Homily For The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity 2026
This morning our Gospel directs us consider another miracle of Our Lord in the cleansing of the 10 lepers. We read in the lead-up to our Lord’s path to Jerusalem that he passed through the regions of Samaria and Galilee. Samaria, the region of the compromisers, the spiritual and ethnic half-breeds; Galilee, the backwater of Israel, full of unsophisticated, some might say unimportant people.
As Our Lord passes through his homeland, as he enters one of the Galilean villages, he is met by ten lepers who stand afar off. The Law commanded that lepers be quarantined to protect the community. We read in Leviticus13:45–46 that the Law requires that the afflicted person wear torn clothes, leave their hair unkempt, cover the upper lip, cry “Unclean, unclean,” and they remain unclean as long as the condition persists.
They dwell alone, outside the camp (away from the community). In other words, the Law required the lepers to stay far off and make their presence known by announcing their condition verbally while keeping an appearance that would draw attention to their illness.
Alienation from family, friends, and the broader community was a consequence also for the Samaritans. We know from the second half of our Gospel that there was at least one Samaritan among the group. The Samaritans did not accept the other portions of the Old Testament canon but they had great reverence for the Law, the five books of Moses. So, the Samaritans enforced the leprosy code as well.
St. Luke tells us all of them addressed Jesus as one who could cure that which was incurable. They begged, “Jesus, Master, have mercy upon us.” All cried out to Jesus, for they had heard that he could heal. They believed that he had the power to do so.
Then, we read of Our Lord’s response - very simple instructions. Go show yourself to the priest. Jesus calls them to believe the power of his word by acting in accordance with His word. Faith was required for the lepers in this command, as there is no point in going to the priest if one wasn’t already healed. The faith was apparent in their action of obedience. The priest’s role was only to evaluate, he had no power to heal. He would only declare as “clean” one who had been cleansed, healed already. The liturgy prescribed for cleansing of lepers reaffirms this. So, the lepers had to believe something was going to happen. They heard in this instruction from Jesus words of hope, for there would be no point to going unless they were healed. St. Luke tells us that as they went, as they obeyed the commandment of Jesus, they were healed. They were cleansed.
Among this group of healed lepers, we read of two responses - that of the vast majority and that of the one. All were cleansed, but nine did not return.
Only one, who was compelled by joy and thanksgiving returned to the Lord. For the nine, once they had seen the local priest maybe they were afraid to go back and be identified with Jesus who was now the target of the religious establishment. Maybe they just wanted to go home to their families and maybe they didn’t think to go back to thank Jesus because of enjoying friends and family again.
We don’t know their motivation, but we do know that’s the end of the story for the nine. St. Luke redirects our attention toward the one who did return to Jesus. We read that this man “when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks; and he was a Samaritan.” St. Luke is careful to mention that the man was a Samaritan. We know of the antipathy of Jews and the Samaritans. Yet the man, when he knows he has been healed, turns back. He is eager to glorify God by turning back to thank Jesus.
The others were eager to return home, to be declared clean, to resume life which had been taken from them by this disease. This man wanted to glorify God, praise the Lord for his deliverance, by expressing thanksgiving at the feet of the God-man, Jesus. The Samaritan, the outsider, the one least “deserving” of the group knows the greater gift of what he has received and is compelled by thanksgiving, by realizing what has been done for him. The physical healing is the catalyst for a deeper cleansing and healing. Jesus muses in our Gospel “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? There are not any that have been found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole.” Remember the Samaritan was not able to go to a Jewish priest and be declared; he was not able to attend the Temple regardless of the presence of leprosy or not. Yet, in his joy, his worship, his thanksgiving he revealed a deeper healing that was paramount. His faith in Jesus had not only restored his body but also his soul.
Worship, joy, thanksgiving brings new life and worship, joy, thanksgiving perpetuates and sustains our life in God.
Do you think the stranger, the Samaritan, was offended by Jesus calling him by that name? Do you think the Canaanite widow cared if she was called a little dog? Do you think people animated by their true need, those who have no hope, care what pricking truth may be said about them when it comes from the voice of the One who is healing, reconciling the great gap between clean and unclean, outsider and one who belongs, the little dogs of the Gentiles whose faith like that of Abraham adopts them into God’s family? Many commentators link this miracle with the healing of Naaman the Syrian. You may recall that Naaman was a great general in Syria who was plagued with leprosy and he had an Israelite slave who told him about the miraculous power of Elisha. Naaman came to Elisha’s house and Elisha refused to see him and gave Naaman the simple instructions to go wash in the Jordan.
Initially, Naaman was incensed because Elisha did not heal the Syrian like he thought he would be healed. Eventually, the wisdom of those around him prevailed over his pride and he simply went to the muddy Jordan River and obeyed Elisha’s instructions and was healed. We read that he returned to Elisha to express his thanksgiving. He took a newfound faith in the one, true and only God back to Syria and practiced this faith that had made him whole. Now, in this healing, St. Luke wants to remind the reader that one greater than Elisha has come and heals those inside and outside the Covenant. St Luke is showing that his word can heal and that faith in Him, the true Son of God, can work a greater healing - for faith in Jesus had made the stranger to God not only physically whole, but spiritually accepted.
We receive in our Gospel for today encouragement in the midst of the long Trinity season. We are roughly at the mid-point between Pentecost and Advent.
It is sort of like the noon-time of this season. It is the middle of the journey, and we are tempted to get sluggish, to despair, to get spiritually discontented or bored. We may be tempted to go through our daily lives asleep to the wonder of what God has done. The Church Fathers called this peculiar form of restlessness and despair, acedia, which tempts us to become dull to the beauty of God's goodness to us. We lose sight of the full complexity of God’s work, the spectrum of color and light, shade and nuance, the wonder of God’s work around us. Instead we settle into the bleary, bleak, monochromic despair of the daily journey.
Our Gospel here at noon time, at the half way point, is to return as the healed leper did to celebrate the wonder of God’s goodness, to express true thanksgiving for all that God has done. We believe that God is the giver of all good things, we know in our minds, in our heads, that we should thank God as St Paul says in Ephesians 5:20 ‘always and for everything”.
We know it intellectually, but we become like the world around us, thinking we have an absolute right to everything. The evil one converts the goodness of the creation and the God who gives freely into a sense of entitlement, despair, listlessness and boredom.
Have you become disengaged from the living God? We are invited this Sunday to be delivered from the pervasive and soul-crushing disregard for the greatness of our redemption in Christ, the sinful despising of all the good things that God has lovingly placed in this world by giving glory to God and reminded, like that healed leper, to express heartfelt and deliberate thanksgiving. Begin today, even in the next few moments to thank God, who has made all things, even us for Himself. Thank Him, because every good and perfect gift comes from the Father: our redemption, our hope, our peace, our joy and on a more temporal and basic level - every bit of food we eat, the air we breath, the beauty of sound, light, friendship, family - any possible good thing that one can think of - these are all gifts from God. Let us make the right use of all these gifts by being deeply sensible of them. Let us ask God to renew our sense of wonder in the reality of who He is. Let us thank Him for His provision and join our hearts and minds in the worship of Jesus Christ our Lord with all glory, laud, honor and thanksgiving. Amen.
