Luke 17:11-19
Let’s remember to pray for Jim and Marty.
“Notice what you notice.” As I read today’s selection, I can easily call to mind words that I’ve known by heart for years: “Were not the ten made clean? Where are the other nine?” (v. 17) But I don’t recall ever noticing that the tenth leper was a Samaritan. To me that puts a very different spin on the entire story.
First, Jesus sent off the ten and told them to show themselves to the priest, an act that was prescribed for the cleansing of lepers in Leviticus 14:2. Nine of the lepers would have understood this directive, assuming they were Jews. But this would have been new to the Samaritan – he had no relationship with the Jewish priests. So as the ten were cleansed, the other nine went off to be OK’d by the priest, but the Samaritan went back to the source of his cleansing instead of following the Leviticus directive. His thinking would have been more in line with Paul the Apostle, “I know Him in Whom I have believed.” (2 Timothy 1:12)
Second, when he was a leper the Samaritan was a common “brother” with the Jews; they were outcasts together. But when he was cleansed he was no longer a part of the “ten brothers”. Instead, he remained an outcast, but now not to society in general, only to his former “brothers”. That is, to the nine Jews, the Samaritan became a Samaritan. So his own thoughts likely would have mirrored Peter’s: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68)
So the Samaritan returned to thank and praise Jesus instead of following the nine. It makes me wonder if there are situations in my life where I follow the crowd instead of following Jesus. I’ll have to think on that…
Slava Bohu!