There were 9 more | Miracles 12

In which John and David explore the story of 10 healings where it's only the foreigner who returns to say thank you. Once again, there's a little more to the story than just that. How is this story giving us a wider understanding of what Jesus and Luke's gospel are doing?

• Click Here to read the text from Luke 14:1-14. 

Episode Outline

• 1:25 Luke 17:11-17
• 9:24 A Samaritan Again
• 11:36 A Sign on a Doorway
• 17:53 The Trajectory of Luke
• 24:15 Naaman?
• 31:00 A Holy Nation is Welcoming to Foreigners
• 35:51 Disputable Matters
• 41:46 Your Faith has Made You Well

Episode 29 of the Two Texts Podcast | Meaning of Miracles Series 12

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Music by Woodford Music (c) 2021

Chapters

• 1:25 Luke 17:11-17
• 9:24 A Samaritan Again
• 11:36 A Sign on a Doorway
• 17:53 The Trajectory of Luke
• 24:15 Naaman?
• 31:00 A Holy Nation is Welcoming to Foreigners
• 35:51 Disputable Matters
• 41:46 Your Faith has Made You Well

Transcript

[00:00:00] Intro: Hi there. I'm David Harvey and I'm here with John Andrews. And this is the two texts podcast in this podcast where two friends in two different countries here every two weeks talking about two different tanks from the. Don't forget before you start this episode, the over on our YouTube channel, we're posting an unedited video podcast of us recording today's episode. 

[00:00:28] So if you want to hear us talk for a little bit longer and laugh ourselves in our own offices, then head over to two texts on YouTube. But now on with this podcast, this is episode 12 of our second season on the miracles of Jesus. And this episode is called. There were nine more. . 

[00:00:51] John: Hey, so David, we are back and we are finishing today in this episode, our fourth of the four new unique Luke and a miracle story. 

[00:01:04] We've really been enjoying, reflecting on those. Hopefully our listeners have as well. We're in Luke 17 today. Some people will know this is the sort of healing of the 10 lepers, but there's a beautiful little finished at a story, which I'm excited about reflecting on. So would you like to read that for us, Luke 17, 11 through to 19 and and then we'll kick this off. 

[00:01:25] David: I would love to John. So. Here we go on the way to Jerusalem. Jesus was going through the region between Samarria and Galilee. As he entered a village, 10 lepers approached him, keeping their distance. They called out saying, Jesus, a master have mercy on us. When he saw them, he said to them, go and show yourself to the priests and the, and as they went, they were making. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, we're not 10 made clean, but the other nine, where are they? But none of them found, sorry, let me read that better. Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner. And then he said to him, get up and go on your way. Your faith has made you well, 

[00:02:35] John: Come on. 

[00:02:37] David: let a great text 

[00:02:39] John: Indeed indeed, absolutely gorgeous. And lovely climactic moment there at the end of that. I mean, I, I mean the, the, the miracles alone are 10 lepers being healed. I mean, that's pretty spectacular just to reflect on, but then there's this extra little moment of one of the lepers re-engaging with Jesus and and maybe an echo of other things throughout the scriptures, just absolutely. Within that. So, so it, it's interesting as that, David, that this begins by giving us a real sense of geography. So, there's a sort of a top and tail here to Sumeria, as you've got, that were introduced on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. And then of course we're introduced to the. 

[00:03:23] The guy having the real sort of huge conversation with Jesus at the end just happens to be a Samaritan. And I don't think that's coincidental here for Dr. Luke. I think those little connectors are all very, very deliberate in reinforcing the message around margins and, 

[00:03:44] David: how it gets. It's all in. I love it. It gets its own sentence. It's like, this is the closest you get. If there was a musical soundtrack to Luke's gospel, there were definitely be something like dumb, dumb, dumb. 

[00:04:00] John: yeah, it really, it really is. So, so, so we've got a real sense here. If we read the whole story together. Okay. There's, there's something very powerful going on here. That this miracle, isn't just a miracle of healing, but there's a message around Samaritan and what's going on with that. And again, we've, we've touched on some of those things before, and it may interest some of our listeners to think about that actually that bit between some merrier and Galilee possibly refer reference there to the valley of Jezreel under some research that suggests there may even have been a leper colonies situated in that region. Now F that's the case. 

[00:04:44] Then the fact that Jesus goes into that area may, may actually imply that he wanted to meet lappers. And in fact it would be unusual not to meet lepers within that particular region. So, so that's fascinating, but, but even if, even if that's not there. And it is interest there's 10 of them together, which does tend to suggest community. 

