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And it came to be, in going into Jerusalem, he himself also was coming through the middle of Samaria and of Galilee. And, he himself coming into a certain village, ten men clustered, who stood afar off, and they themselves lifted up a voice, stating, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” And, seeing them, he said to them, “Going, exhibit yourselves to the priests!” And it came to be, in their going down, they were cleansed. (Luke’s AD 60 research report re Jesus: Chapter 17: 11-25) |
This event in Jesus’ life, around AD 30, is interesting because all ten lepers were sent away without knowing whether or not they had been cured. “The priests” would examine them and decide whether or not they were permitted to be among non-lepers. To go, did they need faith in Jesus?
But one of them, seeing that he was cured, returned, glorifying God with a great voice; and he fell upon his face near Jesus’ feet, giving thanks to him. And he himself was a Samaritan. But Jesus, answering, said, “Were the ten not cleansed? But where the nine? No returning ones were found to give glory to God except this foreigner.” And he said to him, “Rising up, travel on! Your faith has saved you.”
The nine were “cured.” One, for sure, was “saved.” The one who personally “gave thanks” to Jesus. And he, as it were, was ‘not one of us.’ “A Samaritan.” Is that also something about which to be thankful to Jesus?
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Being questioned by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God is coming, he answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation, and they will not say, ‘Look and see, here!’ or ‘There!’ because (Look and see!), the kingdom of God is inside you.”
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“The Pharisees”, powerful religious leaders, were keen about Jerusalem’s then magnificent temple and about multiple synagogues and other visibles. They wanted to know when the “kingdom of God” was coming. It seems it had not entered their minds that the “kingdom of God” had come to a leper, a “Samaritan”, a “foreigner.” They needed to “look and see.”
Do you, like me, think that the “cleansed” and “saved” former leper had the true and real “kingdom of God” “inside” him?
But he said to the disciples, “Days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see. And they will say to you, ‘Look and see, there!’ or ‘Look and see, here!’ You may not come away. And you may not pursue.”
Then Jesus turned “to the disciples” so as to provide a clearer picture for them. When he himself, after suffering death on the cross and rising again, would no longer be on earth, they would “long to see one of the days of the Son of Man” but he would not be physically present.
Then, if anyone told them where a new super religious leader could be found, they ought not to “come away” from following Jesus. Even if utopia was promised to them or indeed to all, they ought not to “pursue.”
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“Because just as the lightning-flash, lightning-flashing from the ‘under the heaven’ into the ‘under heaven’, shines – like so will be the Son of Man in his day. But first it is necessary for him himself to suffer many things and to be rejected from this generation.”
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What did these words of Jesus actually mean at that time? (“In his day ... the Son of Man ... will be ... like ... the lightning-flash, lightning-flashing ... under heaven. ... But first it is necessary for him himself to suffer many things and to be rejected from this generation.”)
What are your thoughts? Jesus was “going into Jerusalem” where he would be rejected, tortured and killed. First, then, the suffering by him of “many things.” But then he would rise from the dead.
Could his resurrection from death be the original but ever-present “lightning-flash” to a world “under heaven” where every person born on earth actually and for certain, will personally die?
It is really puzzling that this “lightning-flash, lightning-flashing ... under heaven” is being ignored like the ‘elephant in the room.’
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