This Sunday I am delighted to have been invited back to St Margaret of Antioch’s Church in Wellow, also known as Florence Nightingale’s Church.

When I took my first look through the readings for this Sunday, I thought, ‘ooh, chains and bondage, and all that ties us up and prevents us from good things’. Second reading and I thought, ‘ah, pride!’, and I was very proud of that insight!

The Gospel reading describes the event where Jesus encounters ten lepers, who, of course, he heals. The main thrust of the story is not the healing, but the response of those who have been healed. ‘Leprosy’ was believed to be highly contagious and with no cure (and the term was used of many skin diseases).Those with leprosy were confined to colonies, kept apart from loved ones and any means of supporting themselves. The only way to re-enter society was to be verified ‘clean’ by priests.

The story takes place between Samaria and Galilee, an in between place belonging to neither, a ‘no mans land’ as Jews and Samaritans didn’t mix, unless of course they were already outcasts, such as these ten lepers. Spying Jesus, and having heard of his miraculous powers, they cry out to him. The Lepers are careful to keep their distance, they do not wish to alarm Jesus or to make him ‘unclean’ by association. They call out,

Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!

Luke 17: 13

These lepers have been bound by their illness, they cannot come close to any of their loved ones and even faith has failed them, and yet they still call out to Jesus. I want Jesus to have broken those ‘chains’ and to have approached them, laying his carpenter’s hands upon them and bringing them physical and cultural healing. Jesus, though, has been brought up in the Jewish faith and knows that if he were to do that he would be ostracised and his ministry blocked. Jesus also knows that his word is enough to heal, he doesn’t need ritual actions to enable their restoration. As soon as he has decided to make these ten clean they will be. Jesus also knows that they will need to be able to provide evidence if they are to return to their families, and so he sends them to the priests. Perhaps he also knows that they need to respond in faith, and making that journey back into civilisation is something that they will have to do for themselves.

And so they go. The illness that had bound them has been loosened, and the cultural ties are about to be released too; and here comes the pride. In their obedience they are healed, and yet, seeing their skin cleared and their whole restored lives flash before them, only one pauses to return to thank Jesus. All ten are made clean from their illness, but only the one who returns to fall at Jesus’ feet and praise God is made well. What is the difference between being made clean and made well? Only the one who has experienced both will know.

There are similarities with the Old Testament passage. In this story, set many, many, years before, in Aram (although Samaria also features). Naaman, commander of the king’s army, a very powerful man, indeed a ‘mighty warrior’, has also been bound by leprosy. A young servant girl, captured during a raid on Israel, tells his wife of an Israeli prophet, Elisha, currently in Samaria, who can heal leprosy. Naaman immediately writes to the King of Israel, and in his pride, expects Elisha to respond to his every need. However, the King of Israel, in his pride, is offended that such a request could be made. These two countries are enemies after all, why should he help the commander of his enemy’s army? The king relents only after Elisha points out that this would be a very good PR exercise, a message for all that God’s Prophet resides in the King’s territories. So Naaman is invited to travel to meet with Elisha, despite his leprosy, and he arrives on the doorstep in a fine display of wealth and power, with horses and chariots.

Just as Jesus will do with his lepers, Elisha doesn’t come out to meet Naaman, but sends instructions: Naaman is to bathe in the river Jordan seven times. Naaman is disappointed: he had hoped for some more dramatic healing, an audience with Elisha himself as he called upon the Lord and waved healing hands over him. In his pride he rejects the prescription and claims that the rivers of his homeland are better than the Jordan: Naaman has missed the point, it isn’t the river, its geography or waters, that hold the healing, but Naaman’s humility in doing as he has been told, no matter how ridiculous it might seem. Naaman would rather retain his leprosy than bathe in a foreign river.

It takes Naaman’s servants to persuade him that he has nothing to lose in doing as he is told, and as he releases his pride, not only is he healed of the leprosy, but his skin is renewed to that of a young man. Having done battle with his pride and expectations, he is healed beyond them. He is renewed and restored and discovers a faith in God he had not expected to. We all know the adage that

God works in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform.

William Cowper

and it is in following the mysterious ways and trusting in God even through them, that we gain a deeper insight into who God truly is, a deeper insight into the the abundant love that doesn’t just heal the leper but makes him well, who doesn’t simply cleanse the commander, but restores his youthfulness too.

When we let go of our pride, it seems that God can (and will) free us from other things that bind us. In being obedient in sometimes the seemingly silliest of things, we find that we are able to engage with God at a deeper level. As Brits we can be rather stubborn and belligerent, just like Naaman; we are self-reliant, yet God wants us to become reliant upon him. How do we manage that? If we come to God, quite literally on our knees, the examples from Biblical history tell us that we will be blessed beyond our expectations.

Perhaps we need to make humility and prayerfulness our usual behaviour, rather than saving it for emergencies, for last resorts. Let us come to God now, with a willingness to be foolish for him.

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