Luke 17: 11-19 NRSV
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.”
Faith Healing
The reading of the healing of the 10 lepers comes in Luke, smack dab in the middle of many other lessons. So, we can consider the lessons of this story, and consider it like a parable as well as a piece of history. To really get into what Jesus and Luke had in mind as a possible teaching, first let’s set the scene. Imagine that you are a disciple of Jesus, and that you are following him, learning as much as you can as you all walk from place to place, absorbing his teachings that are given as stories, parables, and sayings. But, Jesus also teaches through his actions.
You are walking from Samaria, which is south of Galilee, heading north toward Jerusalem. You are with a small crowd of believers, and news of the healings of Jesus has reached the towns and villages ahead of your arrival. The smell of humanity is thick in the breeze, as you have been traveling with this band of followers for a few weeks now. It’s dusty and warm, and there is an air of anticipation with each new story and each new event.
Up ahead is a town, and on the side of the road are 10 men who have leprosy, a contagious skin disease. In those days, people did not yet know about washing hands and wearing masks to stop the spread of disease, but they did know about keeping their distance, so they stay at least 6 feet away.
They call to your leader, knowing that he has healed others, and ask for compassion, another word for mercy that is more appropriate here. As you have seen many times before, Jesus again shows compassion for the people that do not seem to receive it elsewhere – the outsiders, the despised, the poor and the sick. Leprosy is a disease that creates outsiders. Once a person catches the disease, they must live away from society, self-isolating and quarantining, perhaps in a leper colony, and can only return if they are healed or “clean”. In those days, it was not a blood test or a swab test to reveal their state of health. Only a priest can declare a person clean.
Jesus says to go ahead to find their priest, so they can have their leprosy be declared cured, that they are clean, and can then rejoin society. They go on, and while they are going, it is then that they are cured. They are probably all so excited! 9 of them continue on and one comes back to Jesus, the only Samaritan, to show his gratitude. Finally, Jesus says two more things: he questions why the other 9 did not return and then tells the Samaritan to get up and go, that his faith has made him well.
The entourage you are with is amazed yet again. You feel the love and acceptance emanating from Jesus, as you witness his humility. He teaches several lessons through these actions. I will talk about 3 here.
First, he demonstrates how to love your neighbor. Back then, the Jews and the Samaritans despised each other. They lived in different places, so each was a foreigner in the other land. Also, they had similar but different beliefs, and I assume that each thought the other’s religion was wrong. Jesus did not treat the Samaritan any differently than the other 9 who were Jews. And later when he returned and praised God, Jesus appreciated the gratitude. So, now, for a moment, think of who is the foreigner in your land? Who is the person that does not share your beliefs, your sexuality, your gender, your wealth, your religion or your politics? Who is the “other” in your life? Could you be like Jesus and give them compassion, knowing that they, too, are suffering in their own way?
Second, this is a story of faith healing. In a literal sense, Jesus says to get up and go, and that his faith has healed him. He uses these words often, so here is a chance to explore what could be made of them.
Get up and go. Do not stay and make a fuss. Go and live your new life, knowing that God is with you.
Jesus does not make the healing about himself, he says that the leper’s faith has healed him, not Jesus. I think that having faith can be like having optimism that a person will get well.
The placebo effect occurs when a person is given a treatment for an illness that is not a treatment at all. It is commonly used in double blind research studies to help determine whether a new treatment is effective or not. Some people receive positive results, even with a sugar pill, and this is the placebo effect. Scientists do not yet have conclusive evidence as to why this may be happening. Is it optimism?
There are stories about people who died quickly after a short sickness. They believed they were going to die soon, but it turns out that the diagnosis was not terminal. On the other hand, there are other stories of people who beat an incurable disease. A good example was my friend Lisa who lived in Glens Falls, who had children just older than mine. We were very good friends, and I was devastated when I learned she had just 3 months to live because of pancreatic cancer. I began praying for her every night, several prayer chains included her, and she was optimistic that she could beat it. A couple of months into the diagnosis, when the doctors did a scan, there was no cancer at all. She had had spontaneous remission! They said it was a miracle! Was this a faith healing?
There are many studies linking optimism with better outcomes from a variety of diagnoses, lending to the belief that your faith in being healed has in essence created the healing. So what about a faith in a higher power? A faith in God? Science does not agree. The studies that you may have heard of, and that I had paid attention to in the past, were scientifically flawed or looked at a narrow segment of the population. The results of the studies of optimism and faith show that there is a positive effect from optimism, but not from prayer and faith.
Jesus said, Your faith has made you well. When I pray that God’s will be done, and I pray for a person’s healing, I know that I cannot determine the exact form of the healing. Will it be healing of the body? The soul? Or both? When you pray to God, what kind of healing do you want? Do you have faith and optimism that God’s will is exactly the healing you need? We are not in this world alone. God is with us always to comfort and heal.
So, back to the story. The lepers were made clean, meaning that they no longer had this contagious disease, and they were allowed back into society. Is this history, and they had spontaneous remission, a miracle? Or is it a story about faith? About believing that God has our back? That if we truly believe that God’s will is for the highest good, then we will be healed from suffering, not necessarily pain, and that we may achieve peace?
Prayer and praise is the final lesson that I saw in this passage. We pray when times are difficult, when we or someone else is suffering. We might ask for healing, but perhaps next time we will ask for God’s compassion, for peace, and then for God to take our burdens from us. We can have faith that God has our back through prayer. We can surrender to God’s will.
Remember the Samaritan? He came back and gave thanks and praise to God! Samaritans did not believe in the same God that Jews did, so through his healing he was converted. He was joyful! What a blissful state to be in.
We can keep God in our hearts at all times. We can pray when we are suffering, and we can praise when we are grateful. Let us not only remember God when we need something. Let’s remember God when we are rejoicing!
May it be so.
Amen.
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