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Healing of ten lepers

Luke 17:11–19 · Journey to Jerusalem

Scripture

Luke 17:11–19

nd it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. 12And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: 13And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. 14And 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. 15And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, 16And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. 17And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? 18There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. 19And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.

King James Version · public domain

Lluka 17:11–19

dhe ay kur po vinte për ndë Jerusalim, shkonte përmes Samarisë e Galilesë. 12Edhe kur po hynte ndë një fshat, përpoqnë me atë dhjetë burra të-krromosurë, të-cilëtë qëndruanë prej së-largu; 13Edhe ata ngritnë zënë, dyke thënë, Jisu, mjeshtër, përdëlle-na. 14Edhe ay kur i pa, u tha atyre, Shkoni e dëfteni vetëhenë t’uaj te priftëritë. Edhe ata dyke vaturë uqëruanë. 15Edhe një nga ata, kur pa se ushërua, ukthye dyke lavdurua-rë Perëndinë me zë të-math; 16Edhe ra përmbys ndër këmbët t’ati, e i ufal ndersë; edhe ay ishte Samarit. 17Edhe Jisuj upërgjeq e tha, A nuk’ uqëruanë të dhjetëtë? po të nëntëtë ku janë? 18Nuk’ ugjëntnë të-tjerë të kthenenë që t’i apënë lavdi Perëndisë, veç ky tjatërë-kombës? 19Edhe i tha, Ngreu, e shko; besa jote të shpëtoj.

Kristoforidhi, Dhiata e Re Toskërisht 1879 · zotërim publik

Summary

Ten lepers, standing "afar off" as the Law required, cry out together for mercy, and Christ does not heal them on the spot but sends them to show themselves to the priests. The Fathers note that the cleansing came "as they went": healing was given in the act of obedience, before any visible sign, so that faith and the will to obey are shown to work together. He fulfills the Mosaic order, sending them to the priests who alone could pronounce a leper clean, yet the power that cleanses is wholly His own.

But only one of the ten turns back, and he a Samaritan, glorifying God with a loud voice and falling at Christ's feet. The Fathers make this contrast the heart of the lesson: ingratitude is rebuked, and thanksgiving (eucharistia) is exalted as the right and saving response to grace. "Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?" The tradition hears in the nine who do not return a figure of Israel, healed yet unthankful, while the single foreigner who returns is the firstfruits of the Gentiles, who would come from afar to glorify God.

There is a deeper gift here than the cleansing of the body. All ten were made clean, but to the one who gave thanks Christ says, "thy faith hath made thee whole." The Fathers distinguish the bodily cleansing shared by all from the fuller salvation granted to the thankful one alone, for gratitude opens the soul to receive what the others let slip. Leprosy is read as a figure of sin, which isolates and corrupts; its cleansing is the work of the One who alone forgives. The passage thus teaches that grace freely given is kept and completed only by the heart that returns to give thanks.

The Cleansing of the Ten Lepers (Luke 17:11–19)

Public-Domain Patristic Commentary

On the road to Jerusalem, passing between Samaria and Galilee, the Lord is met by ten lepers who, kept at a distance by the Law, lift up their voices: "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." He does not touch them but sends them to the priests, "and it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed." Only one turns back, glorifying God with a loud voice and falling at the Lord's feet to give thanks; and he was a Samaritan. "Were there not ten cleansed?" the Lord asks. "But where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger." The Fathers read the account as both history and parable: a lesson on gratitude, on the cleansing of the soul's deeper leprosy, and on the foreigner who believed while the favored stood off. The episode is found only in Luke.

Six Fathers are gathered below, four from the East and two from the West, each quoted verbatim from a public-domain translation. Cyril's comes from his own homily on the passage; Augustine's from his book of Gospel questions; the rest are drawn from the Catena Aurea of Thomas Aquinas, in John Henry Newman's 1841 translation.

St. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376–444)

From his Commentary on Luke (Sermon on Luke 17:11–19), trans. R. Payne Smith, 1859. Public domain.

On the miracle as a plain demonstration, since the Law itself had shut the lepers out:

Again the Saviour manifests unto us His glory, and by working godlike miracles, endeavours to win senseless Israel unto faith ... The cleansing of the lepers ... was a plain demonstration of His miraculous power: for by the law of Moses they were shut out of the cities and villages, as being impure.

On the cry to the Master, and the compassion that answered it:

The lepers then having met the Saviour, earnestly besought Him to free them from their misery, and called Him Master, that is, Teacher. No one pitied them when suffering this malady: but He Who had appeared on earth for this very reason, and had become man that He might show pity unto all, He was moved with compassion for them, and had mercy upon them.

On why He sent them to the priests, and sent the healing along with them:

Why did He not rather say, "I will, be you cleansed," as He did in the case of another leper, but commanded them rather to show themselves unto the priests? It was because the law gave directions to this effect to those who were delivered from leprosy... He did not heal them first, but sent them to the priests, because the priests knew the marks of leprosy, and of its being healed. He sent them to the priests, and with them He sent also the healing.

On the nine who forgot and the stranger who returned:

The nine then, as being Jews, falling into a thankless forgetfulness, did not return to give glory to God: by which He shows that Israel was hard of heart, and utterly unthankful: but the stranger ... returned with a loud voice to glorify God. It shows therefore that the Samaritans were grateful, but that the Jews, even when benefited, were ungrateful.

