The Healing of the Ten Lepers
Luke 17:12-19
From The Explanation of the Gospel of St. Luke
by Blessed Theophylact, Archbishop of Ochrid and Bulgaria
11-19.
And it came to pass, as He went to Jerusalem, that He passed through
the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as He entered into a certain
village, there met Him ten men that were lepers, who stood afar off: and
they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.
And when He saw them, He said unto them, Go show yourselves unto the
priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.
And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a
loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving
Him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were
there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? There are not found any
that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And He said unto
him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole. From
this one may learn that nothing prevents a man from living in a manner
pleasing to God, not even if he belongs to a despised race, if only he
has a good will and disposition. For behold, ten lepers met Jesus as He
was about to enter a certain city. They met Him outside the city, for
those who were considered unclean were not permitted to go into the
city. They stood afar off, as if ashamed
of their supposed uncleanness, and did not dare to draw near, thinking
that Jesus abhorred them as did the others. They lifted up their voices and made supplication. By physical location they were standing afar off, but in their supplication they were near. For the Lord is nigh unto all that call upon Him in truth
(Ps. 144:19). And they did not make supplication to Him as to a mere
man, but as to One greater than a man. For they called Him Master, meaning Lord, Protector, and Guardian, which is not far from thinking of Him as God.
The
Lord instructs them to show themselves to the priests. Initially the
priests would examine men such as these to determine whether they were
lepers or not. For there were certain signs by which the priests could
recognize incurable leprosy. But in addition to this, if it should
happen that someone who had been suffering from leprosy was healed, the
priests would again examine him to verify the cure, in which event the
gift commanded by the law would be offered (Lev. 14). In this case,
since these men were already confirmed lepers, why should they show
themselves to the priests, unless indeed they were about to be cleansed?
To command them to go the priests indicated nothing less than that they
would be healed. This is why the Evangelist says that as they went, they were cleansed. Of
the ten lepers, the nine who were Israelites showed themselves to be
ungrateful, while it was the Samaritan, an accursed foreigner, as we
said earlier, who returned to voice his gratitude. The Samaritans were
Assyrians; therefore, let no Gentile despair, and let no one descended
from holy forebears boast. This miracle also signifies the common
salvation that came to the whole human race. For the ten lepers
represent all of human nature—it was leprous with wickedness, carrying
about with it the ugliness of sin, passing its life outside the heavenly
city on account of its uncleanness, and standing afar off
from God. But this very distance from God is itself a supplication. For
when the Lover of mankind, Who wills that all should be saved and
receive good things, sees someone who is not sharing in His goodness,
then He is most quick to show mercy and to heal those who are so
miserably afflicted. But He also healed the whole leprous nature of man,
when, for every mans sake, He took flesh and tasted of death. Although
the Jews had been cleansed of the uncleanness of their leprous sin, as
far as it was the Lords part to do, they showed themselves ungrateful
and did not return from the path of their vain foolishness to give glory
to God Who saved them, that is, to believe in Him Who is God and Who
endured the extremes of suffering. For this is the glory of God: His
Flesh and His Cross. These Jews, then, did not confess the incarnate and
crucified Lord of glory. But the foreign and accursed people of the
Gentiles recognized the One Who makes clean, and they glorified Him by
believing in Him. They believed that God loves man so much and is so
powerful that He accepted the very depth of dishonor for our sake—this
is His love of man; and having accepted it, He suffered no harm to His
own nature—this is His power.
