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The life of Jesus · Luke 17

The Ten Lepers

Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, passing between Samaria and Galilee. As he enters a village, ten lepers come to meet him. Standing at a distance, they lift up their voices: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” Jesus sees them and simply says: “Go show yourselves to the priests.” They set off, and it is on the way that they are healed. One of them, seeing that he is healed, turns back, glorifying God with a loud voice. He falls on his face at Jesus’s feet and thanks him. He was a Samaritan. Jesus asks: “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give glory to God except this foreigner?” Then he says to the man: “Arise, go your way; your faith has made you well.”

What happens

  1. Jesus passes between Samaria and Galilee Luke 17:11
  2. Ten lepers cry out from a distance: “Have mercy on us!” Luke 17:12–13
  3. “Go show yourselves to the priests”: they are healed on the way Luke 17:14
  4. Only one returns, glorifying God: he is a Samaritan Luke 17:15–16
  5. “Where are the nine?” Luke 17:17–18
  6. “Arise, go your way; your faith has made you well” Luke 17:19

Who is in this story

The lesson

Receiving God’s blessings is not enough: we must come back to the One who gives them and give him glory. Nine received healing; only one, and he a foreigner, came back to Jesus’s feet with a grateful heart.

And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.
Luke 17:17–18

Quick quiz on this story

What does Jesus tell the ten lepers who beg for his mercy?

What was the background of the one leper who came back to Jesus?

What does the Samaritan do when he sees that he is healed?

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