Kingdom View, Volume III, Issue 14
BETWEEN LUKE 17:10 AND 11, THE EVENTS OF JOHN 11 TRANSPIRED. Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead and consequently the religious leaders plot to take His life (John 11:49-53). Jesus immediately withdraws from the area (John 11:54). Afterwards, He starts His final journey to Jerusalem to observe His last Passover before He is crucified (Luke 17:11). En route to Jerusalem, He encounters ten leprous men (Luke 17:12). The Jews considered leprosy as a scourge and those affected by this dreaded disease were social outcasts and had to forfeit their religious and ecclesiastical privileges within the worshiping community. Therefore, these ten lepers keep their distance as they cried out to Jesus to have mercy upon them (Luke 17:12c). I wonder are there leprous issues in our lives that are keeping us at a distance from Jesus. I am referring to those sinful leprous issues that hinder our fellowship with Him (1 John 1:6) and weaken our ability to engage in ministry effectively. This passage [Luke 17:11-19] shows us how to close that distance and receive healing for our leprous conditions by having an attitude of gratitude and trusting and obeying the Lord’s commands.
The ten lepers refer to Jesus as "Master" as they cried out to Him. The primary writings of the New Testament are in Greek and this term carries the idea of "Chief Commander." The lepers are acknowledging that Jesus has authority over disease and death and that they totally trusted Him. Thus, Jesus commands them to go and show themselves to the priests (Luke 17:14). While obeying Jesus’ command, they experienced healing. The significance behind them going to show themselves to the priest(s) [Leviticus 14:1-32] according to the German Old Testament scholar, J. H. Kurtz, is twofold.
"First, they must receive re-admittance to national fellowship (vv.1-19) and then restitution commenced to restore them to religious and ecclesiastical privileges of the clean, namely, into the fellowship of the sanctuary (vv.19-32). God called the nation to priesthood, which marks the significance of this ceremonial act of restoration (Exodus 19:6)." Likewise, when we trust and obey the Lord’s commands and repent of our transgressions, fellowship is renewed (1 John 1:7, 9) with our Lord and our priestly ministry can move forward unhindered (Revelations 1:6). Still, a question remains unanswered: "Where does an attitude of gratitude enter the equation?"
Our main Luke passage reveals that ten lepers were healed; however, only one returned to express his gratitude to Jesus for his miraculous physical deliverance from leprosy—a Samaritan (Luke 17:15). This statement by Luke suggests that the other nine were Jews. Furthermore, Samaritans and Jews were antagonistic towards each other and Luke’s mention of this fact alludes to this conundrum (John 4:9). Luke seals his point by showing how the Samaritan demonstrated his gratitude in his attitude of unfettered worship at Jesus’ feet. Thus, he receives a greater blessing, a healed soul?salvation (Luke 17:19b). Therefore, healing from the manifold leprous maladies of life can result from rendering unto to God genuine gratitude; look at what Jesus did for the former leprous Samaritan. To God be the glory!