Jesus Heals

Intro

Story of moving my aunt and uncle from Dekalb

Calling Jeff retarded, in seeing that he was weird and annoying to me

The Meeting (v.11-13)

Notice that Luke immediately reminds us that Jesus is traveling to Jerusalem

You might even say there is a sense of anxiety, as we know the crucifixion is coming, yet, we are running out of pages of Luke!

Jesus begins and travels in an area that is between Samaria and Galilee, and enters a random village

It is in this village that there are these 10 men with Leprosy, and they call out to Jesus to have mercy on them!

Leprosy in the OT is a bit more broad than what modern medicine calls Leprosy

It was a sometimes contagious skin disease, which caused the Jews afflicted with it to live in what were known as ‘leper colonies’

These men had only other lepers to have community, they were isolated from their friends, family, and could not even go to synagogue or temple to worship God

In fact, they would have proclaim their ailment everywhere they would go

You and some friends are walking out in the city, and all of a sudden you hear a group of people coming and hear them yelling “UNCLEAN”! “UNCLEAN!”

The reason being if you even came in contact with them, you would be at best become unclean and have to be put in quarantine until a priest could declare you clean

Or in the worst case, you would contact leprosy, and be forced to leave your life as you knew it!

Now what is particularly interesting to me is that as our story unfolds, we find out this group was a group of Jews and a Samaritan

If you don’t know, Jews and Samaritans got together like oil and water

Yet, in the face of this outcasting of their very person, they were drawn together

An unexpected group of compatriots, united in their untouchable infirmity

Perhaps we have a modern understanding of this quite well in our own recent history

If we travel back over these past two years, can we think about how our society has interacted with COVID it gives us a glimpse into how we might treat people

Think of how we initially treated people with COVID, like they had the plague!

Then it was disagreements on resulting policies, which made both sides of the COVID views paint others in vicious lights

I’ve even seen people end life-long friendships over views on the vaccine!

Perhaps in a less charged point we can look to how our society treats those of differing views from politics (on both sides), and even in Sports teams

I recently saw a video of a Michigan University fan walking around Ohio State campus after Michigan won the matchup

This is one of the biggest rivalries in sports!

How was this man, who wore Michigan memorabilia treated?

With dozens of curse words, vulgar gestures, and was even ran at to be tackled!

All over a college football game!

Now something that I think I have to at least look at is that many in our church may of had an experience of feeling like an outsider because of not being white

I’ve never had this experience, and the closest I can think of is when I would work in Cabrini Green Projects at Moody, or when I went to Taiwan a few years ago

Yet, I didn’t live there, I wasn’t going to school there, there was no racism directed at me

I’m sure racial prejudice is not outside of the experience you might of had in your life

Whatever form that took, it makes you into an ‘outsider’, who doesn’t fit or belong to the broader culture

People don’t like things that make them uncomfortable, and so they look for a scapegoat

Some extremist have blamed Asians for COVID and it’s fallout, so Asian Hate Crimes had over a 300% increase in many key American cities in 2021, which was even a hike over the 2020 record levels!

In many ways, leprosy is analogous for our experiences of being separated

For me that was feeling utterly alone, and abandoned by everyone in Junior High, I always felt like an outsider, like I was a leper

In fact, it was what led to be a bit aggressive in junior high, acting out in anger and frustration

Sin is something that makes us all an outsider, and leprosy is just a manifestation of that very truth

The Oath by Peretti

One of my favorite books is ‘The Oath’ by Frank Peretti

Peretti is known for his work on supernatural things engaging this world

In the Oath, a man Cliff is found dead in the woods, and his brother, Steve, comes to investigate what happened to his brother.

As the story unfolds, it is found out that each townsperson has a deep black mark over their heart, which slowly kills and poisons them to death

There are more insidious things at play, but it is a great Christian fiction book to represent this idea

Our sin is much like leprosy, it contaminates us, and leprosy is visible reminder of the state of our own hearts

Yet, that is the catch, for us and these men, we can do nothing about our own hearts, just as these men could do nothing about their leprosy, the needed Jesus

They call out to Jesus and beg him to give them mercy!

Mercy is the act of compassion given freely by the one with the power to give it

Mercy is the police giving you a warning, when you broke the law and deserve a ticket

Mercy is your professor allowing you to turn in a paper late without failing (and grace would then be not giving you a late penalty on that paper!)

The call to us could not be any clearer!

These men had faith that Jesus could work a miracle in their life

Do we believe the same?

It is not leprosy that we need to be shown mercy for, but our own sin, a heart of leprosy

So we must also cry out to Jesus, he is the only one that can cure our leprous hearts of the sin that corrupts them so

Obedience ( v. 14-16)

When Jesus sees these men calling out in mercy, he does what Jesus does, and reaches out to them

Now, this is interesting, because they also don’t just reach out to Jesus randomly

His miracles are the talk of the town, and so rightly, they say, what Jesus has done for others, perhaps he will do for us!

This is why they call him ‘Master’, as a respectful title of one who holds the power to heal their broken bodies, broken relationships, and restore all these things

So we see that there is already an element of faith within these men in how they interact with Jesus

They cry out to Jesus with faith, then with faith they journey to show themselves to the priest

Do you notice what happens?

