TwentyEighth Sunday after Pentecost

Peter H. Davids

Byzantine Catholic Homilies • Sermon • Submitted 5 months ago • Presented 5 months ago

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We see theologically in Colossians 1 what we see narratively in Luke 17. Ten outcasts in darkness encounter the creator-Son and ask for mercy, or grace. He speaks a Word and they trust the word and as they obey they are healed. But 9 are so focused on the healing and being returned to society that they forget Jesus. One, a “foreigner,” a doubly outcast Samaritan, whom the priests would not declare “in communion,” returns to Jesus and praises God and thanks Jesus. Jesus recognizes his faith, that he had been transferred from darkness into light. And he sends him in peace, implicitly empowering him to evangelize. We have to ask if that is how the story goes in our lives, or whether we are like the Pharisee of Luke 17:20 who could not see the kingdom standing right there in person in Jesus?

Notes

Transcript

The Holy Martyrs Menas, Hermogenes and Eugraphus

Title

The Son Transfers Us From Darkness to Kingdom

Outline

A strange event happened on a ministry trip

Jesus is traveling in the border area between Samaria and Galilee, i.e. the Jezreel Valley.

As they come to a village ten lepers, standing at a distance, for they were taboo, encounter him. Perhaps people from the village left them food at times; perhaps some were from the village.

They had some trust in Jesus: “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!” Did they know that this was “the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation?” Did they realize that “in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities—all things were created through him and for him?” That is, that the dark powers that directly or indirectly darkened their lives and dragged them into a living hell, were fallen versions of that which he created? I doubt it, but at least the shadow of hope was there, at least a beam of light shown from the presence of Jesus into their darkness.

Jesus implicitly tells them to trust the Word, for the Creative Word speaks a Word of command: “Go show yourselves to the priests.” They obey in trust, rushing off, still full of leprosy, to the nearest priests they knew, whether in Jerusalem or perhaps a priestly town like Anathoth had been. They went to the very ones who had declared them lepers with only Jesus’ word seeming to tell them that those priests would declare them returned to the community. And during that act of going, somewhere along the way, they looked at each other and saw no visible signs of leprosy - perhaps they felt new strength in their bodies, perhaps not.

Nine picked up the pace; the faster they could get to the priests the faster they would be declared returned to community and be able to rush into the arms of their family and friends. One hesitates, perhaps because he realized that the priests would want nothing to do with him, for he was a Samaritan, an enemy as well as taboo with a tabooness worse than leprosy.

But he realizes what he can do, who would accept him, who was the source of his new health: “praising God with a loud voice; . . . he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks.” He had experienced that Jesus had “transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”Physical disease is tied in with spiritual disease and social disease.

He had experienced that “He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in everything he might be pre-eminent.”

Jesus notes as he does at other places in the gospel, that only “this foreigner,” this one furthest into the darkness, has “given thanks to God.” The one deepest in darkness comes furthest into the kingdom of light.

And he acknowledges that this is true trust in God: “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.” The “going” in the gospels is usually as a witness; he would go to his village, his family, and tell about the incredible light the Father had shown into his heart, how he had delivered him from the dominion of darkness and “qualified [him] to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.”

Brothers and Sisters,

We do not know about the other 9 who reached the priests, whether they ever thought about Jesus again, or picked up a negative view of him from the priests, or just got too busy settling into their families again.

We do know about a Pharisee who in the next verse asks when the kingdom of God would come. Jesus said, “The coming of the kingdom of God cannot be observed . . . For behold, the kingdom of God is among you.” There it had been revealed in 10 lepers and especially in the praise of one who came back healed, now a citizen of the kingdom not a Samaritan. But the Pharisee had missed it and was still looking for the kingdom.

The Kingdom of God has touched us in many ways in our life in the faith and in the Holy Church. We were touched in baptism, likely in other ways from time to time, and, if we still feel the darkness, come to Jesus and cry out, Lord, have mercy, as we do in the liturgy.

The question is whether we have gotten who Jesus really is and how many ways he touches us and how deep the wonder he has worked for us? Do we indeed like the leper thank him with our praises? And, hearing the dismissal after the liturgy, do we go and naturally share with others how the Lord has in this way or that transferred us from darkness to light?

Luke’s Acts of the Apostles talks about the coming of the news of the resurrection of Jesus to Samaria. When it came to wherever that former leper had been living, I am sure that the evangelists found people well prepared for the message.

Readings

Epistle: Colossians 1:12-18 (28th Sunday after Pentecost)

The Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition Chapter 1

12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; 16 for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in everything he might be pre-eminent.

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 12-10-2023: Twenty-Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

(29th Sunday, Slavic)

Luke 17:12–19

12 And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance 13 and lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” 14 When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; 16 and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. 17 Then said Jesus, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

Notes

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) (12-10-2023: Twenty-Eighth Sunday after Pentecost)

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2023 | OCTOECHOS

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) (12-10-2023: Twenty-Eighth Sunday after Pentecost)

TWENTY-Eighth SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Dark Vestments

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 1-21-2024: Maximus the Confessor

Epistle Colossians 3:4–11 (29th Sunday, Greek) or Colossians 1:12–18 (28th Sunday, Slavic)

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 12-10-2023: Twenty-Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Gospel Luke 13:10–17 (27th Sunday, Greek) or Luke 17:12–19 (29th Sunday, Slavic)

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