These verses in Luke's Gospel are often used to illustrate the all too common issue of the majority of those confirmed or baptized into our denominations leaving and never returning. I don't think this is about that issue at all (though it is a very real and concerning issue!). Rather here I see a story about the ultimate outsider... the leper who is also a Samaritan. While he was afflicted just like his companions, who we are led to believe are Hebrews, he seems to have been included at least to the extent of their mutual affliction... now that he and the rest have been healed that old division has resurfaced.
The Samaritan returns to Jesus because he knows he is not welcome to accompany the Jews any longer... he will be much, much less welcomed at the Temple. For him to enter the Temple would probably mean death... so, he returns to the Temple that does welcome him. He returns to the one who healed him and he prostrates himself before his Savior. The real message that I see here is that Jesus is the new Temple... the true Temple... the Temple where all are welcome no matter who or what they (we) are.
Praise be to God!
Be a blessing to someone today!
In Christ,
Roy
Luke 17:11-19 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
Jesus Cleanses Ten Lepers
11 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus[a] was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he entered a village, ten lepers[b] approached him. Keeping their distance, 13 they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14 When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16 He prostrated himself at Jesus’[c] feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? 18 Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”
Footnotes:
a) Luke 17:11 Gk he
b) Luke 17:12 The terms leper and leprosy can refer to several diseases
c) Luke 17:16 Gk his
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