Lev 13:45-46; Luke 17:11-19
SS Lesson for 07/04/2021
Devotional Scripture: Ps 107:19-22
The two Scripture passages in this lesson were written more than 1,000 years apart. But the text from Leviticus gives important context for the account found in Luke. Leviticus 13 is devoted to the identification and regulation of skin diseases as part of the legal code for Israel. We might be surprised to see such rules, assuming that the Law of Moses covered only religious regulations, prohibitions against crimes such as murder and thievery, etc. However, what we would consider a medical problem was a religious and community issue for God’s people. They saw physical afflictions as more than health issues; they understood them as punishment for sin (compare John 9:1-2). Detection of certain skin conditions identified one as having leprosy; a person with leprosy was unclean. A skin disease was usually treated with washing and quarantine. If the disease did not go away, it was considered ongoing and therefore demanded banishment of the person from the community. This amounted to a sentence of lifelong shame and isolation (example: 2 Chronicles 26:19-21). The appearance of leprosy was a life-altering event that usually ended only with death. Biblical descriptions of leprosy are not precise enough to narrow it to any single skin condition known today. The term leprosy today is identified with Hansen’s Disease only—a slowly progressing bacterial infection that causes disfigurement and nerve damage. However, in both the Old and New Testaments, the word leprosy seems to describe skin diseases in a more general sense. Leprosy included a scaly skin appearance that could be described as being “white as snow” (Numbers 12:10; compare Exodus 4:6), a condition that might be caused by several diseases. Tension between Jews and Samaritans is an undercurrent in today’s lesson. Jews and Samaritans were religious and ethnic cousins, sharing a common ancestry and both loyal to the Law of Moses (compare John 4:5-26). But events starting with the division of Israel into two kingdoms in about 930 BC, and exacerbated by the northern kingdom’s exile in 722 BC, alienated the two groups. After the northern kingdom’s exile, those remaining intermarried with the peoples that the conquerors resettled in the land. This mixture of different people and culture resulted in the Samaritans. The Old Testament traces the time line of these events from 2 Kings 17 through Ezra 4 and Nehemiah 4 (compare Luke 9:51-56).
And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God
17:1-4. Jesus taught about the obligations His disciples had toward other people (vv. 1-4) and God (vv. 6-10). Followers of Jesus are not to cause people to sin. In this life sin cannot be eradicated—such things are bound to come. But a disciple would be better off drowned by a millstone (a heavy stone for grinding grain) tied around his neck, than to bring spiritual harm (skandalisē, “to cause to sin”) to these little ones (people who, like little children, are helpless before God; cf. 10:21; Mark 10:24). Presumably the sinning referred to is lack of faith in the Messiah. Jesus had already noted that the Pharisees were not only refusing to enter the kingdom but were also keeping others from entering (Luke 11:52). Not only are Jesus’ followers not to cause others to sin; they also are to counteract sin by forgiving others (17:3-4). One should rebuke a brother if he sins. If he repents, he is to be forgiven even if he sins and repents over and over. The words seven times in a day denote a completeness—as often as it happens.
17:5-10. Jesus also taught that His followers have responsibilities toward God. The first responsibility is to have faith. When the disciples asked Jesus for more faith, He answered that they needed not more faith but the right kind of faith. Even the smallest amount of faith (like a mustard seed, the smallest seed; cf. 13:19) could do amazingly miraculous things, such as uprooting a mulberry tree, a tree with deep roots (17:6). The disciples’ second responsibility toward God was humble service (vv. 7-10). They should not expect special praise for doing things they were expected to do. A servant does not get special praise from his master for doing his job. Likewise disciples have certain responsibilities which they are to fulfill in humility as God’s unworthy (achreioi, “good for nothing,” used elsewhere only in Matt. 25:30) servants.
17:11-14. Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem... along the border between Samaria and Galilee. When asked for help by 10 lepers, He healed them from a distance. This was the second time in the Book of Luke that lepers were healed (cf. 5:12-16). As in the former case, Jesus instructed the men to show themselves to the priests. On their way they were cleansed from the disease and were made ceremonially clean.
17:15-19. Only one of the men—a foreigner, that is, a Samaritan—came back to thank Jesus. This one understood the significance of what had been done for him. He was praising God and he threw himself at Jesus’ feet, a posture of worship. He apparently understood that Jesus is God, for he placed faith in Him. Whether or not he understood that Jesus is the Messiah is not mentioned by Luke. The lack of gratitude by the other nine was typical of the rejection of His ministry by the Jewish nation. He alone had the power to cleanse the nation and make it ceremonially clean. However, the nation did not respond properly to Him. The nation accepted the things that Jesus could do (such as heal them and feed them), but it did not want to accept Him as Messiah. However, those outside the nation (such as this Samaritan leper—a person doubly repulsive to the Jews) were responding.
