One of the lepers, realising that he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice, and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. He was a Samaritan. Jesus said in reply: “Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine?” Luke 17: 11-19
We live in an age in which we hear people around us, and perhaps we, too, complaining about the length of time we are all kept waiting on telephone lines to places like banks, government offices, doctors’ surgeries and the like. Frustration levels rise and it’s not unusual to hear recorded messages with reminders to refrain from verbally abusing the receptionist who eventually answers the call. Maybe this experience is a relic of the Covid Pandemic when everyone’s patience was put to the test. However, today’s gospel-reading gives us a glimpse of how some of the people in the time of Jesus had grown to expect him to cure their illnesses without delay. His record of on-the-spot healings apparently created expectations of immediate attention in people who found the courage and faith to come to him for healing.
Today’s account from Luke of the healing of the ten lepers gives us cause to stop and ask why there was a time-lapse between their encounter with Jesus and their actual healing. What message was Luke presenting to his community by the way in which he told the story that is at the centre of today’s gospel-reading? To answer this question, I suggest we look at some of the details in Luke’s account. He noted that Jesus and his disciples, who were travelling on the border between Samaria and Galilee, were about to enter a village. They were not on the edge of a thriving metropolis. The group of ten lepers clearly knew their place. In keeping with the regulations imposed on people with leprosy they kept their distance and did not approach Jesus. They had to call out to him across the gap that separated them. People stricken with leprosy knew that their disease kept them on the bottom rung of the social scale. They were ostracised because they were contagious. The only community or companionship available to them was with others who were similarly afflicted. In response to their plea to him for pity and compassion, Jesus directed them to present themselves to the priests who were the arbiters of health and freedom from contagion. We might well wonder just how accessible were priests who would willingly verify that known sufferers of leprosy had been cured of the disease that had ostracised them. We can only wonder if Jewish priests of the tribe of Levi would entertain adjudicating on the cure of a Samaritan, already a victim of Jewish prejudice simply on account of his ethnicity. And how far from the village were they?
Luke notes that as they were carrying out the direction Jesus had given them, they were cured: “On the way, they were made clean.” (Luke 17: 14) However, Luke does not specify how long they had been on the way. Was it a few minutes, an hour, a day or a week? It would seem that the cure was not instant. And therein lies a lesson for us. We put our faith in Jesus. We trust in him. We go to him with our griefs, our disappointments and the troubles of which we are ashamed and distance us from others. We bring to him wayward family members, children who no longer darken the door of a church, those who suffer from addictions, friends and relatives stricken with terminal illness. These make up the hurts and disappointments we experience “on the way” of our lives. In faith and trust, we bring them to our God, we draw them to the attention of Jesus. At times we even wonder if our pleas have even been heard.
Luke was telling his community and us that the lepers in his story represent the Christians in his community and us as well. Those ten men had lost status, acceptance and the support of community. We don’t have to look far to enumerate our losses. Perhaps we have lost our employment, a family member in a tragic accident, a partner through divorce, financial security through fraud or the failure of our business. While our sense of loss can be intense, we also know that it is rarely healed instantly. We continue to pray as did the lepers: “Jesus! Master! Have pity on us!” And in time, as we continue on the way of our lives, healing does come, but maybe in a manner different from what we expect or anticipate.
There is a second miracle in this story. It is the Samaritan’s realisation that God’s graciousness has touched him in the person of Jesus. Moreover, when he returned to express his gratitude, Jesus affirmed that God’s saving love was for all humankind, not just for the people of Israel. The irony, of course, is that while the Samaritan found faith and salvation in Jesus, many of the people of Israel were about to reject Jesus and his teaching.
Today’s first reading from the Second Book of Kings, parallels and anticipates the story of the Samaritan’s conversion of heart in the gospel-reading. Naaman, the Syrian, regarded by the people of Israel as outside the reach of God’s mercy, discovers the gracious love of the God of Israel through the prophet Elisha. When Naaman tried to offer Elisha a gift for his being cured of leprosy, the prophet refused, stating that God’s priceless love and mercy are accessed through faith and trust rather than through one’s wallet. Naaman first had to overcome the racial prejudice shown him by the King of Israel, who believed that foreigners were excluded from the care of Israel’s God. Elisha stepped in and demonstrated that God’s love and mercy were for all humankind.
Finally, today’s gospel-reading challenges us squarely with the matter of expressing gratitude for the blessings that come our way. The kindness that is shown to us by others is a reflection of the kindness and love of God for us. When we really appreciate that, we might begin to thank God for all the kindnesses that come our way. In that context, we have to take care about the way in which we read today’s Second Reading from Paul to Timothy. Paul’s statement about God: “If we deny him, he will also deny us” could lead us to think that God is a bit touchy. However, the very next phrase corrects that, as Paul states: “Even if we are not faithful, God remains faithful, because God cannot be false to himself.” Even God’s “denial” of us is the action of a friend who tells us to wake up to ourselves. We stunt our growth when we refuse to express gratitude. Our gratitude reflects God’s love.