The Ten Lepers: The One Who Came Back

Biblical Source: Luke 17:11–19

A standalone biographical passage for the EC–18+ curriculum

Reading level: approximately 660 Lexile (3rd–4th grade)

Vocabulary note: Written using high-frequency Dolch sight words (went, said, saw, could not, then, came, back, thank, all) paired with AAC core vocabulary (help, want, more, stop, go, thank you, again, all done, good), so the passage can support both fluent readers and core-word communicators in the same lesson.

Family and Community

Scripture does not give us the names of any of the ten men in this story.

Instead, it tells us something they shared: all ten had what many Bible translations call leprosy (Luke 17:12).

In biblical times, people with certain serious skin diseases could be required to live apart from others. They could lose ordinary contact with family, neighbors, worship, and community life.

These ten men had formed a group together.

One of them is identified in another way: he was a Samaritan (Luke 17:16).

Jews and Samaritans had a long history of religious and cultural division. Yet in this story, men who might otherwise have remained separate were standing together because they shared the same need.

The Passage

Jesus was traveling toward Jerusalem. He passed along the area between Samaria and Galilee.

As he entered a village, ten men with leprosy met him.

They stood far away (Luke 17:12).

Together they lifted up their voices and cried:

"Jesus, Master, have mercy on us."
— Luke 17:13, KJV

Jesus saw them.

He told them:

"Go shew yourselves unto the priests."
— Luke 17:14, KJV

Under the law of Moses, a priest examined a person whose skin condition had cleared before that person could be declared clean and return to ordinary community life.

The ten men obeyed Jesus.

They started walking.

While they were on their way, they were cleansed (Luke 17:14).

When one man saw that he was healed, he turned back.

He praised God, fell at Jesus’s feet, and thanked him.

Luke adds one important detail:

The man was a Samaritan (Luke 17:15–16).

Jesus asked:

"Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?"
— Luke 17:17, KJV

Then Jesus asked why no one had returned to give glory to God except this stranger.

Finally, Jesus said to the Samaritan:

"Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole."
— Luke 17:19, KJV

Key Verse

"And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God."
— Luke 17:15, KJV

Isolation, Then Community

Before they were cleansed, the ten men lived at a distance from ordinary community life.

Yet they were not completely alone.

They had found one another.

Their shared condition brought them together across a division that normally separated Jews and Samaritans.

After they were cleansed, the group no longer moved as one.

One man turned back.

Luke makes sure we notice that the person who returned was the Samaritan — the man who was already considered an outsider by many around Jesus.

Why This Story Matters for Our Curriculum

People with disabilities, health conditions, and their families can sometimes feel separated from ordinary community life.

They may also find strong relationships with people who understand some of the same experiences.

The ten men remind us that people can find community in difficult places.

The Samaritan shows something else: he noticed what had changed and chose to return.

That gives students and families a simple question to consider:

Who has walked beside us, and who do we want to remember?

Note: Scripture quotations are from the public-domain King James Version. The word traditionally translated “leprosy” in the Bible described serious skin conditions and should not automatically be understood as the modern disease known as Hansen’s disease. Scripture identifies one of the ten men as a Samaritan but does not specifically identify the ethnicity of the other nine.