Luke 17:11 ¶ And it came to
pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and
Galilee. 12 And as he entered into a
certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:
13 And they lifted up their
voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. 14 And when he saw them, he said unto
them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they
went, they were cleansed. 15 And one of
them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice
glorified God, 16 And fell down on his
face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. 17 And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten
cleansed? but where are the nine? 18
There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this
stranger. 19 And he said unto him,
Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.
This would seem simple
enough. Maybe one in ten will be thankful to Christ for His mercy. There are
many preaching sermons that have been made out of this passage. There is the
idea, as presented by Matthew Henry in his commentary, that leprosy was
considered a punishment for some sin so that since Christ, who came to take
away sin and wrath for sin, chose to heal these men. See the rules regarding
leprosy and its healing in Leviticus 13 and 14.
But, what is the point
of this episode as recorded for us? Samaritans were considered non-Jews. I am
going to repeat what I said earlier about them.
Samaria was the capital
of the northern kingdom of Israel after Israel and Judah split during the reign
of Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, as recorded in 1Kings, chapter 12. Then, see 1Kings
16:29. The Assyrians conquered Israel and removed the Jews from there to other
territories, replacing them with others as was their custom in conquest. Jewish
priests were brought in to teach them the religion of the Jews and a distinctly
different sort of Judaism grew up with distinct customs and norms that
underscored the divisions between the Jews and the Samaritans.
2Kings 17:6 In the ninth
year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria,
and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the
cities of the Medes…24 And the king of
Assyria brought men from Babylon,
and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed
them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of
Israel: and they possessed Samaria,
and dwelt in the cities thereof…26
Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which
thou hast removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land: therefore he
hath sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay them, because they know not
the manner of the God of the land…28
Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and
taught them how they should fear the LORD.
The Samaritan religion
is called Samaritanism and is based on the Samaritan Torah. They believed they
most closely followed the true religion of the Jews that existed before the
Babylonian captivity. They worshipped at the ruins of their temple in Mount
Gerizim. The mount is mentioned in Deuteronomy, Joshua, and Judges. The temple
was destroyed by the Jews in around 100BC. The Jews did not regard the
Samaritans very favorably.
In fact, the Samaritans
were hated. They worshipped in a different place. They had a different history
than the Jews and the Jews regarded them as inferiors, spiritually,
politically, and every other way. They were not just somebody else but they
were somebody else the Jews expected nothing good out of and looked down their
noses at.
Galilee also has some
important characteristics for this episode in Jesus’ ministry. Isaiah 9:1 refers
to Galilee of the nations and Matthew
4:15 refers to Galilee of the Gentiles, word
substitution defining nations as
equivalent to Gentiles. Galilee was inhabited pretty much by
Gentiles. Nations is usually a reference to non-Jewish political, tribal, and
ethnic groups. In 1Kings 9:11 Solomon gave King Hiram of Tyre 20 cities in the
land of Galilee so you would naturally have an influx of Gentiles there. In
2Kings 15:29 the Assyrians removed the population in their practice of
replacing conquered peoples. They would settle them someplace else and move
another group into their homelands as per 2Kings 17:24. Galilee was originally
in Naphtali’s domain according to Joshua 21:32.
If we consider the
significance of numbers in the Bible ten is prominent. The steward of Abram’s
(Abraham) house was Eliezer.
Genesis 15:2 And Abram
said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward
of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?
If Abram is a type of
God the Father and Eliezer is in type the Holy Ghost, he is sent out to obtain
a bride for Isaac, his father’s beloved son, a type of Christ, with the willing
bride, Rebekah, a type of the church. Read Genesis 24. He takes ten camels with
him, perhaps signifying the Gentiles.
Genesis 24:10 ¶ And the
servant took ten camels of the camels of his master, and departed; for all the
goods of his master were in his
hand: and he arose, and went to Mesopotamia, unto the city of Nahor.
Nevertheless, be
careful when giving a certain number spiritual significance as the great danger
of such things is then seeing that significance everywhere, even where it is
not. But, here, in this passage we have ten lepers from an area of
predominantly Gentiles and people who are considered a type of counterfeit Jew,
hated and despised by the Jews. This is one of those threads of evidence that
portends that Christ has not restricted His message to the Jews only but to
others outside the fold of God’s chosen people. Jesus warned the Jews of His
day on earth;
Luke 13:28 There shall be
weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob,
and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. 29
And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God.
Only one in ten who
have experienced Christ firsthand will give glory to God and be thankful. This
reminds me of the people who come forward in a church service or raise their
hands and pray the 1-2-3-repeat-after-me “salvation” prayer so popular among
evangelicals and fundamentalists in America. Nine out of ten will never darken
the door of a church again until they are carried in and out of it by the
pallbearers at their funeral, if then.
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