17:20-21. Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come. This was a logical question to ask, for He had been preaching for quite some time that the kingdom was at hand. Jesus responded to the question in two ways. First, He said that the Pharisees would not be able to tell of the coming of the kingdom through their observations. Second, he told them that the kingdom was in their midst. The term within you is often misunderstood. The Pharisees were rejecting Him as the Messiah and were not believers. (They were distinct from the disciples Jesus addressed beginning in v. 22.) Thus it would not make sense for Jesus to have told the Pharisees that the kingdom of God was within them as if it were some sort of spiritual kingdom. It is better to translate the phrase “within you” (entos hymōn) as “in your midst.” Some feel that the force of the expression is “within your possession or within your reach.” Jesus’ point was that He was standing right in their midst. All they needed to do was acknowledge that He is indeed the Messiah who could bring in the kingdom—and then the kingdom would come.
17:22-25. Jesus then gave His disciples several facts about the kingdom. First, He said that a time would come when the disciples would long to see Him return, but they would not see it (v. 22). Second, He said that when the kingdom would come everyone would know it (vv. 23-24). It will not be a hidden (i.e., only an inner, spiritual) kingdom. It will be a kingdom that the whole world will know. His appearing will be like the lightning (cf. Matt. 24:27, 30). Third, Jesus told the disciples He must suffer before the kingdom comes (Luke 17:25).
17:26-27. Next Jesus compared the coming of the kingdom to the coming of the flood in Noah’s day and to the coming of judgment on Sodom (v. 29). By bringing up these two events, Jesus was stressing the judgmental aspect of the kingdom. When He will establish His kingdom, people will be judged to see if they will be allowed to enter it. In this section (17:26-35) Jesus was not speaking about the Rapture but about the judgment before entering the kingdom. Jesus reminded His disciples that people in Noah’s day were not prepared for the Flood, and therefore they were completely destroyed (Gen. 6).The same problem will exist when the kingdom comes—people will not be ready.
17:28-33. In the same way the materialistic, indifferent people of Sodom (eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building) were not prepared for God’s judgment (Gen. 19). They were living in sin, oblivious to God. Therefore they were destroyed. Jesus reminded His followers that people should not be attached to their material things at the time of the coming of the kingdom for they, like Lot’s wife, will be judged accordingly. People who are working or relaxing on their roofs (many of which are flat in Palestine) should not try to get things out of their houses. Nor should those working in the fields go to their houses to save their possessions. Any delay could be fatal. Thus whoever tries to keep his life (Luke 17:33) by going back for his goods (v. 31) will lose it.
17:34-36. Jesus stated that some will be taken into judgment. In some parts of the world it will be nighttime (people will be in... bed); in other parts it will be daytime (people will be doing daily tasks, such as grinding grain). The taking away means taken into judgment, not taken up in the Rapture. The ones left are those who will enter into the kingdom. (Some mss. add the words of v. 36, “Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.” Most likely the verse was inserted to harmonize this passage with Matt. 24:40.)
17:37. The disciples questioned where these people would be taken. Jesus’ cryptic answer, Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather—has been interpreted variously. It seems best to understand that Jesus was reaffirming that these people would be taken into judgment. Much as a dead body causes vultures to “gather” on it, so dead people are consigned to judgment if they are not ready for the kingdom (cf. Matt. 24:28; Rev. 19:17-19).
(Scriptural Text from the New King James Version; cross-references from the NIV)
11 Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.
12 Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off.
13 And they lifted up their voices and said, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!"
5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." 6 So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?"
20 David also said to Solomon his son, "Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished.
25 I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.
17 "The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. But I the Lord will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
10 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved.
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
32 For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.
16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Praise the Lord! Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.
14 So when He saw them, He said to them, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.
13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.
18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
99 I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. 100 I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts.
130 The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.
6 For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
16 Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey — whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
6 And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.
22 But Samuel replied: "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
24 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."
15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God,
16 and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.
14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
30 If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for?
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
2 I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone
28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe,
15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.
17 So Jesus answered and said, "Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?
18 Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?"
19 And He said to him, "Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well."
6 Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
27 But if a wicked man turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he will save his life.
12 'Even now,' declares the Lord, 'return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.'
40 Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.
9 If you return to the Lord, then your brothers and your children will be shown compassion by their captors and will come back to this land, for the Lord your God is gracious and compassionate. He will not turn his face from you if you return to him."
