Does Jesus sound like your mom here? You know, when you were a kid, and someone did something nice for you – big or small – your mom would lean in to you and give you the “mom” look, while saying, “Now what do you say?” It wasn’t a suggestion. It was an order. If the words and the tone of voice didn’t give it away, then the steel grip on your shoulder told the story. That grip gave Mr. Spock a run for his money. What do you say? Thank you. That’s what you say. Through gritted teeth, perhaps, but you say it. Right?

Jesus had a grip on the shoulder of those ex-lepers and said, “Now what do you say?” We must observe the conventions. Did you say, “Thank you”? Were you properly grateful? Those are important questions in our world today. It excuses our reluctance to give aid or to partner in a cause that might benefit the other more than us. “Well,” we think, “They weren’t grateful enough to earn our help.” And here we have permission for that sort of attitude. Jesus himself was put out that the nine ex-lepers weren’t grateful enough to come and say, “Thank you.” So there.

Except, that might be going a bit too far. There is no indication that Jesus got his feelings hurt by the lack of response. There is no sign that he withdrew the healing and returned the former tragic state to the ungrateful nine. This doesn’t seem to be about Jesus as much as it is about the ones healed. It wasn’t about whether Jesus deserved thanks for this great gift; of course he did. But I don’t believe he got his nose out of joint because the nine didn’t show proper respect. No, I think his concern was for wholeness on the part of those who were healed.

This isn’t the first time Jesus distinguishes between being clean and being well. Sometimes, there is a contrast between being healed and being whole. Luke is careful, as Jesus is careful, to describe what happened as being made clean. In verse 14, Jesus gives the command to go and show themselves to the priests to get the proper, lawful designation that would allow them to be a part of society again. And Luke says, “As they went, they were made clean.” It could be argued that it was an act of faith for them to hightail it to the priests before the cleansing happened. It happened on the way. Their going was their response to Jesus—an act of faith and perhaps gratitude. Maybe it was there. Maybe that’s why they didn’t come back. They were oozing gratitude as they arrived at the priest’s door and submitted themselves to the scrutiny that was required. Maybe their gratitude kept them from running away from the red tape and hoop jumping so they could return to their families, who would also be grateful and less likely to be suspicious when they brought the proper documentation from the proper authorities. Maybe that was why they didn’t take the time to come back to Jesus. They might have been busy spreading the good news everywhere they went.

That might also explain why it was the Samaritan who came back. He might have been turned away by the priest who didn’t think he had authority over an outsider to pronounce him clean. Or maybe it didn’t matter as much to him since he lived outside the Jewish community. We’re just guessing here. We don’t know what was in their heads. And this isn’t to excuse them as much as an attempt to understand them so that we can understand our actions when we get it wrong, too. Because we will. And we do. And we hope for grace.

We don’t know the “whys” of the actions of the ten former lepers. But we can know something about what Jesus was concerned for them. When the one returns, Jesus says, “Were not ten made clean?” Notice the careful language - made clean. At times, Jesus doesn’t seem to care much about the rules of the society he grew up in. At other times, he wants to make sure that he follows the law precisely. It seems that for him this was only step one in the journey toward wellness. That was his concern for the other nine; they weren’t done—or they weren’t done as they could have been. There was more to come for them and their relationships with God and one another. Jesus wanted them to be clean, certainly, to be within the law. But he wanted more for them than that. He wanted them to be well, to be whole.

Notice the common phrase, “Your faith has made you well,” in verse 19. But if they showed faith in following the command to go to the priests, why didn’t the others receive this blessing too? What extra did the Samaritan do that moved his being made clean into being made well? Acknowledgment. Gratitude, yes, certainly, but directed gratitude. Jesus pointed it out to him and any who had ears to hear: “Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”

As an aside, we don’t have to hear a xenophobic attitude in the “this foreigner” designation. Some do, it is true. But it might also be a teaching moment from the man who upset the hometown crowd by telling them how God loves foreigners. See Luke 4:23-28 for the scene. Maybe it was his way of opening minds and maybe even hearts to the idea that their God is not an exclusive line-drawing God, but a God who tears down human-made barriers of difference.

“Your faith has made you well.” Jesus saw in the Samaritan who returned a recognition of relationship. Luke says he praised God and also thanked Jesus. But Jesus comments on the praise and not the thanks. It isn’t gratitude that makes the difference, or it isn’t gratitude alone. It’s gratitude that brings one to praise, to an acknowledgment of God’s action and presence in one’s life that brings wholeness. Jesus is here denouncing what some see as Christian atheism, or what the prophets called praising God with lips but with hearts that were far from God. The wholeness comes from action and reflection, from works of faith wrapped in worship and grateful praise.

Jesus wants more than just that we are clean, law-abiding, good people. He wants us to be committed to being well, to a faith that is whole.