Last Visit to Northern Perea

166:2.1The next day Je­sus went with the twelve over to Am­athus, near the bor­der of Samaria, and as they ap­proached the city, they en­coun­tered a group of ten lep­ers who so­journed near this place. Nine of this group were Jews, one a Samar­i­tan. Or­di­nar­ily these Jews would have re­frained from all as­so­ci­a­tion or con­tact with this Samar­i­tan, but their com­mon af­flic­tion was more than enough to over­come all re­li­gious prej­u­dice. They had heard much of Je­sus and his ear­lier mir­a­cles of heal­ing, and since the sev­enty made a prac­tice of an­nounc­ing the time of Je­sus’ ex­pected ar­rival when the Mas­ter was out with the twelve on these tours, the ten lep­ers had been made aware that he was ex­pected to ap­pear in this vicin­ity at about this time; and they were, ac­cord­ingly, posted here on the out­skirts of the city where they hoped to at­tract his at­ten­tion and ask for heal­ing. When the lep­ers saw Je­sus draw­ing near them, not dar­ing to ap­proach him, they stood afar off and cried to him: “Mas­ter, have mercy on us; cleanse us from our af­flic­tion. Heal us as you have healed oth­ers.”

166:2.2Je­sus had just been ex­plain­ing to the twelve why the gen­tiles of Perea, to­gether with the less or­tho­dox Jews, were more will­ing to be­lieve the gospel preached by the sev­enty than were the more or­tho­dox and tra­di­tion-bound Jews of Judea. He had called their at­ten­tion to the fact that their mes­sage had like­wise been more read­ily re­ceived by the Galileans, and even by the Samar­i­tans. But the twelve apos­tles were hardly yet will­ing to en­ter­tain kind feel­ings for the long-de­spised Samar­i­tans.

166:2.3Ac­cord­ingly, when Si­mon Ze­lo­tes ob­served the Samar­i­tan among the lep­ers, he sought to in­duce the Mas­ter to pass on into the city with­out even hes­i­tat­ing to ex­change greet­ings with them. Said Je­sus to Si­mon: “But what if the Samar­i­tan loves God as well as the Jews? Should we sit in judg­ment on our fel­low men? Who can tell? if we make these ten men whole, per­haps the Samar­i­tan will prove more grate­ful even than the Jews. Do you feel cer­tain about your opin­ions, Si­mon?” And Si­mon quickly replied, “If you cleanse them, you will soon find out.” And Je­sus replied: “So shall it be, Si­mon, and you will soon know the truth re­gard­ing the grat­i­tude of men and the lov­ing mercy of God.”

166:2.4Je­sus, go­ing near the lep­ers, said: “If you would be made whole, go forth­with and show your­selves to the priests as re­quired by the law of Moses.” And as they went, they were made whole. But when the Samar­i­tan saw that he was be­ing healed, he turned back and, go­ing in quest of Je­sus, be­gan to glo­rify God with a loud voice. And when he had found the Mas­ter, he fell on his knees at his feet and gave thanks for his cleans­ing. The nine oth­ers, the Jews, had also dis­cov­ered their heal­ing, and while they also were grate­ful for their cleans­ing, they con­tin­ued on their way to show them­selves to the priests.

166:2.5As the Samar­i­tan re­mained kneel­ing at Je­sus’ feet, the Mas­ter, look­ing about at the twelve, es­pe­cially at Si­mon Ze­lo­tes, said: “Were not ten cleansed? Where, then, are the other nine, the Jews? Only one, this alien, has re­turned to give glory to God.” And then he said to the Samar­i­tan, “Arise and go your way; your faith has made you whole.”

166:2.6Je­sus looked again at his apos­tles as the stranger de­parted. And the apos­tles all looked at Je­sus, save Si­mon Ze­lo­tes, whose eyes were down­cast. The twelve said not a word. Nei­ther did Je­sus speak; it was not nec­es­sary that he should.

166:2.7Though all ten of these men re­ally be­lieved they had lep­rosy, only four were thus af­flicted. The other six were cured of a skin dis­ease which had been mis­taken for lep­rosy. But the Samar­i­tan re­ally had lep­rosy.

166:2.8Je­sus en­joined the twelve to say noth­ing about the cleans­ing of the lep­ers, and as they went on into Am­athus, he re­marked: “You see how it is that the chil­dren of the house, even when they are in­sub­or­di­nate to their Fa­ther’s will, take their bless­ings for granted. They think it a small mat­ter if they ne­glect to give thanks when the Fa­ther be­stows heal­ing upon them, but the strangers, when they re­ceive gifts from the head of the house, are filled with won­der and are con­strained to give thanks in rec­og­ni­tion of the good things be­stowed upon them.” And still the apos­tles said noth­ing in re­ply to the Mas­ter’s words.