Proper 23C,  2025

Text: Luke 17:11-19

Title: Clean or Unclean

+ INI +

Clean or unclean.  Those were your two options.

If you were unclean, it didn’t mean that you were dirty in the sense of covered in dirt and needing a bath.

To be unclean meant that you had done something or touched something or had something done to you that made you unfit for the presence of God.

Maybe you had given birth.  Maybe you had touched a dead body.  Maybe you had a contagious disease.

Maybe it was your fault.  Maybe it wasn’t.  That’s not the point.  Your body was defiled.  Polluted. Made unclean.

If you were unclean, you had to be purified in order to be able to enter God’s presence once more. 

Often you had to spend time in quarantine, time outside of camp, the city. 

And when your time of purification was complete, you had to undergo the proper rituals, perhaps make a special offering, in order to be readmitted to the presence of God.

Remember the Virgin Mary.  She was considered unclean for a period of 40 days after Jesus was born.  After the forty days were over, Mary and Joseph came to the temple with an offering of doves for her purification.

Some situations, though, were beyond simple purification.  Some cases you could not just take a time out, make an offering and come back in.

Leprosy was one of those situations.

Leprosy was a contagious skin disease.  As long as you had leprosy, you were unclean, unfit for the presence of God.  Unfit to be a member of the community.

If you had leprosy, it wasn’t just a medical condition.  It didn’t just mean that your health was in danger.

Leprosy also affected you socially.  You had to leave your home, your family, your community and live outside, in the wilderness.  You were cut off from all other people, with the possible exception of others with the same condition.

And most importantly, Leprosy also affected you spiritually.  You could not go to the temple.  You could not bring your prayers and offerings to God.  You could not receive the blessing and forgiveness of God.  You were cut off from God.

If you had leprosy, all you could do was keep your distance and beg for handouts.

And that’s what these ten men did.  As Jesus entered the village, they kept their distance. They begged for mercy.  They were unclean.

Jesus was clean.  He was unsullied, unstained by anything unclean.

More than that, Jesus was Holy.

In Jesus’ very flesh and blood the presence of the Holy God was with His people.

Not in Jerusalem.  Not at the temple.  Not with the priests.  But here walking through the borderland, this no-man’s land between Galilee and Samaria was the holy God of Israel

The reason why the unclean were not allowed in the presence of God was for their own good.  The holiness of God would destroy them.

Remember Isaiah’s words when he found himself in the presence of the holy, holy, holy Lord, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

Isaiah says, “I’m a dead man.  I’m unclean and I’m in the presence of a holy God.”

But Isaiah was not destroyed.  Nor were these lepers.

With a word, Jesus sends them on their way to show themselves to the priests, to fulfill the law of Moses, to be readmitted to the temple courts and to their homes and communities.

And that’s what they do.

All except for one man.

One man doesn’t go to the temple.  One man doesn’t show himself to the priests.  One man does not make the required offerings for purification.

Where does he go?  What does he do?

He goes to Jesus.  He falls at Jesus’ feet.  He worships Jesus.  He gives thanks to Jesus.

This man, a foreigner, recognizes what his nine companions do not.

Why go to the temple in Jerusalem when Jesus was here, when the one who could make him clean and whole once more was standing right there?

Jesus was the source of purity.  Jesus was the one who could heal him.  Jesus was the one who could save him.

When Jesus says, “Your faith has made you well,” another way to translate that would be, “Your faith has saved you.”

Remember that leprosy was not just a medical condition. Remember that leprosy separated you from your family, your community, and your God.

Jesus made this man clean so that he could be brought back home and get his life back.  Jesus not only healed him.  Jesus saved him.

And so it is for you.

You have come here today, not to Jerusalem, not to the temple, not to the Levitical priesthood.

You have come here today not to hear me talk or to meet with your friends or to sing a few jaunty tunes.

You have come here today to meet Jesus, to worship Him, to give Him thanks for making you clean.

In Holy Baptism, your sins and your uncleanness were washed away with the water and the Name of Jesus.  You were declared fit for God’s presence, which is why the baptismal font is here at the entrance to the holy altar.  You were given a family, a home, a community here with the rest of the people of God.

In Holy Absolution your sins and your uncleanness were washed away again with the words of forgiveness.  You were once more declared worthy to enter the presence of God.

In the Holy Supper, your uncleanness is washed away by the very blood of Christ, which cleanses you of all unrighteousness.

Everything that you’ve done, and everything that has been done to you, things that were not your fault, things that made you feel dirty and uncleanness and unpresentable, all of them were washed away.

Jesus is the only one who can do that for you.

He does that because He bore not only your sins but your uncleanness.  He was taken outside the city, away from the temple, away from the people of God, away from the heavenly Father Himself to be the ultimate sacrifice for all uncleanliness, so that all people would be fit for His holy presence.

When Jesus died, the curtain in the temple was torn in two.  The temple was destroyed.  It is no longer needed, because Jesus fulfilled its purpose.

You never have to worry if you are unclean, unfit for the presence of God.  When you feel isolated and alone, cut off from your loved ones, perhaps cut off from the Lord God Himself, come running back to Jesus, praise Him with a loud voice, fall down before Him, and give Him thanks for saving you.

+INI+