IntroductionWhen we come to church we hear the familiar message of forgiveness of sins and the gift of salvation through Christ so we don’t have to earn merit with God. But is that the end or is it just the beginning?Our gospel tells the story of 10 people with a skin disease. To understand the story, it is important to understand a bit about the way diseases were handled in the world or Jesus’ day. I’m pretty sure they didn’t have microscopes or understand the differences between bacteria and viruses. Though they probably didn’t have ways to identify the specifics of microbiology, they did understand contagion. They did understand that diseases spread from person to person and if you are around a person who has an ailment, you are likely to pick it up yourself.People with skin diseases in Jesus’ day were called “unclean”. This wasn’t a moral category. Unclean didn’t necessarily mean you did something bad or sinful, it just meant you couldn’t be around people because they might attract the uncleanness from you.The Torah said in the book of Numbers 5:2 “Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone who has a defiling skin disease or a discharge of any kind, or who is ceremonially unclean because of a dead body. Then to be reinstated in the camp, one had to show themselves to the priests who would verify that they were no longer unclean.Who are the unclean today?It’s like when we went through the Covid pandemic. People who attracted the virus I imagine it was like the fear and uncertainty of the HIV AIDS pandemic in the 80s and 90s. Before much was understood about the transmission of HIV AIDS, people with the disease were treated as outcasts in society. My own story of people with mental health conditionsSeems like most nonprofits connected to social causes had their benefactors, but not mental health. Mental health wasn’t cute. Mental health wasn’t sexy. Mental health wasn’t…It was sometimes coupled with substance abuse and homelessness.Or text comes to us in two parts.Part 1: The Group of 10In part one: Jesus crosses into a border territory and addresses a group of people who are cast off from society. Jesus meets people in need who are on the margins of society. They ask for Jesus' help. And what does Jesus do? He tells them to go and show themselves to the priests. And as they go they are healed from their diseases. All 10 obey Jesus. And all 10 are healed.Notice, Jesus didn't heal them all at once. He certainly could have. There were many other times when someone touched Jesus or Jesus spoke the words of healing and the person was healed on the spot. Not this time. This time Jesus didn't even say they would be healed. He just told them to do the things they would need to do if they were healed. Can you imagine? You're in this place removed from society. You've been sick for a long time. You call out for help from someone who can help you, perhaps the only one in all the world who can help you. You aren't even clean yet, and Jesus tells you to go show yourself to the priests. I imagine they liked at each other with puzzles expressions…“Umm, I guess we can do that Jesus. I mean, if you say so.”They may have taken their first few steps with puzzled expressions on their faces and confusion in their minds. What's going to happen if they get to the priests and they're just as unclean as they are right now?The reason I draw it out is this: The 10 did not know what the outcome would be before they set off to present themselves to the priests. But Jesus said go. And they went. And the scriptures say: as they went, they were made clean. I can only imagine the joy in their hearts that replaced the apprehension and confusion, as step-by-step they noticed their disease was disappearing and their skin was healed. Not all at once. But progressively. As they put one foot in front of the other in obedience and faithfulness to the command of Jesus, they were made clean.

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