Always on the Outside With Nowhere to Go

Regular readers of this blog will know how much I appreciate Sarah at Dylan's Lectionary Blog. She has more insights into the weekly lessons that I have never seen that I am amazed at her ability to find such new things. It has happened again this week with the story of the Ten Lepers, that perpetual Thanksgiving Story where this Samaritan outsider is praised and those insider Jews (in our often sadly typical Christian underhanded Antisemitism) are ungrateful sinners.

Sarah doesn't see it that way.

She points out that for the Lepers (or at least nine of them) to come back and thank Jesus would have been impolite. Especially since he has told them what to do- go to the priest and give thanks there- to God. Here's what Dylan says. Read it carefully- it is powerful...

The nine who did what Jesus told them to do were not only honoring the expressed wishes of their benefactor; they were also behaving as people would when they wanted and expected to continue the relationship while looking for opportunity to repay Jesus. The tenth leper, though, cannot obey Jesus' instructions. He is a Samaritan. Samaritans, weren't welcome in the Temple in Jerusalem, and had good reason to expect ill treatment from those who saw the Temple in Jerusalem as being the only true one.

As the other nine headed off toward Jerusalem, the tenth realizes that even if he isn't a leper, he's still a Samaritan, set apart even from the nine people he was with when they were all lepers. As the others head off for the Temple, wondering what they can offer Jesus in return, the tenth returns, "praising God with a loud voice." And Jesus in turn praises the Samaritan -- not for giving thanks to him, but for giving praise to God.
--Dylan's Lectionary Blog

What an idea. What happens to those who don't have a place to go to express their gratitude to God? I can picture the scene in my mind with the Samaritan starting off down the road and realizing he was not able to fulfill Jesus' words- he couldn't go to the priest since- by his very nature he was unclean! The others who when unclean accepted him have left him behind. Alone.

So when you are on the outside with nowhere to go what do you do? You return to Jesus and, no, not praise Jesus; no, not thank Jesus; you return to Jesus so you can thank God with him. There challenge here is not to the Samaritans- the outcasts. Neither is it a reminder to give thanks (unlike those we have often pictured as the ungrateful Jews.) It is a reminder to let the outsider in. After all, he may be obeying Jesus.