Luke 17:11-19--Jesus Cleanses Ten Lepers

Luke 17:11-19
English Standard Version
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Jesus Cleanses Ten Lepers
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.”

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Luke points out that Jesus is still on His way to Jerusalem, but now He's back in Galilee on the border of Samaria.  He entered a village and a group of ten lepers, nine of them Jewish and one a Samaritan, approached Him, even though this was against the Law, for they were unclean because of their leprosy (see Leviticus 13 and 14, this will give you some context as to why Jesus will tell them to show themselves to the priest later).

The lepers cry out to Jesus to have mercy on them, and He does.  He heals all of them.  It's unclear from this passage if they only came to Jesus for physical healing or if they also came because they knew they had the disease of sin that made them just as unclean before God and was just as incurable by man--both took a miracle of God to cure, and leprosy is a picture of how sin in both the Old Testament an New Testament.

Jesus only tells them to go show themselves to the priests, which they would do once they were healed, but they were not healed until they went on their way in faith believing that they would be healed by the time that they got to the priest.  The nine Jewish lepers seemingly continued on their way simply to fulfil the Law, but the one Samaritan leper in the group (who probably wouldn't get an audience with the priest anyways since he was a Samaritan), came back to thank Jesus and praise God for the miracle that has been done.  He even fell on his face before Jesus while thanking Him.

Jesus points out the irony to the crowd that the only one to return to give thanks was the Samaritan in the group.  None of the Jews had returned to recognize their Messiah, but it seems this Samaritan recognized Him for who He was and recognized that this was a miracle of God that he had been healed.  Jesus tells the man to rise and go on his way because his faith has made him well.

This story leaves me personally longing for more.  Did the other nine ever return to Jesus?  Did any of the ten lepers including the one that returned to give thanks ever realize their sin condition was as bad or worse than their leprosy and they needed Jesus to heal that too?  We don't know that answer and we don't need to know them, but this miracle demonstrates once again that Jesus did things that only God was supposed to be able to do.  While there are other instances of people being healed of leprosy in the Bible, they are rare, and they always involved the intervention of a "man of God" interceding for the one who was leprous.  Jesus doesn't need to pray to God (I'm not saying He didn't pray to the Father here) because He is God the Son and He could will these ten men to be clean form their sin just as easily as He could will them to be clean from their leprosy and it would happen.  Jesus could make even the Samaritan leper clean (in right standing before God so that he could enter the Temple to present sacrifices and worship).  How much more than will He make us clean if we too come to Him by faith?