Change “Samaritan” to whatever national group is most hateful towards the United States, and most distrusted by Americans, and you will begin to develop a sense of the power of today’s gospel account. All the lepers were outcasts, by virtue of their illness (see Numbers 5:2-3 and Leviticus 13:9-17; 14:1-32 for details) but the Samaritan was also a national outcast (foreigner) and spiritual outcast (non-Jew). Three strikes and you’re out!
Beyond the familiarity of this account, some interesting aspects often go unnoticed:
- The lepers keep their distance and cry out to passersby, as required in Numbers 5:2-34. But they choose to cry out something different – not a warning by a plea: “… have mercy on us!” (vs. 3). Have our own words and cries become too rote, too automatic, and banal? What would our heart-words sound like?
- The words the lepers use are the same as those cried out by the rich man while addressing Abraham in the Lazarus parable (Luke 16:24). The lepers were heard. It was not too late for them. It is not too late for us!
- In verse 4 there is a healing. They may now present themselves to a priest to be declared ritually clean again – hence the traditional description of this text, the Cleansing of the 10 Lepers. However, when the Samaritan leper returns to thank Jesus, he is told “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well” (vs. 19). Is this a second healing? Are we likewise so sick that we require multiple miracles/signs?
- Clearly, the Samaritan displays deep faith – just as the Good Samaritan displayed deep love (Luke 10:25-37). Notice this portion of Luke’s account: “… when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice” (vs. 5). This mirrors Luke’s description of the praise given by the shepherds at Jesus’ birth (Luke 2:20). It is faith that saves the grateful leper – for the Greek can be translated as, “has saved you,” instead of “has healed you.” God’s grace can heal even the sin sick soul (as the old hymn puts it), but it is faith that gives us life abundant and eternal.
- In verse 18, Jesus describes this man as a “foreigner,” the only time in the entire New Testament that Jesus uses that particular word (allogenēs). Ironically, in Luke’s follow-up book (Acts) the foreign land of Samaria is to be the first Christian mission field (Acts 1:8). No one is beyond the reach of God’s love – not even us, nor our most detestable enemy. If we Christians have drawn lines in the sand between us and others, they are lines that God clearly does not observe or approve of. Why are we drawing them then?
- In Luke’s Gospel, healings are not power plays, nor are they magic acts that set out to impress with awe and wonder. Instead, they are what scholars describe as “effective signs of the Kingdom.” Love, healing, inclusion, acceptance, mercy, and grace are signs of the Kingdom of God, that includes you, and includes your enemy also.
