Ten Lepers Healed—Luke 17:11-19

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Please read today's passage here: Luke 17:11-19

Have you ever seen a leper? I haven't. I have seen pictures of them, and it is not a pleasant sight. I realize that scholars today no longer believe that the "leprosy" of biblical times was what today's medicine terms leprosy (Hansen's Disease), but a less severe condition, a kind of skin disease. But whatever the condition was, it was so contagious, and so feared by everyone that persons afflicted with it were quarantined—shut off from others for as long as the condition persisted. This meant isolation sometimes permanently from family and loved ones. And it meant that you could not go to the Temple and make sacrifice for your sins or celebrate the religious festivals. You were like a dead man still walking!

For this reason many lepers were exiled to camps, where they were unlikely to touch or infect others. When our text says that Jesus "traveled along the border between Galilee and Samaria", and there meets ten lepers, it clues us in that this border area between the Jews of Galilee and the hated Samaritans was where each side exiled its lepers, so that the leprosy if it affected anyone would affect their enemies! And because it was a colony, Jesus encountered ten of them together.

In order not to threaten him with infection, these lepers considerately "stood at a distance" and called out to him, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" In this plea "pity" obviously meant more than feeling sorry for them: they were asking for healing. They knew that he healed the sick and raised the dead. They considered themselves the walking dead; but they believed that he could restore them to "cleanness" and life.

Jesus' reply (v. 14) was "go show yourself to the priest," and as they went in obedience and faith, they saw that their skin was now clear and clean! The text tells us that this was a mixed group: some Jews and some Samaritans. The words of Jesus would have made sense to the Samaritans among them as well, for the Samaritans had their own priests and their scripture including the Levitical laws about cleansing from leprosy. How many were Jews and how many Samaritans, we are not told. But what amazed Jesus was that of the ten, the only one to come and thank him before going off to the priest was a Samaritan (v. 17-18). Where was the gratitude of the other nine?

This final lesson in today's passage reminds us how much we as Jesus' disciples have to thank him for. It makes us ashamed that we thank him so seldomly. Gratitude is a simple thing and costs so little. But is so deeply appreciated by one who has done you a service. It can even be a server who waits on you at a restaurant. It is true that we should not expect God to thank us just for doing what we are supposed to do for him. But nothing keeps us from thanking another person for doing for us what they are paid to do by their employers!