Hi everyone. Welcome back to daily gospel.
Exegesis podcast, where we are all about doing an exegesis on
the gospels. So trying to get at the literal
sense of the text, and the way we do that is we go through
verse by verse. So we do a verse by verse
exegesis of the Gospel reading from today's mass and that's
Really, really helpful way of working out what it meant in its
original context, and that's where we should start as
Catholic. So this podcast is designed to
help you enter in more deeply into the Gospel.
Reading, that you all here are today's mass but we do it a bit
in a bit of a unique way, because we're not looking for
the spiritual sense or we're not doing a homily.
We're looking at the literal sense of the text.
What did it mean in its original context?
Today, if you go to mass, you would hear from Luke chapter, 17
verses 11 to 19. On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus
travelled along the border between Samaria and Galilee as
he entered one of the villages 10 lepers came out to meet him.
They stood some way off and called to him.
Jesus Master take pity on us. When he saw them he said Go and
show yourselves to the priests. Now, as they were going away,
they were cleansed finding himself.
Cured one of them turned back, praising God at the top of his
voice and threw himself at the feet of Jesus and thanked him,
the man was a Samaritan. This made Jesus say were not all
10, made clean the other nine where are they?
It seems that no one has come back to give praise to God
except this Foreigner and he said to the man stand up and go
on your way. Your faith has saved you.
So as always, we want to start by thinking about the context,
whenever you sit down to study the Bible or to study a specific
passage of the Bible. The first step is to work out
what has happened just before this Equally if it's a
narrative, what has happened? Just prior to this because that
often helps you work out why Jesus says certain things in
this particular scene. So at this stage Jesus is moving
From Galilee to Judea for the final part of his ministry.
If you've been listening for a while, you'll know that the
middle section of Luke is a long section that basically cover
covers. Jesus final Journey From Galilee
to Jerusalem getting ready for the final week of his life.
So we're getting towards the end of this journey to Jerusalem.
He's speaking to the crowds along the way.
Verse 11 says, on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus travelled along
the border between Samaria and Galilee now, it's helpful to
look at a map to see how these things fit together.
So Galilee is kind of like the region or the state in the North
of Israel. That's kind of their
agricultural area where Jesus spends most of his time.
And then Samaria is in the middle of Israel.
It's in the middle section. Jews lived in Galilee, but it
wasn't Jews that lived in Mary, it was Samaritans that lived in
Samaria and the to didn't really like each other.
The texture says that Jesus is traveling the border between
Samaria and Galilee. Most Jews avoided going into
Samaria. So it's possible that what's
happening here. Remember, Jesus is on the way to
Judea, which is the southern region.
So, he's moving From Galilee down to Judea, but he probably
wants to avoid Samaria. That's typically what Jews did
if they wanted to go to From Galilee to Jerusalem, they would
avoid Samaria. Now, we know there's other times
when he does go into Samaria, deliberately so with the woman
at the well, he deliberately goes against the common norms
and he deliberately goes into Samaria but here it appears.
She follows the general pilgrimage route.
There's probably like a large amount of people walking up to
Jerusalem at this time from Galilee to get ready for this,
for the Passover. Some Scholars think that he's
probably in the decapolis region at this point, which is sort of
in the eastern part here. That was the customary route for
Galilee and Pilgrim pilgrimages to Jerusalem.
They would go via the decapolis. Although that's not entirely
clear from the text. All we know is that he's
somewhere on the border between Galilee and Samaria.
Now, that's all sounds a bit complicated, but if you look at
a map, I think you'll see how he sort of works.
It says he entered one of the villages.
So apparently this is one of the villages on the border.
Ten lepers came to greet him. Now lepers, they lived in groups
away from the rest of the population because they were
unclean. They had kind of an infectious
disease. We've talked about this in other
places, in our exegesis. They were ostracized from all
public and religious life that was actually in the Old
Testament. It says that if you're a leper,
if you have a certain kind of infectious disease, you must
live away from the rest of the population because you're
ritually unclean and you don't want to make other people
ritually unclean. So you can look at Leviticus,
13, verses 45. 46 and Numbers, chapter 5 verses 2 to 3 for the
context here, it wasn't a very pleasant life to live.
If you're a leper, not only do people avoid you.
You're also not considered to be a full person because you're not
allowed to partake in the public and religious life.
So they come to greet him, but they stand at a distance.
So they kind of don't want to infect Jesus or anyone else in
the crowds that are following him.
