The Ten Lepers: Luke 17:1-19

From: Our Lord's Miracles and Parables By: William Woldridge Fereday

Luke 17:1‑19

Tiffs striking incident happened during our Lord’s last journey from Galilee to Jerusalem. The record of it is preserved in the third Gospel only (Luke 17:1-19¹Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come! ²It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. ³Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. ⁴And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him. ⁵And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. ⁶And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you. ⁷But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? ⁸And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? ⁹Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. ¹⁰So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do. ¹¹And 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 show 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. (Luke 17:1‑19)). Ten lepers met the Saviour at His entrance into a village, and with one accord cried to Him for mercy. The fame of His deeds of power had spread from Dan to Beersheba; hence the readiness with which these victims of disease appealed to Him. Remarkably, one of them was a Samaritan, the rest being Jews. Under ordinary circumstances the nine would have spurned the company of the tenth (“for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans”); but the stress of a common disease had put them all on one level, and they apparently felt it. The greatest leveler of all is sin, of which leprosy is in Scripture the expressive type. High and low, rich and poor, religious and irreligious, are all in the same position before God in this respect; “there is no difference, for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23²³For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23)). What matters is that some owe 50 pence and some 500 if all alike have nothing wherewith to pay? (Luke 7:41-42⁴¹There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. ⁴²And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most? (Luke 7:41‑42)).

In answer to the cry of the lepers the Saviour said: “Go, show yourselves unto the priests.” Why did He act thus? Why did He not put out His hand and touch them, and so give them instantaneous healing, as with the leper of Luke 5:13¹³And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him. (Luke 5:13)? The reason appears to be that He would test them as to their confidence in His word. Their response was perfect. With no change whatever in their condition they turned their steps in the direction of the temple to offer their two birds (Lev. 14:1-4¹And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, ²This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought unto the priest: ³And the priest shall go forth out of the camp; and the priest shall look, and, behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper; ⁴Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop: (Leviticus 14:1‑4)), being confident that healing would be experienced on the road, as it really happened. “As they went they were cleansed.” Let these poor fellows read us a lesson to-day. Confidence in the divine word (for us the Scriptures) is the deepest need of our time. Higher criticism, and the “opposition of science falsely so-called” are destroying faith in the Word of God. Multitudes are weltering in unbelief, to their deadly peril. Yet blessing for us, as for the ten lepers, is only found in the way of faith; and “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom. 10:17¹⁷So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17))

A remarkable thing happened as soon as the little band became conscious that they were healed. The Samaritan broke away from his companions (who continued their journey towards the temple), and returned to Jesus, falling at His feet, and glorifying God with a loud voice. In his eyes sanctuaries, ceremonies, and priests were the veriest trivialities compared with the Son of God. The nine might occupy themselves with the religious formalities of Jerusalem, but he could only be happy at the Saviour’s feet. The Lord commended him for it in the words: “Were there not ten cleansed; but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.” If the Lord could so speak in a land where the religious ceremonies of the people were of divine institution, what would He say to-day when the ceremonies in which men pride themselves are derived partly from Judaism and partly from Paganism, all of them in defiance of the teaching of the New Testament epistles? There is nothing so spiritually barren as ceremonial religion; there is nothing that so satisfies and delights the heart as living contact with the person of the Son of God. To Him, not to religious centers, our allegiance is due; for has He not purged our sins by His blood, and does He not live now on our behalf in the glory above? Let others impoverish themselves with mere religion if they will, but let us find our all in Christ Himself.

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