WHERE ARE THE OTHER NINE?

 

Once, on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men, who had leprosy, met him. They stood at a distance and cried out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

When Jesus saw them, his heart melted. He said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And, as they went, they were all cleansed.

One of the lepers, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. He was a Samaritan.

Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?  Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?”  Then, he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

In those days, the Samaritans – the people from Samaria – were treated by Jews as an inferior tribe, the ‘outcasts’. Jesus, though a Jew himself, exposed the hypocrisy and arrogance of his brethren through his famous parables and miracles by highlighting on the fine virtues of the Gentile clan, the Samaritans.

In the above episode from the life of Jesus, the ten lepers had torn their hearts and begged of him: “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

And, looking at their plight, Jesus’ heart had melted, and, he had cured all of them. Yes, all ten.

Still, only one had come back to the Master to express his gratitude…

And, it took the humble Samaritan to do that!

“Where are the other nine?” This was Jesus’ question to the Samaritan.

Thanklessness is the worst form of arrogance…

Jesus, in his beatitudes, had said, “Blessed are the meek (humble), for they shall inherit the earth.” 

The Kingdom of God, most certainly, 

belongs to the humble and the grateful.

So, what Jesus had said about the rich man also applies to the ungrateful men… “I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."

Someone who is thankless… arrogant!

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: Malabika Ganguly