So they stand at a distance and they kind of watched Jesus walk
past their City. Verse 13, they called to him.
So they're calling from a distance, most likely.
They can see Jesus because he's been following.
There's a big crowd following him, so they work out.
That must be Jesus. This is what they call to him.
Jesus Master take pity on us or you can translate that as have
mercy on us. So it means basically, something
like this. We know you can heal us, Jesus,
please heal us, even though we are not worthy.
That seems to be the flavor of this year.
Verse 14, when he saw them, he said Go and show yourselves to
the priests. Now he doesn't touch them here,
probably because he doesn't want to encourage the crowds to touch
people with Leprosy. There are other places where he
does touch people with Leprosy? But here possibly because of the
crowds and maybe because of the Town his in he chooses not to
touch them, he just speaks to them from a distance and he says
Go and show yourselves to the priests.
Why does he say go to the priests?
While the Old Testament is pretty clear that Leper claims
to be healed of leprosy. They have to first be inspected
by a priest. You can look at Leviticus 14 for
this background here only after they're inspected by priests and
they meet the requirements. The levitical requirements could
an ex-lap, a be reinstated back into Israel's Covenant Life.
So if you claim to be here, would have leprosy you have to
get the priest to check it out and confirm it.
Now at this stage Jesus hasn't healed them apparently, they're
just healed on the way to seeing the Priests.
It's possible that they're healed because they follow Jesus
instructions may be, as soon as they agree to do it be healed,
or maybe the healed possibly just by believing that Jesus can
heal them. We're not sure.
Exactly when it happens, though, this shows us that Jesus can
heal in a variety of ways. Sometimes he directly puts his
hand on them, sometimes he has a direct conversation with them
but in this case he just briefly says Go and show yourselves to
the priests and that's it and that's enough to clean them.
Now, as they were going away, that were cleansed.
So on the road they realize that they're clean.
They no longer have leprosy. There's probably a visit visible
physical transformation here they can.
Probably look at each other and go you don't look like you have
the leprosy sores anymore. It will be a miraculous visible
transformation. There's actually a scene in The
Chosen the TV series. The Chosen where it's not this
episode, but it's a different, a different incident in the
gospels, where Jesus heals a leper and they show it quite
beautifully, where the lepers skin kind of here.
Verse 15, finding himself, cured one of them turned back,
praising God at the top of his voice.
Now, presumably they all get healed on the road at the same
time, but only one of them. Praises God and runs back to
Jesus to thank him. He throws himself at the feet of
Jesus and thanked him. So this man has true.
Gratitude, it's the same response.
The leper showed earlier in chapter 5, verse 12, that was
the last time we saw the lepers now based on the way this action
of Throwing yourself at someone's feet based on the way
that's used in the Old Testament.
The fact that the man does this here that suggests that he
believes? Jesus is to be recognized as a
king much, like, David, is that sort of the way it's used in the
Old Testament, you would do that if you believe someone is a
king. So, Lucas probably included the
action here, because in this whole section, as Jesus
approaches Jerusalem, Luke is really trying to highlight to
the reader that Jesus is a king. We get to verse 16 and Luke
says, the man was a American. So that probably implies that
most of the other lepers in the group of 10 are Jewish.
Whereas this man is Samaritan remember there on the border
between Samaria and Galilee. So there's probably a mix of
both of them. In this particular leprosy Clan.
Samaritans were considered to be like half Jews to the Jews of
the time. So the Jews do not associate
with the Samaritans. They were considered to be
impure. So a Samaritan with Leprosy is
like doubly cursed ee cast, out of Jewish Society.
But Luke here mentions that the man is a Samaritan, Luke is
constantly trying to highlight. The Jesus has come for everyone,
even the outcasts not just for the Jews, but even for the
Samaritans Jesus, here is initiating foreigners into God's
covenant family. Much as Isaiah 56:10 has three
to eight proclaimed would happen, and that's quite a
beautiful passage Isaiah 56:10 328 talks about how foreigners
will one day be allowed into the kingdom and Jesus.
Fulfilling that here. Now in some cases, the
Samaritans actually followed God's will better than the Jews
do as appears to be the case, here, who comes back.
Not the Jewish Covenant people. It's the Samaritan man that
comes back verse 17. This met Jesus say were not all
10, made clean the other nine, where are they?
So Jesus here expects that if the other men are Godly they
would come back and thank God for their healing.
He continues. It seems that no one has come
back to give praise to God except this Foreigner.
