JESUS HEALS TEN LEPERS ON THE ROAD TO DOTHAN

LUKE 17:11–19

As Jesus drew his activities in the north to a close, he turned his thoughts toward Jerusalem (Luke 18:31–33). It was during this time that Jesus met and healed ten men whose lives had been claimed and defined by their disease: leprosy. Jesus’s heartfelt compassion provided a healing miracle. But the parallels between this miracle (Luke 17:11–19) and the healing of Naaman mentioned in 2 Kings 5 suggest that this was much more than a random act of compassion. That is particularly so when we note the geographic symmetry of the message. Jesus healed ten men afflicted with leprosy on the road to Dothan for a reason.

Given the physical pain and the social stigma that attended their disease, these ten outcasts had banded together outside the village between Samaria and Galilee in support of one another. The reputation of Jesus’s curative ability had long since reached their displaced neighborhood. So when they heard he was nearby, these beleaguered men lifted their voices in unison: “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” (Luke 17:13). The words reached Jesus’s ears and touched his heart. Nevertheless he did not heal them on the spot but rather sent them to Jerusalem’s Temple. Their healing came as they journeyed to the chamber of lepers in the Temple, where their healing could be acknowledged by the religious leaders, who doubled as public health inspectors (Lev. 13:2–3; 14:2–32). But only one man, a Samaritan, returned to Jesus, overflowing with words of praise and thanks.39

Aramaean (Syrian) funerary inscription (seventh century BC).

Model of the chamber of lepers, the building located to the right of the semicircular steps adjacent to the bronze gate of Nicanor.

This miracle has much to say standing on its own, but it becomes even more powerful when we observe the links between it and the healing of Naaman (2 Kings 5). Naaman, like the man who returned to Jesus, was a foreigner afflicted with leprosy. He was the commander of the Syrian (i.e., Aramaean) army and a man who had led many successful raids against Israel. One of those raids brought a young Jewish girl into his home as a slave. She knew of the Lord’s healing power through Elisha, so she encouraged her master to seek his aid. Naaman went to Elisha, but he, like the lepers mentioned in Luke’s Gospel, was sent away to be healed at a distance. Elisha directed Naaman to go and wash seven times in the Jordan River and he would be healed. Although he hesitated at first, Naaman did go, washed, and was healed. Following the miracle he rushed back to Elisha declaring, “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel” (2 Kings 5:15).

There are a number of parallels with the healing of the ten lepers. In each case a foreigner had contracted leprosy. They engaged a prophet whom they believed could help them. The prophet then sent each man away to be healed at a distant location. Both the Syrian and the Samaritan went away, were healed, and came to believe in the living God. Now if we add location to the list of comparisons, we will find yet another parallel, for the meeting of Elisha and Naaman occurred in nearly the same place that Jesus met with the ten lepers.40 Elisha resided in Dothan, a city near the border of Galilee and Samaria (2 Kings 6:13).41 Although Dothan is not mentioned, Luke tells us that Jesus entered a village located on that same border.42 While the precise location of both events remains unknown, there is no doubt that the meeting of Elisha and Naaman and the restoration of the ten lepers occurred within a few miles of one another.

Jesus healed ten lepers on the road to Dothan for a reason. Once again Jesus linked himself to an earlier prophet of God not only through association of similar events but by events that occurred in the same location. The Kingdom of God not only came for the restoration of all nations, it came to restore the outcasts of those nations.

Jesus encountered ten lepers near this city of Dothan (view looking southeast), the same area where Elisha encountered Naaman the leper.