Secondary Level

12th Sunday of Luke - Jesus Heals the 10 Lepers

      Luke 17:12 - 19

As He was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him.  They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”  When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.”  And as they went, they were cleansed.  One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice.  He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him - and he was a Samaritan.  Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed?  Where are the other nine?  Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?“ Then He said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

The Gospel lesson for the 12^th  Sunday of Luke is an account of the healing of ten lepers.  Jesus was preaching in Galilee, along the border between Samaria and Galilee. Ten lepers came to Him and Jesus told them to go and show themselves to the Temple priests who, according to Jewish religious custom, used to verify the healing of lepers.  On the way to the priests they were miraculously healed.  Only one came back to thank Jesus.  Why did the ten men try to find Jesus?  Because they had a dreaded skin disease which caused them be isolated - to live only with other lepers, away from all other people. This is why the ten lepers waited for Jesus at the edge of a village.  They came to Jesus with an urgent physical need and they received healing.  But nine of the men who were healed didn’t seem very grateful to Jesus.  Didn’t this show that they needed spiritual healing too?  People recognize physical needs better than spiritual needs.  A few pangs of hunger will send us off to lunch.  The flu keeps most of us in bed.  Yet many people live with the hate, deep anger, bitterness, greed, emptiness and other spiritual illnesses without realizing that they need to call out to Jesus Christ for spiritual healing.  Jesus Christ wants us to call out to Him for help at all times by praying to Him.  And like the one leper who returned, we should also worship, praise and thank God at all times through our private prayer, and also together with other Orthodox Christians. in the many services of our Church.