18th Sunday after Pentecost Luke 17:11-19

Context

This Sunday’s passage takes place during Jesus’ long final journey to Jerusalem (which takes up over a third of Luke’s Gospel). In the preceding pericope the disciples have asked Jesus to increase their faith—a theme that runs through to the concluding line of this week’s passage (“Your faith has made you well.”). Last week’s passage also introduces the theme of our unworthiness of divine favor, which prepares us for this week’s theme of receiving God’s mercy and grace. 

Preaching Angle

Liminal Spaces

Traveling south from Galilee to Jerusalem, Jesus has to pass through Samaria. Luke’s detail that Jesus is “going through the region between Samaria and…

1. Earlier in Luke the disciples learn how to be a good neighbor by hearing about a Samaritan who modeled neighborliness, and here they see a Samaritan leper commended for his faith. What impact might having to learn from their enemies have had on the disciples’ faith? Can you think of times when you have learned a Christian virtue from an “enemy”?

2. We seem to see multiple layers of healing of the Samaritan leper—first, his leprosy, and then another aspect of his faith making him “well.” How do you respond when you experience a “first level” of God’s healing? Do you ever walk away like the other nine lepers?—either prematurely satisfied with the beginning of God’s work, ungrateful for what God has begun, or unaware of your need for other levels of…