The Ten Lepers

Tissot's watercolor of the healing of ten lepers: bandaged men on a rocky path call out to Jesus, who stands with his disciples across a low wall. — *The Healing of Ten Lepers*, James Tissot, c. 1886-1894 (Brooklyn Museum). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

They met Jesus on the border between Samaria and Galilee – fitting, because leprosy had already erased the border between them. Jew and Samaritan stood together at the required distance, lifting the leper’s cry: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us” (Luke 17:11-13).

The healing came wrapped in a test of faith: no touch, no word of cure, only a command that presumed one – “Go and show yourselves to the priests,” the Levitical procedure for someone already clean. “And as they went they were cleansed.” Ten obeyed; ten were healed; one, “when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice… and he was a Samaritan” (Luke 17:14-16). Jesus’ three questions land like slow bells: “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”

The nine did nothing wrong – they did exactly what they were told. The tenth did something more: he let the gift lead him back to the Giver, and went home with a word the others never heard: “your faith has made you well” – literally, has saved you (Luke 17:19). Nine received a healing; one received a Healer.

In the New Testament

The cleansing of the ten lepers (Luke 17:11-19)

Key Locations

Galilee The northern hill region where Jesus grew up, based his ministry, and did most of his teaching.
Samaria / Sychar The Samaritan town at Jacob's well, where Jesus offered a foreign woman living water.