15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
11 If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth.
6 Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and glory are in his sanctuary.
7 Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 8 Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. 9 Lift up your heads, O you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 10 Who is he, this King of glory? The Lord Almighty — he is the King of glory. Selah
15 The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry; 16 the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. 17 The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles.
6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter — when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? 8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. 9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. "If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, 10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. 11 The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.
4 Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.
21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.
In verses 7-19 Luke provides us with two lessons on gratitude. The first lesson is taught by our Lord to the apostles. He compares His relationship to them to the relationship between a master and his slave (verses 7-9). He then applies this to the attitude of His disciples toward their obedience (verse 10). The second lesson comes to us from an incident which happened sometime in the ministry of our Lord, which Luke records at this point because of its contribution to the subject of gratitude. Ten lepers call upon Jesus to have mercy, and all ten are healed, but only one returns to thank the Lord Jesus, and this man is a Samaritan. In the first instance, it is the master who is not obligated to have gratitude towards the obedience of his slave; in the second, it is the recipient of God’s grace who is to have gratitude toward God. Let us consider these two lessons on gratitude, and then seek to discover how they relate to faith and forgiveness.
Just as gratitude is the key to understanding the first half of our text, so it is likewise the key to the last half. Let us now consider the story of the ten lepers, only one of which demonstrated gratitude.
And it came about while He was on the way to Jerusalem, that He was passing between Samaria and Galilee. And as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten leprous men, who stood at a distance; and they raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” And when He saw them, He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And it came about that as they were going, they were cleansed.
Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine—where are they? Were none found who turned back to give glory to God, except this foreigner?” And He said to him, “Rise, and go your way; your faith has made you well.”
The time and the place may have changed, but the subject of gratitude has not. Once again, it seems, Luke reveals that his unifying principle is not chronology or geography, but the logical development of his argument(s). At some point in time, Jesus was passing near Samaria. Coming upon a certain village, He encountered ten lepers. They kept their distance, as was prescribed, but they did not keep quiet. They cried out for mercy, and Jesus was more than willing to heal them.
Jesus chose to heal the lepers in a different way, however. Rather than to reach out and touch them (which Jesus had done before, Luke 5:13), He instructed the men to go to their respective priests. They were not yet healed. They were to go in obedience, and if they thought about it, they would probably have reasoned that Jesus must intend to heal them, for they were to go to the priest to be pronounced clean (cf. Leviticus 14). All ten lepers departed in obedience to the Lord’s instructions. On the way, they were all healed.
We know from Jesus’ words that all ten lepers were healed (verse 17), and yet only one of the ten returned, and this one man was a Samaritan. It is implied that the other nine were Israelites. The one who returned did so in order to thank Jesus and to praise God for his healing. Since this man “glorified God” (v. 15) and “thanked Jesus” (v. 16), it would seem that he had come to recognize, to some degree, the deity of our Lord. At least he regarded his healing as having come from God through Jesus.
It was true, of course, that Jesus had commanded the ten to go to their priests. In this sense, the nine who did not return were only being obedient to what Jesus had commanded. Jesus had something to say about this, however. He asked several questions. Whether these were addressed to His disciples or to the one man is not clear. What is clear is that Jesus commended the gratitude of this one leper, and criticized the failure of the others to do likewise.
Luke, of course, has a special message in this, for the one man was not a Jew at all, but a Samaritan. Jesus made a point of referring to this one grateful leper as a “foreigner” (v. 18). Once again, we are being prepared for the gospel to be proclaimed and accepted by the Gentiles, while spurned by the Jews. These nine ungrateful recipients of God’s grace are typical of the nation Israel, while this one grateful Gentile is a prototype of the many Gentiles who will believe and will praise God.
Jesus’ words to this man sound very similar to those which He has spoken before: “Rise, and go your way; your faith has made you well” (verse 19).
Once we become aware of the fact that the term rendered, “has made you well” literally means “saved,” there is a question which must be asked and answered: “Is Jesus pronouncing a special blessing upon this one man, which is above and beyond that received by the other 9?” All ten men were healed, so in what sense is this one leper “saved”? In the New Testament, the term “saved” is used to refer to eternal salvation and to physical healing. Which way does Luke (and the Holy Spirit)n intend for us to understand it here?
Luke appears to use the term “save” in three primary ways. First, the term can describe a physical healing and even an exorcism (cf. 8:36, 48, 50). Second, the term can refer to the saving of one’s physical life, as when Jesus was challenged to come down from the cross and save Himself (23:35, 37, 39; cf. 9:24). Third, the term is used, perhaps most often, of eternal salvation (7:48, 50; 8:12; 18:25-26; 19:10). In some cases, it would appear that there is a blending of the first and third uses, so that physical healing and spiritual salvation are both depicted by the term “saved” (e.g. 8:36, 48).
