Where are the Nine?
Luke 17:11-19
March 7, 2004/SGC
Dr. Rich Peterson
Does anyone on earth have more reason to give thanks to God
than those of us living in the United States of America?
It has been noted that if you could reduce the world’s
population to 1,000 and put them all in one city it would have quite a
distinctive look. Of that 1,000 only 46 would be Americans. Nine hundred and
fifty-four would represent the rest of the world. Yet, these 46 would receive
half of the income from the entire city. These 46 people’s life expectancies
would be 75 years of age while the rest would be 40 years of age. These 46
people would eat 70% above the daily food requirement while 80% of the rest of
the city would never get a balanced meal. In fact, the kitchen disposals of the
46 people would eat better than 80% of the city.
We are a blessed people. But we are not a very thankful
people. Even within the church we are not very thankful. But the giving of
thanks is a powerful phenomenon with a liberating effect.
Near the final days of Jesus’ earthy life he encounters 10
men who are lepers who lifted up their voices calling out for mercy. Even
though Jesus is pressing onward to Jerusalem where he will be falsely accused,
tried, and convicted as a felon. He still has compassion on this group of
broken humanity. He speaks healing to all of them and sends them to show
themselves pure and clean to the priests. Even though all receive His healing
touch, only one returns to give thanks. As this one returns Jesus reveals his
broken heart as he asks, “where are the nine?” All ten were immensely blessed,
but only one was genuinely thankful.
Now on his way to
Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he
was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a
distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” When
he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went,
they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising
God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him – and he
was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other
nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”
Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well” (Luke
17:11-19).
What did it mean to have
leprosy in that day?
Perhaps a description from
the classic book Ben Hur by Lew Wallace will help us understand. Most of us are
familiar with the Oscar winning motion picture staring Charlton Heston, but
long before it was a movie it was a Christian classic.
“She and Tirzah(Ben Hur’s mother and sister) were –
LEPERS!
Possibly the reader does not know all the word means. Let
him be told it with reference to the Law of that time, only a little modified
in this.
These four are accounted as dead – the blind, the leper,
the poor, and the childless.” Thus the Talmud.
That is, to be a leper was to be treated as dead – to be
excluded from the city as a corpse; to be spoken to by the best beloved and
most loving only at a distance; to dwell with none but lepers; to be utterly
unprivileged; to be denied the rites of the Temple and the synagogue; to go
about in rent garments and with covered mouth, except when crying, “Unclean,
Unclean!” to find a home in the wilderness or in abandoned tombs; to be at all
times less a living offence to others than a breathing torment to self; afraid
to die, yet without hope except in death.”
These are the
ten Jesus encountered on his way to Jerusalem along the border between Samaria
and Galilee. This was their condition before their healing encounter. Unworthy,
unwanted, unprivileged – unalive.
Do you get the picture? Jesus passes through a certain
village and is met by these ten lepers. They had heard the reports, strange
rumors of how a wonderful prophet had touched the blind and gave them sight. Of
how He had caressed the dead and made them alive, of how He had stroked the
lepers and made them pure. They “stood afar off” because they could not get
close. Mosaic law isolated lepers from social contact of any kind. They were
forbidden to come within six feet of a whole person. If the wind was blowing
they couldn’t come within 50 yards. If someone inadvertently approached them
they were commanded to shout, “unclean, unclean!”
So what did these lepers do
when Jesus was passing by? They moved toward him. This single action displayed
a tremendous amount of courage. They began to shout, “Jesus, Master, have mercy
on us.” They could have sat there in their hopelessness but they didn’t. They
could have remained there in their despair, but they didn’t. They could have
believed that God could never care about them, never desire a relationship with
them, never show mercy to them, but they didn’t. They moved toward the Master.
Look at them! They are all alike. They are all lepers. They
all suffer from the same hideous disease that slowly eats away at the body
erasing facial features first, then the fingers, next the hands that become
frozen into claws before they simply fall off. The feet are filled with sores
and become bandaged stumps before they are hopelessly left behind. Their
appearance is ghastly. Their fate is exclusive. They suffer a long, slow, agonizing
death lived out in some isolated leper community far away from the support
systems of friends and family. The leper is an outcast – and as a result is
cast out, shut off from the rest of the world. A leper in the first century was
always an abandoned bit of human wreckage living in hopelessness.
But if all of this is revolting, it is nothing compared to
how our sin looks to an Almighty God. This description is not even close to the
horror of our sin before God – and yet, like the lepers before us – Jesus stops
to show us mercy.
Moving toward the Master
begins with a cry for help.
Don’t you find it interesting that all appealed to Jesus
for help. Isn’t it interesting that none of them appealed for justice? They
appealed for mercy. They didn’t ask Christ to bless them on the basis of what
they deserved. They cried out for mercy!