[00:05:08] So that would lean into that idea. The fact you've got not just one leper knocking around, but you've got 10 hanging around together. Does seem to suggest there is maybe a community, a leper colony, for example locally. But, but even with that, you've got this dramatic sort of bored. Idea that in the midst of some merrier and Galilee, somewhere in the middle between these two very, very sort of antagonistic regions, Jesus is not operating. 

[00:05:39] And I love, I love both ideas. I love the fact that Jesus is no, literally in the market. I mean, I love that he's literally in a midst between Samaria and Galilee and you think, whoa, that's so cool in the context of Luke, but also if there is this idea that close by there's a leper colony, then Jesus is literally positioning himself to engage with people who are unclean. 

[00:06:07] And that says something really powerful about his journey. He's not just going up to Jerusalem. He's going on his way to something else. 

[00:06:14] David: I mean, I always think it's interesting and a thought that repeatedly across the, the conversations we've had about the Lukin miracles, how, how Lu. Authorship reveals he has this. He seems to have this very specific interest in, in the sick Luke does. And of course now, the tradition is, is there in the text that he is a doctor. 

[00:06:40] And, and it's, it's interesting when you read this, you see evidence of that in the last episode, he, he talks about this man who had. The swelling, this fluid retention used to be known as dropsy, but he uses a very medical term. He seems to know his medical terms. And even in this story, you get these moments. 

[00:06:58] 10 lepers leprosy is a distancing disorder. And under, under the law at the time of Jesus, if you've got some and I feels to me like, Leprosy's probably covering a range of infectious skin diseases. And but notice that Luke just, they kept their distance. So, so there's a sense of realization this possibly, like you say, it would be unusual to just be mooching around a regular town and find a group of 10 lepers because they would be forced to stay away from people. 

[00:07:27] So they're probably somewhere where, Hey, we're all in this together, so we better hang out. But Luke's aware of the fight. They want to keep their distance, which would be accurate behavior from a group of late, lepers. And a little bit of the text, that's probably familiar to all of us during a pandemic. 

[00:07:44] So we've got some social distancing and Luke's gospel going on here.  

[00:07:48] John: It. Choose beautifully though. I think again, Luke does this on different occasions. I think here he's showing 10 people who are clearly experiencing the rough end of. Life. And yet they are respecting Torah and one of them is a Samaritan. He's still respecting Torah. So, the Vegas, I actually phoned the quote and the coach quite striking from Leviticus chapter 13 says as long as he has the infection, he remains on club. 

[00:08:23] He must live alone. He must live outside the camp. It's not, it's not quite dramatic and quite sad. He must live alone. He must live outside the camp. And of course, what, what you've got here are people who are all forced to live alone, living together. So they're forming their own little. But they're still distancing themselves from whatever village Jesus is in. 

[00:08:47] So as not to violate Torah and, and so it's not to bring infection upon other people. So there's something quite again. Respectful, the nuance that these are people desperate, but yet still trying to be good, still trying to be operate. There's something decent about these people. They're not ravaging the countryside. 

[00:09:09] They're not reading villages. They're not terrorizing women. And these are men that actually are, are keeping their distance because they are at some degree respecting Torah. And I just think that's beautiful. That's absolutely beautiful. 

[00:09:24] David: Yeah, no, I think that's, and that's almost an important aspect of the story really. That's going to happen because of this. This Samaritan is involved in this story. It's the there's, there's two echoes for me in this story. One is this Samaritan and he was a Samaritan. I can't help, but feel the drawback into Luke 10 story of the good Samaritan. 

[00:09:52] And again, quick trailer, episode six of the parable series. One of my favorite episodes we've done is the story of the good Samaritan. So you can go and listen to John. And I talk about that particular story, but notice what was going on in the story of the good Samaritan. The Samaritan was acting in accordance with the law, the Samaritan prioritize the care for the weak and the vulnerable. 

[00:10:14] And so you've got the similar sort of theme going on here again that now it's the Samaritan who showing the behavior that is. Warrantied the Samaritan is the grateful one, the thankful one. And so there's this underlying Lukin theme of the welcome of the outsider going on here, that now we have another instance of the outsider behaving properly. 

[00:10:39] And I feel like that nuance is important in this story. Do you feel that. 

[00:10:43] John: Oh, for sure. Absolutely. I think it's a very powerful and I love even the way that it's almost tongue in cheek from Jesus. So Jesus, doesn't refer to him as a Samaritan, but refers to him as a foreign. Another nation. It's a very interesting word. Isn't it? That's easy as users there. So Jesus, it's almost, it's almost a bit tongue in cheek from Jesus within this. 

[00:11:09] If that doesn't offend our listeners too much. But, but you do get this real sense of an outsider in the region of Osage or. On the border in between places in literally the margins, here's an outsider reaching out to Jesus and engage him with Jesus. So there is a, a real deep trajectory of this story that fits with the pattern of Luke's gospel re rate throughout. 

