The Rev. Virginia W. Nagel
Ephphatha Parish of the Deaf
Episcopal Diocese of Central NY
Many years ago, a Sunday School teacher used today's Gospel reading as a text to teach her class about good manners. Of course, that teacher's priorities were a bit warped, even though the topic of "manners" does come into the story!
Well, we will get to that, pretty soon. But first let's look carefully at the Bible story.
Jesus and his disciples were entering a village near the border of Samaria and Judah. Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, is in the area of the tribe of Judah. And, of course, the Temple was located in Jerusalem.
Samaria was built at the time that the nation of Israel broke into two parts. After the glorious days of King David and his son, King Solomon, Solomon's sons got into an argument about who would be king after Solomon died. Solomon had married many wives, and some of them were not Jewish. The wives that were not Jewish had brought their children up to worship the various pagan gods and goddesses, not the true God. Well, the argument between the brothers turned into a civil war, and it happened that the war resulted in the nation of Israel breaking into two parts, pretty much the same as the United States did during our civil war. The northern part of Israel kept the name of Israel, and the southern part called itself Judah, since that was the name of the most numerous tribe in that area.
The king of Israel built Samaria as his capital city, and his half-brother, the king of Judah, continued to use Jerusalem as his capital.
Samaria followed the preference of its new king, and worshiped a variety of gods and goddesses. It mixed these pagan religions with Judaism. Judah continued to follow the law that God had given to Moses long ago.
As time went on, the people of Judah looked down their noses at the people of Israel and especially Samaria, because of their mixture of religious practices. And at different times, the people and the kings of Samaria did a number of things that made the people of Judah very angry with them. For these reasons, good Jews tried to avoid going through Samaria, even after the Roman army did away with both kings and substituted puppet rulers. Good Jews would not accept food or drink from a Samaritan. They would not eat with a Samaritan or have anything to do with the people of Samaria.
And so: Jesus and his followers were at the edge of a village near the border of Samaria. A group of ten men came toward Jesus, calling out that they wanted to be healed. All ten had leprosy. The law would not let them come close to anyone who did not have leprosy. They had to stay several yards away and call out.
Jesus did have pity on them, and told them to go to the Temple and show themselves to the priest. As they walked toward Jerusalem, their leprosy was healed and the men were pronounced cured by the priest.
Well, what would you do if you were cured, almost instantly, from some terrible disease that had kept you separated from your family and home for many years? Maybe you'd jump in the air and holler "whooopeee!" Maybe you'd run home and tell your family that you could move back in again. Maybe you'd run around telling the news to everybody you knew and, probably, a lot of people you didn't know.
We do not know what nine of the men did. Probably they did some of those things.
We do know, because the Bible tells us, that one man came back and looked all over for Jesus, and found him, and fell on his knees to say "thank you." And that man was a Samaritan.
And Jesus noticed. He asked, Were not ten men made clean and whole? Where are the other nine? Didn't anybody come to give thanks except the one not of our country, not of our religion...the one from Samaria?
All of this leaves us with some interesting questions to think about:
- How come the Jews and Samaritans were together in this bunch of ten men? Did having the same sickness, and being excluded from society, make them get together for comfort and safety, or what?
- Was there only one Samaritan in the group? Or were there more than one?
- Do you think it would be difficult for the Samaritan to go to the Temple in Jerusalem, a temple not of his own faith, to show himself to the priest?
- Why do you think the "good Jews" failed to thank Jesus for the cure of their
leprosy? Why do you think the Samaritan came back to thank Jesus?
- What does all this make you think about the story of Jesus and the woman at the well in Samaria, and the story of the Good Samaritan?
It also leaves us with some questions to ask ourselves in the depths of our own hearts:
- Do I thank God for the good things he gives me?
- Is it ever wrong to praise and thank God?
- What do you think is the "right" way to ask God for a favor, like healing?
