The other nine

Every month, a copy of Today is placed in my church mailbox. It usually gets recycled later that day.... It's not as though I don't think the content is valuable; I just usually have another devotional on the go at the time.

But this month, I've been reading Today. (And for those familiar with the publication, did you or your parents call it The Today? I totally thought that was its actual name.)

Yesterday, the scripture passage was Luke 17:11-19.

Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”  

When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.  

One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. 

Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

It's funny how you can read a passage many times, and yet new things will still stand out to you or will impact you in a different way.

This time, I was struck by how the group of lepers was likely comprised of both Jews and Samaritans, since they were living near the border. While Jews and Samaritans typically did not associate with one another, their common disease and subsequent expulsion from society must have brought them together. The barriers between them fell away when they had no other choice, nowhere else to go.

I question the barriers in my own life that keep me separated from other people. If my health or status in society was compromised, would it change how I view others? I wonder about the other nine lepers. Did they quickly rebuild those walls, forgetting about their shared experience? Would I?