Cleansing to the ten lepers

It is the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time and today’s gospel teaching is about the cleansing of ten lepers that you’ll read in Luke 17:11-19. If you read carefully this story, you’ll see how ungrateful these lepers are when our Lord Jesus cured them of a sickness that really had no cure in those times. So let’s read what our Lord Jesus has to say about the ten lepers.

11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy [a] met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” 14 When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. 17 Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

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At the beginning of this story, our Lord Jesus went on his way to Jerusalem passing along the border between Samaria and Galilee. He did the most unJewish thing when he passed via Samaria, when most Jews would avoid passing through that land which they dubbed as inhabited by evil men. We’ve already told our readers of the issues between the Jews and the Samaritans and clearly today’s gospel is written to prove to the Jews that not all Samaritans are evil me.

As our Lord enters a Samaritan village and encounters ten leprous men and according to the Law, they must keep their distance but they recognize Jesus and cry out to Him for mercy. Rather than drawing near and touching them, as He did with the leper in Luke 5:13, Jesus simply instructs them to go and show themselves to the priests. There would be no point in such action unless they were cleansed of their leprosy, and yet at this point they were not yet cleansed. They had to act with obedient faith. As they were going, they were cleansed on their way to the priest.

What is clear in this story is that the popularity of our Lord Jesus Christ has also reached Samaria, which can only means that not all Samaritans are evil men. I mean how else could the ten lepers kow that our Lord is a healer, if they did not hear the other Samaritans talk about the good things that our Lord Jesus Christ has been doing in Galilee?

Anyway, the Lord instructed the ten lepers to go and show themselves to the priest who in Jewish law would be able to determine if they had been cleansed or not. Of course, we can only presume that the ten lepers obeyed the instructions of our Lord to go to the priest.

However as the story goes, only one of the ten, a Samaritan, turns back to glorify God and give thanks to Jesus for His great mercy and power. The strong implication is that the other nine were Jews. And the Evangelist Luke seems to put this here to show the increasing rejection of Jesus by the nation Israel, whereas this foreigner receives not only healing, but also salvation. Perhaps the nine lepers took some time to realize that the Lord Jesus Christ had already healed them and all they need to do is show themselves to the priest for confirmation so that they can be returned to their respective communities as persons healed from leprosy.

What our Lord is telling us in today’s gospel story is that salvation is open to all who call upon the Lord, yes even to Samaritans, but that many who have received temporal benefits from the Lord are in danger of missing that which they most need, namely, salvation of their souls. This is why our Lord’s message to the healed Samaritan leper was, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” Of course at this time, things have dramatically changed in Israel, they no longer condemn the people living in Samaria and it is a fact that there are now many Messianic Jews, Jews who believe in our Lord Jesus Christ so they too can be saved.

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