Reflection:
The Gospel story is “worse” than you think. Yes, of the ten lepers who were miraculously cured by Jesus, only the Samaritan returned to thank God. But Samaritans were not merely foreigners. In that time period and beyond, the Jewish people distinguished between Jews and non-Jews, or gentiles. Samaritans, while considered gentiles, were especially rejected.
The nation of Israel wound up being divided into two kingdoms during the reign of King Solomon’s son, Rehoboam: a northern kingdom, composed of ten tribes, and a southern kingdom, comprised of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. In the eighth century BC, the Assyrian Empire invaded the northern kingdom, and exiled the leadership, educated, and mercantile classes to deep within the empire. Those ten tribes never returned to the northern kingdom and are considered lost. The Jews that remained were the poor and soon intermarried with the gentiles that the Assyrians moved from elsewhere in the empire to the northern kingdom, with its capital city of Samaria. Those gentiles were pagans, worshipping many gods.
The result was the nation of Samaria, the people being of mixed genetic lines with a syncretistic religion, mixing elements of Judaism and paganism. Jews in the southern kingdom, eventually called Judea, and the Jews who eventually resettled the far north of the northern kingdom, called Galilee, viewed the Samaritans very negatively. Samaritans were not considered to truly be Jewish and occupied land that should be occupied by Jews. They claimed the God of Abraham to be their god, along with worshipping other gods.
When only the Samaritan came back to thank God, it was shocking. Yet Jesus tells him something even more shocking: “your faith has saved you.” Beyond the miraculous physical cure that Jesus affected, he offers the man salvation in the kingdom. Even a Samaritan could be saved, as he came to faith in Jesus. God’s offer is open to everyone; it is up to each individual to accept or reject it.
Reflection Questions
- Am I grateful to God for all he has done for me, or do I take things for granted? Am I grateful for the offer of salvation that he gives me in Jesus Christ?
- How much time do I spend thanking God each day?
- Do I presume my own salvation, and at times do I think there are people that are beyond salvation?