Saturday of the Fourth Sunday in Lent

Read Luke 17:11–19

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I’m an outcast of outcasts. My family disowned me when I decided to worship alongside the Jews. I resettled closer to Judea, but my worship of their God didn’t make those Jews accept me. Then my fingers and toes started going numb. Well, if you thought I was shunned before, you should have seen me then. My neighbors never talked to me, and if they looked at me their eyes were full of either pity or disgust.

One rabbi changed all that today. He healed a whole group of us, sending us to the priest to be declared clean. The rest, being Jews, were welcomed back into the community, but not me, a Samaritan. Instead, I worshiped where I saw God at work: the healing rabbi. He told me that my faith — what had put me on the margins of two different societies — had healed me.

Jesus, increase my faith in you, even if it makes life more difficult.

Text by Jodi Craiglow

Video from First United Presbyterian Church of Belleville, IL