As He entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met Him; and they raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When He saw them, He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they were going, they were cleansed. Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine—where are they? Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?” And He said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well.” (Luke 17:12-19 — New American Standard Bible)
Two aspects of this story need to be clarified: leprosy and Samaritans. When Jesus was on earth Israel was divided into three provinces — Judea, Samaria, and Galilee. Judea was to the south and Galilee was to the north, and Samaria occupied the land in between. Babylonian settlers had been brought to Samaria by an Assyrian king hundreds of years before Jesus and these foreigners had intermarried with the Israelites of that area, and so Samaritans were considered half-breeds and betrayers of the faith by the Jews, who had "no dealings with the Samaritans" (John 4:9). Out of contempt, the Jewish religious leaders even referred to Jesus as "a Samaritan" (John 8:48). And yet, like we see in this passage, Samaritans were some of the first to embrace Jesus’ teachings.
Leprosy was a disease of the skin that bleached a person’s hair, caused their skin to become dry and scaly, disfigured their faces and limbs, and caused them to be literally devoured from within. Most viewed it as punishment from God. These people could not live inside a walled city, though they sometimes lived in small villages without walls, but they had to live separate lives and could have no physical contact with non-lepers. They could not greet anyone, because in that part of the world a greeting involved an embrace. Whenever someone approached on a road or path they would call out “Unclean! Unclean!”, a warning for people to stay away.
Jesus constantly reached out to people in need, and lepers were no different. The Bible records Jesus healing lepers a number of times, and here He heals ten at once! According to the Jewish law, whenever a leper thought he was healed, he had to allow a priest to examine him and verify that he was indeed healed. So when Jesus told the ten to go and show themselves to the priests, He was declaring their healing. They could have laughed, or demanded that He show them proof right away, but instead all ten headed off in the direction of the nearest priest, and along the way were healed. Faith always demands action, and real faith steps out in belief before anything is seen.
Jesus was amazed that the Samaritan was the only one to return and thank Him. In fact, we see that he did not just thank Him, his actions seem to indicate that he was accepting Jesus as his Lord — and was saved that day. Not only was he a Samaritan, he was a leper — he was doubly cursed. Most people must have looked at him and thought there was no possible way for a man like him to be saved or for God to have mercy on him. He must have been constantly judged and despised. People must have assumed that he had done something extremely evil to be “punished” with that disease. But of the ten, he was the most humble, the most spiritual, the most thankful, and the one who was not only healed, but saved.
God doesn’t concentrate on our exterior, He sees who we really are… and no one is too far gone, too ugly, or too wounded for God. He loves to take the most rejected person, the most hopeless, or the most hard-hearted and lift him/her up. This story can teach us a lesson if we’re humble enough to learn from a leper: our healing, our answer to prayer is less important than finding God.
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