No, the Jews claims that they were the ones who know God the
best. They claim that the Samaritans
don't really know God, but here are in this, the Samaritan
recognizes that God has healed him or maybe the only the
Samaritan cares enough to come back and thank Jesus.
So the Samaritan sets a better example here.
Now interestingly Scholars point out that the word he that's used
for Foreigner. When Jesus himself says, no one
has come back to give praise to God except this Foreigner.
This is the only place that Greek word appears in the Quiet.
New Testament. However, there was a sign on the
temple Courts at this time. At the time of Jesus, and the
sign on the temple, read this. No foreigners Beyond this point.
And that word was used. So the fact that Jesus uses this
particular word and that Luke includes this particular word,
it suggests that Jesus is overcoming.
The barrier between Jews and non-jews because the sign in the
temple which use this word was there as a barrier to stop them
from to stop the tiles from getting close to God.
But here Jesus says this Foreigner, this Outsider is now
close to God. His come to break down the
barrier. That could be a fulfillment of
that. Isaiah passage 56:37 there.
It specifically says that in the kingdom of God, all foreigners
will be allowed into the temple to praise God.
So this could be a fulfillment of that.
In fact, Jesus quotes this same passage later.
When he cleanses the temple, we forgot a 19:46.
Jesus quotes from Isaiah chapter 56 and the whole point there is,
people are in the outer court and they're not letting Gentiles
worship God, but God cleanses the temple so that the Gentiles
can worship God. So, there's probably a
connection here verse 19. He said to the man stand up and
go on your way, your faith has saved you or you can translate
that you your faith has made you.
Well, you'll often hear this phrase when Jesus does healings,
he often follows It Up by saying your faith has made you.
Well This is a bit difficult to explain here because all of the
lepers were made well. So why does Jesus say your faith
has made you? Well, because apparently only
this man, really had Faith, so that would imply that the other
man shouldn't have been healed because they don't have faith,
but they were healed. So maybe what the meaning here
is, when Jesus says, your faith has saved you, maybe the saved
means you've been brought into the kingdom.
It doesn't just mean, you've been physically healed.
You have been spiritually healed as well.
This man because he has faith In spiritually here.
What? He's been brought into the
kingdom. Whereas the other nine because
they don't have faith, they were not brought into the Kingdom on
this day. So here it seems a Samaritan is
saved his brought into the kingdom.
Would be probably one of the few in Jesus ministry who are
brought into the kingdom. But later in the book of Acts
chapter 8, verse 12, lots of Samaritans are brought into the
Kingdom, so maybe this episode. Remember Luke writes, both the
Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, maybe he's setting.
Hang up his sequel here by telling his readers that some
Samaritans did find the kingdom. And then, of course, in the book
of Acts, many find the kingdom, There might also be a subtle
illusion here, this whole episode of Jesus, healing the
Samaritan to how Elisha the prophet in the Old Testament.
He cleansed or foreign leper called Naaman while he was
living in Samaria, that's in second Kings.
Chapter 5, verses 1 to 14, maybe Luke as he often does is
highlighting, the Jesus is greater even than the Old
Testament prophets. And in that story of Elisha in
second Kings, chapter 5, when name and is healed.
He comes back and praises, the god of Israel.
So there's certainly some similarities here.
That's the end of your exegesis. Let's quickly look at the
catechism to see what we can learn from this passage.
How does it inform our Catholic faith?
The main place here is in paragraph.
Five eight six, which discusses Jesus relationship with the
temple far from having been hostile, to the temple, where he
gave the essential part of his teaching, Jesus was willing to
pay the temple tax. Associating him with Peter, whom
he had just made the foundation of his future Church.
And the paragraph goes on from there.
Now, the connection to today's reading is not entirely clear,
but if you look at the footnotes in the catechism for paragraph
586, it references here, Luke chapter 17, and particularly the
fact that he tells the lepers to go show themselves to the
priests, if Jesus didn't like the temple, and he didn't agree
that there should be priests. Well, then, he wouldn't have
sent the man to go to the priests.
Would he? So this part of Luke, as well as
other places in the gospels, show us that Jesus had Mostly
positive relationship with the temple.
Thanks for listening today. I hope you've learned something
new. Please keep this ministry in
your prayers. Send through your questions
Center, your feedback. Tell us what you like about the
ministry. You can email a logical Bible
study at gmail.com and there's more information about the
ministry in the show notes. Thanks once again, we'll
continue to look at Luke in the coming days.