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October 10, 2004
The Other Nine
Luke 17:11-19
Each of the gospels has characteristics in style and emphasis that make it unique. One of the characteristics of the Gospel of Luke is the theme of reversal. Jesus, from the very beginning, challenges ideas about insiders and outsiders in the kingdom of God. That's why in Luke, the infant Jesus is visited by lowly shepherds, rather than three wise men, sent by a king. You can also see that theme in stories like Zaccheus the tax collector (Luke 19:1-10) and Lazarus and the Rich Man (Luke 16:19-31).
That theme of reversal can also be found in our reading from this morning, as Jesus has an encounter with ten lepers. I cannot imagine anything that could make one more of an outsider than leprosy. The leprosy of Jesus' time was not the same thing as what we now know as Hansen's disease, but it is the term that is used for any kind of skin disease.
The entire 13th chapter of Leviticus is devoted to describing what leprosy is. It goes into great details about what skin problems constitute leprosy and which do not, and gives authority to the priests to make the decision as to whether a person is "clean" or "unclean." Then it goes on to explain what that person is to do:
The leper who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry, 'Unclean, unclean.' He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he is unclean; he shall dwell alone in a habitation outside the camp." (Leviticus 13:45-46)
People who were afflicted with leprosy were ostracized, cut off from the community, from family and friends, from livelihood. It was a devastating disease, affecting not only physical well-being but social and economic well-being. Because it was so devastating and because it was so mysterious, healthy people kept their distance, lest they, too, become infected. Those with leprosy lived in isolation, only allowed the companionship of other lepers, and their only choice for survival was begging for alms.
The lucky ones eventually healed. The fourteenth chapter of Leviticus describes the ritual of purification for those whose leprosy is gone. It involved another examination by a priest, a ritual cleansing, baths, a seven-day wait outside of his tent, and ritual sacrifice (Leviticus 14:1-9).
That background information may help us to understand what life must have been like for these ten lepers. The scene Luke describes between Jesus and these ten men picks up on all those details.
As Jesus was entering a village, the ten lepers who can only live outside the village approached him, but kept their distance. And they called out to him in one voice, crying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!"
One of the things I find interesting in the healing stories is how those in need of healing instinctively know that Jesus can heal them. Even if the stories of what Jesus had done for others made it all around the countryside, it's not as if Jesus' picture has been splashed all over the papers or on the evening news. They don't know what Jesus looks like, but somehow, when Jesus is near them, those in need can feel it.
The call for mercy was ordinarily a request for alms[1], but in this case, the men address Jesus by name, and they call him Master, something only the disciples do in Luke's Gospel.
When Jesus sees them he tells them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." It is an interesting response. Jesus does not say anything about "be made clean." He does not touch them. He simply looks at them, sees them for what they are, and then commands them to go to the priests, the ones who will perform the rituals necessary to purify the men. Jesus treats the lepers as if they have already been healed, and it is in their obedience that the healing occurs[2].
As they are making their way to the priests, one of the ten sees that he has been healed, and turns back, giving praise to God with a loud voice (v.15). Then he prostrates himself at Jesus feet and thanks him (v. 16).
There is plenty to be grateful for. Not only was the health of these men restored, but they would be restored again to their families, to their communities. They would not be on the margins of society any longer. Even though they have experienced a sudden and miraculous healing, only one of the ten men turns back to offer praise to God and thanks to Jesus.
And then Luke throws a curve: this man, he tells us, was a Samaritan (v. 16). Samaritans were from the district of Samaria, which lay south of Galilee, from the Jordan River to the sea. Jews and Samaritans shared a common heritage. But Samaritans followed the Torah, and only the Torah—none of the other parts of the Old Testament were included—and they had different legal traditions and worship traditions. Where the Jews believed Jerusalem was the holiest place, for the Samaritans, it was Mt. Gerizim[3].
Samaritans were the relatives the Jews would have preferred to forget, considered "foreigners" (which is exactly how Jesus refers to this man) and excluded from the Temple in Jerusalem. Generally, Jews and Samaritans despised one another and avoided contact whenever possible.
So it would have been quite a shock to the original audience to hear that the Samaritan did the right thing.
