A sermon preached by the Revd Dr Trevor Jamison at Saint Columba’s United Reformed Church, North Shields, 12 October 2025
Watch the whole service on YouTube
Welcome to the Tale of The Nine Lost Lepers, as told by Luke in his good-news story about Jesus.
Of course, it’s a tale of ten people. All ten had a skin disease, which may or may not have been actual leprosy, but whatever was the case, the disease or diseases they had were hugely significant for all of them. When you want to keep in view that their situation did not erase their status as human beings, call them “people with leprosy.” When you want to acknowledge the far reaching impact of this medical condition then “lepers” might be your preferred term.
Suffering from diseases that affected their appearance, and which might be infectious, all ten were socially marginalised. They themselves respected that. When Jesus, on his way to Jerusalem, in the area where Galilee and Samaria met, was entering a village, he was approached by the ten. Observing what we, after our recent encounters with a barely controlled virus, now call “social distancing” they could not just have a quiet word in Jesus’ ear. Instead, as Luke puts it, ‘as he entered a village, ten with a skin disease approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out [to him] … Jesus, master, have mercy on us.’ (17:11, 12)
So far, so ten. All ten shared the same health situation. All ten approached Jesus with a request for his – for God’s – mercy. He responded with one message for them all: ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ (17:14) All ten did what Jesus commanded, and on their way they discovered that ‘they were made clean.’ (17:14) And that ‘made clean’ tells you how those with a skin disease were regarded by others around them in that era.
At this point, though, the group split up, even if we have not realised it yet, because they were not all off to show themselves to the same set of priests in order to be declared disease-free and clean. Nine out of ten went seeking Jewish priests, possibly in Jerusalem. One though went looking for a different sort of priest, perhaps at Mount Gerizim. That’s because he was a Samaritan, not a Jew; a morsel of information Luke holds back until he tells us about what happened next.
‘One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back [- maybe before getting to any priest? – and returned] praising God with a loud voice. His ‘loud voice’ expresses his gratitude, not his need to communicate from a distance, not anymore. Instead, he came all the way to Jesus, right to the point of physical contact: ‘He prostrated himself at Jesus’s feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan.’ (17:16)
All of which led Jesus to ask the question, ‘So where are the other nine?’ (17:17) These nine are like sheep that have wondered off and gone astray. These nine are like dropped coins that have rolled away into some obscure corner of the household. (See Luke 15) They have gone away, and they have not come back, at least not yet. They are nine lost lepers are far as Luke’s Gospel story is concerned.
So what are we to make of that, and what does it say to us today, about how we regard others, how God relates to us, and how we respond to God?
Ten people with a skin disease approached Jesus as one group. The deciding aspect of their group identity was their shared plight. That united them more than any difference could divide them, which was saying something highly significant. If it wasn’t for their shared suffering they would have been not one group, but two: nine Jews, one Samaritan. Luke introduces today’s reading from his Gospel by saying that ‘Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee,’ (17:11) but, geographically speaking there was no region between the two. You were Jewish or Samaritan, and ‘never the twain did meet.’ They could hardly bring themselves to speak to each other, never mind eat together or live together.
And yet the experience of a shared suffering had created one group of ten out of the nine and the one, which says something about the human condition and human relationships today. We know that there are individuals and groups who don’t get on well with each other. Sometimes we are those individuals, or members of those groups. Think what it would do to the quality of our relationships if we started by recognising we are all in need. That group that we can’t stand, that individual that we can’t abide, are, like me, members of one group; people in need.
I’m not inviting you to feel sorry for others but to feel in solidarity with them. We are in the same boat: people in need. Whether we are Jew or Gentile, people of different ethnicity, male or female, of whatever gender or sexuality, rich or poor, left or right, or whatever, we are all in need; none of us occupy the high ground. Speaking of that universal human struggle with what constrains us and holds back, the Apostle Paul puts it this way: ‘there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.’ (Romans 3:22, 23) And also, ‘wretched person that I am! Who will rescue me?’ (Romans 7:24)
And, it turns out, God is not over-interested about the type or quality of our faith in deciding to show mercy to us. Many interpretations of this Bible passage suggest that the nine lost lepers lacked faith, but that’s not the case. They did have faith. They had faith enough to come to Jesus looking for mercy, and when he told them what to do they responded faithfully, haring off to find a priest. If only all Christians (me included) were as quick to do what Jesus has told us to do!
They all had faith, but there were differences of faith among them. Yet this did not affect what God, through Jesus, was prepared to do for them. Whether you were a Jew or a Samaritan you still received the same measure of mercy, the same healing: ‘And as they went, they were made clean.’ (17:14) Whether they were one who came back, or the nine who wandered off, all of them were made clean. Neither the faith tradition they represented nor the way in which they expressed it affected God’s decision to show mercy to them.
It does not matter what faith position you or I hold as far as God showing mercy to us is concerned. You can be a Christian or a Jew or a Muslim or a Hindu or follower of some other faith, or hold none of the above, or any other faith, and that does not affect God’s will and desire to show mercy to you. We are all people in need, and God is ready to be merciful to us all.
Part of me feels irritated by that idea. Do all my religious efforts, all my turning up to church, all my time spent writing this sermon, count for nothing? Well, they don’t, at least in terms of making God more merciful towards me. God is merciful to me because God is a merciful, not as a response to my specific beliefs, actions or achievements.
BUT …
God does welcome our faith, both in terms of our beliefs and actions, as a response to the mercy God shows us, rather than as things we believe or do which we hope will qualify us for divine mercy. And that’s where it’s better for us to be with that one who turned around and came back to Jesus, not with the nine, who having received equal divine mercy and healing, just went on their way: he ‘turned back, praising God with a loud voice … [and] prostrated himself at Jesus’s feet and thanked him.’ (17:16)
It’s not that we’re being instructed to write a reluctant thank you note to God for the gift we have been given. Instead, it’s an invitation to be a thankful people in our relationship with God. In common with everyone else we are people in need. Recognising that shared reality ought to make us relate more positively to others. The good news is that God is ever-ready to be equally merciful to all of us; we who are all in need of God’s mercy. And the appropriate response to that mercy is thankfulness – for what God does for others, and for what God does for us as well. After all, saying thank you says you’ve noticed what God has done for you, that you are grateful, and you hope that God will feel happy to be thanked.
So, let’s be kinder to others, realising that we’re all part of the one same needy group. Let’s acknowledge that God’s as ready to be merciful to others as to us – and is as ready to be merciful to us as to others. And so then, finally, let’s all make sure to say a loud and profound, “thank you God.” Amen.