The Ten Lepers
Luke 17:12-19
Leviticus 13, 14
The story of the ten lepers is familiar to a bunch of people.
Ten lepers call out to Jesus from afar as He enters a village. They call out, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us! The lepers have some kind of skin disease, and being so, are separated from society, per Jewish law. Jesus told them to show themselves to the priests and obediently, they started walking. Along the way, their leprosy disappears and one, seeing his healing, returns to Jesus shouting, Praise God, I’m healed! Luke tells us the man fell face down on the ground at Jesus’ feet and thanked Him for what He had done. Luke also mentions the returning leper was a Samaritan. Jesus then proceeds to ask some rhetorical questions; ones that we now probably consider to be Socratic.
Didn’t I heal ten men? Where are the other nine? Does only this foreigner return to give glory to God?
Then Jesus said to the man, Stand up and go. Your faith has made your well.
- Why was Jesus angry or disappointed with the other nine lepers?
- Did He not say, “Go show yourselves to the priests”? Were they not just following His instructions? Wasn’t the returning leper being disobedient?
- Why is it a big deal the man is a foreigner, a Samaritan at that?
Let me know what you think.
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i think the reason why Christ was disappointed (i always view him in this light and never really as angry unless we talk about the market in the temple bit) was because the other nine lepers were like most Christians. The way i see it, these men only cried out to god when they needed him the most but once they received their miracle they continued on with their life and never really called out to god again.
I also think the importance that the leper that returned was a Samaritan, was in the fact that the other lepers were supposed to know god better or on a deeper level. The other nine lepers were jewish so they had a covenant with god and knew his word but i think the fact that the man is a Samaritan implies that he is not as familiar or close with god as the others should be.
Relating this to ourselves i see this as christ being disappointed with the church. We only cry out to him when we really need a miracle but won’t return when he does grant us our request. And many times we are the ones that are supposed to “know” god and yet we don’t do what is right by him where as others who we consider less “holy” actually do what he really wants us to do and that is come back to him.
i don’t know just my take…
sorry about that… my comment may have been a bit too long lol
Cool, I like that breakdown – any more thoughts?