11 On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. 12 And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance 13 and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” 14 When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; 16 and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” Luke 17: 11-19 ESV
Luke 17: 11-19
John MacArthur - Up to this point, Luke has focused on Jesus’ coming, detailing the angelic announcement of His birth to Mary the account of His birth, the incident in the temple when He was twelve, His baptism by John, His temptation by Satan, and the first two and a half years of His ministry as Messiah, reaching its pinnacle at the transfiguration. But at this point, the whole tenor of Luke’s gospel changes. The focus is no longer on Jesus’ coming, but on His going. The Galilean ministry is over, and He is on His way for the final time to His passion in Jerusalem. Although the Lord would, in the few intervening months of His Judean ministry, make brief return visits to Galilee (e.g., Lk 17:11-37), Galilee was no longer His base of operations. Much of the material in this travelogue (cf. Lk 9:52, 57; 10:1, 38; 13:22, 33; 17:11; 18:35; 19:1, 11, 28-29) of Christ’s final journey to the cross (Lk 9:51-19:27) is unique to Luke’s gospel. Of the other gospel writers, only John records features from the months in Judea (John 7-11). (See Luke Commentary) - Precept Austin
On the way to Jerusalem - This is nearing the end of His ministry. Jesus is on His way to being the Passover Lamb.
…6I offered My back to those who struck Me, and My cheeks to those who tore out My beard. I did not hide My face from scorn and spittle. 7Because the Lord GOD helps Me, I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set My face like flint, and I know that I will not be put to shame. 8The One who vindicates Me is near. Who will dare to contend with Me? Let us confront each other! Who has a case against Me? Let him approach Me!… Isaiah 50: 6-8
He was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance - Leprosy is one of the saddest of diseases, an ancient disease, an ostracizing disease. These men are not a welcome sight to the people of this area, and are unclean, so they stand at a distance. Remember also, to the Pharisees this means that these men were sinners of a special sort. A remarkable symptom of it, with a great spiritual application, is that those that have it don't feel it, they don't feel. They are numb to all the warning signals.
Dr. Paul Brand is the modern, world-renowned expert on leprosy, gives us some wonderful insight in a modern up-to-date look. It's called Hansen's Disease, HD. It is cruel, not at all the way other diseases are. It primarily acts as an anesthetic, numbing the pain cells of hands, feet, nose, eyes, ears. Not so bad really, one might think; most diseases are felt because of their pain. What makes a painless disease so horrible? Hansen's Disease's numbing quality is precisely the reason it is so horrible. For thousands of years people thought this disease caused the ulcers on hands and feet and face which eventually led to rotting flesh and loss of limbs. Mainly through Dr. Brand's research it's been established that in 99 percent of the cases HD only numbs the extremities, the destruction follows solely because the warning system of pain is gone. Basically people destroy their own limbs.
How does the decay happen? In villages of Africa and Asia, a person with HD has been known to reach directly into a charcoal fire to retrieve a dropped potato. Nothing in his body tells him not to. Patients at Brand's hospital in India would work all day gripping a shovel with a protruding nail or extinguish a burning wick with their bare hands or walk on splintered glass. Watching them, Brand began formulating his radical theory that HD was chiefly anesthetic and only indirectly a destroyer. On one occasion he tried to open the door of a little storeroom but a rusty padlock would not yield. A patient, an undersized, malnourished, ten-year-old approached him smiling, "Let me try, Sahib Doctor," he offered and reached for the key. With a quick jerk of his hand, he turned the key in the rusty lock. Brand was dumbfounded. How could this weak youngster show more strength than him? His eyes caught a tell-tale clue. Was that a drop of blood on the floor? Upon examining the boy's fingers, Brand discovered the act of turning the key had gashed the finger open to the bone. Skin, fat, and joint were all exposed yet the boy was completely unaware of it.
The daily routine of life grinds away at the HD patient's hands and feet. No warning system alerts him. If an ankle is turned, tearing tendon and muscle, he will adjust and walk crooked. If a rat chews off a finger in the night, he will not discover it even missing until the next morning. And so the sad story goes.
