The One Who Came Back to Say Thank You

There were once ten men who were very sick. Their skin was sore and breaking, and the sickness had a name everyone was afraid of. So afraid that the ten men could not live in town with the others.

They lived outside, away from their mothers, away from their friends, away from warm suppers and the sound of children playing. Anyone who came near had to keep far, far back. Nobody could stand close enough to hold their hands, and that is a very lonely way to live.

One day Jesus came walking along the road, going right to where the lonely people were. And the ten men saw him.

They could not run to him. They were not allowed. So they stood far off and shouted as loud as they could.

"Jesus! Please! Have mercy on us!"

Jesus looked at them, and he did not back away the way other people did. He saw ten aching men who only wanted to go home.

"Go," he said. "Show yourselves to the priests."

Now that was a strange thing to say. The priest was the one who checked your skin and told you if you were well. But the men were not well yet. Their sores were still there.

Still. They went anyway.

And while they walked, their skin grew smooth. The soreness left, and their hands and their faces were made new, healed right there on the road, every single one.

Ten men, well again. Ten men who could go home.

Nine of them kept running. Faster, faster, toward the town and the priests and their families. Oh, they were so glad. Who could blame them?

But one man stopped.

One man turned around in the middle of the road. And he came back. He came back loud, praising God with his whole voice, and he fell down at Jesus's feet. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

This man was a Samaritan, a foreigner, the kind of person many people in that town thought did not belong with God at all. Do you remember the thirsty woman at the well? She was a Samaritan too, and Jesus sat and talked with her like a friend. He had been welcoming far-off people all along.

And now it was the Samaritan who came back.

Jesus looked around. "Weren't there ten?" he asked gently. "Where are the other nine?" Then he said to the man at his feet, "Get up. Go home. Your trusting has made you well."

The man went home whole. Healed in his skin, and healed somewhere deeper too.

Jesus was gathering a family, and it was not the family anyone expected. It was filling up with people from outside the walls, people from far away, people who heard their name called and turned around to say thank you. The door stood open, more were coming up the road every day, and the best of that homecoming was still ahead.

And Jesus, who walked those dusty roads to find the far-off ones, was carrying a glory nobody had seen yet. And Jesus, who walked those dusty roads to find the far-off ones, was carrying a glory three of his friends had already seen once, blazing like the sun on a high mountain.