Turning Back

By Jared Warner

Willow Creek Friends Church

October 12, 2025

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Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili

Luke 17:11–19 (ESV)

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.”

Today’s passage is interesting in many ways. It is interesting because it shows how different the times are than today, but also how similar that ancient culture was.

Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. The commentators say that for the next couple of chapters in Luke’s Gospel, he shares several Hebraisms. Luke is showing in the next few chapters that Jesus was being led to his final showdown in Jerusalem. He was walking into the greatest ideological and theological challenge Judah had ever encountered. Jesus was going to that area to challenge their understanding of life, and faith. He not only challenges them but he challenges us too.

Many people have like to say that Jesus was neutral in political positions. This is only partially true, because Jesus spent a great deal of energy challenging the traditional understandings of life with our fellow human beings, as well as our life with God. Jesus was very political, but Jesus made his dwelling among a people group that had little worldly power. He was born among a people living under occupation, where nearly all resources were being exported out of their country to feed the Imperial Capital. How do people without worldly power encourage change within a system like that?

We often feel as if we cannot do anything of value to encourage change within the wider system. I am just one person, and outside of our community no one really knows my name. This is the very type of situation that many within the first century found themselves. There were a few people with wealth. And there were many people from outside their culture, bringing in different languages and ideas. They felt helpless. They felt marginalized even though within their province they were the majority. Jesus was political, but how Jesus approached the powers of the world was different.

Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, and he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee.

I feel as if we do not fully understand the tension in that statement. How do we describe the generational conflict between two nations, or people groups, that from the outside seem to appear the same. Since we study scripture we are aware that there are differences between these places, when we read about them we can visualize or imagine this boarder as something like the differences between Mexico and our own nation. But there are difference between the United States and Mexico, we mainly speak different languages, we have different histories even though our nations occupy the same continent. And these differences exist because these nations had a different origin. Different nations colonized our lands, and although we have similar geographic locations.

Galilee and Samaria are not like this. They are both descendants of Israel. But at one point their paths divided. The people of Galilee and Judea look at those within Samaria with disdain because they were of mixed ancestry. How did this happen? Judah is not innocent in that. They made alliances with others to defeat their brothers. And they made this alliance because in their mind the ten tribes of Israel that made their capital in Samaria were apostate. They were apostate because they did not worship how they worshiped. They were apostate because they rebelled against the dynasty of David. And they were apostate. They did worship other gods than Yahweh. They did this, but so did Judah.

Samaria was hated because they rebelled. Galilee is a different story. They too were part of the Northern Kingdom, but some how they did not face the same discrimination as their brothers. Because the people of Galilee allied themselves with Judah after the exile, where Samaria opposed Judah. And the people of Galilee were often seen as hot headed because they were constantly trying to prove that they belonged. They became the most zealous, the most nationalistic, the most self-righteous.

How would we describe these people today? There really are no comparisons, but Samaria and Judah were like the North and the South during our civil war. Galilee, well it would be a state that saw that the tide of war was going the other direction so they went to the other side.

Jesus was walking to Jerusalem between Galilee and Samaria and was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance. Scripture often speaks of leprosy yet it remains a topic of great study. The word used for leprosy in Hebrew and in Greek point to a skin disease. This covered a broad range of conditions today, from Psoriasis, skin cancer, and leprosy. When ever there was a skin discoloration, the individual was to go to priest and have the priest examine the skin. They would observe the lesion, and place them in isolation for seven days. Then after seven days the priest would look again, and the individual would be place in isolation for an additional seven days. After two weeks, the priest would again observe the lesion, and if the lesion went away or remained the same the person was considered clean. If the lesion grew during that time, the person was pronounced unclean and was required to move outside of the camp to remain in isolation until the lesion had disappeared. If it did disappear, the individual would be required to go back to the priest, perform cleansing rites, and offer scarifies to be accepted back into the community. This happened with any skin disease, during that time. Imagine going through puberty during that era of history.