Stanley Stein went blind because of another quirk of HD. Each morning he would wash his face with a hot washcloth. But neither his hand nor his face was sensitive enough to temperature to warning him that he was using scalding water, gradually destroyed his eyes. That's how it worked. - J Mac sermon on Luke 17 Ten Men Healed, One Man Saved
Jesus, Master, have mercy on us - They cry out from a respectful distance. At this point Jesus is famous, and they know that He has healed more people than the Scriptures even report. All of His healings point to Who He is. He has power over life, death, nature, and a lot of people today even realize that about God, that He has that power, and for that they would gladly come to Him, but let's read on.
29As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Him. 30And there were two blind men sitting beside the road. When they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!” 31The crowd admonished them to be silent, but they cried out all the louder, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!”… Matthew 20: 29-31
…24This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who has written them down. And we know that his testimony is true. 25 There are many more things that Jesus did. If all of them were written down, I suppose that not even the world itself would have space for the books that would be written. John 21: 24-25
Go and show yourselves to the priest - This was part of the Mosaic law concerning diseases of the skin. Note, Jesus has no issue in following the actual laws of God, and teaching others to do so. This was legit, it was Biblical, but where He differs from the religious rulers of that day is that He puts God's word above their traditions. They add to the law thinking it makes them more righteous, they pervert the law in their teachings thinking that their wording or supposed good they do makes it okay. Whenever they attack Jesus on His actions or deeds, it is according their apostasy and bad interpretations. It's plain to see here that He upholds God's law, and in sending these men to present themselves this is one of the greatest calling cards you could send a priest. Who can heal leprosy, ten lepers at once no less, and then because there are still priests, Jesus sends the lepers to them, so how should a priest respond? Leviticus 13 and 14 go deep into the subject of leprosy. The priest pronounce them unclean, and it is the priest who must evaluate them before they come back into the camp as healed, clean.
1Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, 2“When someone has a swelling or rash or bright spot on his skin that could become an infectious skin disease, he must be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons who is a priest. 3The priest is to examine the infection on his skin, and if the hair in the infection has turned white and the sore appears to be deeper than the skin, it is a skin disease. After the priest examines him, he must pronounce him unclean.… Leviticus 13: 1-3
2 “This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing. Now he shall be brought to the priest,
3 and the priest shall go out to the outside of the camp. Thus the priest shall look, and if the infection of leprosy has been healed in the leper,
4 then the priest shall give orders to take two live clean birds and cedar wood and a scarlet string and hyssop for the one who is to be cleansed.
5 “The priest shall also give orders to slay the one bird in an earthenware vessel over running water.
6 “As for the live bird, he shall take it together with the cedar wood and the scarlet string and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the live bird in the blood of the bird that was slain over the running water.
7 “He shall then sprinkle seven times the one who is to be cleansed from the leprosy and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the live bird go free over the open field.
8 “The one to be cleansed shall then wash his clothes and shave off all his hair and bathe in water and be clean. Now afterward, he may enter the camp, but he shall stay outside his tent for seven days. Leviticus 14: 2-8
16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. 17Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. 18For I tell you truly, until heaven and earth pass away, not a single jot, not a stroke of a pen, will disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.… Matthew 5: 16-18
As they went they were cleansed - They were healed in this life. They went to Jesus about something troubling, as anyone who knows a physician should. He healed their physical, present ailment. Astounding, I can barely imagine what this was like for men who had been cast out of society, relegated to a life as beggars. They can go and present themselves to the priest and then be allowed back into society, allowed to go home. They can be touched now and feel it.
Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back - One of them, this is important. They all went to Jesus to be healed of a disease that is bound to this temporal body, and now they all realize that they received from Jesus what they asked, but only one of them turns back. This is fantastic, the priest will be at the temple, but the actual temple of God, the One that the earthly temple only foreshadowed, he had just left Him and was now going back to Him. The spirit of God had long ago left the temple in Jerusalem, and it was now a place of apostasy. Remember, Ichabod, and the first half of Ezekiel, watching the glory of the Lord departing from the temple? The only time God has been in the temple since Solomon's temple is when Jesus entered it, but they did not recognize Him.
