One man returned

Ephesians 5:8-19; Luke 17:12-19

Glory to God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Today’s Gospel ends with Christ’s words: “Your faith has made you whole.” This is one of seven times the Lord says these words in the Gospels. (Matthew 9:22; Mark 5:34; Mark 10:52; Luke 7:50; Luke 8:48; Luke 17:19; Luke 18:42).

In some of those places the English translator will render that as, “Your faith has saved you.” In other cases as, “Your faith has made you whole.” But it’s the same Greek sentence each time; your translator is trying to make the decision whether Christ was talking about bodily healing or the restoration of the soul.

The biblical Greek word for salvation is also the word for healing, wholeness, soundness, deliverance, preservation.

Are you saved?

Classic Christianity doesn’t believe in being saved from our sins in an instant, or by a single act of faith one day.

If my body were full of cancer and bullet wounds, it would be delusional for me to tell you that I am whole and well in body. But when I receive remission from my illness and rise up from my bed and return to health, then I can say in truth that I am healed and saved from the infirmity of my body.

In the same way, a person in whom the compulsion and damage of sins is still present can’t say honestly that he has already been saved and healed from the power and presence of his sins and the harm they’ve done to him.

When someone asks if you’ve been saved, here’s an honest answer:

I was saved two thousand years ago when God became incarnate in the Virgin’s womb and joined the life of my kind to the life of God in himself. In his cross and resurrection, Christ broke the power of every enemy and set the human race free.

Right now I am being saved, daily, working out my salvation (Philippians 2:12) in repentance and faithfulness, in cooperation with the action of God’s grace in me.

And I have joyful hope that on the last day, the God who loves me and gave himself for me will raise me up into immortality and will save me from all suffering of soul and body, from every effect of death, to sit with him at his right hand in his glory.

That tension between what is already accomplished and what remains to be done is what we see in today’s Epistle reading, “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light… Therefore He says: ‘Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light’” (Ephesians 5:8,14).

“You were darkness, but now you are light.” And yet, he still commands: “Wake up and receive the light.”

Salvation is not a matter of what beliefs you confess. It’s not a pardon that keeps guilty sinners out of hell. And, while it originates in the will and action of God, salvation is not a legal decree in the heavens. It’s nothing so technical or impersonal.

We see what salvation is in today’s Gospel.

The ten lepers have gathered to ask the Lord for mercy. “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” (There’s the Jesus Prayer again. Once you start looking, you’ll see it popping up all over the Gospels.) And the Lord’s answer is simply, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” These lepers are well aware of the law in Leviticus 13-14, saying that lepers are cut off from the life of the people of God, isolated and unclean. A person who has recovered from leprosy was to go be examined by the temple priests and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and then he could re-enter community. So, unless Saint Luke has left out a conversation here, the Lord is answering their prayer by simply announcing their cleansing from leprosy. “‘Go, show yourselves to the priests.’ And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.” Before these ten men even completed their obedience under the law, as they simply set out on their way to receive the promise of the Lord, cleansing and healing were already theirs.

Then one of the ones who received cleansing from Christ, one of them returns and bows down on his face and worships Jesus.

What Christ accomplished

On the day the Lord became incarnate in the Virgin’s womb, the fallen nature of Adam was united to the nature of the living God in the Person of Christ and was made alive. Christ succeeded, and the race of man was restored to life. “Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life” (Romans 5:18).

On the Cross, as high priest, Christ lifted up in intercession all the evils and guilt and wounds of our sins, and then carried away all our sins and buried them in hell. “The chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). So in his famous Paschal Sermon, Saint John Chrysostom exclaims,

Let none lament his poverty, for the universal Kingdom is revealed. Let none bewail his transgressions, for the light of forgiveness has risen from the tomb. Let none fear death, for the death of the Savior has set us free. He has destroyed death by undergoing death. He has despoiled hell by descending into hell… Christ is risen! And the tomb is emptied of its dead!

This has all been done and Christ has said on the cross, “It is finished!” (John 19:30).

And yet people still die in their sins.

Here’s why:

What remains to be done

What you are is a human being. The nature of Adam, made for union with God, made in the image of God. That is your nature: a son or daughter of Adam. There is only one human nature, and all eight billion of us are instances of that nature.

But you have never met a nature. Only instances of that one nature: what we call persons.

Which human are you? Who are you? You’re the specific human being that was born in this culture and generation and family and place, who inherited this set of genes and relationships, who had these particular experiences that make you unique.

When all of Adam’s descendants were alienated from the life of God, Christ reunited our race to the Godhead. That was applied to you personally in your baptism, when you were “buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).

