11On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, 13they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. 15Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. 17Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? 18Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”
Translation: And it happened, as he was going to Jerusalem, he was passing through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a certain village, ten leprous men met him, who stood at a distance. And they lifted up a voice, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." And he saw (and) said to them, "Go, show yourselves to the priests."
And it happened, as they went, they were cleansed. But one of them, seeing that he had been healed, returned, praising God with a loud voice, and he fell down upon his face at his feet, giving thanks to him. And he was a Samaritan.
But Jesus answered (and) said, "Were there not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found returning to give praise to God except this foreigner?" And he said to him, "Rise and go. Your faith has saved you."
Other texts to be kept in mind: Luke 10: 25-37, the story of the good Samaritan; 2 Kings 5: 1-17, the healing of Naaman the Syrian; Luke 4: 14-20, Jesus' inaugural statement of his mission.
Text: Three place names are mentioned in the first sentence: Jerusalem, Samaria, and Galilee. Jerusalem is where he is headed. Galilee is where his mission began. Now, heading south, he is "in the midst" of Samaria and Galilee. The phrase is dia meson. The sense of the expression seems to mean "on the boundary."
Here is another case where the symbolic truth is deeper than the literal one. Jesus was--and is--on the "boundary," and that is true in many ways. (Bonhoeffer once said that Jesus meets us both on the boundary of our lives and also at the center.)
The specific "boundary" in this case is the ethnic prejudice which existed between Galileans and Samaritans. Jews of the time considered Samaritans to be a half-breeds and heretics--half-breeds because they'd intermarried with Assyrians and others, and heretics because they did not bend the knee to the Temple in Jerusalem. A Jew traveling from Galilee to Judea might walk several miles out of their way so as not to set foot in Samaria.
On the flip side, we don't know much about Samaritans' attitude toward Jews. The woman at the well in John 4 seems wary and self-protective, a not unusual posture for religious minorities. In any case, for his part, Jesus always portrays Samaritans in a positive way. That is true in all four gospels, and especially in Luke. (Previously in Luke, though Jesus' initial foray into Samaria had been rebuffed (9:51-56), yet, a short while later (10:25-37), Jesus tells the story of the "good Samaritan.")
Jesus seemed to be making head way in his message of reconciliation. People forget: Jesus was popular. He was beloved by people. Apparently, many thought his message of reconciliation between Jews and Samaritans to be a great thing. They had much in common with Samaritans, after all. They were both poor and both were oppressed by a corrupt religion and a brutal government.
One suspects the Galileans, after their initial shock at the idea of Samaritans as positive examples, began to see that the reason they thought the Samaritans were "outsiders" in the first place was because the Jerusalem elite had named them so, a Jerusalem elite which also considered the Galileans themselves to be "outsiders," al beit in a different way.
The Galileans were not ethnic or religious outsiders, like the Samaritans. The Galileans were economic and cultural outsiders, looked down upon by cosmopolitan Jerusalem as hicks and rubes from the sticks. The Galileans, instructed by Jesus, began to think, "Say, maybe we have more in common with Samaritans than we thought."
And as he entered a certain village, ten leprous men met him, who stood at a distance. And they lifted up a voice, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." And he saw (and) said to them, "Go, show yourselves to the priests."
The original Hebrew word is tzaraath, which refers to any number of skin conditions--everything from acne to the heartbreak of psoriasis. Their skin condition made them "unclean" and they had to live by themselves. (Interestingly, the leper community, we will soon find out, includes a Samaritan, which would make the leper community a more inclusive one than many. Common suffering unites.)
The lepers call Jesus "Master." The only other people who call Jesus "Master" in Luke's gospel are the disciples themselves, putting these lepers, in Luke's mind, in good company. (That would not be so in Mark.)
Jesus sends them "to the priests." The priests could certify whether or not a person was healed, and could then be re-integrated into common every day life. (Luke does not tell us which priests they were to go to. Samaritan ones, or Judean ones?) As they are going, they are "cleansed"--katharizo, purified, cleansed. (This is where we get our word "catharsis.")
The Old Testament reading for the day is the story of Naaman the Syrian being healed by the prophet Elisha (2 Kgs 5: 1-17). The parallels between these two stories are striking. The healings are for "outsiders," which shows, in each case, that "there is a prophet in Israel." In both cases as well, the lepers are told to do something, are healed in the process, and then praise God.
And it happened, as they went, they were cleansed. But one of them, seeing that he had been healed, returned, praising God with a loud voice, and he fell down upon his face at his feet, giving thanks to him. And he was a Samaritan.
One of the now-cleansed lepers "sees" that he has been healed. "Recovery of sight to the blind" is one of the primary missions of Jesus (4:18). The leper was not blind physically, but, for Luke, anyone not discerning the lordship of Jesus is blind spiritually. Conversely, those who do, "see." "Seeing" is a Lukan way of saying "gets it." (This is true of the fourth gospel as well.)
Seeing he had been cleansed, this former leper now returns to Jesus. Perhaps he realizes that if he were going to a Judean priest, he would not have been accepted anyway, even though "cleansed". Luke portrays his actions upon return as effusive. He praises God in a loud voice, falls with his face to Jesus feet, and give thanks--eucharistone--to him. Note that Luke links praise of God with worship of Jesus.
The punchline, of course, is "and he was a Samaritan," a shocking disclosure. This is similar to the story of the "good Samaritan" in Luke 10. As he did then, the one Jesus lifts up as a positive example is a foreigner. As he always seems to do whenever he gets the chance, Jesus subverts a racist stereotype. (Luke uses the specific word "foreigner"--allogenes--which is the only use of this word in the entire New Testament.)
Jesus says "your faith has saved you" four times in Luke's gospel--7: 50, 8: 48, 17:19, 18:42--respectively, the woman who anointed his feet, the woman with the twelve year hemorrhage, this leper who is identified as a Samaritan, and the blind man who calls Jesus "Son of David" who is obviously a Jew.
In other words, Jesus says "your faith has saved you" to two men, two woman--one specifically identified as a Jew and one specifically identified as a Samaritan. Luke likes this kind of balance.
I like your depiction of the Galileans as rubes. I have a small backwash congregation in rural northern New England and have often used this parallel to point out that the apostles were an unlikely group for the Son of God to choose to lead the church.
Posted by: Stephen Row | January 28, 2011 at 08:33 PM
Archaeological excavation shows Capernaum housing as having been simpler and poorer than that in Jerusalem. Plus, the Galileans were considered somewhat headstrong and prone to making trouble. The hellenistic Sadducees ran things in Jerusalem and were kind of snooty, apparently.
Course, coming from western Kansas, maybe I'm overly sensitive to cultural slights.
Hey, thanks for your visit--and comment!
Posted by: John Petty | January 28, 2011 at 08:59 PM