[00:11:35] Yeah. 
 

[00:11:36] David: And I want to get up. Just push a little bit, John. So you can, you can hold me back from the edge here, but, but he's on his way to Jerusalem. Okay. So let's just hold that thought. Let's not forget that. And then we get this word, like you say, it was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this, this foreigner. 

[00:11:58] So, it's the only time in the whole new Testament, that word. 

[00:12:01] John: oh, well,  

[00:12:02] David: I don't know. Yeah. So, and aloe Guinness is or a log-in ACE, depending on how you want to pronounce it. Like quite literally other nation is H they compound construction other nations. But, so here's a little just, I can't prove this one, John, I'm just going to share it. 

[00:12:16] Cause I like it. And I think our listeners have gotten, hopefully used to our little musings from time to time he's on his way to Jerusalem. There's Luke uses this, this is a, a log-in Acer, Allegheny in how you printed eight doesn't appear anywhere else in the new Testament, but you know where that word does appear. 

[00:12:34] Did you know, where that, 

[00:12:35] John: no, no. 

[00:12:36] David: The word that's the word in the Greek inscription on the edge of the court of the Jews and the Jerusalem temple where there's, there's a sign, there's a sign on the edge of the court, the Jews that says not one foreigner should go in here. 

[00:12:53] And it's a, log-in S that's the same word. And I, I, I can't, I can't sort of. 

[00:12:58] John: So, cool. 

[00:12:59] David: that, but I I've just, if I I've got some pieces of my jigsaw there on the way to Jerusalem, and this is the word that's describing this person and he is going to be excluded in Jerusalem, but he's the only one that acts in the right way towards Jesus. 

[00:13:12] It feels like there's something there. Right. 

[00:13:14] John: David, that I'm not going to hold you back from the edge of that. That's just that's we need to 

[00:13:19] David: You're gonna push me over. 

[00:13:20] John: Absolutely, man, we need to jump right into that. That's brilliant. That's I I've never. Made that connection before that is simply brilliant. Yeah. I, unless listen, look, even if, even if some of our listeners feel like to slate, stretch, it's a brilliant stretch. 

[00:13:36] It's it's worth the stretch that, and of course it does really fit. When Jesus enters the temple on goes on a bit of a rampage. I mean, he quotes Isaiah and Jeremiah on the nuance of both texts together. As a saintly, these saying you've turned a place that was meant to be a space for the nations to come, and you've turned it into a place of exclusion and worse than exclusion in the context of Jesus criticism it's become a den of thieves. 

[00:14:07] So. Has H how are these other nations being prevented from coming to the house of God, but when they do get there, it's populated with thievery. So, so that idea of other nations and the exclusion and the player. Oh, that's absolutely, I think it fits totally with the, the sort of new wants of, of Dr. Luke and the gospels and what Jesus is trying to achieve, especially. 

[00:14:34] Especially in the Lukin Corpus through the lens of Samaritan, Sumeria Samaritan mentioned more in Luke's writings than any other gospel writer. So there can't be a coincidence here. I think there is something very powerful and then it is not surprising that he picks this story as one of his unit. 

[00:14:54] Healing story. So our other three unique healing stories have, have really, centered around some, some beautiful can I say Jewish centric moments? So two in the synagogue, one in the house of the Pharisee, very, very Jewish centric. The, the fourth one is very other centers. Absolutely. And we're not quite sure who the other nine were, but the inferences of they're going to show themselves the priests there probably from a Jewish background, but here we've got a very Gentile centric or certainly non Jewish centric, understanding of this miracle grid divot. 

[00:15:32] That was Brill. I was love. I love that, 

[00:15:35] David: It's what's in it. It's why I think it's worth mentioning is if you then start, I'm not going to build my foundation on this little moment here. I think it's important to say that interpretively, but if you've got the layers of. And you, you talked about Luke and Corpus, so Luke and the follow-up, volume to act, it's worth noting that the, what you see, and here's me telling you about Luke X, but for the sake of the listener, I'm going to say this until John corrects me and sorts out my certain joke, my bad reading of Luke and acts. 

[00:16:10] Yeah. One of the things that some scholars notice is that the story of Jesus then get sorts of mirrored in the story of the church in acts and the two volumes sort of work together. So for me, it's interesting that you've got in Jerusalem. There is a temple and the temple says, oh, by the way, if you're a Gentile, you can't come into this. 

[00:16:33] And so if we just use this little wait a minute, but you, a foreigner are saying, thanks. If we just use that as a little kickoff to go look, look at what happens. So early on in. In Luke chapter one, Jesus says to the disciples and you will be my witnesses from Jerusalem, Judea Sumeria, and to the ends of the earth in Luke chapter two, you have this infilling of the holy spirit, which you got in Jesus's own life. 

