace, then how do I not share it, give it away, spread it far and wide?
To the Samaritan who got it—who understood the ridiculous nature of the gift he was given—Jesus said “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.”
On this day of giving thanks, may we take the time to express our gratitude for the grace we do not deserve, that we have not earned, but that has been given to us anyway. And may we stand up and go, sharing that infinite love and grace with all whom we meet.
-Sue Trollinger