Blessed Augustine of Hippo (354–430)

From his Gospel Questions (Quaestiones Evangeliorum), Book II, ch. 40, as compiled in the Catena Aurea on Luke 17 (trans. J. H. Newman, 1841). Public domain.

On the lepers as a figure of those who mix truth with error:

The lepers may be taken mystically for those who, having no knowledge of the true faith, profess various erroneous doctrines. For they do not conceal their ignorance, but brazen it forth as the highest wisdom, making a vain show of it with boasting words. But since leprosy is a blemish in color, when true things appear clumsily mixed up with false in a single discourse or narration, as in the color of a single body, they represent a leprosy streaking and disfiguring as it were with true and false dyes the color of the human form.

On standing afar off and calling to the Lord, who is the Teacher:

Now these lepers must be so put away from the Church, that being as far removed as possible, they may with loud shouts call upon Christ. But by their calling Him Teacher, I think it is plainly implied that leprosy is truly the false doctrine which the good teacher may wash away.

On the priests as a figure of the Church:

Now we find that of those upon whom our Lord bestowed bodily mercies, not one did He send to the priests, save the lepers, for the Jewish priesthood was a figure of that priesthood which is in the Church. All vices our Lord corrects and heals by His own power working inwardly in the conscience, but the teaching of infusion by means of the Sacrament, or of catechizing by word of mouth, was assigned to the Church.

On the one who gave thanks, who is the Church, and the nine left imperfect:

Such then will remain in the ninth number as imperfect. For the nine need one, that by a certain form of unity they may be cemented together, in order to become ten. But he who gave thanks was approved of as a type of the one only Church. And since these were Jews, they are declared to have lost through pride the kingdom of heaven, wherein most of all unity is preserved. But the man who was a Samaritan, which is by interpretation "guardian," ... has kept the unity of the kingdom with humble devotion.

St. Ambrose of Milan (c. 339–397)

As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Luke. Public domain.

On the place of the miracle, set after the parable, as a rebuke of ingratitude:

After speaking the foregoing parable, our Lord censures the ungrateful.

Titus of Bostra (d. c. 378)

From his Commentary on Luke, as compiled in the Catena Aurea on Luke 17 (trans. J. H. Newman, 1841). Public domain.

On the fellowship of the afflicted, and the inward leprosy the Gospel reckons unclean:

They associated together from the sympathy they felt as partakers of the same calamity, and were waiting till Jesus passed, anxiously looking out to see Him approach... for the Jewish law esteems leprosy unclean, whereas the law of the Gospel calls unclean not the outward, but the inward leprosy.

On the strangers quicker to believe than Israel:

Wherein it is shewn, that strangers were more ready to receive the faith, but Israel was slow to believe.

Theophylact of Ohrid (c. 1055–1107)

From his Explanation of the Gospel of Luke, as compiled in the Catena Aurea on Luke 17 (trans. J. H. Newman, 1841). Public domain.

On the honest heart that opens heaven even to one of a despised race:

We may gather from this that a man is not one whit hindered from pleasing God because he comes from a cursed race, only let him bear in his heart an honest purpose. Further, let not him that is born of saints boast himself, for the nine who were Israelites were ungrateful.

St. Bede the Venerable (c. 673–735)

As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Luke. Public domain.

On the falling upon his face, and the rising up to walk in mighty deeds:

He fell upon his face, because he blushes with shame when he remembers the evils he had committed. And he is commended to rise and walk, because he who, knowing his own weakness, lies lowly on the ground, is led to advance by the consolation of the divine word to mighty deeds.

On faith that heals and the unbelief that destroys:

But if faith made him whole, who hurried himself back to give thanks, therefore does unbelief destroy those who have neglected to give glory to God for mercies received. Wherefore that we ought to increase our faith by humility, as it is declared in the former parable, so in this is it exemplified in the actions themselves.

Note on sources and other Fathers

The Fathers read the cleansing on two levels at once. As history it is a lesson in gratitude and in the readiness of the outsider to believe: the nine "fell into a thankless forgetfulness" while "the stranger returned with a loud voice to glorify God" (Cyril), so that "strangers were more ready to receive the faith, but Israel was slow" (Titus of Bostra), and "a man is not one whit hindered from pleasing God because he comes from a cursed race, only let him bear in his heart an honest purpose" (Theophylact). Ambrose sets the whole scene as our Lord's censure of "the ungrateful." As parable the leprosy becomes the soul's defilement, "true things... clumsily mixed up with false in a single discourse," and the lepers are sent to the priests, for "the Jewish priesthood was a figure of that priesthood which is in the Church"; the one who gave thanks is "a type of the one only Church," while the nine, "since these were Jews," are "declared to have lost through pride the kingdom of heaven" (Augustine). Bede draws the moral close: the Samaritan "fell upon his face, because he blushes with shame when he remembers the evils he had committed," and is bidden to rise, for "faith made him whole," whereas "unbelief destroy[s] those who have neglected to give glory to God for mercies received."

Cyril and Augustine carry the two main readings, the Eastern historical and the Western allegorical, with Titus of Bostra (a fourth-century bishop whose commentary survives mostly in the catenae), Theophylact, Ambrose, and Bede supporting on specific points. The Catena Aurea (St. Thomas Aquinas, trans. J. H. Newman, 1841) also preserves a brief opening word of Titus of Bostra on the enmity between Jew and Samaritan, not separately quoted here.

Patristic sources