Sunday 13 October 2013

Background

One of the many interesting features of Luke's Gospel is hisgeography. When he tells us very precisely where something happenedthere is always a good reason. So, "the region between Samaria andGalilee" is a clue that something significant is going on. NormallyGalilean Jews and Samaritan Jews would keep their distance fromeach other because of their ancient religious disputes (see here for some background) so the boundarybetween Samaria and Galilee was a religious one, as well as beingpolitical and geographical.

It was a slightly 'fuzzy' boundary though - a kind ofno-man's-land - which was inhabited by those people who werewelcome in neither Samaria nor Galilee. Especially lepers, who wereregarded by Jews, whether Galilean or Samaritan, as 'ceremoniallyunclean' (because of their bleeding sores - contact with blood wasto be avoided at all costs) and they were forced to live asoutcasts away from 'clean' people. (You can read all about a rangeof unpleasant skin diseases in Leviticus 13.) So for Jesus to venture intothis region, and enter a leper colony, was extremely odd.

What happens next is fascinating. This particular leper colony wasmixed - Galileans and Samaritans thrown together as religious andsocial outcasts, united by their suffering. And they recognisedJesus as someone who could help them. Just being in the presence ofJesus was enough for them - they didn't dare get too close - andthey asked him to heal them so that they could return to theirhomes and families as 'clean' people. Jewish law required them tobe checked by a priest before this could happen, and Jesus simplysent them off and, as they obeyed him, they were "madeclean".

But the Samaritan who came back to Jesus to thank him was the onlyone to praise God for his healing (or 'salvation' - the same wordin Greek). And that, too, is highly significant.

To Ponder

• Part of Luke's purpose in his Gospel was to show that salvationwas not restricted to the Jews. Why do you think that religiouspeople tend to draw boundaries beyond which salvation is notpossible?

• In Luke's Gospel, much of Jesus' ministry is 'on the boundary'.Where are the boundaries for the Church's mission today?

• How much do you think the healing of the ten lepers depended onJesus, and how much on them? Was there anything different about theSamaritan's healing?