TEN LEPERS ON THE ROAD TO DOTHAN

LUKE 17:11–19

The Kingdom of God is even for the Samaritans. Luke works aggressively to make this point in his Gospel and in the book of Acts. In Acts, he describes how hundreds of Samaritans came to know Jesus as their Lord (Acts 8:4–25). His Gospel describes events that prepared Jesus’s followers for the inclusion of Samaritans in the Kingdom of God.23 That is clearly the case when a Samaritan—one of ten men healed of leprosy—was the only one who returned to thank Jesus (Luke 17:16). We will see how the location of this miracle illustrates God’s compassion for Samaritans.

By the time of this event, the knowledge of Jesus’s healing abilities had spread like wildfire among those with physical ailments. So when ten men afflicted with leprosy heard that he was coming their way, they shouted, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” (Luke 17:13). As this plea reached Jesus’s ears, it touched his heart. But rather than healing the men on the spot, he told them to go and present themselves to the priests—men who doubled as public health inspectors within Jewish culture (see Lev. 13:2–46; 14:2–32). On the way all ten men were healed, but just one, who was described as a “Samaritan” and therefore a “foreigner,” returned to offer Jesus his thanks (Luke 17:16–18).

Because the meeting between the Samaritan and Jesus occurred along the road to Dothan (Luke 17:11),24 intersecting Samaria with Galilee, it brings to mind another Gentile who sought out a prophet to cure his leprosy in the same vicinity.25 In 2 Kings we read about a commander of Aram’s army who was afflicted with leprosy. On one of his raids against Israel, Naaman had captured a young Israelite girl whom he brought to his home to work for his wife. This young girl spoke to his wife about the power her God displayed through the prophet Elisha. If there was a prophet who could help Naaman, it was Elisha. With hope dawning on his despair, the leprous Naaman went to the home of Elisha and requested healing. But rather than healing him on the spot, Elisha sent the Aramean commander away to wash in the Jordan River. When Naaman did, he was healed. With a thankful heart, he returned to Elisha and declared, “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel” (2 Kings 5:15; see 2 Kings 5:1–16).

Tell Dothan (view looking southeast).

Shepherd with his flock on the road near Dothan.
© Direct Design.

A link is forged by several similarities between Jesus’s healing of this unnamed Samaritan and Elisha’s encounter with Naaman the Syrian. Both recipients of healing were foreigners; both were lepers; both were sent someplace else for healing and obeyed; and both encounters occurred in the same region. Luke’s record of the Samaritan’s healing and consequent gratitude near the place where Naaman had encountered Elisha and then affirmed his faith in the God of Israel confirms that acceptance of foreigners into the Kingdom was rooted in Scripture.

Temple model—the Chamber of Lepers to the right of Nicanor Gate. Jesus instructed the healed lepers to show themselves to the priests.
© Dr. James C. Martin. Reproduction of the City of Jerusalem at the time of the Second Temple. (See full credit on page 4.)

Welcoming Gentiles into the Kingdom of God was not a new precedent that began with Jesus’s instructions and interactions with these lepers. He who said, “I and the Father are one,” had always wanted to restore whoever would come (John 10:25–30), including Naaman the Syrian and the ten lepers (Luke 4:27).

Relief of a Syrian, or Aramean, king (eleventh century BC).
© Dr. James C. Martin. The British Museum. Photographed by permission.