MacArthur on the faith of the 10 lepers - Do they have faith? Sure they have faith. They have a meager, basic faith in a healer. They have faith in the power and compassion of Jesus....Were they cleansed because they believed? Well it was a meager faith and Jesus asked them to demonstrate that meager faith. They were basically healed because He chose to heal them, but He involved their faith in it. There were times when Jesus healed people because they believed. There were many times when He healed people who didn't believe. In fact, there were times when He raised dead people and they can't believe. So there were times when faith played a role, and times when it did not. But in this case, He asked them to exhibit enough faith to do what He said. (Ten Men Healed, One Man Saved) - Precept Austin
…20As she was dying, the women attending to her said, “Do not be afraid, for you have given birth to a son!” But she did not respond or pay any heed. 21And she named the boy Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel,” because the ark of God had been captured and her father-in-law and her husband had been killed. 22“The glory has departed from Israel,” she said, “for the ark of God has been captured.”… 1 Samuel 4: 20-22
…17When the cherubim stood still, the wheels also stood still, and when they ascended, the wheels ascended with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. 18Then the glory of the LORD moved away from the threshold of the temple and stood above the cherubim. 19As I watched, the cherubim lifted their wings and rose up from the ground, with the wheels beside them as they went. And they stopped at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the LORD, with the glory of the God of Israel above them.… Ezekiel 10: 17-19
Praising God with a loud voice - His response is proper, it was something he couldn't do for himself. It could not be explained away or attributed to other means. God healed him, that is where this power was from. It wasn't the technology of the time; they didn't have that. It wasn't positive or wishful thinking that somehow pronounced itself unguided and spontaneously in these 10 men at the same time.
He fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving Him thanks - This was prone, the position of worship, of unworthiness touched by unfathomable mercy. He came humbly before the God Who healed him. He found the true temple wherein all the fullness of the Creator was pleased to dwell.
12 What shall I render to the Lord
For all His benefits toward me?
13 I shall lift up the cup of salvation
And call upon the name of the Lord.
14 I shall pay my vows to the Lord,
Oh may it be in the presence of all His people.
15 Precious in the sight of the Lord
Is the death of His godly ones. Psalm 116: 12-15
…8See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ. 9For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity dwells in bodily form. 10And you have been made complete in Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.… Colossians 2: 8-10
Now he was a Samaritan - The only one that came back was someone who was not only physically outside the camp due to his leprosy, but also by birth he would be considered a gentile. The more "pious" Jews would walk an extra days journey to avoid going through Samaria. Let that sink in when Jesus tells the story of the "good Samaritan". I'm sure the Pharisees loved that one.
…8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9“You are a Jew,” said the woman. “How can You ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God and who is asking you for a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”… John 4: 8-10
Spurgeon on he was a Samaritan - Ah, me! nine of the seed of Israel were ungrateful, and only one poor outcast Gentile was grateful to the Lord for the miracle of healing that had been wrought....One of those off-casts and out-casts that the Jews would not own, — one of the men that they said were of a mongrel breed, — only half Israelite and half idolater. “O grace, it is thy want, Into unlikeliest hearts to come!” (Luke 17 - exposition)
MacArthur on Samaritans - According to John 4:9 the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans, they hated each other. Samaritans had intermarried with Gentiles and from a Jewish standpoint polluted their race, polluted their religion. They had a strange, hybrid religion on Mount Gerizim and were despised by the Jews who had no relationships with them. Surely no one would expect God to heal a Samaritan. - Precept Austin
Were not ten cleansed - Yes Sir.