[00:16:59] Jesus is definitely operating through the power of the spirit. And what is the net result of the impact of the holy spirit is all of these boundaries are. It's you know how often we see the disciples struggling to keep up with the work of the holy spirit in Luke, Peter at Cornelius's house, well, the kind of reason that you can't be a Christian is because, and then all of a sudden, the holy spirit moves in Cornelius's house and the Samaritans are, are encountering this story as well. 

[00:17:25] So on it's all. This connection between you or foreigner and the exclusion of the temple maybe feels like a, a weak point, but when you zoom out to 40,000 feet above Luke and act the boundary breaking nature of the kingdom of God is it feels like it's hard not to join those dots then about what's going on in this story. 

[00:17:50] John: for sure. 

[00:17:50] David: Yeah. Can you fill that out for me, John? And what am I missing? 

[00:17:53] John: well there's very little defense mode. I think that's a great summary. I would say if you take Luke X together, Luke begins in Jerusalem. In the temple acts finishes in Rome in the host. And I think that is the trajectory, and of course as you, as you will, will lead us much better on than me in a way, when we then get into Paul, Paul wants one host, he wants one body. 

[00:18:21] He wants a host that represents both the Jewishness and, and the Gentiles. Of this new community. And people often say that Paul and Luke are somehow, a bit edgy with each other and not always on the same page. And I, I don't know where people get that from quite, quite honestly. Cause I'm thinking, I think Luke absolutely gets Paul. 

[00:18:42] And I think the fact that he writes two books that, that absolutely celebrates doesn't run away from. And endorses the Jewish origins of this new way, but, but also reinforces the inclusivity of this new way, which ultimately has a Gentile trajectory. And he does that both through his gospel and through the book of acts finishing off. 

[00:19:09] In, in Roman, the host, I think, is on missable connectedness. And I I'm absolutely certain that Luke's writings and theology would have been shipped by Paul's inclusive theology, that there is neither Jew nor Greek slave or free male and female. I think, I think we've got that. Absolutely. Captured, and I love, I love the idea of Jerusalem to Rome, temple, to host fringe to center. You've got this movement of this fantastic new community, but it's not mentally anybody behind it. Jesus wants his new community to tick all tan lepers with him. He, he wants, he wants the Jewish lepers. 

[00:19:57] And the Samaritan lepers all the, make the cm journey. So, so the, the, the challenge of the Lukin story is keeping those communities connected as the new way emerges. If that, if that makes sense to everybody, but absolutely I I'd. If you read this story in that setting it makes total sense why it is included and why it is the way it is. 

[00:20:22] David: I, I mean, just to support your, your thought there, John, I have increasingly less time for arguments that that suggest tension between new Testament writers. I think mark is very, very Paul line. I think that Luke is, I even, I think John is and and what I might take is simply this, I think there's a long history in the church of reading Paul and making sure. 

[00:20:48] Not make sense. And once you've decided that this is how you're supposed to read Paul, then you find, well, Luke seems to disagree with this Paul and, and, whereas increasingly what you're seeing in modern scholarship is, as people are reading Paul, more aware of his Jewish background, more aware of his, his rootedness in old Testament, Paul starts to make a lot more sense. 

[00:21:09] And then Luke starts to connect better with Paul and mark starts to connect better with Paul. I think we should always think that the early Christians were capable writers, all of the evidence suggests that. And and so when, when we end up with arguments that suggest everyone's disagreeing with each other, you sort of wonder maybe we should go back to our hermeneutic and try and read that again. 

[00:21:33] See if we're see if we're missing something,  

[00:21:35] John: for sure. 

[00:21:36] David: That's my sort of take on that, John. And I think sometimes in that we then miss what you're talking here, these bigger pictures of, of unity and harmony, that's going on within a text like this. 

[00:21:49] John: Hmm. 
 

[00:21:50] David: And isn't it beautiful. Isn't it beautiful that that's all of that conversation is sparked off of just this notion that he's a Samaritan and a foreigner and, and you're realizing then again, the injustice that we do to these texts when we read them just as little encapsulated stories on their own, because they're actually feeding out into the bigger theological jigsaw puzzle of this gospel. 

[00:22:15] John: Absolutely. I mean, I think the Bible's amazing just as a little reflection saying, where is it? I I've flabbergasted flabbergasted at stuff I'm missing. I've studied this thing, my whole adult life, David, honestly, I'm about to turn 55 and I've had the privilege of through Bible college and my upbringing, I have literally studied the Bible, all my adult life. And I am flabbergasted at stuff I miss and I'm gone high on earth that I missed that. And then I'm going, what else am I missing? What else am I not connecting dots to?  

