Nine Ungrateful Lepers

On His way to Jerusalem, Jesus met ten lepers. The lepers stayed a distance away because the law restricted lepers from coming near others. To warn people they had leprosy, they were required to call out “Unclean!” To the rabbis, the cure of a leper was as difficult as raising a person from the dead. The lepers knew Jesus had healed others, so they called out to Him, saying: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” Jesus told them to go and show themselves to the priests. As they were going, they were instantly healed. Their skin suddenly became free of leprosy. Imagine the joy they felt! (Luke 17:11-19).

Nine of the men continued on to see the priest, but one man turned around and came to Jesus. He was praising God with a loud voice, and he fell at Jesus’ feet, thanking him. This man was a Samaritan who was hated by the Jews. Jesus then asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” Jesus then told the man, “Rise and go. Your faith has made you well.” The lepers were required to return to the temple in Jerusalem to show themselves to the priests, but the ‘hated’ Samaritan was not allowed to enter the Jewish temple.

To the rabbis, the cure of a leper was as difficult as raising a person from the dead. In Biblical history only two people had been cured of leprosy: Miriam, who had leprosy for seven days as a punishment for speaking against Moses’ leadership (Numbers 12:9-15) and Naaman, commander of the army of the King of Syria (2 Kings 5.) When Naaman obeyed Elisha’s instruction to wash seven times in the Jordan River, he was healed. Until Jesus came along, healing a leper had not been done in Israel for centuries, and was thought to be an earmark of the Messianic Age.

Back to the original story. Were the nine healed lepers any better men because of their cure, or were they worse off by their ingratitude? Their ingratitude was a much worse form of leprosy than the physical disease itself, because it kept the lepers from fellowship with God. The lepers came to Jesus with a desperate longing. He cured them; and nine never came back to give thanks. Often when a man gets what he wants, he never comes back to offer his thanksgiving and praise. But the despised Samaritan came back to show his gratitude and, in so doing, earned the approval and blessings of Jesus.

In an earlier story in Luke’s gospel, Jesus laid his hands on a leper, and the leper was healed instantly. In this latter account, the ten lepers were healed by their faith in Jesus, and miraculously so without being touched by Jesus. There is an object lesson here: faith must precede God’s healing. This is further substantiated by what Jesus told the Samaritan: “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” How many people say they have faith, but never give thanks to God? Some don’t say grace before their meals, much less thanking God for the manifold blessings of life. We can begin by giving thanks to God for sending His Son to secure our salvation.

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