We all have made choices in our lives that we wish we could have taken back. Those choices may have led to someone else being hurt, and potentially publicly shaming or embarrassing ourselves. In those times, we all longed for redemption, a second chance to restore our pride and character in the public’s eye. We have not been perfect in any friendship or relationship however, and I think all will agree that we have made mistakes in life that lead us to realize that we are not perfect people. We could attempt to compare ourselves to someone else to try to help make our case, but it’s so subjective that the resulting boost of self-esteem will only taper off next time you find yourself making a mistake. There has to be something more. There has to be a reason why even public vindication still proves to be unsatisfying and ultimately empty, wearing off just like any other high. Maybe it’s because we are separated from our only source of peace, purpose, and joy for living.
“On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” – Luke 17:11-19
As Jesus was entering into this village, these ten lepers addressed him from a distance. These ten had been deemed unclean by the priests according to the law at that time, and therefore were the untouchables of society. These lepers understood that by law, they were separated not just from all of society, but also from Jesus. The separation was a result of the uncleanliness from their impurities. And yet they cried out to Jesus, having heard the stories of His love, mercy, and healing power.
They called him Master. Now the question we have to ask is what was their heart’s motivation behind using the term Master. Did they truly desire for Jesus to be Master? Or did they just want to be healed? “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). What was their motivation? What is yours and mine?
Jesus, seeking to find the answer to that question on motivation, commanded them to go show themselves to the priests. He didn’t tell them they would be healed. He simply just said go. And so the 10 people went, and as they went, they were healed. Jesus could have healed them there right? Why did he choose to send them on first? It’s my understanding that He sent them to the priests because the priests were the final earthly authority on whether a person was leprous or not. As they went, they were cleansed and so became fit to be judged by the priests and freed from their public stature of untouchable. Yet in doing so Jesus exposed something about these 10. How? Their response to seeing God’s power.
Only one turned back praising God, falling at the feet of Jesus Christ, giving Him thanks. Jesus asked where the other nine were? Was only one found to turn back to Him and give thanks to the One who cured them in the first place?
We assume that the 9 continued on to be officially cleansed from their leprosy by the priests. Yes, they certainly followed Jesus’ instruction. But in calling Jesus, ‘Master,’ it reveals that they truly didn’t know who He was still. The author of Hebrews 4 says “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:14-15). To the one person, Jesus was the great High Priest! Jesus was heading to Jerusalem where He would bear the sins of mankind on the cross, experiencing the punishment for our sins and separation from God. In doing so, He bridged the gap between God and man, becoming our way to God, the great High Priest who deems all who believe in Him as clean, guiltless from their sin. Jesus paid the price on our behalf! Therefore when this leper was cleansed, he immediately returned to the High Priest who had cleansed him in the first place. The 9 were so focused on becoming publicly vindicated, free from their social confinement and thinking they could experience joy in life, that they missed out on the MOST ULTIMATE SOURCE OF JOY.
The one who turned back to Jesus truly is an example of worship. He put off the joy of being publicly freed from his social confinement “in order to experience the greater joy of worshipping the one who healed him – Jesus. He cared more about giving praise to Jesus and what he had done for him than he cared about what other people would think about him and the ‘benefits’ he would experience from being cleansed” – Angela Geracci Like Paul, he counted the benefits and people’s opinions a loss “because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8). John Piper makes a statement that further drives home the above point. “Christ is most glorified in your life and in your death when he is treasured more than all that life can give, and death can take.” http://www.desiringgod.org/sermons/god-is-most-glorified-in-us-when-we-are-most-satisfied-in-him
The one who turned back to Jesus completely humbled himself before God! Christ was more satisfying than the freedom the world had to offer from the freedom of his leprous state. Christ had set him free in his heart! No earthly priest, but Christ! He experienced the greatest joy known to man! When we encounter the love, mercy and power of God, we have two options: Reject it, or worship Him. The 9 lepers called Jesus, ‘Master,’ yet were not completely submitted to Him because they did not worship Him as such. The one man had it right, and the joy He found at the feet of Jesus, praising God, did not leave Him unsatisfied. He found the ultimate joy that cannot be matched by anything this world has to offer. “Rise and go your way;” Jesus tells him, “your faith has made you well.” AKA “your faith has saved you.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” – Ephesians 2:8-9
I don’t know where you are spiritually, or what you are going through. But I’ll leave you with a couple of points.
1) We all live by faith. Whether you believe in the triune God, no God, nihilism, Buddha, Mohammed, that all routes are to God, etc. We all live by faith that what we believe is the absolute truth. Truth, by definition is exclusive. According to the Law of Non-Contradictions, if God is real, then there cannot be no God. If Mohammed preached the total truth, then Jesus was either a liar or a lunatic. We live by faith in the truth claims we believe. “It is not the strength of your faith but the object of your faith that actually saves you,” says Tim Keller in his book, The Reasons for God. You either choose Jesus, the Son of God who died and rose again, or you reject Him and follow something else. There are no other options than these two.
2) Jesus Christ offers a way that is different from any other religion. He says “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me” (John 14:6). Christianity says that being saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus leads to performance, rather than what the world teaches us that we must perform in order to be saved. It is in understanding, like the leper, that Jesus offers us THE ONLY WAY, THE ONLY TRUTH, THE ONLY LIFE, that we can come to experience the ultimate joy of being in the presence of the One who created us, loves us, and has made a way for us to be reconciled back to Him! Nothing on earth can provide this, but Christ alone, because Jesus Christ is the only way!
Put your faith in Jesus, my friend! You will not be misled.
The Aroma 