How, then, does Luke use the term “save” here? It is my opinion that Luke uses it with the added sense of spiritual salvation. In the sense of being healed, all ten lepers were “saved.” But in the sense of recognizing Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God, and in giving thanks to Him as such, only this one leper did so. I believe that his “salvation” goes beyond the cleansing of his leprosy to the cleansing of his sin.
The central issue in our passage is forgiveness. The focus of the disciples was on faith. Jesus did not minimize the need for faith, but neither did He affirm that a lack of faith was their problem, and thus that granting more faith was the solution. Jesus’ response in verses 7-10 and the account of the one grateful leper focus on obedience and gratitude. The slave of verses 7-10 is to faithfully obey his master, but not to expect him to show gratitude, for the master has the right to expect obedience of a slave, and has no obligation to be thankful for it. So, too, when the disciple is obedient to Christ, he does not see it as meriting anything from God, nor does he equate his worthiness with it, for all men, even the most obedient of them, are unworthy of divine favor.
If this is true, as it must be, then what we need is not a system of rules to keep, for in keeping them there is no merit, no reward. If we are unworthy even at our best—even when we keep all of God’s commandments—then what we need is not Law, but grace. Grace is God’s favor bestowed upon us because we are unworthy, not because we are worthy. Grace and mercy are prompted by our unworthiness, while God’s gratitude cannot even be prompted by our best efforts.
How foolish, then, were the efforts of the Pharisees, and all other legalists, then and now, to try to earn God’s favor. We will never favorably impress God. We can never put Him under obligation to us. If we would gain anything from God it will be on the basis of our unworthiness and on the basis of His grace. And the way that these things are obtained is not by our works, but by His grace, through faith. Faith, Jesus is saying, is operative only in the arena of grace and mercy, which is bestowed only on the unworthy.
It is the grace of God, poured out freely upon sinners, which produces gratitude, and it is this gratitude which serves to motivate the recipient of grace to also bestow it on others. Thus, just as God has forgiven us of our sins against Him, solely on the basis of our confession of sin and repentance, so we are to forgive others on the same basis. It is not a greater faith that is required for us to do this, but a better understanding of what faith is and how it works.
The second story reminds us that the grace of God should not only be manifested in our freely forgiving others, but also should be seen in our worship and praise of God. Loving God and loving men are the two great commandments of our Lord, and of the Law. If gratitude for God’s grace should prompt us to forgive our fellow man, so it should motivate us to worship and praise God. The 9 lepers obeyed God and were cleansed, but they never recognized Jesus for who He was, nor did they every worship and praise Him. They were the recipients of God’s grace, and didn’t respond to it in faith, worship, and praise.
What a perfect picture of the nation Israel. Over the centuries God had poured out His grace upon the nation. His blessings can be found throughout the Old Testament. And yet, for all the blessings of God on Israel, and for all their attention to obeying the law (feeble and failing as it was) the nation never, as a whole, came to worship and adore God, and when God was manifested in the flesh, they did not know it was Him. The nine ungrateful, unbelieving, unsaved lepers, while outwardly cleaned up, were still inwardly unclean. How sad to come so close to God and yet not know or worship Him.
The one Samaritan leper differed little from the other nine, but in a very important area. He recognized that his healing was from God, through Jesus. He not only obeyed Jesus’ command, but He returned to worship and adore Him, to give Him thanks, because He had come to recognize Him as God’s salvation. Because of this, he was saved.
This man is a picture, a prototype of all of those Gentiles who were to be saved by recognizing Jesus to be God’s salvation. This man did not have all of the benefits which the Jewish lepers did, all of the background, all of the exposure to the Scriptures, but He did come into contact with Jesus, and when He did he not only obeyed Him, He trusted in Him as the Messiah. And because of his faith, he was saved. The Jewish lepers obeyed and were blessed, but they were not saved. This man obeyed Jesus, too, but his salvation came as the result of his faith, not his works. So it is with all who find eternal life in Christ.
While the disciples preferred to think in terms of increasing their faith, Jesus chose to emphasize the arena of faith, and especially the grace of God and the gratitude which should result. It is God’s grace, received with gratitude, which should motivate our forgiving others (and all other ministry to men) and our worship of God.
