Luke 17:11-19
On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’ When he saw them, he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, ‘Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’ Then he said to him, ‘Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.’
In today's passage, we hear the story of the ten lepers being healed and the one, the Samaritan, returning to thank Jesus.
It may be a familiar story, but it is nonetheless a powerful one. Jesus heals 10 lepers while they are away from him – on their way to the priests, on their back into the community. However, only one comes back to Jesus – the one who would have been on the outside of that community anyway since he was a Samaritan. And Jesus wonders, inviting us to wonder, at this apparent lack of gratitude from the others. Jesus again seems to be operating on the margins, with the outcasts and the least. It is those who find him and it is those on the margins that Jesus comes close to.
May we today give thanks for all that God has done for us. May we celebrate in our community how God has healed, has restored, and has established us. However, may we also reach out into those marginalised places with the love that Jesus shows. May we be ready to meet Jesus already in those places and with those on the margins.