Thankful Living

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

THANKFUL LIVING

 

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." 

We first noticed that the ten were healed without Jesus touching or telling them they were healed. He just responded to their plea. Of course, their plea was to Jesus, Master. Luke is the only gospel writer who used the Greek word epistatees, to refer to Jesus as the Master, which Peter calls Jesus several times, Master, we are going to drown, Master I fished all night and other times. We see these men had some knowledge that Jesus was Master, Lord, the Anointed one of God, with the power of God to heal simply with a word. We cannot know all their knowledge of the creation story, although we would think they read the first five books in the Hebrew texts, reading about God speaking the world into existence. So they must have known, calling Jesus, Master, he could perform healing by his word, which he did. Now, the truth we apply to our lives is this one who returned and threw himself at the feet of Jesus thanking him. Considering we all have been healed from our sin, and from the penalty of our sin, healed from death, and given life, we should always be in the mode of throwing ourselves at the feet of Jesus thanking him. Some of us have also experienced physical healing without Jesus touching us, or healing us telling us to go show ourselves to the doctor, it just occurred instantly. Yet, we know he spoke the word, he heard our plea, Jesus, Master, Lord, heal my sickness, illness, arm, neck, heart, or whatever our physical need is or was, because he healed us. How can we go on through living our daily lives without being in a constant state of thanking our Lord and Master? It is interesting that out of ten who were healed, only one returned to thank Jesus, and he was a foreigner. No matter how everyone else may live their daily lives as a Christian, we will always live thankfully and praise our Savior, Lord, and Master, for his healing work within us.