Luke 17:11-19
11 While He was on the way to
Jerusalem, He was passing between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As
He entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met Him; 13 and
they raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14 When
He saw them, He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as
they were going, they were cleansed. 15 Now
one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God
with a loud voice, 16 and he fell on his face at His
feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan. 17 Then
Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine—where are
they? 18 “Was no one found who returned to
give glory to God, except this foreigner?” 19 And
He said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well.”
Gratitude is a virtue we strive to teach our children from
the time they are young. A lack of
gratitude is something we all detest when we detect it in the lives of
others. Yet, we are all so prone to tolerate
ingratitude in our own lives. Out parents
tried to teach us. We know all about its
importance from our own experiences; but it is so hard for us to consistently
practice it. This is not only true of
our relationships with one another; but is especially true of our relationship
with God. Jesus illustrates how
important gratitude is to Him through this account of the healing of the ten
lepers. We are quick to cry out for help
in out time of need but are slow to thank and praise God when He answers our
cries.
A CRY OF DESPERATION: When Jesus was passing between Samaria
and Galilee, ten men who were afflicted with leprosy cried out to Him for
mercy. They recognized two truths. First, they understood their
desperation. They had leprosy, which left
them separated from the rest of society.
The disease would eventually die from the effects of this affliction
unless someone intervened. Even now, as
they cry out for help, they stood at a distance from Jesus and the rest. Second, they understood that Jesus had the
power to heal them. We don’t know how or
what they had heard about Jesus, but they believed Jesus had the power to make
them clean again. This is what they
desperately wanted: the opportunity to go back to their families, get a job,
interact with friends and have hope to live a longer life. It is important for all people to come to these
to realizations. We must all recognize
our needs. Our greatest need if for the
forgiveness of sin. We must also recognize
the power of God. He has the power to forgive
as well as meet any other needs we might have.
The Lepers cried out to Jesus because they believed in His power. We must come to the point where we believe in
the power of Jesus to forgive us and cry out for Him to set us free.
A CALL FOR APPRECIATION: Jesus hears their cry and tells the
men to go and show themselves to the priest who had the task of inspecting them
to officially declare them clean or unclean of the leprosy. Jesus did not heal them immediately, but they
were healed after they left Him on their way to the priest. At some point along the way all then of them
were healed. It would have been several
days walk from where they were to Jerusalem where the priest was. We don’t know how far they had traveled before
they were healed. All we do know is that
one of the ten turned back from the trip when he saw he was healed, sought out
Jesus once again and thanked him. The
other nine just went on their way. The
one who turned back happened to be a Samaritan and he came back praising God and
then fell at the feet of Jesus to thank Him.
Usually Jews and Samaritans don’t associate, but apparently the leprosy
that they had in common put them all in the same position. Once the leprosy was gone, perhaps the
Samaritan didn’t feel he would be welcomed by the priest. Whatever the situation, he was the only one
to express gratitude to Jesus. In our
time of desperation, it is common for us to cry out to God for help. He usually does not answer in the way we
expect He will. Had He healed the ten of
them right there on the spot, I’m sure they would have all expressed their
gratitude. The delay in healing made
expressing gratitude inconvenient. God calls
for us to express appreciation to Him and others. We must not forget His blessings and must
take the time to be grateful.
APPLICATION: It is good and pleases God when we call out to
Him for help when we are in need. It is
better for us to raise our voice to glorify God for all He is and all He has
done. We must be thankful to Him and
express our appreciation faithfully even when it is inconvenient. Look for the unexpected ways He answers our prayers,
so we don’t neglect thanksgiving. Remember
to thank other people as well.
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