Where Are the 9?

Once upon a time a daughter complained to her father that her life was miserable and that she didn’t know how she was going to make it.

She was tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed just as one problem was solved, another one soon followed.

Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire.

Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot and ground coffee beans in the third pot. He then let them sit and boil, without saying a word to his daughter.

The daughter, moaned and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. After twenty minutes he turned off the burners.

He took the potatoes out of the pot and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. He then ladled the coffee out and placed it in a cup.Turning to her, he asked. “Daughter, what do you see?”

“Potatoes, eggs and coffee,” she hastily replied.

“Look closer” he said, “and touch the potatoes.” She did and noted that they were soft.

He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.

Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. Its rich aroma brought a smile to her face.

“Father, what does this mean?” she asked.

He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and coffee beans had each faced the same adversity-the boiling water. However, each one reacted differently. The potato went in strong, hard and unrelenting, but in boiling water, it became soft and weak.

The egg was fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard.

However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new.

He asked his daughter. “Which one are you?”

How we react upon facing adversity reveals the character within.

Doctor Luke invites us to see how 12 men wanted to build their faith, how ten men reacted to their circumstance, and how a group of men demanded satisfaction.

The question then looms, of which group are we?

The first group was seeking more faith and wanted Jesus to increase their faith for them. Luke 17: 5 says “And the Apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith!”

But Jesus responded it is not the quantity of faith rather the quality, more importantly, the object of our faith.

Romans 12:3 says, “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.”

You see, we all have faith, but what do we do with it?

It wasn’t a bad request that the disciples asked for, but rather a misguided understanding of how faith works and Jesus is about to show them, and us, how to grow faith.

His ministry is building toward the ultimate crescendo as the Passover is drawing near. He and his followers have pulled up stakes and they are heading to Jerusalem. Nothing was going to stand in his way. Not even geography. Jews of the day would go top great lengths to avoid Samaria but Luke 17:11 states that “he passed through the midst of Samaria”.

Jesus was intentional in his life, intentional in his dealings with people, and intentional in his travels and today was no different. He was going to put on display the answer to the disciples request.

As he enters the village 10 men which were lepers saw him from afar and cried out

“JESUS! MASTER! Have mercy on us!” Verse 13

Richard C. H. Lenski points out that the cry was more like “Mercy us!” (the Greek verb being transitive) means only that Jesus is to free them from their leprosy. The most that we can deduce from this is that these lepers believed that Jesus could help them.

You see, they were outcast because of the disease.

Leprosy has a correlation with sin. It causes us to be separated from God

The Law forbade those with leprosy to be part of the community as we see in Leviticus 13:46; they were to be separated outside the camp

Not only does sin cause us to be separated from God, it also makes us unclean.

They had to announce their status as “Unclean! Unclean!” in Leviticus 13:45. Likewise, we to must become like the publican in Luke 18:13 and say, “God, be merciful to me a sinner.”

Leprosy is incurable and if you carefully examine the scriptures, you will find that no one was ever healed of leprosy. They were cleansed! We can never be “healed” of sin. We need to be cleansed of our sin as stated in

1 John 1:9

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

So they cry out “JESUS! MASTER! Have mercy on us!” Verse 13. They were sincere in their request. They knew their plight. They know that they could do nothing. They knew only Jesus could rescue them from their circumstance.

So Jesus immediately stopped what he was doing and healed them instantly on the spot just like he had done before. . . uhhh no. He sent them to see the priests.

It is interesting to see that when God heals or intervenes, it is never done the same way twice.

So he sends them to the priests. Why not to the Temple? Interesting. Let’s get back to that in a bit.

Jesus told them to “Go show yourselves unto the priests” (vs 14). Were they cleansed at this point? No. So show the priest that I am still unclean? Show the priest that I have filthy rags as a garment? Show the priest that I am covered in leprous spots and verify that I indeed need to be separated from community?

Two things were required at this point. They had to have faith, just like Jesus told the disciples earlier, even if it is as small as a mustard seed, faith was still required. They second thing is that that faith had to be an active faith. They had to obey what Jesus had told them to do.

But what if they had waited until they felt better, or that they were able to secure a new set of clothes. When Jesus tells us to do something, he knows that we are already in a position to respond and that there is no time like the present to do so. He doesn’t say, “Get ready because on Tuesday I am going to ask you to do something for me. Clean up your act. Set things in order and become a better person. Give up that old habit, because unless you do so, you won’t be able to serve me.” No, Jesus calls us just as we are, to follow him.

