Logos -- Luke 17:11-19

One of the lectionary readings for this week is from Luke 17:11-19. It is the story about 10 lepers who are healed by Jesus. One of them, a Samaritan came back and thanked him. Jesus says to him:

Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."

When I was a kid, I went to a Lutheran church for a little while with a friend of mine. I remember this passage from that time.

At the time I thought that Jesus seemed pretty upset with the 9 lepers who did not return to thank him. Everyone knew that when someone did something nice for you -- helped you in some way -- that you were supposed to thank him. I decided Jesus was angry with them for their ingratitude -- for their rudeness.

As I read it today, a few other possibilities occur to me.

• Gratitude toward God is more than just courtesy. It is an acknowledgement that God is God, and we are not.
• I never noticed before that the one leper who returns in a Samaritan -- a foreigner. I wonder if this detail was included to make the point that the chosen people -- the Israelites, especially the most "religious" of them -- had forgotten who God was, and their need to listen and obey Him.
• I'm struck by the line, "Your faith has made you well." All 10 of the lepers were healed of their physical illness. It seems here that Jesus is telling the one grateful Samaritan that he is healed - more than the others.

Gratitude toward God is a statement of faith. I think it says, "God, thank you. I believe in you, and I am grateful for the blessings you have placed on my life. You have transformed me, and I am healed."

Our faith can make us well.

Image: It was a perfectly beautiful day. No rain, no rain clouds. And yet there was a rainbow.