“As they were going they were cleansed”

Imagine, you have been leprous for years, and as you walk with your band of other leprous friends, you see them come clean

Maybe you look down at your arms, and see the sores and ulcers no longer there

With each step, you become more and more healed until you reach the priest and are declared: CLEAN!

Then one returned, to glorify God for the incredible work he had done!

This isn’t just a miracle, leprosy was nigh incurable in the time of Jesus, it was a miracle that only God could do

Furthermore, who was the one that returned?

A Samaritan, the ones that Jews viewed as lesser people

So now, what Luke said about the geography earlier in the passage comes full circle, they were close to Samaria

You can already see that God is laying seeds that will fully come to fruition in Acts, that the Good News is for all people, lepers, Samaritans, and even Gentiles

This man comes back and bows and gives Glory to God, and thanks Jesus

The man that should have the most conflict and baggage with Jesus, the Jew, comes back and gives praise and glory, and honor to God, and to God’s son!

Question (v.17-19)

Jesus receives this thanks, and what is really shown as worship

Then he asks a rhetorical question, which is really saying

What this man is doing for me is good and correct response

Yet, why are the other nine not doing the same?

Only the Samaritan, the foreigner has returned, but not the very people of God, the Jewish Lepers

And he ends with a puzzling statement, “Your faith has saved you”

If we want to understand this we have to look at the twofold meaning of this statement

First, the 10 lepers had faith that saved them, otherwise they would not of been healed!

Yet, this man received extra blessings, spiritual blessings and salvation through his faith in Christ

Luke (Jesus Heals Ten Men with Leprosy / 17:11–19 / 169)

The other nine went off, free from leprosy but not necessarily free from sin through the salvation Jesus could offer. This one man was freed, so Jesus sent him on his way with the knowledge that his faith had made him well. He not only had a restored body, his soul had been restored as well.

You see the others had incomplete faith, since it did not result in gratitude to God

Is it hard to blame them in their reactions? Finally being able to go and see their wives, children, friends and family after being ostracized for who knows how long?

In reality, I don’t think I would first return to Jesus, but I would seek out Tabitha

This points to the underlying truth of the story

The Gospel of Luke (i. The Grateful Samaritan 17:11–19)

Thus the story is not simply a testimony to the ability of Jesus to cure lepers (5:12–14) but is also concerned with the attitude of the person cured. Jesus’ mercy is offered to all men, but they must acknowledge what God has done through him; to faith must be added thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is something we all need in our lives, it helps keeps us grounded, and not too full of ourselves

In fact, one of the ways that the Jews would incorporate thanksgiving is this prayer that you would say when you took your first breath after waking up

Morning Prayer

I give thanks unto You, Adonai, that, in mercy, You have restored my soul within me. Endless is Your compassion; great is Your faithfulness. I thank You, Adonai, for the rest You have given me through the night and for the breath that renews my body and spirit. May I renew my soul with faith in You, Source of all Healing. Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Ruler of the Universe, Who renews daily the work of creation.

Let me ask you this, what is your morning routine?

I usually hit my alarm a few times, and then default to opening facebook, reddit, or youtube and kill sometime before I roll out of bed to get ready

Yet, what if we did something like this prayer?

Wouldn’t that be a far better way to begin our days, to immediately think upon the one who gave us breath for this day?

In reality, this story, and this prayer, remind us two important things we need to say each day when we arise

Thank you Lord for waking me this morning, and Lord have mercy on me this day

Application

Darrel Brock in his commentary brings ups the idea of a “GQ”

You are probably familiar with IQ, and maybe even EQ (Emotional Quotient)

Yet what is “GQ”?- It is the Gratitude Quotient

Which leads us to an important question, where are we in our praise of God?

How oft do you take your blessings for granted, and fail to praise God for his innumerable mercies?

Are you like me, where I am quick to pray when life is hard, or a sudden difficulty happens

Yet when things are going on in the norm of life, praises seem so hard to recall

You know each week we have our prayer meeting on Wednesday, and a key part of this is that we want to use it to praise God for what he has done, so we have a praise section during our meeting

One person that I am always in awe of her prayers is Alex

She constantly prays for even the needs, with the faith of praise

She already counts on the goodness of God to answer the prayers, even if it is in a different way then we want

It’s a great challenge to my own prayer life to have such robust faith in my prayers as Alex does!

Because when push comes to shove, we are in the same place as these leprous men

We are cast aside, have broken community with others and with God

This is why we need to also cry out for Mercy in our own lives

It is not the clean people that get praised for their attitudes, but those that are the outcast!

It is just as Jesus reminds us back in Luke 5:31-32

Luke 5:31–32 CSB

31 Jesus replied to them, “It is not those who are healthy who need a doctor, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

So have you cried out to mercy from Jesus?

Have you repented of your sins, and trust in the finished work of Jesus for the salvation of your souls?

Then do you come back and bask in the glory of who Jesus is?

Powerful enough to heal lepers without a word of healing, or even a touch

Powerful enough to take the most wicked heart and turn it new, so that it would love and serve God?