From a brother in the Lord whom I sent the question to about the 10 lepers being healed and only one returning to give thanks.
Brothers,
As I took some time to look into this question, I found lots that could be discussed, here is my take.
It seems odd to the average Bible reader as he looks at the numerous times in which the Messiah, Jesus goes to all the wrong places and saves and heals all the wrong people. I mean, wow, he heals a, centurions servant, a noble mans son, a Samaritan women, a gentile woman's 4 year old daughter, on and on it goes. And so I wondered not just why? But WHY? Why did He do it? Because they needed His touch, His ministry, His salvation. That much is obvious. But it kept showing up, again and again, as though there was a statement of some sort being made that just a surface reading was sorely missing. And soon in my studies I came to the obvious problem so eloquently stated by the woman at the well, "Jews have no dealings with Samaritans" and then I began to ask why? You see at the core of the problem was the issue of being unclean, and in the eyes of the Jews, the entire world was unclean. Not just the people, but the very places, the very trappings, all were considered unclean. And the establishment of a clean, or consecrated, cleansed place was beachhead of the Temple Mount. It was the most "clean" or consecrated area, because the adherents to the commands of God were stringently in force. Innocent blood gave the common the renewed status of clean, a earthly depiction of the heavenly holiness it was meant to prefigure.
And so here was Doc bringing in this story about 10 lepers, all unclean due to the Levitical Laws requirement concerning discharges. All were subject to a life outside the camp (city), and therefore were under the penalty of the curse, and thus death. Leviticus 11-19, lays it all out in staggering detail. And so at first I thought it was as simple as the 9 who didn't return to give thanks to Jesus were just ungrateful, and rather ran home and saw the family and friends they had been kept away from. But as the pile grew, and as Messiah Jesus kept going to all the wrong places, and all the wrong people a pattern began to emerge, one that was to change the world. Because I believe that the gentile who returned was making a greater statement in that he did not have the benefit of the understanding of the Law, he was out side of its covenant parameters. He had not grown up in the Jewish culture where clean and unclean were common place and practice. He rather, had returned because he had just now, for the first time in his life been cleansed, and thus his gratitude for the miracle was an expression of worship to the Messiah-Priest who had just healed him. He was for the first time "clean" in body and spirit. And that touch from the Savior was what changed the mind of this gentile to that of gratefulness. He wanted to express the love, by the worship he was now free to express in the falling down at the feet of Messiah Jesus in humility, as he would have never had any claim to this miracle. And were it not for grace that he was among the Jews who received it, perish he would have in a destitute place and position. There simply was not another gentile Jesus walking around the rest of Israel doing these types of miracles... And he was given pure gold of sweet grace in the fact that he fell in among those who had the covenant, who had the birthright and were allowed the kindness because of the covenant. He was an outsider swept up in the sweet arms of the merciful grace that brought him to health and salvation. And we shall see him again! On that great day when we are made like Him in glorification because we too were cleansed by the Savior, by a pure act of divine grace.
But on a different level, I believe that Jesus was pre-revealing what He would later command the Apostle Peter in Acts 10 to freely accept... (Cornelius the gentile) against the whole of his culture and his upbringing. And what was that? Sovereign prerogative! What God calls clean, don't call unclean or common was the lesson. And so in all of these ministry opportunities and miracles, Jesus the Jew was being the example by going and doing what broke the mindset of the Jews of His day. The Pharisee's and the Qumran sector had so internalized the law, they had lost sight of the humanity that was suffering all around them. Jesus the true keeper of the Law, the Jewish Messiah and King, showed that the Spirit of the Law was in the right application of it in ministry. Look at the sermon on the mount as the example. "You have heard it said from those of old, BUT I SAY TO YOU..." thus Jesus was openly reinterpreting and defying their interpretation of what was the right way to see yourself set within the context of the Laws rule over you. Not just external adherents, but internal transformation. And so "Blessed are the poor in spirit... Blessed are those who morn... Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness... Blessed are the merciful... Blessed are the peacemakers... Blessed are those who are persecuted... or in other words blessed are those who DO and not those who just internalize to modify outward behavior. As all these have a personal outworking to those around them, one that brings the Spirit in the Law out to the spirit of the Law and reveals the new heart touched by the God of that Law in ministry! And so Jesus was the great prototype, as He went to the undesirable unclean nations, who are really unclean people, in different unclean places, staying a few precious days with them, and being among them as the means of cleansing and the true light that had come into the world, "drawing all men unto Himself".
So much more to say... so little time to say it!
Unto the unending day.
