Lk 17:11-19 from 2011

When I first published my reading of this text, in 2007, I gave what I still believe is a credible, and even insightful, reading into this touching narrative. Jesus, in Luke's Gospel, breaks down social barriers. In 17:11-19, he does so by recognizing the superior faith of a Samaritan. In addition, we have themes of gratitude and healing of lepers probed in the same passage--themes that also have resonance throughout Luke's Gospel.

But it wasn't until I heard another person preaching on this text, today, where he pretty much gave the "standard reading," that I realized how dissatisfied I was with that reading. In fact, my reading/hearing of the story of healing of the ten lepers today led me in directions that actually undermine the central message of Luke and of the Gospels in general. But such an approach to a text fits in well with the "subversive" character of readings of many classic texts in our world today.

In a word, I will argue in this essay that the person who is commended in the story, who happens to be a Samaritan, is the one who disobeys Jesus' express command. If we then were to take this text as a hermeneutical and homiletical center from which to read the rest of the Gospels, it would encourage us to find other places where strategic disobedience might be the best way to follow Jesus. But before I get ahead of myself, let me unfold exactly what I mean.

The Story from Luke 17:11-19

Here is the text again, from the NRSV:

"11 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, 13 they called out, 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 made clean. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16 He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus asked, 'Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? 18 Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?' 19 Then he said to him, 'Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.'"

As I argued in my 2007 essays, this passage fairly screams with good Lucan themes. And, it is thus very easy to preach. Pick on any one of them..lepers healed, faith as acting on Jesus' word, the value of the outsider, the role of gratitude, etc. You can go on and on. And, it wasn't until I heard how stale these themes sounded in a preacher's mouth today that I realized that such a reading just didn't do justice to the passage.

What actually engaged my mind today was verse 17: "Then Jesus asked, 'Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they?'" The obvious answer is, "they are doing exactly as you commanded them, Jesus. They are going to the priests, as the law and you said." Thus, both Torah and Jesus point to the same reality--go to the priest to offer your thanks for healing from leprosy. But then I realized that these nine are chided in absentia by Jesus, while the one who disobeyed Jesus, by turning around and shouting his praise to God in a loud voice, is used as the example of faith in the passage. In other words, those who obeyed the explicit word of Jesus and the Scripture are criticized; the one who "strategically disobeyed" was commended.

Implications

What if we took this "new" message of the text seriously and made it a hermeneutical center from which we can launch into other Scriptures? It would mean, at the very least, that other texts where Jesus gives commands might best be observed by doing their opposite. Thus, when Jesus says to "love your neighbor and do good to those who harm you," it might, by the principle articulated today, be good not always to love your neighbor and pay back evil with good. We might decide that a little vindictiveness or 'payback' every once in a while is an act of strategic disobedience that might be commended by Jesus.

Once we have this principle in place, the Scripture begins to open up to us with exciting possibilities. When Paul exhorts us to harmony, maybe that should be a subtle exhortation to raise a little disturbance; where we are told to cherish love above all things, maybe we should place other things a little higher; where we are told that it is necessary that our righteousness exceed that of the pharisees, maybe that is license for us to celebrate some sinful living; where we are exhorted to "be holy as I, the Lord, am holy," maybe we will just smile and say, "not today, Lord."

And, by my reading of Jesus' words in Luke 17, I think you would be justified in so responding. Thus, my "subversive" reading of Luke 17:11ff. might be helpful to lessen the "seriousness" or "demand-nature" of the Gospel which so many Christians have adopted as central to it. Let's look at the Gospel as gift--the gift to disobey, even disobey Jesus, to the glory of God.

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