…12Then they believed His promises and sang His praise. 13Yet they soon forgot His works and failed to wait for His counsel. 14They craved intensely in the wilderness and tested God in the desert.… Psalm 106: 12-14
Where are the nine - Remember, Jesus is always teaching, and so think about the question. He sent them to the priest, so they are on their way to the priest. Once they are examined by the priest and pronounced whole, clean, then they will enter back into society. They will get their temporal lives back. Don't pretend to be shocked, He is pointing this out so that His students, and we, the future readers, examine ourselves. He had plenty of people hanging around him to see miracles, to receive healings. He even had a massive group of people that wanted Him to be some socialist guru that they could follow around like a Grateful Dead tour or a Rainbow gathering. Remember, those were the people who came and were fed at the feeding of the 5,000 and the 4,000, many of whom left after they heard His teaching and realized they didn't like His call of discipleship, the call of self denial. He even directly calls some out on this and sends them away. The zealots would want Him if He would behave like a political and military conqueror. The Pharisees would like that, but also for Him to acknowledge their works, to see them like they see themselves. The crowds would carry Him up on their hands like a rock star if He would just keep coming out, embarrassing the religious rulers and Rome, and feeding them for free. You want to know where the nine are spiritually? Still dead, they got all they wanted from Jesus and they are done with Him, ready to live "their lives" now. They have already moved on.
25When they found Him on the other side of the sea, they asked Him, “Rabbi, when did You get here?” 26 Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, it is not because you saw these signs that you are looking for Me, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27Do not work for food that perishes, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on Him God the Father has placed His seal of approval.”… John 6: 25-27
Your faith has made you well - Now they had all already been healed. Everyone had believed that Jesus could do that, but only one was humbled by it, only one came back to worship God. Some are content with just being healed now, and some back then thought that was the only problem they had, I mean otherwise the nine were related to Abraham, and so took for granted the life which is to come. Did you just come for a meal, for a healing, for present and passing things? I know I was guilty of such for a long time and was even angry at God for not giving me what I wanted now. I hate epilepsy, I hated the looks of pity worn on the faces of my friends and family as I would be coming back to consciousness, as I would get a sense of the urine in my pants and on my skin, and begin to realize what had just taken place. My pride couldn't take it, and I just wanted to be well so I could go on my way. I was like the dumb little kid who would trade his dime for a nickel because the nickel was bigger, only that analogy does no justice to the prospect of eternity.
And He said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith (pistis) has made you well (sozo)-- Faith (pistis) describes belief directed toward a person or thing, in this case conviction or belief that Jesus was the Messiah. We see this same sense in Mt 9:2 "And they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, “Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven. (cf Mt 9:6)” In Luke 5:20 Jesus "Seeing their (to those lowering the paralyzed man to Jesus - Lk 5:19) faith, He said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.” And note this man had the same reaction as the leper "And at once he rose up before them, and took up what he had been lying on, and went home, glorifying God." (Lk 5:25+)
The English translation of made well misses a critical truth in this section. Why? Because all 10 were made well physically, but only one was made well spiritually! In Luke 17:15 the verb is iaomai which in the context speaks of physical healing. But here in Lk 17:19 the verb is sozo which clearly speaks of spiritual healing. In short, the Samaritan has been saved by grace through faith (Eph 2:8-9). It is interesting that most of the modern versions (NAS, NIV, ESV, NLT, CSB, NET) while translating "made you well" also have a marginal note "has saved you." Admittedly, there are some contexts in which sozo can mean something less than salvation, but in this context it is obvious that Luke is describing salvation. It is also notable that sozo is in the perfect tense, signifying action in the past with continuing or abiding effect.
MacArthur on your faith - You see in this man trust and gratitude and humility and commitment and love and praise and worship, all components of a faith that's way beyond the other nine. It's a faith that embraces Jesus as God, as Lord. It's a faith that bows humbly in recognition of one's lowliness in His presence. It's a faith that Jesus says saves. - Precept Austin
…2Just then some men brought to Him a paralytic lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.” 3On seeing this, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming!” 4But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said, “Why do you harbor evil in your hearts?…
…5Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk?’ 6But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...” Then He said to the paralytic, “Get up, pick up your mat, and go home.” 7And the man got up and went home.… Matthew 9: 2-7
