In Luke 17, the story is retold about ten guys with a serious problem, who stumbled upon the one person who could help them. The story says Jesus just happened to be passing through their town on his way to Jerusalem.
They immediately jumped on their good fortune and, standing at a distance, called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us”. This had to be an incredible answer to years of prayer. They obviously knew who he was. He was The Healer! The miracle worker! He had already healed a guy with leprosy! He was also a homeboy from Galilee! Of course he would pity them! Or would he? Galilee was considered by lots of folks to be the place only losers came from. What did Nathaniel once say about Jesus himself: “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”
It’s like people in NYC saying, “Nyack? You’re joking, right?” On top of that, they were near Samaria, a land which all respectable Jews felt, had no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Jesus once spent two days there after speaking to a woman at a well. (What did we say about those Galileans?) So these guys had some serious issues. They were lepers; outcasts; the lowest of the low. Their disease forced them to live alone because the rest of society despised them. No one wanted anything to do with them, not even their families. They could be contagious. They looked and smelled bad. They scared small babies. They were also foreigners, not part of good ole Israel: totally unimportant. So why should Jesus even care?
As we spoke about the story it was discovered that one of us had a cold, well actually just a sore throat! The clarification was made only after someone else jumped out of their seat in reaction to the first statement and moved away from the “contagious” one to another seat. While other “respectful citizens” jeered at the “outcast”, others (definitely “homeboys”) took issue with the one who moved (probably a “foreigner”). Immediately we had ourselves a good ole “Galilean-Samaritan” impasse. “That’s not proper Christian behavior”!” “Well, I still love that person! I just can’t afford to be sick!” “That’s being selfish!” “Actually I’m not. I’m saving thousands I will come in contact with at school!” (Well, maybe just dozens.) “You’re just saying that now because we’re saying something about it!” “Don’t even go there!” Exciting stuff, right? What tension. What drama. What was the outcome you ask? Well, the 9 guys got healed of the terrible disease of leprosy, and caught a more serious case of another ailment: amnesia. Only one of them came back to thank Jesus. No, no, you know that you say. What about in the JYG class? How did that end? Uh, I forget. Did I mention there were only nine of us?
- Steve
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