This morning’s Gospel reading is Luke 17:11–19:
As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem, he traveled through Samaria and Galilee. As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him. They stood at a distance from him and raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!” And when he saw them, he said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” As they were going they were cleansed.
And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. He was a Samaritan. Jesus said in reply, “Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?” Then he said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.”
What does it mean to live outside of the love of the Lord? And what does it require to live within it?
Today's Gospel once again refers to the Samaritans, who occasionally appear in both the Old and New Testaments. One of the most well-known parables of Jesus, the Good Samaritan, has become an indispensable part of Western culture as a lesson in love and brotherhood. At other times, Samaritans enter the scriptures directly, as in this passage or with the Samaritan woman at the well.
Who were the Samaritans, and what makes them important in today's readings? Samaritans were -- and still are, by the way -- the descendants of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. After the Assyrians conquered them, many were led into slavery, but some remained and intermarried with the Assyrians and later the Babylonians. They began to practice a heterodox form of Judaism and claimed to have the true Mosaic temple, leading to millennia of enmity with those in Judea, who considered Samaritans as heretics. They first appear in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah after the restoration of Jerusalem at the end of the Babylonian captivity, when the Samaritans oppose the project and interfere with Nehemiah's efforts (Nehemiah 6).
To this day, Samaritans remain in the region, and continue to practice their parallel version of Judaism, although only a few hundred remain in the upper West Bank and neighboring areas of Israel. Both sides continue to believe that the other is heretical, although the enmity has long since passed. They are outsiders to each other today, as they were outsiders in the time of Jesus, and as the Gospels make clear, not much love has been lost between the two.
It is this situation that Jesus used in the parable of the Good Samaritan to impress upon His followers the necessity of love that extends beyond community. His revelation to the Samaritan woman of His true nature surprised Jesus' disciples, not just because of her gender but because they understood the Scriptures to mean that salvation would come to the Israelites -- meaning the Judeans. This would have unsettled them to the core, perhaps causing them to wonder if Jesus came to proclaim the Samaritans as the rightful descendants of Moses and the prophets.
That, however, is not what Jesus is teaching here at all. Jesus uses the Samaritans to remind us that identity is not the issue for salvation. What is the issue, then?
To answer this, we must go to our first reading, where the prophet Elisha heals the commander of an Aram-Damascus army of leprosy. Naaman had favor with the Lord, according to 2 Kings 5:1-2, but worshiped the same idol as his king in Aram-Damascus. When afflicted with disease, his wife's servant -- an Israelite girl from the Northern Kingdom -- implores him to seek healing from her people. The king refuses, as he suspects a ruse, but Elisha urges the king to send Naaman to him. When Elisha tells Naaman to bathe seven times in the Jordan, he almost stomps off in a huff, but his wife's servant urges him to comply.
Naaman goes to the Jordan and immerses himself as directed, in what clearly foreshadows John the Baptist's ministry. Naaman is miraculously healed, and does what the Samaritan in our Gospel reading did -- gives thanks. More importantly, he offers sacrifice, atonement, and faith:
Naaman returned with his whole retinue to the man of God. On his arrival he stood before Elisha and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel. Please accept a gift from your servant.”
Elisha replied, “As the LORD lives whom I serve, I will not take it;” and despite Naaman’s urging, he still refused. Naaman said: “If you will not accept, please let me, your servant, have two mule-loads of earth, for I will no longer offer holocaust or sacrifice to any other god except to the LORD.”
This demonstrates what Jesus wanted His disciples to learn from his parable of the Good Samaritan, and from His outreach to Samaritans and others -- including Romans -- during His mission. Identity does not matter; faith matters. The Lord created the original Israel as a path for the world to learn His Word and to be reconciled to Him. Israel was to serve as His oracle of love to all peoples, to call them back as Elisha called Naaman to healing. Even when the Israelites abandoned that mission, the prophets strove to fulfill it and to call them back to abide by the Lord's will and keep His protection. Later, Jesus founded the Church to go out into the world and bring the Word to all nations, offering the Good News of complete healing through Christ.
In truth, we are all outsiders in the only way that matters. When we live in sin, we live outside of the Word. Our identities will not save us, nor will our heritage or lineages. The healing of Christ is for all who choose to accept Him and live in His sacrifice for us, as imperfectly as we may do so, as long as we participate in His mission and seek to repent and atone for our sins. The nine who were healed by Jesus in this passage did not grasp that, nor express gratitude for the healing they did nothing to "earn" or "deserve." Only the outsider -- by the standards of the world -- understood the nature of the gift he had been given, and expressed gratitude and faith in it.
This is the model that orients us to the nature of our relationship with the Lord. We choose sin (otherwise, it is not sin), and we choose to be outside of His love. Only by recognizing that can we begin to grasp the beauty and love of His gift of healing and welcome to us through Christ -- and only that will prompt us to respond in faith and gratitude.
Naaman's rebirth can be our own in Christ. We only need to immerse ourselves in our own baptism constantly and recognize His love for us. Our faith in His healing will allow us to be reborn in Him, no matter what identity or lineage precedes it. Our true identity will be revealed as children of God and disciples of Christ's love.
Previous reflections on these readings:
- Perseverance, gratitude, and a hat: Sunday reflection (2022)
- Sin, separation, and salvation: Sunday reflection (2021, indirect)
- A thank you might be nice: Sunday reflection (2019)
- Sunday reflection: Luke 17:11–19 (2016)
The front page image is "Elisha Refuses Naaman's Gifts" by Ferdinand Bol, 1661. On display at the Amsterdam Museum in the Netherlands. Via Wikimedia Commons.
“Sunday Reflection” is a regular feature that looks at the specific readings used in today’s Mass in Catholic parishes around the world. The reflection represents only my own point of view, intended to help prepare myself for the Lord’s day and perhaps spark a meaningful discussion. Previous Sunday Reflections from the main page can be found here.
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