[00:22:52] David: missed that, there must be other stuff. 

[00:22:54] John: Absolutely. And, and you're gone all Lord, help me to read this better. But of course the, the, the beauty of the Bible is you can read it without knowing any of the stuff we talk about and it still speaks. 

[00:23:05] And that's the magnificent, supernatural nature of the Bible. But of course it is just your analogy. It's layers of the onion. It's just layer upon layer upon layer upon layer there, the analogy I love. If there's gold on the surface, just lying around, then it means there's reams of the stuff underneath. 

[00:23:21] And we've just got to pick up some tools and dig. So it's just w when we do little things, like there's, I'm hoping it helps our listeners to. Of the hermeneutical processes of, of then zeroing in and then Panorama out, do both learn, learn to hold these gorgeous stories in detention of both getting the detail, go into the micro. 

[00:23:44] Absolutely. Analyze words, think about nuance, et cetera, but then Panorama out and you go, whoa, hold on a minute. That's connected to that. And it's connected to that. And therefore, Zero back in and listen to it differently. So we know read this story differently about the Samaritan, because there are other things going on and look in Corpus, which suddenly we're a world because we've Panorama died. 

[00:24:08] So it's a good little hermeneutical practice and we'll keep banging on about stuff like that for forever while we're doing these podcasts anyway. 

[00:24:15] David: So, and then another question for you then so there's a potential illusion that I think we're relatively convinced offers going. The wider thing of what Luke's doing. I was thinking about naming when I was reading this as well. That story in second Kings five. Yeah. Well you tell me what you're thinking about naming then. 

[00:24:32] Cause um, you  

[00:24:33] John: I'm so well, I'm so excited. You mentioned. I just things popped out at me. I tell you what started my journey with Naman was in, in our Lukin story in verses 15 and 16, it says that that the Samaritan turned back, turned back, threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him right. And from my sort of early days in church, I remember the story of Nehemiah and an end sort of dug back into it where Neiman is told by Alicia a bit like Jesus here. 

[00:25:08] So it was called the beautiful connectors. So Jesus doesn't even get close to the leprosy. He speaks to them and says, right, go to the priest. Elatia speaks to now. It doesn't, it doesn't even come out to S to see him. Alesha just says Gotel name and the wash in the 

[00:25:27] David: He sends his servant to do it. Doesn't it yet? 

[00:25:28] John: And deed. So it's a little connector there name, and eventually does it. 

[00:25:33] And it's, it's says this in and that, cause it went back to the text that says in second Kings of five, verse 14, since we went down and dipped himself seven times of Jordan, according to the word of the man of God and his flesh. Was restored. And like the flesh of a little child and he was clean that two interesting insights into the Hebrew words. 

[00:25:59] There restored a shoe, one of the most gorgeous, multi nuanced words in Hebrew text at the very heart of words, like repentance teshuva. On the understanding of return we've, we've reflected on the returning idea before. So you're getting a returning of name and something's returning here to him. And then the word clean to her is that it's this understanding of often associated with ceremonial cleanings at cleaning something that is ongoing. of course that really it's stripped back to the, to the leper here. He has been cleansed on, then he returns and on a thought that was absolutely gorgeous. And then the other little you wants to grab me was that naming, when he returns to the Mount of God, he says at verse 15, now I know that there is no God in all the world, except in Israel. 

[00:26:56] Incredible on. And I think that relates to the idea of, of the Samaritan and throwing themselves at Jesus' feet and thanking him. And it's interesting, the word thanking there. You could you just trying to find it in the text here. You, Kara Risto points to this idea of giving. 

[00:27:16] Thanks to God. Only every news in a new Testament text to refer to people, giving thanks directly to God. So, so you get this idea of, of this Samaritan, not just sort of saying thank you for being healed, but is associating his healing directly with God himself in the same way that Neiman does. So I think there's multiple beautiful connectors to these two stories. 

[00:27:44] And of course, both of them are foreign. On the last little connector that I thought about was of course doesn't Jesus refer to Naman in Luke chapter four in the sermon that almost gets him killed. 

[00:27:59] when he uses Elijah and the word of sacrifice, and then Alaysia and Neiman as examples of gen exit ex excess in the grace of God within that. 

[00:28:10] So I think there's multiple beautiful connectors here at the shore. 

[00:28:15] David: Yeah. 
 

[00:28:15] John: Getting cleansed and being restored and then a foreigner worshiping God in both instances. And I think there's an illusion worth following up there. 

[00:28:29] David: Yes, you've hit all the points that, that I was thinking about as well. And some I think. This Jesus has connection to the old Testament. Narrative is, is something that I think is really important for Luke as a writer is that, that Jesus is continuing a bigger story. He's continuing something that's been going on prior to now. 

