Ten lepers were healed (Lk 17:11-19). How many were saved?
One for sure, but the other nine – that’s not so clear. The story in today’s gospel does however make it clear that there is a difference between being loved and cared for by God, and being “saved”. Being saved requires that we respond. The response is a response of recognition, of gratitude. It may be gratitude for something major, like cure from disease or social isolation, or simply gratitude for being alive.
Per our readings last week we may not always find it easy to feel grateful simply for being alive, but it is indeed a gift – the most basic gift. Without that gift there would be nothing, we literally wouldn’t exist. And the recognition is no more than the obvious point that we aren’t responsible for our own existence. We can chose to believe our existence is some random chance in a random universe, or we can chose to believe otherwise. If we believe otherwise and return to say thanks then we have started on the path of salvation.
Being saved sounds like something that is done to us, and in many situations that may be true. I remember in the life-saving class I did in swim training that we were taught that in extreme circumstances it might be necessary to subdue someone who was trashing around in the water in order to save them. I never had to save anyone, even less subdue them, but I guess that counts as an extreme case of saving someone from themselves. But generally being saved does require some action or assistance from the person being saved, even if it’s just to grab onto the rope. The fullest example is perhaps a person suffering from addiction – that’s not something anyone else can save you from. Others can help but ultimately an addict saves him or herself.
Where in this spectrum does the salvation offered by Jesus fit? We should first note that you don’t have to do anything to qualify – it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from. The Samaritan leper and the Aramean general (2 Kgs 5:14-17) both illustrate that point. And both demonstrate that a response is expected. For the leper the response was obvious – he went back to Jesus to thank him. And he also glorified God on the way – he linked Jesus with the power of God. However limited his understand might have been of what he was saying or doing it was enough for Jesus to confirm that he was saved. For Jesus being saved is establishing a relationship, we are both saved by him and save ourselves.
For Namaan the response was less clear. He had no problem understanding that a response was expected – someone brought up in a Court certainly knew about being given favors and showing appropriate gratitude. His problem was that he was trying to thank the messenger (or perhaps, rather, the minister) – and thanking the messenger is no more appropriate than blaming him.
At that time, communicating with God via sacrifices was something that was dependent on being in particular places (as it was for the Israelites on mountaintops, such as Mount Sinai, and later the Temple). Namaan came up with the ingenious answer of taking some of the holy place back home with him.
We are fortunate that we don’t need a dump truck to respond to God. But we do need to respond. And it’s not difficult – as the leper showed. But in another way it can be difficult – as the other nine lepers showed. It’s easy to get swept away by the occasion, either the rush of achievements or of challenges. Returning to say thank you takes an effort. But when we do our faith is shown to be alive and Jesus will say “yes, you too are saved”.