Progressive reflections on the lectionary #85

Monday 6th October 2025

Luke 17:11-19: By way of some strange geography, Jesus defies boundaries of all sorts.

The story of the ten men who got healed and the one who turned back to say thanks is another of Luke’s ‘journey to Jerusalem stories. I will say that the details in this story suggest that Luke was a writer from a different era and geography who wanted to demonstrate that Jesus was no respecter of ‘borders’ of any sort, and who was interested in presenting the mission of Jesus as one of boundary defying resistance to empire.

The gospel passage this week begins with a small, but telling, anomaly.

“Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus travelled along the border between Samaria and Galilee.” Luke 17:11

This single verse has been the cause of much puzzlement for people who struggle to work out Luke’s strange geography. If the writer, as some prefer, was someone who spent time with Jesus, or was at least contemporary to him in terms of time or space, then it’s strange that he would have got his routes so mixed up. In this instance it would be a bit like saying ‘now as he walked from Sheffield to London, he travelled along the A46.’

For those who don’t know - the A46 goes east to west (and vice versa) across England, whereas Sheffield to London is a basically north to south route. This journey is similar - Jesus is said to be heading south toward Jerusalem. But Luke writes that he travels “along the border between Samaria and Galilee”—which runs east-west. You don’t need to go along the A46 on that route - nor do you need to travel along the border between Samaria and Galilee on your way to Jerusalem.

There are other, similar, puzzles too, some more or less troubling than others, but rather than get further into the weeds of the text, I will simply say that Luke seems far less interested in geographical accuracy than he does in the symbolic value of placing Jesus in a borderland space. Such placing serves to highlight not just the activity of Jesus in the story, but the way that this locates Jesus alongside the marginalised (see what I did there?) which is to say: the dwellers in the in-between spaces. Those who find themselves excluded from the mainstream. This simple placing of Jesus himself in an in-between space speaks of solidarity with all those who find themselves dislocated.

One more thing about in-between spaces, before we move to the main thrust of the story: this can be read as reminder that ‘God’s work’ is not limited to the formal structures of the Church. This story takes place, effectively, in ‘no man’s land’ - for those looking to develop or build ‘church beyond walls’ - this is a powerful idea to draw on.

Back to the story though - and into the action:

…ten men with a skin disease approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. Luke 17:12-15

Traditionally the ‘skin disease’ here is rendered as ‘leprosy’ - a real disease with terrible effects that continues in the 21st century - it’s good that contemporary versions of the Bible excise that too specific reference for a more generic term, as really what that means is a disease which left the sufferer 'ritually unclean.’

This comes just after the passage where Jesus talks about what makes people unclean, of course, Luke is highlighting the same issue by repeating it. Here, the men’s circumstances have made them ritually unclean according to the purity codes, this leaves them socially isolated, and economically destitute.

Jesus is not interested in perpetuating this model - he says it is how we behave that makes us ‘unclean’, not our circumstances.

Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’s feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? So where are the other nine? Did none of them return to give glory to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.” Luke 17: 15-19

Oh - so much going on here - it’s impossible to cover it all. But let’s note that the Samaritan (“and that guy was a Samaritan…”) embodies multiple layers of exclusion. He is excluded because of his ethnicity, his religion, and now his health. That he is healed is important in the sense of understanding of what salvation is.

Salvation here addresses the effects of systemic marginalisation. This is not the salvation of pie in the sky when you die, but of genuine liberation in the here and now.

Then there’s the command to “show yourselves to the priests” - this harks back again to the temple purity system - part of the religio-civic structure, deeply entwined with imperial power.

When the unnamed Samaritan refuses to go through with this ritual (Samaritans didn’t worship at the temple anyway) rejecting the Jewish purity codes to return instead to Jesus. He doesn’t go along with the Jewish code, nor does he attend to the demands of his own tradition - instead he goes to Jesus, a clear critique of institutional demands. Another borderland, another ‘no man’s land.’

In highlighting the behaviour of this “foreigner,” (the word is stark and unambiguous in the Greek) Luke flips expectations. Writing for a Gentile audience, Luke has Jesus affirming allegiance over ethnic identity: “Your faith (pistis: loyalty, allegiance, faithfulness) has made you well…” he says.

There’s a lot more to draw out here too - the way that the Samaritan uses his voice to reclaim his agency in a society which has excluded him, for instance, but more generally it is helpful to recognise that this is part of Luke’s wider project to present Jesus as a boundary breaker.

It also highlights the idea that the mission of Jesus is a relational one - drawing people together, ridding them of the things that divide them (temple codes, ethnic divisions) and forming new borderless communities of love, sharing, and resistance to the demands and restrictions of empire.

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Image: Photo by Jonny Gios on Unsplash