[00:28:50] And I mean, all of the gospel writers want to make that point. Jesus isn't actually as brand new, he's actually in line with what God has been as been doing. But I thought that one was interesting as well. The connection that naming doesn't assume, and it's quite, it's quite revolutionary in contextually that name. 

[00:29:10] And doesn't assume that Elatia is the solution. He, he, he makes the connection between Elatia and God. Whereas I think what Luke is doing here is making the point that the, the lepers get that God is the one that has done this, but they get that Jesus has gotten. Present with them. The Luke definitely leaning into that subtle, but quite significant difference. 

[00:29:34] But, but as you say, gee, Luke has alluded already to the sermon of Jesus that raises the question that foreigners are welcomed into this kingdom. And I then have wondered about the following passage. Where they actually start to have a discussion about the presence of the kingdom of God. The, the very following passage in Luke chapter 17, although it's, it's, the marker suggests this is not an immediate follow on it's, some other time, once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees, but Luke puts this story here. 

[00:30:06] When is the kingdom of God coming and and the kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed, nor will they say Luke here is, or, or there it is. But in fact, the kingdom of God is amongst you. And so there's almost a level of which Jesus is being a little coy there. It's not coming with things that can be observed. 

[00:30:26] It kind of is coming with things that can be observed. It's just that you're not looking at the right things. And this is going right away back to Luke four. This has been the constant message of Jesus. Hasn't it? That well, yeah, I'm doing all of this stuff. You're just, you're not happy with how it's looking. 

[00:30:41] You're not happy with how the kingdom of God looks. And this story teaches us. If you want to be happy with the kingdom of God, you've gotta be happy with Samaritan's being healed. You've gotta be happy with,  

[00:30:51] John: Yes. 
 

[00:30:51] David: W with things which are outside of what you would normally want or desire in some 

[00:31:00] John: For sure. For sure. Out, of course, if, if we're prepared to link naming with this. Samaritan leper through that, say the connector of Luke four. Then of course, one of the things where we're reflecting on is actually the inclusion of the foreigner was always God's idea. When God called his people Exodus 19, he wanted them to be a holy nation and a kingdom of priests. 

[00:31:31] And for me, that, that reflects both as sort of a example and export it's like, as, as a holy nation, here's what, what a God's centric people look like. Here's what a, a walkway centric people look like holy nation. So if you want to see what the Lord looks like, look at them. That's the sort of nuance for me of accidents 19 six, but then he also declares every one of them. 

[00:31:58] A kingdom of priests. So not the ceremonial priest who, but the priest who would carry God to the world who would export the Lord. And I think this is why, for me, in the, in the context of Tanakh, the old Testament, why Jonah is such a dramatically controversial story, because I think you've got a, a nation that should have been carrying the good news of Jaak way to the nations of the world, refusing to do. 

[00:32:27] And Jonah is representative of a, of an attitude that says, no, no, I don't want the foreigners to hear of Jaak way. If they're going to hear of yak way, it will be on my terms, not on theirs. And so there's this tension all the way through the old Testament text. And ironically for me, David, it's only when God's people are tragically and dramatically thrust into. 

[00:32:56] That they had a weird on wonderful way become the exporters of God's light to the nations of the world. They shine as late in the darkness and Babylon, they, Shane is late in the darkness in Persia. They actually thrive as an exhibit people. And I think whoa, but maybe that's what they were always supposed to be there an exhibit people. 

[00:33:20] And I think Peter picks that up when he talks about. And a new Testament sense being scattered exiles. I think, I think that's what he's driving up, where we were never meant to be stuck in one place. We were meant to be scatters exporters of this. So, so if you're prepared to look at this Samaritan foreigner being healed, And connect the name and story through Luke four. 

[00:33:48] And I know some of our listeners may, there's a bit, a bit of a stretch, but it's worth a Luke because of these other nations idea. I think you've got something very powerful being restored in this healing. This healing is about saying actually God's heart was always that the other nations would come in and be connected to this. 

[00:34:10] And I don't think that's true. Too far, a stretch within this miracle to think about, 

[00:34:15] David: I mean, it's interesting. Like I I'm prompted by the fact that. Like this, this, this podcast episode is released on what is truth and reconciliation day in Canada. So this is a day of, of trying to deal with the, the ugly and horrible aspect of, of Canadian settlers who came to Canada and. Treated the indigenous peoples and first nations people of Canada, really, really badly. 

[00:34:47] So I'm here in Canada on a land that has a really, really dark history and a history that was driven even by the church in, in, in many contexts of, of, of creating exclusion and separation. And so I, I'm struck by the irony of reading this text in Luke, where Jesus is welcoming in the outsider and, and, and we, you can jump over a text like. 

