In Luke 17 there is a story, just eight verses in length, about the Lord Jesus and ten sick men. In this brief episode there are 13 spiritual lessons that are very hard to accept. However, if we think deeply enough, we will understand how powerfully they reveal the good news of God’s salvation. These hard lessons arise from 13 words or phrases in this short passage of scripture.
Hard lesson number one: lepers.
In this place where I am, patients crave healing more than anything else. There is one lady whose only words day and night are, Help me! He… 1p! Usually, all she wants is permanent relief from her terrible sickness. It’s sad, but that’s the one thing the wonderful nurses cannot give her. No illness could be more terrible than leprosy, which these ten men had. We are told that when Jesus saw or met lepers, his reaction was to be “moved with compassion,” or as those words imply, the very sight of these wretched, homeless beggars turned his stomach. He just had to help them in some way.
Hard lesson number two: Jesus, Master
One of the fundamental insights of discipleship is the recognition and full acceptance of Jesus as our Master. It takes sincere faith to honestly and simply say, Jesus, Master! showing and meaning that we love him as our own personal healer and teacher.
Hard lesson number three: mercy.
The truth about Jesus Christ is “good news” because it is about “tender mercy.” Zacharias joyfully describes God’s truth as a visit from a God of tender mercy. Most religious people are big on outward holiness and justice and matching up to their standards. To helpless folk like me, Jesus is big on mercy.
Hard lesson number four: as they went.
Jesus didn’t heal the men and then send them to the temple. He told them to go, and “as they went,” they were suddenly cured. Surely that needed a lot of faith. That kind of faith I find hard to develop. I like to be sure of what is happening. Faith, like that of Abraham, that sets off without knowing where and exactly why, is what Jesus is looking for in every one of us.
Hard lesson number five: cleansed.
Once these men had the faith to set off, their cleansing was assured, just like Naaman the Syrian. His servants told him that to have faith was a small thing. But I find it hard to set off in hope, and believe that God will work a miracle. In his synagogue sermon in Nazareth, Jesus stressed that this kind of dramatic cure is rare in our present mortal experience.
Hard lesson number six: turned back.
Why did only one turn back? Were they not all going where they were asked to go? No not all. The Samaritan could not go to the Jewish priests. A wall in the temple barred his way on pain of death! So he went to his priest, Jesus the Christ. And, oh the joy! He turned back to find his Saviour and the one true High Priest of all mankind.
Hard lesson number seven: fell down on his face.
In all the gospel records, how many holy and righteous people do we read of who “fell down at Jesus’ feet?” This hard lesson tells me that Jesus takes more notice of one contrite woman on her face than a thousand righteous on their feet.
Hard lesson number eight: stranger
Among the 10 lepers was a Samaritan — a stranger. But this Samaritan was not just a “stranger.” To Jews he was an “ex-brother,” estranged by a worship that was considered heretical. But to Jesus, he was not a stranger at all. In fact, he was the only one of the ten to be saved.
Hard lesson number nine: where are the nine?
They had gone to the Jewish priests, to the old law that could pronounce them “pure” and healed in body, but could not save them inside or “make them whole.”
Hard lesson number ten: give glory to God.
What Jesus is looking for in each of us is appreciation. In a lifetime of serving the brotherhood, I have found that this rare virtue is the mark of a true believer. Gratitude to God and to others, practically expressed, is what marks a ‘real’ Christadelphian. It is hard to accept, but appreciation is what makes us whole. It heals. It reconciles. We cannot live eternally without it.
Hard lesson number eleven: Arise, go thy way.
Because he was not a Jew, this grateful man did not need to go all the way to Jerusalem. He could joyfully go his own way wherever he wished, witnessing as he went.
Hard lesson number twelve: your faith.
Because the name of Jesus is the only name given under heaven through which we can be saved, the nine were medically cured but had no hope of eternal salvation. Only one went to the right place to be born again and start a new, clean life. He alone, stranger though he was, had the key to salvation: faith in Jesus, the Lamb of God.
Hard lesson number thirteen: saved, whole.
One man out of ten was transformed — body, soul and spirit. His whole personality experienced the full benefit of what Jesus had to offer. Beyond receiving healing from leprosy, he alone was saved.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One