Take Every Passage to Prayer - Volume 2, The Gospels
Wednesday August 14, 2024
Father, I thank You that You heard my plea for mercy. You brought the gospel into my life. You led me to confess my sin and to pursue a life of repentance. You have washed away my sin as far as the east is from the west. I will now stand clean before Your throne because of what You have done for me. Father, please make me eternally grateful and help me to use that spirit of thanksgiving to serve You and to build Your Kingdom, Amen.
Father, Jesus passed through a village on the border between Samaria and Galilee. Ten men from the village with leprosy came to Jesus at the entrance to the village and begged to be healed. They referred to Him as Master and asked to receive pity. According to Leviticus 13, the following things must occur for anyone with a skin disease:
Given that the men were on the outskirts of the village, and that they were practicing social distancing when they spoke to Jesus, and that also given that Jesus subsequently told them to go to the priest, it can be concluded that either:
Jesus told them to go to the priest to be examined. The text tells us that Jesus healed them while they were traveling to visit the priest. In other words, these men were challenged by Jesus to have faith before their healing in order to be healed. When the priest examined them, they were pronounced clean. The quarantine was lifted, and the ten lepers could return to their families, friends, and neighbors. Jesus had healed them.
While this appears only to be a story about the healing of physical disease, it is also a metaphor for spiritual healing. Consider:
This story of the healing of the ten lepers clearly points to faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
However, this encounter ends on a down note. Only one of the ten lepers who had been healed came back to thank Jesus. That leper was a Samaritan, a Gentile. He fell at Jesus feet, in a worshipful pose, and thanked Him. Jesus asked him where the other nine men were and why they weren’t praising You, Father, for what You had done for them. Jesus told the man to rise and go on his way, confident that the man’s faith in Jesus had cleansed not only his body of leprosy but also his soul of sin.
Father, this story is a portrait of many in the church in the 21st century. They take their salvation for granted. Presuming their spiritual destiny is secure, they return to the cares of this world giving little thought to how they should live a life of thanksgiving and praise because they were rescued by Jesus from eternal damnation. There are many in the church who could be considered ungrateful for the gift of salvation they have received.
What does Jesus tell those who are thankful for their salvation?
“Rise and go.”
We are not to sit down and rest, content that we have salvation. There is work to be done for the Kingdom of God, and we are to go to where that work needs to be done. We are equipped to do that work because our faith has healed us. Amen.
Since the text refers to the ethnicity of the person who thanked Jesus, it is logical to conclude that there were others who had been healed who were of a different ethnic group. The text implies that there were Jews who were among the ten lepers and none of them thought to thank Jesus. There may have been other Samaritans among the ten who were healed. However, only one came back to thank Jesus.