Scott's Thoughts

Healing the Samaritan Leper

With Thanksgiving Day in mind, I preached on Luke 17:11-19 this past Sunday morning. In this passage, Jesus heals ten lepers but only one, a Samaritan, returns to Christ to give him thanks. The main point of my message was that wherever there is true faith and trust in Christ, there will also be heart-felt thanksgiving to him for his mercies. The Samaritan showed his faith in giving thanks to Jesus. In response to his exuberant thanksgiving, Jesus confirms him in his faith by saying, "your faith has saved you" (v.19). In response to the good news of the death and resurrection of Christ to save us from our sins, the question that presses upon us is not just, "Do I believe this gospel?", but also, "Do I give thanks to God for this gospel?".

That was the jist of my message on Sunday morning. But another thought occurred to me as I was reflecting on the passage. It is interesting that Jesus tells all ten men to "Go and show yourselves to the priests" (v.14), when one of them is a Samaritan. I am no expert on the religious and social circumstances of Jesus' day, but I do know that Samaritans were not part of Israel's religious life. For that reason, I would think that a Samaritan would not go to the Jewish priests for inspection of his (now-healed) leprosy as the Jews would have done.

If that is the case, perhaps the Samaritan's going to Christ rather than to the priests is a subtle testimony to the truth that Christ is the new Priest and the new Temple. The Samaritan is one step ahead of the Jews in his understanding of the times. Although it was Christ who commanded the lepers to go to the priests, it would not be long before the function of the Israelite priesthood would be fully taken up by him in his mediatorial work before God on behalf of sinners. The Samaritan, in anticipation of this, goes not to the current priests of the old covenant but directly to the One who would soon establish himself as the High Priest of the new covenant (Heb. 8).