The men obeyed and before they could reach their destination, the scriptures says “As they went, they were cleansed” (vs 14). How many times have we lost out on an opportunity or received an answer to prayer because we did not do what God told us to do? If only we would have stepped out in faith, “as we would have went, the prayer request would have been answered”?

Now one of them saw that he was clean. It was personal. It was real. It was impactful. He knew he was touched by God and turned back to glorify God! He turned his back on the ceremony that was required by the Law to give glory, praise, and honor the one who had cleansed him!

He fell down at the feet of Jesus and was giving thanks, a continuous act of praise. And then the good Doctor Luke tells us; “he was a Samaritan” (vs 16). This man was an outcast among the outcasts. The ones who were most hated and despised by the Jews was cleansed by a Jew.Now here he was worshiping a Jew.

And Jesus said “Were there not 10 cleansed? But where are the 9?”

What a sad commentary. I can only imagine the hurt. The pain. The sadness Jesus must have felt. There was so much more Jesus would have done for them. The Samaritan came back and what he received, the others could have as well. Don’t miss it. Do you see what happened in verse 19?

“Arise, go they way; thy faith hath made thee . . . WHOLE”. Not cleansed like the others and like he himself was up until this point. But WHOLE!

The word “cleansed” in verse 17 means to be made clean. However, the word used in verse 19 is “sozo” translated as “whole” which means delivered. Not only was the Samaritan made clean, he was also delivered! Praise and thanksgiving brought him deliverance! He turned away from the cleansing the Law could bring and received the deliverance that only Jesus can provide.

Remember the question, Why didn’t Jesus tell him to go to the Temple? Let’s look back to John 4:22-24 and the story of the woman at the well. The story was set where? In Samaria! The same region this man was from. The Samaritans worshiped at Mt. Gerizim while the Jews worshiped in Jerusalem. Jesus told the woman that “the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth”.

This man was worshipping in Spirit and in truth. The location wasn’t important. The obedience was paramount. Because of his obedience neither the place of Mt Gerizim or Jerusalem were important but the feet of Jesus is where reconciliation transpires.

But just when you think all is well, the Pharisees show up and DEMANDED when the Kingdom of God was to arrive. We have to thank the Pharisees a lot of the times for their actions, and reactions open us up to some nuggets we would miss. What prompted them to DEMAND such a thing? It was Jesus cleansing lepers. Why or how is this important? They knew and recognized the fact that only the divine can cleanse leprosy. Only God could cleanse Moses, Miriam, and Naaman of leprosy. Their reaction solidified the knowledge the Jesus was indeed God incarnate so therefore the Kingdom must be coming soon.

However, his answer frustrated them all the more when he told them “the kingdom of God is within you.” (vs 21).

The Kingdom of God came to rest within the heart of the Samaritan when Jesus declared they faith hath made the WHOLE! He no longer had to worry about Mt Gerizim, or Jerusalem, or the Temple, or the priests.

And the disciples had a front row seat as they watched the faith of a Samaritan grow before them. Theirs too would grow because they too would obey and receive deliverance.

So as we come to a close I want to ask you, how are you going to react to the adversity you are facing? Are you going to come to Jesus, or will he find you to be one of the nine? It isn’t leprosy but sin that can keep us from the right relationship with God. Adversities, daily struggles, hardships, presented are the boiling water. Are you like the egg, fragile, but when the heat is on you become hard inside? The Pharisees knew what happened and that the kingdom was near and soon their perceived power would be lost so they became hard inside. Or are you more like the potato, hard but when the heat is on you become more susceptible to God leading and you soften up? The Disciples were unable to fully understand the concept of faith, but when they saw faith in action, their hardness soften them. Or are you more like the coffee beans and allow the aroma to permeate through you and enjoy the rich flavor?

Ten sought Jesus but only one came to Jesus. Where are the 9? Are you part of them? Jesus gave his all but few come to him. Most will be “part of the 9”.

The Samaritan allowed God to work through him. He received the cleansing he hoped for and the deliverance that liberated him from the curse of the Law.

He must have rejoiced to find that the promise of Jeremiah 29:13 “ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. 14 And I will be found of you” and testified with David in Psalm 34:4 when he said “I sought the LORD, and he heard me, And delivered me from all my fears.”

It is this Blessed Assurance that we can have as we praise God for his many blessings he has bestowed upon us through his son, Jesus Christ and cleansed us from all unrighteousness and delivered us from the bondage of sin! Won’t you allow him to deliver you also!