There was a spiritual significance to this. The idea was that the impurity of the soul was leaching out to the surface. They believed that those with leprosy were so sinful in secret that God had to step marking that person physically. Those that were declared unclean would live in colonies away from others. They were required to wear torn clothing and their hair must remain uncut, to mark them as unclean and in mourning. When they walked out of the encampment they were required to wear a covering over their upper lip, and cry out “Unclean, unclean,” to alert anyone of their presence. They were basically considered the walking dead. Living testaments of life opposing God.

These of course were the laws of Moses, leprosy occurred in other nations also. With each culture there were similar requirements. There was a practice of quarantine, of isolation because everyone knew that if people remained within the community the disease could spread. It is interesting though that many of these recommendations remain the basic recommendations for containing disease today. We isolate people in a special place, usually a hospital, and we often encourage those that have an illness to cover their nose and mouth to limit the spread of the pathogen. I do not want to get into that debate again, of course it does not eliminate the risk, but it can limit the risk.

These ten lepers, were isolated, they lived yet were regarded as dead. They did not feel the human touch, no one washed their wounds, no one cut or combed their hair. They felt and looked like a monster. This was their life. And they saw Jesus and cried out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”

I want you to imagine that for a moment. Every adolescent feels like an alien trapped within their own body, because they are growing faster than their mind can keep up. We feel awkward and hideous. Our moods go from one extreme to the other, and no one understands us and we do not understand anyone else. Or on the other end of life’s course. You were once able to run, jump, play football or soccer. You were once able to manage laundry, a meal, and clean the house with children running under your feet. You were once able to stay up all night with your friends and wake up in the morning and work your shift. Now you have trouble with stairs. Your back goes out when you sneeze. Or you see all these faces and hear stories and you know that you were there but you cannot remember.

We feel this. We have a basic understanding of what they might feel emotionally. Now multiply that a thousand times. Every person you meet, you have to cry out as loud as you can, “Unclean, Unclean” and you watch them run away. You walk by your family’s house and you cannot go in. You smell the once familiar aromas of your favorite meal and you cannot share it with anyone. You must remain isolated until you skin clears. Day after day. Night after night you cry out to God, and nothing seems to change. All hope is lost. And you heard about Jesus, you see him walking and you run as well as you can so you can cry out to him.

You want to believe, you want to hope, but deep within you you know that in this society you have no rights. You brace yourself for the inevitable stone that will soon fly toward you. You prepare to walk away, but just as a sigh begins, your breath catches. The man looks at you.

Luke tells us that Jesus saw them. Jesus knew them, he recognized and understood what they were experiencing and feeling in that moment. The idea of “He saw them” does not simply mean that he turned his head looking in their general direction. It instead implies that Jesus knew them deeply. He did not stop on the surface, but he saw the humanity beneath the skin, he saw their hearts. And in that moment he told them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.”

He did not touch them, he did not pray over them, or spit on the ground to make mud to smear over their bodies. He told them to go show themselves to the priests. He told them that they should simply walk over to the nearest synagogue and have the priest look at their skin.

All ten individuals went. They all began to walk toward the place of worship to do what the law required of them. As they walked they were cleansed. With each step they took the lesions that were once their identity began to disappear until they were renewed completely. They all walked.

Do you know the amount of faith those lepers had? In most stories of Jesus’ healings there is some physical component. Those individuals knew that Jesus could heal them in that manner, but could he do so with mere words? The doubt that could have entered their minds is immense. Yet they walked.

Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice.

This is where most pastors place their focus. They will often say that this tenth man had the faith, but that is not true, all of them walked. They all had faith. They had more faith than I have because I do not know if I would have had enough faith to cry out in the first place.

Most pastors will look at this tenth man and say be like him. And I am right there with them. We should respond like he did. But I do not want us to forget about the other nine.

What did they do? They did what is right. They followed the rules. Their faith, their religious observance was such that they knew that they had to go to the priest first, because until they had spoken with they priest they could not be declared clean.

