Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well

Jesus Healing Ten Lepers, Byzantine mosaic, 12th cent.  Monreale Cathedral, Sicily

 

 Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.  Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off.  And they lifted up their voices and said, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!"  So when He saw them, He said to them, "Go, show yourselves to the priests."  And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.  And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks.  And he was a Samaritan.  So Jesus answered and said, "Were there not ten cleansed?  But where are the nine?  Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?"  And He said to him, "Arise, go your way.  Your faith has made you well."

 

- Luke 17:11–19 

 

Yesterday we read that Jesus said to the disciples, "It is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come!  It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.  Take heed to yourselves.  If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.  And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, 'I repent,' you shall forgive him."  And the apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith."  So the Lord said, "If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.  And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and sit down to eat'?  But will he not rather say to him, 'Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink'?  Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him?  I think not.  So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable servants.  We have done what was our duty to do.'"

 

 Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.  Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off.  And they lifted up their voices and said, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!"  So when He saw them, He said to them, "Go, show yourselves to the priests."  And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.   My study Bible explains that leprosy was one of the most dreaded diseases of the time.  It brought great physical suffering as well as total banishment and isolation from society.  It is also symbolic of our sin.  Christ tells the healed lepers to show yourselves to the priests.  Priests were in charge of the law and its regulation of leprosy and leprous houses (see Leviticus 13).  They had to give a certificate so that a leper could rejoin the community, and there were also proper sacrifices involved.   St. Cyril of Alexandria comments that Jesus commanded them to go as being already healed so that they'd bear witness to the priests, testifying that wonderfully and beyond their hope, they'd been delivered from their misfortune.  He didn't heal them first but sent them to the priests, as the priests knew the marks of leprosy and its healing.   

And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks.  And he was a Samaritan.  So Jesus answered and said, "Were there not ten cleansed?  But where are the nine?  Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?"  And He said to him, "Arise, go your way.  Your faith has made you well."   My study Bible comments that Christ came to heal all of fallen humanity, yet only a small portion receive Him in faith and thanksgiving to give glory to God.  Therefore we understand that "many are called, but few chosen" (Matthew 20:16).  The lesson for the Christian faithful is that worship is the number one priority.

Jesus tells the Samaritan who glorified God, and returned to Him to give thanks, "Arise, go your way.  Your faith has made you well."  He also gives this saying to others who in some way testified for their faith.  Among them, notably, was the woman with the years-long blood flow (in this reading).  As He ventures toward Jerusalem, He will say the same to the blind man outside of Jericho (Luke 18:35-43).  It's interesting that Jesus tells the Samaritan that his faith has made him well, when there were nine others, who were Jews, who were also healed.  What made them well?  Why do they not return to give thanks to Christ, or glorify God?  Perhaps they take their healing for granted, or they feel that simply going to the priest, as required in the Law, was enough.  But if we look closely at the Gospels, we find other hints about faith and healing.  In John's Gospel, after a paralytic has been made well by Jesus, He says to him, "See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you" (see John 5:1-15).  Leprosy was seen, in Jewish spiritual history, as a symbol of sin.  The lack of gratitude to Christ and lack of praise to God in thanks can be seen as a remaining sin, a blindness to the reality of redemption in a deeper sense than the physical healing of the leprosy itself.  The implication, in the context of the Gospels, is possibly that although they've been healed, their sin remains.   One does not know what remains to them in their future.  But this Samaritan is healed indeed, and at a depth of the soul that puts him in right relationship to God, and to the person of Jesus Christ.  He is aware of his circumstances and his change, and in this deep sense it is also true that "your faith has made you well."  He is, in effect, more truly well than the others, and in a spiritual sense, stands a better chance of remaining so than the others.   Faith enables us to realize relationship and community in a deeper and grander sense than we otherwise understand; we make a connection to God that deepens our sense of who we are and why we are in the world, linking us to all of creation.  It is also a very personal and intimate relationship, that helps to guide us to well-being in our core sense of self.  To have faith, to understand gratitude to God, sets us in a place where we are connected in the heart to something that transcends our circumstances, working through all things to heal, and on all levels.  The ten lepers apparently had enough faith in Christ to ask Him to have mercy on them and heal them.  But this single Samaritan out of the ten lepers is the only one who will fully embrace its healing power going forward.  He is the only one who seems to be truly aware of how he was healed.