“Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they?”
I don’t know how many times I have read this story and have thought of it, like so many people, as a story about ingratitude. But the other day, I found myself answering Jesus, “Maybe they are doing what you told them to.”
There were ten lepers. The scripture tells us that when they called out to Jesus, they were “keeping their distance.” This is following the rules. Jesus tells them, “go and show yourselves to the priests.” So they do. Is Jesus really surprised, or is his question meant to get at something else?
We do not get an answer to the question, but I wonder if the others didn’t return to Jesus because he had prescribed what they expected: a trip to the religious authorities, who could pronounce them clean and fit to be in regular society. Perhaps they were so preoccupied with following directions that they did not even notice the miracle or see the event as miraculous.
We must remember that the person who came back to “give praise to God” was a Samaritan, a “foreigner.” Even healed, he would not have been accepted, and so the fact that Jesus deigned to treat him as well as the others in healing him meant more to him.
Christ ends his parable about the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) with a question: Who “proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” The answer was, “The one who showed him mercy.”
The story of the ten lepers is a story, not so much about ingratitude, but gratitude. It was Christ who showed him mercy, and he knew it. We should go and do likewise, both thank the God who is merciful to use no matter who we are, and spread that mercy, especially to those we don’t think deserve it.
Holy God, we cannot even dare to approach you except by your love and grace. And yet, you draw us near, and that itself is mercy. Help us, that in our attempts to obey, we not lose sight of the healing you give us every moment. In thankfulness, we pray. Amen.
