Luke 17:11–19—There was no love lost between Jews and Samaritans. Had they been healthy, the nine Jewish lepers would have had had nothing to do with this person whom they considered a half-breed, little better than a heathen. But leprosy had made them all outcasts from society, depending on the kindness of strangers in for daily sustenance.
"Ten" is a perfect
number. All together, they cry out for mercy, but at a distance. They have
nothing left to lose.
Lepers were like death-row
inmates. They were as good as dead. Dead men walking. For death itself was in
their flesh. Lesions, sores, and scabs, bore witness to their decay; as living
symbols of death. They were unclean. As such, they were shunned from society.
They were cast out of the community; barred access to home, market, and
synagogue.
Their leprosy made them dead to family and friends. Leprosy made them dead to religious practice. Only a cure for their leprosy could bring them life. But cures were rare. So rare, in fact, that the rabbis of the day considered the cure of a leper equal with raising a person from the dead. Lepers were the living dead.
On the way to Jerusalem, on the road that would ultimately lead to His death, Jesus encountered these ten pitiable men. He had mercy on them, and, foreshadowing the restoration of all creation at the Last Day, healed them of their dread disease. Only one returned to Jesus to give thanks—a foreigner, the Samaritan.
Christ came into the world to save all people, regardless of ethnicity, skin color, or other outward characteristics. We Gentiles, too, ought to fall at Jesus’ feet and give thanks for having rescued us from the far more dread disease of sin and its consequences of eternal, and not just temporal, death. This Descendant of a foreign, Moabite woman has made us clean. He Himself is the High Priest who declares us clean to His Father, and gives us a place in His kingdom. This Gospel lesson will be read on Thanksgiving Day.
A Prayer for the sick: O Father of mercies and God of all comfort, our only help in time of need, look with favor upon Your servant. Assure him/her of Your mercy, deliver him/her from the temptations of the evil one, and give him/her patience and comfort in his/her illness. If it please You, restore him/her to health, or give him/her grace to accept this tribulation with courage and hope; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. [2]
Collect for Friday of the week of Pentecost 17: Keep our faces, O God, toward the coming of Thy kingdom; and grant us, against every repeated assault, to choose Thy way, and not our own, that we may rest in the certainty of Thy triumph. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen [3]-07 October, 2022[1] The Ten Lepers copyright © Ed Riojas, Higher Things
[2] A Collect for the sick, Lutheran Service Book, © 2006 Concordia Publishing House, St, Louis
[3] Collect for Friday of the week of Pentecost 17, For All the Saints, A Prayer Book For and By the Church, Vol. II © 1995 The American Lutheran Publicity Bureau, Delhi, NY
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