Twenty-eight Sunday In Ordinary Time
LUKE 17:11-19
In the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke the ministry of Jesus is primarily in Galilee, in the north of Palestine. In the south lay Judea with its capital city Jerusalem. Samaria lay between Galilee and Judea. The normal route to Jerusalem would be through Samaria.
However, Jews and Samaritans were generally hostile toward each other for religious and political reasons. Therefore when the Galileans traveled to Jerusalem, they sometimes crossed the Jordan River in the north and proceeded south on the east bank, then crossed over to the west back below Jericho.
The translation used for the Sunday reading is this, “He traveled through Samaria and Galilee.” This translation does not do justice to Luke’s Greek, but his knowledge of geo-graphy and history is not always precise. Theology is more important to him than geo-graphy. In the plan of proclamation of the Word, Luke outlines in Acts 1:8; 8:1-14; and 9:31, Samaria is the first step to the larger world outside Jerusalem where the procla-mation began. For Luke, theologically speaking, Jesus must in some way have contact with Samaria. This contact will be through a Samaritan leper. Luke’s parable of the Good Samaritan is an imaginary contact to demonstrate that love of neighbor can be found even among supposed enemies. The Gospel of John, later than Luke, recognizes Samaria’s importance by the encounter between Jesus, a Samaritan woman, and her fellow citizens.
As Jesus enters a town, he encounters ten lepers. This is not necessarily in Samaria, but we find out later that one of the lepers was a Samaritan. The shared misery of illness can draw together people who would not otherwise associate with each other, in this case, Jews and Samaritans. They have to stand at a distance from Jesus because of the quarantine of lepers prescribed by the Torah in Leviticus 13:46. The law of the leper is this: “He shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease.” In an earlier encounter with a leper, Luke 5:12-14, Jesus went beyond convention and law when he touched the leper and cured him.
Jesus adheres to the law of leprosy of Leviticus 13:9-44, when he says to the ten lepers, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” Faith plays a role in this miracle. They were not yet cured, but obeyed the command of Jesus and were cured en route to their examination by priests. The examination by a priest included a lengthy ritual of purification given in detail in Leviticus 14. The ritual included shaving, washing, and sacrificial offerings of animals and grain. A priest’s judgment that the leprosy was cured was the former leper’s ticket for re-entry into society. An interesting parallel to our Sacrament of Reconciliation!
Only one of the ten cured returned to Jesus to express his gratitude. “When he saw that he was healed, he turned back praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks.” Luke adds a punchline, “He was a Samaritan.” We must assume the other lepers were Jews, because the Lucan Jesus says, “Were not ten cleans-ed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” This seems insensitive, but that is not Luke’s intention.
These three questions attributed to Jesus are important for Luke’s catechetical instruction. The first two questions challenge readers to address their own practice of gratitude to God for the good received. The third question’s importance is illustrated in Jesus' final statement to the cured leper. In the parable of the Good Samaritan Luke demonstrated that a man who was considered an enemy or social outcast had a better understanding of the laws of the Torah than those who proclaimed those laws. The final statement of Jesus to this foreigner, “Your faith has saved you,” is Luke’s proclamation that faith in Jesus is not restricted to one privileged group but is a gift to all nations. In Acts 10:34 Luke puts this teaching into the mouth of St. Peter, “Now I really understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation, anyone who honors God and does what is right is acceptable to him.”
2 KINGS 5:14-17
This too is a story about leprosy. The man cured is, like the Samaritan in the gospel, a foreigner. As the Samaritan made an act of faith by obeying the command of Jesus and returning to thank him, so the Syrian general makes an act of faith in the God of Israel. A second act of faith is his request for two mule-loads of ground from Israel. Meaning: it was generally understood by heathens that a god could be worshipped only on his own territory. Naaman took his dirt and went home, now a worshipper of the Lord God.
2 TIMOTHY 2:8-13
This reading includes a confusing statement: “If we deny him (Jesus), he denies us.” Does this sound like the Jesus we know? See Matthew 10:33, “Whoever denies me before others, I will deny him before my Father.” In contrast see Romans 3:3, “If some are unfaithful, it does not nullify the faithfulness of God.” Solution pending!
