Being that one

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

BEING THAT ONE

Luke 17:11-19

11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" 14 When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed. 15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him — and he was a Samaritan. 17 Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?"  19 Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well." 

NIV

A story we are most familiar with yet never really applied it to our own lives. There are several comparisons which make for a good life lesson. First of all we could compare sin to leprosy in our time and life. Sin is in fact the worst form of leprosy we could be inflicted with. In those days they were cast out of the village away from family and friends because leprosy was contagious. Sin separates us from God, and sin is also contagious, as we have a tendency to drag others along the path of unrighteousness with us. Sinner cannot be around the righteous because the righteous do not want to get infected by that sin, so we cleave to each other rather than them. Here Jesus heals all of them, and we have to suppose that most were Jews and one was a Samaritan as the text so of indicates so. Here is another lesson in that we could see the nine Jews as the religious people of the today and the foreigner or Samaritan as a wretched sinner. Here is the lesson of who is much forgiven loves much. It would seem that when the hand of Jesus cured them, it was only the one who came to worship him. Now of course the law demanded whe a leper became clean he needed to appear before the priest so he could certify he was clean and return to his family and friends within the community. But yet this man turned and came back to praise God. The others did not, they must have felt something different. Is it not the same today? It seems that those who have been raised in the church have less of a passion for praising God then the one who was an awful sinner and was healed of his sin by the hand of Jesus. We need to remember we were that awful sinner and never were like the other nine. Jesus questions where the nine were. He healed them of their sin, but it seems they have their religion. Sometimes it is easy to be counted among the nine, to get so involved with the nine, we forget we were the one. We need to always be so grateful to God for healing us from our sin, that we never stopped praising him, especially when we gather with the nine. We always need to remember it was by faith we were healed, and it is not anything to continue to live. We are told that the righteous live by faith. We cannot afford to be entrapped by depending on righteous living in order to be considered righteous. Our righteousness, our only form of righteousness is in Jesus, in faith in Jesus. We are that one. We will always be that one who was cleansed by the hand of Jesus.