Unlike the story of the Good Samaritan, the account of the grateful Samaritan found in Luke 17:11-19 is not as well-known. Nevertheless, there is much we can learn about faith, healing, and gratitude in this passage.
We read in Luke 17:12-13 that as Jesus passed through the village, there were ten lepers who stood afar off and cried out to Jesus for mercy. Under the Old Testament commandment found in Leviticus 13:45-46, lepers had to be excluded from the community and could not come close to anyone healthy for fear of spreading the disease. As such, the ten lepers could only find company amongst themselves.
It is interesting that they met Jesus as soon as He entered the village. They did not wait to catch Jesus’ attention at a more opportune time, or perhaps when the crowd died down. They were so convinced that Jesus could heal them that they made it a priority to ask for His healing as soon as He entered the village.
The ten lepers also trusted in God’s providence. We read in Luke 17:13 that they simply asked for mercy from Jesus. From their request, they acknowledged that Jesus had the ability to remove their afflictions. They also had faith in the compassion and mercy of Jesus, believing that He would grant them the healing they so greatly desired.
Jesus responded to them by telling them to present themselves to the priests. Back then, there were no doctors available, and it was the duty of priests to determine if one was clean and could be included in society, or unclean and had to be excluded from society (Lev 13:2). The ten lepers obeyed Jesus and were healed as they were going to see the priests.
One of the lepers, on his way to the priest to be declared clean, turned back to give thanks to Jesus upon seeing that he was completely healed. To that grateful Samaritan, giving thanks to and glorifying God was more important than being restored to society. Sadly, for the other nine lepers, as soon as they received what they wanted from Jesus, they forgot about Him.
While we can learn from the faith of the ten lepers who trusted in Jesus’ power to heal, let us also learn from the example of the grateful Samaritan who did not forget God after his prayers were answered.
Let us always remember to be thankful and grateful towards God for all his blessings (Php 4:6), knowing that every good and perfect gift comes from Him.