October 13, 2013
2 Kings 5:14-17; 2 Tim 2:8-13; Luke 17:11-19
Today’s Gospel story occurs as Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem from Galilee. On the way he meets the ten lepers who beg his help.
Skin diseases in biblical times were not considered just ailments but as uncleanness. The purity code in the book of Leviticus forbids unclean people from associating with other people in the community. That is why the lepers are outside the city and why they keep their distance. Jesus tells them to go show themselves to a priest. Why? Because that is commanded in Leviticus. The priest cannot cure skin diseases. Rather he checks the person’s skin to see if he has gotten clean enough to rejoin the community. If you were suffering from real leprosy—Hansen’s disease—that was not going to happen, so you were ostracized forever. Just making a living would be very hard. At best, maybe you could get somebody to give you alms.
Who are the lepers today? Many people are excluded from our society: the sick in hospitals, the decrepit and demented in nursing homes. Public sinners are also ostracized: the drug addicts, the prostitutes, the drunkards. These are the people society excludes today.
Jesus healed the lepers, enabling them to return to community. He was a good Jew, and so he commanded them to do as the law says. If I were one of those lepers, I’d be disappointed. Maybe I’d been to see the priest before and he said I’m still unclean. Or maybe I hadn’t gone at all because I knew they couldn’t help me. But these ten lepers have so much trust in Jesus that off they go.
And they are healed while still on the way. Nine of the ten continue on to see the priests, no doubt ecstatic because they would finally be declared clean and allowed to rejoin the community. But one fellow does not. He returns to Jesus and the disciples and begins to praise God and to thank Jesus for his cure. And he is a Samaritan.
Now, the Samaritans were the remnant of the former kingdom of Israel when it separated from Judah, whose capital was Jerusalem. Samaritans shared the beliefs of Judeans, but they did not share the tradition of worship in the temple in Jerusalem. Instead they worshipped God on mount Gerazim in Samaria. Basically, the Judeans and the Samaritans felt about each other the way Protestants and Catholics felt about each other when I was growing up. Remember those days? The Samaritans were heretics. Today’s analogy would be to Muslims, or atheists, or in Ithaca people with Tea Party political views. Not one of us. Not worthy to participate.
Samaritans were foreigners. As such, they were not welcome in the inner courts of the temple in Jerusalem. A sign greeted them at the barrier:
NO FOREIGNER
IS TO GO BEYOND THE BALUSTRADE
AND THE PLAZA OF THE TEMPLE ZONE.
WHOEVER IS CAUGHT DOING SO
WILL HAVE HIMSELF TO BLAME
FOR HIS DEATH
WHICH WILL FOLLOW
Pretty strong words. By contrast the Old Testament prophet Elisha welcomed the faith of Namaan the Syrian, another foreigner, and healed him. And Jesus heals all the lepers. It’s safe to say that Jesus was a big-tent kind of guy.
Don’t you just love Pope Francis? There’s another big-tent guy. He washes the feet of Muslims and exchanges friendly letters with militant atheists. Nobody is excluded. Sinners, foreigners, non-believers are all welcome. I think he’s teaching us how to be Christian.