While legalism seeks to motivate men on the basis of fear and guilt, Christ motivates us on the basis of grace and gratitude. It is no accident that Paul introduces the applicational portion of the book of Romans with these words,
I URGE YOU THEREFORE, BRETHREN, BY THE MERCIES OF GOD, TO PRESENT YOUR BODIES A LIVING AND HOLY SACRIFICE, ACCEPTABLE TO GOD, WHICH IS YOUR SPIRITUAL SERVICE OF WORSHIP (Romans 12:1).
Here, my friend, is the basis for all that we do in the Christian life—it is the grace and mercy of God, granted to those who are unworthy of it, which produces gratitude. It is on the basis of this grace and the resulting gratitude which we are to live, both in our service to men and in our worship of God.
It occurred to me as I have reflected on the Lord’s command to forgive and the apostles’ petition for greater faith that the key to our obedience is not only in petition, but in praise. How often, when we pray, we ask God for something, rather than to praise Him for what He has given. How often we assume that the reason we have not acted in obedience is because we lack the faith to do so. Many times, I believe that we lack the gratitude to act, rather than the faith to act. Often, it is not that we lack the means to obey God, but that we lack the motivation to obey Him. Peter tells us in his second epistle that God has given us all that is necessary for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3), and this through the knowledge of Him. Let us therefore take praise much more seriously. Let us not seek petitioning God for that which we truly lack, but let us also grow in our grasp of all that He has given, and give thanks to Him.
I challenge you to search the Scriptures and to study the subject of gratitude, looking up such words as “thanks,” “thanksgiving,” “thankful,” and “praise.”
In our church, we observe the Lord’s Table (communion) every week. Some think that this is too frequent, even though the churches of the New Testament did it no less frequently. Some think it can become meaningless and repetitious. I believe that a remembrance of our Lord’s death for us, a remembrance of His grace showered upon us by means of the cross, is the basis for our gratitude, and that this gratitude thus becomes the motivation for our loving both God and men. Let us never cease to recall our unworthiness and His grace, and thus to become people marked out by their gratitude.
(Adapted from URL:https://bible.org/seriespage/54-putting-faith-perspective-luke-175-19)
Life doesn’t get much worse than the fate of a person with leprosy in Jesus’ day: excluded from the community, required to be self-degrading in word and appearance, and destined to live with a slowly fatal and painful disease. It was a living death. Yet a heart of thankfulness survived in the Samaritan leper. He remains a worthy example of the biblical way to worship. He overcame the urgencies of his life to stop, turn around, and look at Jesus without being distracted. He let praise for God well up from his heart and be expressed in his words. He overcame tunnel vision of “what’s next” to adopt a worshipful posture. He gave thanks to the one who has healed him, claiming no credit for himself. God does not need our thanks. But he created us as beings who need to give thanks (1 Thessalonians 5:18). The unthankful life can become bitter and cold. The thankful heart will find peace and purpose in all circumstances. May we learn from the man who returned that even in the humblest of circumstances, there is nothing to prevent us from giving praise and thanks to God—nothing except our own selfish and stubborn hearts. May we recognize our spiritual poverty, ask for God’s mercy, and give praise and thanks when it arrives.
Be Clean - The laws God established in the Old Testament helped the nation of Israel spiritually but also helped them stay healthy. Many serious infectious diseases, like leprosy, could have devastated the nation. Once leprosy was diagnosed, the individuals lived in isolation, having to stay six feet away from other humans, shouting out "Unclean!" to announce their presence. They appeared in torn clothing, with disheveled hair, putting a hand over the lower part of their face, dying a slow but sure death. People harshly ridiculed these suffering individuals. God must be punishing those people to allow them to be inflicted with such a disease.
Be Compassionate - Jesus dealt with this population much differently than His peers: He dared to touch them with His hands, and He healed their ravaged bodies. One time as He passed along the border of Samaria and Galilee, He encountered 10 lepers, Jews and a Samaritan. These groups had no dealings with one another, but because of their suffering, these men found camaraderie with each other. When they saw Jesus and the disciples, they kept their distance but shouted loud enough for Jesus to hear and understand their cry for help. Jesus understood. He instructed them to go to the priest and let him examine their bodies. This act of obedience proved their faith. As they went to the priests their bodies became whole again.
Be Thankful - However, this is not the end of the story. One leper out of the 10—the Samaritan—returned to Jesus to fall at His feet and show his gratitude. He needed to recognize the source of his new quality of life. When Jesus asked where the others were, the man offered no answer, but Jesus assured him that the man's faith had made him whole in both the physical and spiritual sense. We may cry out to Jesus to heal our bodies, to fix our circumstances, to prosper us, but do we thank Him for all He has already done for us? The greatest healing He does is of a human heart.