What God has not done is to instantly renew your mind: To heal the damage and compulsion and disfigurement that our sins have built into our thoughts and words and actions. You did not acquire all these passions overnight; healing them will take time and diligence, and you are not alone. If you are struggling, then the Holy Spirit of God struggles with you and in you. Because the forgiveness of sins is not God’s ultimate goal for us: It is the beginning of his plan for the ones he has called.

The ten lepers all received cleansing from their sickness, but only one was restored to a relationship of sonship to God. Only one began to fulfill the destiny for which he received remission of his illness.

Understand this: It is not God who keeps a record of your sins. At Vespers every night you hear Psalm 129:3, “If thou, O Lord, should count our sins, Lord, who would stand? But with thee is forgiveness.”

What keeps us from experiencing union with God, in this life and in the age to come, is our lack of repentance.

The biblical word translated repentance literally means “a change of mind,” a turning of direction, a “transformative change of heart” as Webster’s defines it. Saint Paul calls it putting on “the mind of Christ” (Philippians 2:5).

This turning (which is also the literal meaning of conversion) is both a one-time act and a life’s work.

Have you ever watched someone else drive? It feels like you’re just going straight, but watch the driver’s hands – they are constantly turning, correcting, adjusting to aim more closely toward where they’re going.

Have you ever crossed a snowy field, or a beach, then turned to look back at your footsteps? You thought you were walking in a straight line, but footprints don’t lie: You were all over the place! But as you went, you kept your eye on the point you were walking toward, and your course constantly corrected, turning toward that goal, and you got there. 

That’s what we’re doing in the Jesus Prayer: Not taking refuge in a mantra or a magic word, but intentionally turning our attention toward the One who is with us and in us, closer than our breath.  

Repentance is the difference between Judas and Peter. Judas had remorse, and regretted his sin, and it destroyed him. Peter responded to the Lord with repentance: “Lord, you know I love you” (John 21:27).

In Genesis 4, after Cain kills his brother Abel, God lovingly calls him to restoration. But Cain answers, “My guilt is too great to be forgiven! Surely you have driven me out this day from the face of the earth; I shall be hidden from your face” (Genesis 4:13-14 LXX). (In the Orthodox Christian Bible this chapter reads a little differently from the King James version you may have grown up with.)

In the cross and resurrection of Christ, God has dealt with the leprosy of our soul and opened a way to return through repentance and thanksgiving, into the life of the age to come. What remains to us now is to cooperate with the grace of God through repentance, renewing our minds in the likeness of Christ.

Thanksgiving, refreshing, and communion with God

This was the goal for which Christ healed the ten lepers, though it was fulfilled only in the one who returned and became his worshipper. “This is the life of eternity, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3).

In the 83rd Psalm, we read, “Blessed is the man whose help is from thee; he hath made ascents in his heart, in the vale of weeping, in the place which he hath appointed.” (Psalm 83:6 LXX). Now sometimes the old-fashioned language in our Psalter is lovely and poetic, and sometimes it’s a little… opaque. Here’s that passage in a modern translation: “Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Weeping, they make it a place of springs; the early rains cover it with pools” (Ps 84:5-6 MT).

What an image… They have set their hearts on pilgrimage. They are going up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord, so they walk with purpose. They have determined to turn and keep on turning toward the Lord, their hope. And their way leads through the valley of weeping – or “valley of Baca” in some Bibles. Bakha means weeping, but it’s also the name of a literal place: A barren, dry valley, full of thorns. And as the ones whose hearts are set on turning to God pass through the dry, exhausting Valley of Weeping, in their passing they turn it into a place of springs and early rains.

I want to close with a word from Elder Ephraim, in The Art of Salvation.

“Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and the whose sins are covered” (Psalm 31:1 LXX). In other words, fortunate is the person who has been counted worthy of having his sins forgiven. What type of gratitude can one express to God? Consider this: I may have lived for a thousand years, I may have committed every type of sin imaginable, I may have been the world’s worst criminal; ultimately, however, God in His mercy may enlighten me. I can return to His loving embrace, and, within a couple of minutes, confess everything. In an instant, I can be justified, washed, cleansed, and find myself in Heaven! What happened to the thousand years of sin? They’re gone! Don’t even think about them! They no longer exist! They have vanished! You are no longer accountable! They were automatically deleted from the demonic memoirs. God has given an order! Every time you deposit a sin before the spiritual father, God presses the delete button on the keyboard, and “click,” the computer registers “forgiveness!” “Click” – “forgiveness and remission!” The grand total is zero. A clean record! How is it possible not to worship this merciful God? How is it possible not to fall down before Him and shed tears of divine love, adoration, and devotion?

To the glory of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.