[00:35:10] So like John chapter four, where you see a little bit more depth of the tensions between Jewish people and Samaritan people. And yet Jesus is moving beyond that. And there's that scene in John four, Jesus is sat by the well, and he's having this conversation with this, this woman, and she tries to get into the argument with Jesus for a while. 

[00:35:29] It doesn't, she says, oh, you got, you think this. And we think that, and Jesus says, well, wait a minute. That's not the way to solve this. So then I was reflecting John and, and forgive me, this is a, perhaps a rambling reflection, but I was then thinking about Paul's words in Romans 14, right. Where he starts to talk about what some translations. 

[00:35:51] Disputable matters, is that how it's pronounced then? We have no trying to remember from, but like I said, I I'm doing this from mem memory, but the a D or fi R the offer sorry kind of terms these disputable ideas, that there are things that we can all fall out over. It seems like Paul is saying this and, and these things that we all fall out or. 

[00:36:14] Are not worth falling out to offer. So, so in Luke, we can fall out over the fact that you were born in the wrong part of town, and we can fall out over the fact that you were born in the wrong country or long wrong piece of land. You can be excluded in Luke's gospel for being a leper. And the modern person goes. 

[00:36:35] Well, that's just silly, we go, you can't be excluding somebody for something that you can't be, you can't be doing that. And then you look at church history and people had huge fallouts over over how you take communion together. Right? There's been like points where people were at each other's throats because of how you did a communion meal. 

[00:36:51] And we look back at that and go, oh my goodness, that was silly. I can't believe people fell out over that, when I was a kid who was type of music you listened to in the church, there was Christian types of music and there was non-Christian types of music, and then we look at that and go, well, that was a little waste of time that we all argued over that. 

[00:37:06] And there was, but then we come to today's day and age, and there's this long list of things that we can all fight over and argue over the, in 20 years time, we'll go, can you believe that we fought in our. Over that. And I find Paul's words. Enrollments are so prophetic for the conversation that we're having. 

[00:37:24] That when Paul talks about the fact that there are things that we can, that we can fall out over, but do they. Really kind of lead us in the way of God and lead us into it in the way of Jesus. And, and so there's this now forgive me. I'm going to keep apologizing. Cause I feel this is a long ramble, but there's something profound for us as contemporary Christians that we don't look back at the Samaritan Jewish divide and go, oh, well that was a bit silly of them back then because we're constantly creating these new divides in our, in our lives, we're somebody not quite fitting the shape or style or ethnicity or culture that we think is deeply rooted in Christianity. And only to discover later, we were arguing over a disputable matter and, and, and creating separation and division where there didn't need to be separation and division. And maybe, maybe it's just my perspective on the world right now, John, but I just, I'm seeing Christians arguing over our response to the pandemic and meanwhile, people are dying from an infectious disease. 

[00:38:34] And while we argue over, should Christians wear masks or, should you get what I'm saying? I feel like in years to come, we'll realize that was another disputable matter. And then we got it wrong again.  

[00:38:49] John: And I think that's why Jesus, literally in this story, he's in the midst Disney, he's literally in the margins and we mustn't miss the power of the geographic positioning of Jesus. Not just within the proximity of a potential leper colony, which may have been there, but the fact that actually one of the most profound engagements he has directly personally with a Samaritan in the Lukin Corpus happens in the margin, happens in the midst, happens in the end, between place in the sort of liminal space, the no man's land. The new worst space. So it's not quite some merit and it's not quite Jewish, it's sort of in between. And and of course would be even more messy if it was dominated by some sort of leper colony, which makes it even more non-personal and where does Jesus dwell right there? And isn't it fascinating that these lepers together cry out to Jesus and they see Jesus. 

[00:39:53] Beautiful expression. They that these somehow the reputation of Jesus has reached these margins, right? If, if a bunch of 10 lepers con in unison and, and the Greek text to me seems to suggest that they cry out to gather Jesus master have mercy on us, means his, his reputation for comfort in the Martin. Has preceded him because they're identifying him very, very strongly as master the disciples often refer to him, his teacher or Lord, but here they're calling him master one who stands over. It's a very powerful. 

[00:40:38] David: chief commander, that 

[00:40:39] John: Absolutely. Absolutely. It's something else going on there. So, and, and they're crying out to him in unison. 

[00:40:46] Something has reached them in that nowhere place. I know Jesus, this person who's comfortable in the newer places is standing in the new workplace and reaching people in these. Gabby undefined or, or poorly divined defined regions. And he's bringing hope to them. And I think leaning back into your reflection, if the church is called to do anything in surety, the church is called to sit in. 

