December 7th, 2025: Why Most Walk Away From Christ
How the Gospel of the ten lepers calls us to live boldly as Orthodox Christians in a world that wants us to stay quiet
The one outsider who saw clearly
The Gospel reading of the ten lepers in Luke 17 is simple on the surface. Ten men who suffer from leprosy cry out to Christ for mercy. He heals all ten of them. Their bodies are restored. Their lives are given back. Yet only one of them returns to fall at His feet and give thanks.
The surprising detail is that the one who comes back is an outsider. He is a Samaritan, someone who did not belong to the religious circle that thought of itself as special and chosen. The people who should have understood who Christ is, and should have been the first to give thanks, are nowhere to be found. The only one who responds with gratitude is the one who had every reason to feel like he did not belong.
This is not just an old story about someone else. It is a mirror held up to us. Christ has poured out healing and mercy on all of us. He has given us the Church, the sacraments, the Scriptures, and the Kingdom of God at work here and now. Yet it is still rare to see real thankfulness, real faith, and real obedience. Many receive from God. Few return to glorify Him.
The danger of growing too comfortable
From the beginning, the Kingdom of God was meant for everyone. God did not create a small elite group that would be saved while the rest of the world had no hope. He created every person for communion with Him. But in the time of Christ there were many who had begun to think that salvation belonged only to their group, their people, their way.
We can fall into the same trap today. We can look around and think, “We have the Church. We have the right faith. We are the ones who know what is true.” Those things may be true, but if our hearts are not humbled and grateful, we become like the nine who walk away. We take grace for granted. We stop marveling that God has given us Himself in the Divine Liturgy and in the life of the Church.
There is also another danger. Many of us in our culture are so used to comfort that we no longer want to stand out. We do not want to offend anyone. We do not want to be called intolerant or harsh. So we let the world tell us how we should believe and how we should pray. We give the world control in places where only Christ should rule.
The early Christians did not grow the Church by asking the world to tell them what was acceptable. They did not ask Rome to design their worship. They did not go to the crowds and say, “Teach us how to pray in a way that will not upset you.” They prayed the way Christ and the apostles taught them to pray. They lived the way the Gospel commanded them to live. The world had to confront that holiness and decide whether to reject it or be changed by it.
The Church cannot water down the Gospel
Today there is pressure from every side to soften the clear teaching of the Church. We are told that if we speak plainly about sin, people will leave. We are told that if we name abortion as a grave sin, or if we speak the truth about sexual morality and the confusion of our age, then we are unloving and hateful.
But the saints did not preach a soft Gospel. Saint Ambrose of Milan once told an emperor that he was wrong and needed to repent. He did not do this because he hated the emperor. He did it because he loved him and feared for his soul. Real love will not pretend that darkness is light. Real love will not call spiritual poison a medicine just to avoid upsetting someone.
The same is true with the moral questions that surround us now. The Orthodox Church cannot pretend that grave sins are just a different lifestyle. We do not say this to pick on one group. We say this because sin destroys people, and Christ came to heal and save. To stay silent while people walk toward destruction is not love. It is fear.
That does not mean we scream at people or treat them as enemies. It means we clearly confess what the Church has always taught, and we back that confession up with lives of mercy, humility, patience, and self sacrifice. We call evil what it is, and at the same time we stretch out our hands to every person and say, “Come with us toward Christ. There is hope for you here.”
Called to be the one who glorifies God
The Gospel shows us two paths. The nine receive healing and walk away. They now have their health, but they do not have a living relationship with Christ. They do not bow down at His feet. They do not thank Him. Their bodies are clean, but their hearts remain far from God.
The one who returns is different. He falls on his face before Christ. He worships. He glorifies God. He hears the words of the Lord: “Your faith has made you well.” This is deeper than physical healing. This is salvation. This is union with Christ.
Every day we have the chance to live as the one who returns or as one of the nine who walk away. We can get up, say quick prayers, rush through the day, and treat our faith as one more part of our life, nothing special. Or we can let the whole day orbit around Christ. We can build our schedule around prayer, worship, and love for our neighbor. We can ask, “How can I bring someone to the Church? How can I show my family and my coworkers what an Orthodox Christian looks like?”
Saint Seraphim of Sarov taught that if a person gains true peace in Christ, thousands around them will be saved. He meant that a person who really lives the Christian life becomes a living sermon. The grace of God in that person shines outward. People around them feel it and are drawn to it.
Many in our parish are the only Orthodox Christian in their extended family. That is a heavy cross at times. But it is also a great calling. God has placed you there to be the one who returns, the one who glorifies God, so that the rest of your family, who are now like the nine, may one day see your life and desire the same peace and joy.
Living this during the Nativity Fast
We are moving toward the feast of the Nativity of Christ. The Nativity Fast is not just a calendar issue. It is a chance to reset how we live. As we hear the Gospel of the ten lepers, the Church is asking us to look at our own lives and ask, “Am I living like the one who returns to give thanks, or am I drifting away like the nine?”
This season is a perfect time to take practical steps. Pray a little more than you did last week. Come to Vespers when you can. Make confession. Receive Holy Communion with preparation and gratitude. Look for someone who is struggling and serve them quietly. Give alms. Invite a friend or a family member to Liturgy.
All of these small acts are ways of turning back to Christ and falling at His feet. They are acts of thanksgiving. They are acts of faith. They help us resist the temptation to let the world tell us who we are. Instead, we let Christ tell us who we are. We are His people, healed by Him, called by Him, and sent by Him into the world.
When all ten glorify God
The story of the ten lepers does not end with Christ punishing the nine. It ends with a question. “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?” That question still hangs in the air. It is meant to reach our hearts.
We are called not only to be the one who returns, but also to help the nine come back. When we live the life of the Church with joy, peace, courage, and gratitude, other people notice. They see that there is something more solid than politics, more lasting than entertainment, more hopeful than the unstable promises of the world.
Our task in this parish is not just to keep things going. It is to grow the Kingdom of God. That growth is not about pride or numbers. It is about more and more people turning back to Christ, falling at His feet, and hearing Him say, “Your faith has made you well.”
If we live as the thankful one, if we refuse to water down the Gospel, and if we hold fast to the life of the Orthodox Church, then by the grace of God the nine can become ten. All ten can glorify God. Then those ten can go out and reach ten more, and ten more after that. This is how the early Christians lived. This is how the Church spread in the beginning. It is still how the Church grows today.
So as we move toward the feast of the Nativity, let us ask God to make us like that one grateful leper. Let us return to Christ with thankful hearts, stand firm in the faith, and shine with His light so that many around us will say, “I want that too.” Then, by His mercy, our parish and our world will see that all the noise and distractions of this age are not worth it, and that Christ and His Kingdom are worth everything. Amen.