Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
by the Revd Dr Robert Wilson PhD (Cantab), Old Roman Apostolate UK
And Jesus answering said: Were not ten made clean? And where are the nine? There is no one found to return, and give glory to God, but this stranger. And he said to him: Arise, go thy way; for thy faith hath made thee whole.
In today’s Gospel from St. Luke we hear the story of the healing of the ten lepers. On one occasion as Jesus entered a certain town he was met by ten men who were lepers. They stood afar off and lifted up their voice asking for Jesus to have mercy on them. Jesus told them to go and show themselves to the priests. It came to pass that as they went they were made clean. One of them, when he saw that he was made clean, went back with a loud voice, glorifying God, and he fell on his face before Jesus’ feet, giving thanks, and he was a Samaritan. Jesus then said that although all ten lepers had been made clean, the other nine had not returned to give thanks. Only one, a Samaritan, had returned to give thanks. He told him to arise and go on his way, for his faith had made him whole.
Jesus’ healing of the ten lepers was part of his ministry as the anointed liberator of Isaiah in whom the eyes of the blind were opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the good news is preached to the poor. The Kingdom of God, when his will would finally be done on earth as it is in heaven, though future in its fullness, was now being manifested in Jesus’ own person and ministry, in his words and in his mighty works. His message was addressed to all Israel, but above all to those who were social outcasts, who were ostracised by the existing Jewish establishment. The lepers skin disease rendered them unclean and that is why their cure had to be officially confirmed by the priests, the representatives of the official religion. Only after this had happened could they be reintegrated into society. The significance of the story lies in the fact that the only one who returned to give thanks to Jesus for being cured of his leprosy was a Samaritan, a race hated and despised by the Jews.
What was the reason for the hostility between the Jews and the Samaritans? Originally there had been a united kingdom over all Israel under David and Solomon. After Solomon’s death this kingdom had divided. The southern kingdom of Judah had Jerusalem as the capital and continued to be ruled by a descendant of King David. The northern kingdom went its own way and established a shrine at Shechem in Samaria. The southern kingdom regarded the north as apostate and the situation was made worse after the northern kingdom was overthrown by the Assyrians. The kingdom of Judah was later itself overthrown by the Babylonians, but subsequently the Persians allowed some of the Jews to return from exile and rebuild the temple. It is clear from the books of Ezra and Nehemiah that there were tensions between the Jewish exiles who had returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple, and the Samaritans to the north. Exactly what happened between then and the time of Jesus is not altogether clear. The Samaritan Scriptures consisted simply of the Law of Moses, the first five books of the Bible, without any of the subsequent writings accepted by the Jews. The Samaritans had their own temple on Mount Gerizim. This lasted until the end of the second century before Christ when the Jews under their leader Hyrcanus attacked Samaria and destroyed the Samaritans city and temple. This inflamed the situation even further, which was always liable to descend into violence, especially because in the same century there was a migration of many Jews from Jerusalem and Judea into Galilee, meaning that Samaria was surrounded by Jews to the north as well as to the south.
Hence, although Jesus’ mission was directed to the lost sheep of Israel, rather than the Samaritans, the close proximity between Jews and Samaritans led to the occasional encounters between Jesus and Samaritans that we read about in the Gospels. The significant point is that, although they were technically aliens and heretics, Jesus did not turn them away and refuse to have any dealings with them. This was not because he endorsed the Samaritan religion as it stood, but because his message, though directed in the first instance to Israel, was ultimately for all. In St. John’s Gospel the Samaritan women whom Jesus encountered at the well as he travelled from Judea to Galilee asked him whether the correct temple to worship in was on Mount Gerizim as the Samaritans claimed or in Jerusalem as the Jews claimed. Jesus replied that the Samaritans did not know whom they worshipped, whereas the Jews did, because salvation was from the Jews. However, the time was coming and indeed had already come when the true worshippers would worship neither in Jerusalem or in Samaria, for in the Kingdom of God earthly sanctuaries would be transcended (John 4).
It is important to emphasise that the whole point of God’s promise to Abraham, the founding father of Israel, was that in his seed all the nations of the world would be blessed. The promises were never intended for the Jewish nation alone, but for the whole world. Hence, when the prophets looked forward to the time when God’s Kingdom would finally come on earth as it is in heaven, they pictured the nations of the world renouncing their idols and coming to worship the God of Israel in Jerusalem.
Jesus’ proclamation of the coming of the Kingdom of God in his person and ministry should be understood within this context. His primary purpose was the gathering of Israel, but beyond that he looked forward to a time when those who were technically heretics like the Samaritans and also the completely pagan nations would renounce their idols and worship the true God of Israel. If his own largely did not receive him, many others would. This is anticipated by the faith shown by the Samaritan who was the only one of the ten lepers who were cleansed who returned to give thanks.
Today we are increasingly conscious of the diversity of the religions of the world. It is difficult to find the right balance between fidelity to our own faith and a recognition of the genuine insights of other religions. It is easy to retreat into either an exclusivism that denies any knowledge of God in other traditions, or a syncretism that does not do justice to the genuine differences and often incompatibilities between different religious claims. Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan who was the only one of the ten lepers who returned to give thanks points the way to avoiding the false antithesis that we are so easily tempted to fall into. He recognised that the Samaritan, who was technically an alien and a heretic, had shown greater faith than the other nine lepers who were also cleansed. This points to the fact that we can sometimes find greater faith than our own outside our tradition. But Jesus does not use this as a reason for undervaluing the truth claim of our own religion, but rather as a challenge to us to be more faithful to it.
Hence, the truth lies neither in an exclusivism that denies any knowledge of God outside our tradition, nor a syncretism that artificially seeks to harmonise genuine incompatibilities. It is rather to see the genuine insights that others outside our tradition may have as an incentive to be more faithful to our own. The faith of the Samaritan was a rebuke to the lack of faith that Jesus found in Israel, and so in our own day the faith of others is often a standing rebuke to our own lack of faith. But we must never lose sight of the fundamental truth of our faith that distinguishes it from all other religions, that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and thus revealed his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. 🔝
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