In the previous article, we set the stage for a journey that Jesus was taking to Jerusalem, whose account starts in Luke 17:11. While He was traveling, something noteworthy happened:
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!”
Luke 17:12-13 NIV
The NIV footnote mentions that the term for leprosy might apply to other skin diseases, so we don’t have to ascribe our modern definition of leprosy exactly to these men. They may have suffered from another skin condition. Having said that, when my family went to Florida last summer and saw various animals, my wife mentioned that armadillos in particular can actually transmit leprosy (or Hansen’s disease) to humans. So, don’t pet armadillos that you see in the wild, and don’t pick up armadillos from the side of the road. (If you live in a region that has armadillos, see also What You Need to Know About Leprosy and Armadillo Control (havahart.com).)
Regardless of their exact condition, these afflicted men are showing respect to the rabbi (i.e., Jewish teacher) Jesus, by remaining at a distance. If their skin disease had been pronounced by the priests as ceremonially unclean, they shouldn’t have any direct contact with Jesus, lest they make Him ceremonially unclean as well.
Note also that the lepers asked for Jesus’ pity (NIV) or mercy (NASB). They weren’t too proud to ask for help.
Now, if we know the end of the story, it’s logical to infer that they were seeking healing from Jesus for their physical condition. Luke 7:21-23, recorded about 10 chapters earlier, indicates that Jesus had healed others with a skin disease, and if this is in chronological order, these men could have heard about that event. If they were familiar with that occurrence, or any one of many other healing signs that Jesus performed, they could be seeking the same kind of healing.
I wonder, though, if these men could have also just been seeking help for their livelihood, and were seeking alms with which to buy food. After all, if they were excluded from society because of their conditions – whether for religious reasons or just because other people didn’t want to be near them because of the risk of catching a disease – then being unclean could potentially keep them from working, and leave them dependent upon charity. Remember the lame beggar in Acts 3 (see Acts 3:1-10) who asked Peter and John for money, but received healing? In the Bible, sometimes a request for something small can be answered with something much more significant.
Luke records that the men shouted, perhaps to make themselves heard over other speakers or background noise, or just because they were far away. Jesus is kind enough to respond, and perhaps He had to shout, also.
When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.
Luke 17:14 NIV
You may not have spent a lot of time studying Leviticus 13 and 14, but the Law of Moses has a lot to say about skin diseases (and mold) in those two chapters. Some of the details might seem a little gross, but a key point is that the priests were responsible for determining whether a skin disease is defiling (making someone unclean), as well as for determining when someone had been healed of a skin disease.
A lot of this procedure was what we might call a “visual inspection”. As the men journey towards priests who can evaluate their skin’s condition (whether in Jerusalem, or somewhere in Samaria), it becomes clear – visible – to them that they are healed. When they can look at their skin and see that their condition is gone, they can have confidence that the priests will come to the same conclusion.
I like that Luke uses the term “cleansed”, rather than “cured” or “healed”. Luke was a physician, after all, but he seems to appreciate that there was more than just an external healing going on. It sounds like these men could also now become ceremonially clean, able to rejoin society for a variety of activities from which they had been excluded.
So, how about you? Do you suffer from a problem – of any kind – right now? (Most of us do.) Are you willing to raise your voice and call out to Jesus for healing, even if it takes some work to do so over the din of daily life? Or, if you have already called out to Jesus for healing, are you willing to follow His instructions for whatever comes next? Healing doesn’t always come right away (and sometimes, not even in this life) and we might need to follow some instructions from Jesus that don’t make sense (like these men heading to see a priest before they knew that they were healed). However, but in this case, asking for help and obeying Jesus were done before healing arrived.
From Sunday School lesson prepared for September 17, 2023
References:
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation.
- The College Press Commentary, Luke, by Mark C. Black. College Press Publishing Company, © 1996.
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