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In today’s Gospel passage, we heard of the healing of the ten lepers. Elsewhere in the Bible, there is another miraculous healing of a leper, namely Naaman the Syrian, by the work of the prophet Elisha. The passage begins:
So, Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the door of Elisha’s house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean” (2 Kgs 5:9-10).
We can compare this passage with today’s Gospel. After his healing, Naaman says, “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel” and finishes, “your servant…will no longer offer holocaust or sacrifice to any other god except to the LORD” (2 Kgs 5:15, 17). Thus, the miracle brings him to praise God. Similarly, in the Gospel, “And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him” (Lk 17:15-16). So, the scope of these miracles was to bring people to praise God, even if, in the case of the ten lepers, only one returned.
As in this case, it was not unusual for Jesus to work miracles similar to the ancient miracles, in such a way that people could see the presence of the same God in Jesus who was present also in the ancient prophets. There is one difference, though, because usually Jesus’ miracles were done in an even greater way. In this case, Jesus healed ten lepers, while Elisha healed only one. In the same way, Jesus healed the lepers without doing anything, he simply told them: “Go, show yourselves to the priests” (Lk 5:14), and while they went, they were healed. On the other hand, Naaman had to wash himself in theJordan seven times to be healed. With the differences between the miracles, Jesus reveals himself as being greater than the prophets, since he is not only a prophet, but the Son of God.
Usually, miracles worked by Jesus are not ends in themselves, but also have a spiritual significance. So, what is the significance in this case? A reasonable interpretation in this case—especially if we examine both miracles together, the healing of Naaman and the ten lepers—is that the miracles signify baptism. Leprosy represents sin, of which baptism purifies us. Therefore, Naaman had to wash himself in the Jordanand this represents the water of baptism. In the same way, Jesus tells the leper who returned to thank him, “your faith has saved you” (Lk 17:19), and this means that faith is necessary in order for baptism to be efficacious. And the scolding of the nine who did not return teaches us that we must be grateful for the grace of baptism, even if many of us received it during infancy.
Beyond these teachings, there is another lesson hidden in these miracles. Jesus himself makes a comment on the healing of Naaman the Syrian. In the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Luke, he says,
Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land. It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian (Lk 4:24-27).
Jesus refers to the fact that these people were foreigners. Similarly, in today’s Gospel, the leper who returned to give thanks to Jesus was a Samaritan, whom the Hebrews considered heretics. This means that the grace of baptism does not depend on race, family, or anything like that, but it requires only faith on behalf of who receives it.
These miracles, therefore, can show us the greatness of baptism and therefore of our faith. These miracles have brought Naaman and the ten lepers only back from physical and temporal health, while baptism brings us to spiritual health, and thus, to the end of eternal life.