We can be right and still be wrong. We can have all the right answers and completely miss the point.

There was nothing incorrect with the response of the nine former lepers. They did what was required of them. They fulfilled their duty and would be accepted back within the community.

The tenth man however, is different. He turned back. He returned. He repented. And as he repented he no longer cried out “Unclean, Unclean.” Instead he praised God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet giving him thanks.

I want you to picture this in your mind. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem and he is walking along the border between Galilee and Samaria. Due to the hostility between those groups, people did not make that journey without a multitude to provide protection in number. As people journeyed to Jerusalem through Samaria, it was not uncommon for bandits to meet them along the road demanding payment or death. There were witnesses to this event. Everyone within the group were taken aback when a group of ten lepers cried out. And they saw how Jesus responded.

They watched as the lepers walked away, an they heard the loud praises of this tenth man as he came running back. And they watched as this man fell at Jesus’ feet praising him.

There is much to this story. One thing I think is important is that Jesus did not tell the man to stop worshiping him. He accepted the praise, and he did this in view of all people. The second thing is that the man that returned was a Samaritan. Everyone within the crowd hated this man simply because he was born in the wrong place. Yet that man had faith that Jesus could bring healing. And he walked with the rest of Israel to go to the priest. He walked to the priest knowing that he would likely be rejected at the door, and yet he walked.

The third thing that is important is that Jesus accepted the foreigner. This goes along with our retreat theme this year on hospitality. Hospitality is found throughout scripture. Hospitality is to welcome, be generous, and gracious to others. Usually within scripture God commands us to show hospitality to the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner. The distinctions are made because within that society those were the most vulnerable of all people. When a woman becomes a widow often she has lost everything because in most ancient societies all property was held by men. I am not saying that is right or wrong. It is just the way things were. And because that is how things were when a husband died, all of the property was given to that man’s heir. Maybe the woman had a son, and that son would care for his mother like his father had done before him. But what happened if the woman did not have a son, then the husband’s property would go to the next closest male relative. This essentially leaves the woman and any of her young children homeless and destitute. Again with orphans they have no property because everything within the household belonged to the father. If the child had not come of age prior to his death even though he may have a right to the property, he was not able to claim that property until he became a man. Society would give the land to the closest male relative to hold in trust for the orphan, but what if the man wanted to keep the land? An orphan has no say in their life, as their advocate has died. They could be sold into slavery, shipped off to some distant place to be forgotten. And no one would challenge it because they did not have rights. Now the foreigner, the foreigner in ancient cultures did not have property, they did not have family, they were there with nothing. They left their home for reasons unknown, and now they are here among us. The teaching of God is that we should treat the foreigner as if they were one of our own.

Jesus sent these ten men of faith to the priests restored to health. And the foreigner was the only one to turn back to praise God. The other nine were all doing the right thing, yet they are not fully correct. They were following the letter of the law, but only the foreigner was able to see the heart of God’s teaching. That man had no place with the priests as he was a foreigner, he had no claim and nowhere to go. He recognized that the priest that could declare him clean was only found in Jesus.

Jesus that day healed ten people. And only one of them saw the fullness of what happened. It is the foreigner that can teach us to see the rich love and mercy God has for us. It is the person outside of ourselves that can show us the grace God has. And when we welcome the foreigner, we are able to participate in the hospitality that God has given to us.

We are living in a time where the tension around us resembles the tension of Samaria and Galilee. And each of us at times feel as if we are strangers living within our own bodies. We look at the world and we do not quite see what we used to see. Things have changed and they are different. We feel as if we are rejected and ridiculed on all sides. Turn back to Christ. Turn back to the one that shows mercy and grace. Place our focus not on what is going on around us because nine were right and still wrong. But it was the one that turned back praising God that was brought back into the community that day. Rise and go your way today, have faith that God will take what is unclean, hopeless, and dead around us and restore it to life.