10 lepers

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean.

Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, thought about his family that he could now go back to, and started to feel uncomfortable with the oncoming onslaught of responsibility.

Another one realized that he would now have to get a job and consider what vocation was appropriate for him, and spiralled into despair because the questions were too hard.

Lepers three through five started to realize that they would have to leave their leper community and that as healed lepers, they were a very small minority who would be hard-pressed to find a place where they were truly understood.

Lepers six through nine were actually pretty happy about the whole thing but when they heard the other lepers commiserate, they realized that they had the same problems.

But one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”