[00:41:21] The in-between places is to find comfort in the messy places is to find some sense. Of empathy with those who find themselves in these marginal places and to bring hope to them. And I love the progression here, David, I don't know if you've had a reflection on this, but as they went away, verse 14, they were cleansed. 

[00:41:46] That's fairly straightforward. It's it's that, it's that idea of cleaning again from on, in pure to pure. Unclean decline. And in verse 15, one of them, when he saw that he was healed a different word entirely they're leaning back into, okay. My goodness. I'm not, I'm not just being cleansed. He refers to himself as being healed. 

[00:42:07] When he returns to Jesus, Jesus then says to him, raise and go. He says your faith has made you well, or whole that's a third different word. We've got cleansed. We've got healed. We've got whole,  

[00:42:24] David: Um,  
 

[00:42:25] John: and I love this, that Jesus is first of all, cleansing them from the impurity of their leprosy, but he wants not just to cleanse them. 

[00:42:35] He wants to heal them, but then the Samaritan pushes all the way by returning back to Jesus, the Samaritan. By throwing himself at the feet of Jesus, Jesus then says to him, your faith has made you well now I don't believe Jesus is saying your faith cleansed you from the leprosy. 

[00:42:54] David: No, no, no, 

[00:42:55] John: I think Jesus is saying you're returning to me. 

[00:42:59] You're falling at my feet. You're acknowledging me and thanking me as God. Who's healed you is the thing that's made you whole. So, so we go from being cleansed to being whole. In this story. And I, I love that's is that the call of the church, but of course, we're not going to see people cleansed, unless we go into the marginal spaces. 

[00:43:28] We're not, we're not going to see the lepers reached unless we're prepared to sit in the leper colonies or at least close to them. 

[00:43:34] David: yes. 
 

[00:43:34] John: And people are not going to be made whole, unless we are close enough for them to return to us. And as it were metaphorically fall at the feet of Jesus and faint wholeness. 

[00:43:47] So you can be healed, but not whole, 

[00:43:49] David: Yes. 
 

[00:43:49] John: here's, the Samaritan is both healed and hall. 

[00:43:52] David: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I love 

[00:43:54] John: He spoke cleansed and some translations have served, but I like the translation of Zoso there as whole as complete as, as it were. Yeah, for me whole is the best translation there in the flow of the passage. He's been cleansed. 

[00:44:13] He recognizes he's been healed, but through faith in Jesus, he's been made whole and all because all because of the proximity of Jesus to them in the in-between space. And I think that that sort of connects to your reflection on. the role of the church has got to be in not getting caught up with Mainers, all was being consumed with the majors and the majors ultimately are sitting in the margins and reaching those that are far from Jesus. 

[00:44:53] So I, yeah, I, I don't know if that made sense that progression, but it certainly struck me cleansed healed whole. Within the context of even the different words that are used within that. 

[00:45:05] David: I really do like that, John and and I think you're right. Like, I, , it's important that you don't think, oh, this man had faith and that's why he was healed because, it's very clear in the story that happened. 

[00:45:15] Without any touch, he just went on his weight and did that. The only thing I would want to add is I am convinced Luke is working at multiple levels with his language here. So, so the use of Soju, as you say, your faith has, so Zoe you could, some people translate, it saved him, but, I love the idea of whole, but just notice what he also says. 

[00:45:36] He says ghetto. 

[00:45:37] Right, but, but actually again, the Greek word there, Anna staffs be raised like raise up this. There's definitely some resurrection language going on in here. This is kingdom, something that's going on. There's there's allusions to what Jesus does. You'd be raised and go. This is almost, there's a little commission in this isn't there. 

[00:45:58] If you think about the paradigm of Jesus, he has raised, he then commissions the disciples to go with this message, this message of hope and wholeness. So you get it in one little sentence and this guy be raised ghoul, behold,  

[00:46:11] John: Beautiful.  

[00:46:12] David: it's good  

[00:46:13] John: love that. Love that. And of course, it's sort of our wholeness that we can raise and go. And 

[00:46:19] And isn't it beautiful that it is the forerunner. It is the summary. Who raises and goes 

[00:46:26] Okay. So that's it for this episode. If you want to get in touch with either of us about something, we said, you can reach out to us on podcast@twotexts.com or by liking and following the two texts podcast on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. If you enjoyed this episode, we'd love it. If you left a review on your podcast app or say hi on one of our social media sites, and if you really enjoyed this episode, Why don't you share it with a friend? 

[00:46:57] Outro: Don't forget. You can listen to all of our podcasts on www.twotexts.com or wherever you get your podcasts from. So we'll be back in two weeks time. So until then, goodbye.