the one who came back

Luke 17:11-19

Most people regard this as a lesson in gratitude: if someone does something good to you, make sure you remember to go back and thank them! maybe, but there is some significant information given that suggests another look at the story.

Jesus instructs the ten: "Go and show yourselves to the priests."

But the Samaritan, one of the ten, didn’t have anywhere to go. A Samaritan was a child of a inter-marriage, between Israelite and Assyrian (or other) – and was therefore considered a second class citizen, and certainly not a part of the “Chosen Nation” status. A Samaritan was not welcome at the Temple, nor in the broader Israelite society…

For the 9, being well meant the possibility of acceptance into the society that had rejected them… it meant to be able to enjoy social interaction again, touch, recognition, relationship and even marriage! It meant to be able to worship and participate in the activities of the Temple, reserved for the “clean” – the possibility of contact with God – no longer forgotten and forsaken.

But for the Samaritan, being well was a case of “all healed up with nowhere to go!” He lost his little community of acceptance. (How quickly they “let him go”) Before their promise was to stay together come what may, but now it suddenly became easier to return to the standards of this world.

So the Samaritan returns to the only Temple (spiritual authority) he knows – he comes to Jesus… and Jesus uses his usual words of healing to acknowledge that he was acceptable to God (even if not to the Priests at the Temple!)