Some of us live in constant defeat because we’re holding
out for justice. Perhaps someone has wronged us and we harbor resentment for
years. We want justice. Some of us have been abused. We want justice. JUSTICE
BELONGS TO GOD! Justice is not our rescue – our plea should be one of mercy!
The Lord Jesus was passing by and here were ten lepers who
moved toward him with courage and fortitude and as a result they didn’t miss the
Master.
Anyone here sitting beside that road this morning? Time and
again Jesus has passed by but you never called out to Him? Or, maybe you sought
comfort in those around you but found generally just misery. Perhaps it’s time
to get up and move toward the Master. The magnetic drawing power of the Master
is calling you, don’t miss Him again!
Not
only do these men move toward the Master, they also move forward by faith. They
obey the Lord which is evidence of the fact that they believe. WHAT AN
ATTITUDE! None of them are healed at this particular point. They are still very
much lepers. A leper was to show himself to the priest only after he had been
healed. It took tremendous faith for these men to act in obedience to God’s word
and to go show themselves to the priests while they were still lepers. The
Bible tells us of their faith when it says, “So it was as they went, they were
cleansed.”
They take Jesus at His word and move
forward. They start walking. Walking by faith!
Many
of us know little of this journey. Too many of us never start walking until we
can see it – but by that time it is no longer faith – it is sight. But we know
that those who follow God must walk by faith.
O.S.
Hawkins has said, “Before every great miraculous work of God, He moves us out
to where all we have is His promise.”
This is the faith life. “As they went.” Those
words have never been spoken of some of us. Oh, we might get up and call for
mercy, but too few of us move forward and walk in obedience to God’s Word. Had
the ten done this they would have missed the miracle. Instead, they moved
toward the Master and then they moved forward by faith.
DON’T MISS THE MOMENT!
Do
you still see them? Ten men. Lepers. Lepers who have just called upon the Lord
Jesus. Lepers who have all stepped out in faith. Lepers who have all just been
healed. Each and every one got up and got out in faith – but here the likeness
ends. Each one has been wonderfully, fully blessed, but only one is truly
thankful.
They
stand together on the road they have huddled together on for so long, but then
as they look at themselves they suddenly realize they are clean. They are
amazed – for grace is just that is it not? Amazing!
But
then one of them says, “I haven’t held my wife in months.” There he goes
running down the road toward home. Another says, “I have never held my newborn
son.” And he too is gone. Another quickly exclaims, “I haven’t been to my shop
in almost a year.” He is off and running. One by one they are all gone. But no.
One is left standing. He stands there all alone. The other nine are never heard
from again. They moved toward the Master, they moved forward by faith, but they
each and every one, missed the moment.
Just
the one solitary man who is also looking down the road toward family, job,
friends – looking forward to the brand new future which awaits.
But there is something much more pressing –
first. He has to get back. He has to get back to Jesus. The pressing need is to
show his gratitude toward the One who has made new life possible. If he doesn’t
get back he will miss the moment. If he doesn’t get back now he will miss the
Master!
Anyone
here on that road today? You were once in a crisis and called for mercy? You
once walked by faith but then decided it was easier to go it alone? You were
once healed, saved, rescued – but now you have lost sight of what that really
means?
DON’T
MISS THE MOMENT!
We do not know his name but he is shouting to us
today DON’T MISS THE MOMENT! His shouts have everything to do with gratitude.
And why, you ask is he shouting? Why is he so demonstrative?
Remember
what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for him?
Do you remember what the Lord Jesus Christ has done
for YOU?
Some
are not very comfortable with loud doxologies and loud hallelujahs, and that’s
a shame. Sometimes God’s grace is so overwhelming in our lives that we need
shout our praise and adoration! With loud crashing cymbals we exalt our Lord to
the glory of God the Father!
How long has it been since we’ve felt the touch
of the Master’s hand? How long since we showed unashamed gratitude for all He
has done for us?
Why
is it that so many of us are just like the nine? We call upon the Lord when we
are in times of need, but so few of us seem to know much about genuine thanksgiving
and praise. This one man went back and “praising God in a loud voice. He threw
himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him.”
Do
you see the difference in his life? Once he “stood far off” now he lays
prostrate at Jesus’ feet. That is what cleansing will do for you. That is the
proper response of God’s forgiven ones!
“Rise
and go; your faith has made you well.” Do you see what has happened? This leper
became whole on the inside as well as the outside. The others may have been
declared clean – but only this one was declared whole. Well. Restored. Saved.
By the Lord Jesus Christ Himself!
No
wonder he was so thankful! No wonder he was so full of praise to God!
This
morning as we partake of the Lord’s Supper together we are once again reminded
that:
“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.”
Does anyone on earth have
more reason to give thanks to God than those of us living whole lives as a
result of His sacrifice?
In these next few moments
of Communion move toward the Master, move forward with him by faith and don’t
miss the moment to pause and praise Him and give thanks for all he has done.
Where are the nine?
Where are YOU?