Sunday 12 October 2025
n the Gospel today (Luke 17: 11-19), Jesus comes across the ten lepers, who beg to be healed. Jesus does so, and tells them to go tell the High Priests what happened to them.
Before setting off one of turns to praise God and to thank Jesus, falling at his feet with his face in the dirt. Jesus then asks him why the others are not with him doing the same.
“I don’t know about you but I feel a bit sorry for the other nine,” said Canon P. “They were only doing what they were told.”
I was thinking something similar: Which of the ten lepers would I have been?
Most likely I’d have been one of the nine. Thankful, but not wanting to take up any more of Jesus’s time. Surely he had far better things to do and I don’t like to bother people.
But then the leper returning to thank Jesus also feels familiar. Might I have been that one, the people pleaser, wanting to show my gratitude? But also wondering if there wasn’t a little bit of me who wanted to be seen as a good person.
The reality, I suspect, is that if I wasn’t already on my way I’d at best be lurking in the distance. Too struck by the power of being in the presence of Christ to think rationally.
Perhaps I might have hoped to be visible over the shoulder of the single leper. Not immediately at his feet, but in eye shot, smiling, and looking ever so grateful.