Except the foreigner?

 Back in the colonial days of this country, the leaders in Virginia purposely created a set of laws and societal mores to keep Europeans, Africans, and First Nation people from becoming one community and seeing that they were exploited by those who were in charge. As long as they were keeping to their own group and were suspicious of the others, they could not come together to see who was really holding them down. Unfortunately, that legacy still is present in our country today. 

Before Jesus time, back in the days of the prophets, the nation of Israel split apart to become the Northern (Israel) and Southern (Judah) kingdoms. That was mainly their own doing because of internal strife. They even built their own temple on Mt. Gerizim. But when Assyria and then Babylon brought their armies, they were a divided people and were easier to conquer. In Jesus' time, they were now the nations of Israel and Samaria, although once one nation and kin. The gospel writer of Luke makes an effort with this story, the story of the Good Samaritan, and in the book of Acts to show they can be one people again, for what separates us is only illusion. 

To enter into the healing of the story today, we are told ten people have leprosy. Leprosy in our time means that the flesh slowly rots and falls off until a person dies. Back then leprosy covered a wide range of diseases which could just be a really bad case of acne, to skin diseases like eczema, to actual leprosy. For both peoples, the Samaritans and the Israelites, having the common Torah, skin diseases where a reason for them not to be able to enter the Temple, they were unclean to do so, and that also extended to most aspects of life as well, so lepers were to keep separate even from their families, lest the uncleanliness spread to them. To not live in total isolation and find community, these ten lepers banded together to care and support one another. Their common disease broke the religious and national bonds to only associate with ones own kind and brought together Jews and Samaritans. 

Now Jesus is traveling between Samaria and Galilee, on the border of the nations and people separated by lines drawn in the sand long ago. Just an aside, a couple Sundays ago, when I was talking about the parable of the Good Samaritan, I mentioned that to travel from Jerusalem to Jericho you would go through Samaria. I have read this in more than one commentary, but it is not so. Jericho is to the East of Jerusalem and Samaria is far north of Jerusalem, even trying to go the scenic route is far fetched. In the gospels, Jesus doesn't just travel in the land of his countrymen, but travels far and wide to engage, love, heal, and share God's love with people from all different backgrounds, nationalities, and families. 

So Jesus is traveling and comes across ten lepers who are out begging because they cannot get legitimate jobs or live at home. They recognize Jesus as someone who can cure their disease and heal their situation by restoring them to their families, communities, and faith. They cry out for mercy. They are not needing mercy because they have sinned and now diseased; they need mercy for without it, they will remain on the edge of society and the edge of living and dying. Jesus responds immediately and tells them to go show themselves to the priests. For it is in Leviticus chapter fourteen that it is the priest who diagnoses leprosy and the only one who can proclaim them clean to return to normal life. Somewhere along the way, the lepers find themselves cured and probably start rejoicing. Now that they are cured, maybe they remember their other differences of being Jews and Samaritan. Maybe they are kind and tell the Samaritan that he won't be allowed to enter the Jewish Temple, maybe they get scared and are afraid they won't be admitted in the presence of the Samaritan in their group, or maybe the rules of who is in and who is out floods back to them and they cast him aside, no longer needing him amongst their ranks. So now the Samaritan is once again alone. He can go to his Temple on Mount Gerizim and be restored to his own people. But he decides to return and find the one who cured him of his disease and the one who healed him by showing him mercy and that he is a child of God. 

Jeremiah is writing to the exiles of the Southern Kingdom who are far from Jerusalem and far from their Temple. He is writing to them not to just sit and wait until they can return, but to live, to marry, to plant, and grow while they are in a foreign land. He says to work for good for all, not just the other exiles, but for those whose land it is and their neighbors, who ever they may be. They were not to keep separate and only to themselves, but live as best they could. It is the dream of any immigrant, especially those who come to America whether they be a refugee, an immigrant who is legal, or those who sneak across the borders. 

What is truly unfortunate is that many politicians and citizens of our country demonize the immigrants even though they are Americans from Central and South America and even though they are our Christian brothers and siblings which should bond us together more than any citizenship of any country on this planet. But they continue to categorize and separate and sow suspicion and fear against those who are not like 'us'. Most are coming because they are fleeing their countries which are unstable and violent. This is partly due to our policies and actions our country has taken over the last 50 plus years in supporting dictators over democracy, supplying them with weapons rather than mercy, and exploiting their labor and resources for our prosperity rather than their health and stability. If we want to cure the violence and the drug trafficking along our Southern border, we first must heal the nations by supporting justice for the family, the small landowner, and help bring true peace in solidarity of our Christianity, but even more than that, our common humanity.

Jesus tells us to love our neighbor is show them mercy. Jesus tells us that he has come to bring good news to the poor, the dispossessed, and the oppressed. We are to do justice. Not just love in thoughts and prayers, but in action and voice and the power of love that just doesn't cure a disease, but heals a person, a family, a community, and all nations. Amen.