But there's something else in the Samaritan's gratitude that is worth noticing. When he sees that he is healed, he turns back, gives praise to God in a loud voice, and then he falls down at Jesus' feet and thanks him. He knows that God is the ultimate source of healing, and recognizes Jesus as the agent of that power.
While the Samaritan lies prostrate at Jesus' feet, Luke has Jesus ask three questions that are directed more towards the audience than they are toward the Samaritan: "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" (vv. 17-18)
In some ways, these questions don't make sense. Jesus had, after all, told the ten to go and show themselves to the priests. They had only done what Jesus commanded them to do, and in their obedience, they were healed.
Luke may be trying to do a couple of different things here. First, there's that reversal theme as he challenges his audience's notions about who is included in the kingdom of God. In a group of ten, Luke lifts up the foreigner, the one who is not part of God's chosen people, as an example of faithfulness.
The second thing he might be trying to do is to call attention to something else. After Jesus asks his questions about the other nine, he turns back to the Samaritan and says, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well (v. 19)."
Remember last week's reading, when the disciples ask Jesus to increase their faith and he promises that even faith the size of a mustard seed is sufficient because the source of faith is God? This morning's reading follows immediately on the heels of that one. It is possible that Luke is using this foreigner, the Samaritan who was healed from leprosy, as an example of faith.
A closer look at the Greek only underscores that point. The Greek verb, sozo, that is translated "made well" might be better translated, "Your faith has saved you." What the man experiences is more than healing of his body, but an experience of being made whole. "His actions of delight and gratitude, which distinguish him from the others, demonstrate his trust in Jesus, God's agent of healing[4]."
Jesus also tells the man to "Get up and go on your way." Anglican scholar Tom Wright says, "The word for 'get up' is a word that early Christians would have recognized as having to do with resurrection. Like the prodigal son, this man 'was dead, and is alive again.' New life, the life which Israel was longing for as part of the age to come, had arrived in his village that day, and it had called out of him a faith he didn't know he had[5]."
The Samaritan was not only healed, but he experienced salvation and new life. And he praised God with all that he had for these gifts.
So, what about the other nine? They were healed of their disease, and they obeyed Jesus' command to go and show themselves to the priests. They were obedient, and they, too, were restored to their families, their communities, to their place of worship. What point is Luke trying to make by comparing the nine with the one Samaritan?
We presume that because the one is called a foreigner, that the other nine were of Jewish birth. They were supposed to be the insiders, the favored ones, the obedient ones, and yet they are shown up by a despised Samaritan.
The complaint lodged against the other nine is that they were complacent. Perhaps they believed that they got what they deserved after their time of suffering. Or perhaps they were overcome with joy and the anticipation of being reunited with family. "Whatever their reasons, the nine are impoverished…by their failure to discern the One from whom restoration has come. They become models (of a sort) of what faith is not[6]."
Perhaps this story serves as a warning to those who believe they have the grace and mercy of God all sewn up, that they are entitled to God's favor.
And although it may have originally been directed at the Jewish authorities in Jesus' time, the warning still comes through loud and clear to us today.
We are all in danger of being complacent, about God's grace in our lives, even about our need for and our dependency on God. Few among us will ever experience anything as dramatic and wonderful as being healed of a disease that carries both a physical and social stigma like leprosy. But if we take a closer look, we will find that we do receive from God mercies new each morning, sure as the sunrise, certain as the daily bread that sustained the Israelites in the wilderness, and continues to feed us each and every day.
Let us open our eyes and recognize what God has done for us. And recognizing all that we have been given, may we, too, offer our thanks to God with out whole selves. Amen.
1 Culpepper, Alan, "Luke" in The New Interpreter's Bible, vol. IX. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995. p. 326 go back
2 Craddock, Fred, Interpretation: Luke. Louisville: John Knox Press, 1990. p. 203 go back
3 Achtemeier, Paul J., editor, "Samaritans" from Harper's Bible Dictionary. San Francisco: Harper Collins Publishers, 1985. p. 898 go back
4 Cousar, Charles B., Texts for Preaching: Year C. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994. p. 554 go back
5 Wright, Tom, Luke for Everyone. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004. pp. 206-07 go back
6 Cousar, p. 555 go back
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