Yet these ten men, defined by their condition and condemned from ever living a normal life again, had apparently heard of this ‘Jesus’ guy who was drawing a lot of attention. I only say this because as we read of this account in Luke 17:11-19, “Jesus entered their village, they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” (13). I find it notable as well, that we are told these men ‘stood afar off’. Sin has a way of doing that...separating us or putting distance between us and God. (Isa. 59:2) And we are the ones who usually make that first move…away. Remember what Adam and Eve did after their incident at the tree and then they heard God’s voice looking for them? They ran and hid.
And Jesus saw them. (14). Guess who else He sees? He sees You...and anyone else whose lives have been marred and destroyed by sin. But not only does He see...He hears the cries of those who ‘call upon His name’ in brokenness and humility. We are told that He ‘resist the proud, but gives grace to the humble...and when we draw near to Him, He in turn, will draw near to us.” (James 4:6-7)
This should not surprise any of us given that His mission was to “come to seek and to save the lost’. (Luke 19:9)
The story continues on: “...He said to them, (10 lepers) - “Go, show yourselves to the priest.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.”
Now here is where it gets interesting. I might also add that we always should be careful about reading too much in to a story that we see in the bible. Obviously, God has a way of ‘opening our eyes’ to give us further or deeper insight to His word. (Luke 24:32, 45) But there is a difference between when He does it, and us ‘trying to do it.’
Then, "one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned...” (15). Just one. Out of the initial ten. We read where he came with a ‘loud voice’ glorifying God, then fell on his face in worship giving thanks’.(16). Jesus then asks kind of an odd question: “I thought there were ten of you who were cleansed...where are the other nine?”
Why is that an odd question, you ask? Well, Jesus told them to go and ‘show themselves to the priests’ which would have been the custom of that day if/when a leper was cleansed. Yet, it would appear that only one of the ten had a true awakening and recognition as to who Jesus was. He is our ‘High Priest’. (Heb. 4:15, 5:8-10)
That word ‘returned’ stands out to me as well. It’s used in both vs. 15 and in 18. You might be surprised how often that word is found in the bible. What did the prodigal son do when he came to his senses and saw his wretched and pathetic condition? He returned to his Father. (Luke 15). When Jesus confronted Peter foretelling him of his denial, He added this: “....and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren’.(Luke 22:32)
The word ‘repent’ has strong implications of ‘turning’. We were all headed in the wrong direction following the ‘wrong god’. Jesus came preaching ‘Repent”...or ‘turn’ or ‘return to the True God’...and then ‘follow Me’.
Now, going back to our original story, we have no idea what happened to the other nine. We can only speculate as to how their lives turned out. Were they ‘saved’? Only God knows. We can sure get hung up on that word ‘saved’. I remember hearing a ‘seasoned believer’ say one time that all those folks who died in the wilderness were ‘saved’, but they just ‘fell short of living the abundant life’ God had for them. That sounds to me like an odd but convenient ‘spin’ to put on it. Paul said that with most of them, God was not pleased, and they did not enter ‘His rest’. (1 Cor. 10:5; Heb. 3:18). I guess that is why I have sensed the Holy Spirit redirect my attention on this idea of ‘abiding’ in Christ and let Him decide who is ‘saved...or not’.
I think it is safe to say that IF you are abiding in Him, you are in a very good place. Why would anyone want to ‘leave that place’? It’s so easy for us at times to get a need met or a prayer answered, then we ‘run off’ to resume our ‘normal lives’ which doesn’t always include ‘abiding’ in Christ. We read in the gospels how many of the crowds followed Jesus because he filled their bellies with bread. But while they may have ‘honored Him with their lips, their hearts were elsewhere’. That happens a lot, you know. When Jesus started teaching about another type of ‘bread’ to eat in John 6:48-52, the crowd began to thin once again. In fact we read “from that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.”(66)
I guess it stands to reason why Jesus was resigned to the fact that in the end, there are only a ‘few’ who when they find this narrow path are willing to enter the narrow gate that leads to life...stating once again that ‘many’ are on that wide road heading to a wide gate that leads to destruction and that ‘many’ will say in that day; “But Lord...I thought....”. (Matt. 7:13-14, 21-23)
Oh, there is one other word that stood out to me and was used twice in that story of the ten lepers. Look at vs 15 and 18 again. With a ‘...loud voice glorified God’, and “Were there not any others (implied) who returned to give glory to God?”
Do you know how we truly give ‘glory’ to God? It has little to do with ‘a loud voice’ or ‘religious activity’. And it has nothing to do with our talents or gifting. That is a trap these days where we can be tempted to ‘perform for God’ saying He ‘gets all the glory’ even while we seem to want to ‘share a stage’ with Him. I hate to break it to you, but God does not share the stage with anyone. It’s not about ‘us’, rather, it’s all about Him. Who will be ‘lifted up’... before men are drawn to Him? (John 12:32)
Take a look at John 15 and read vs. 1-8 and see if you can detect what brings glory to God, or shows how the Father is glorified.
I bet you caught that. If you are one who is comfortable with marking in your bible, you might underline that vs. 8. God is glorified when we ‘bear much fruit’. (Gal. 5:22-23)
Here’s two quick reminders for us: 1 – if we are not abiding in Him, as in continuing or remaining, then no fruit gets produced. Period! (4-5). And 2- we don’t ‘produce’ any fruit...He does!
What has to happen in order for fruit to be produced? Something has to ‘die’. (John 12:24). Here we go again...that grating message about ‘dying’. I’m telling you…there really is no shortcut to this.
Hey...do you remember when Jesus, after His test in the wilderness where He was tempted/tested by Satan, it reads that Satan ‘departed from Him until an opportune time’...(Luke 4:13)...guess what? We will have more than ‘one test’ in this walk of faith. And there is indeed another time we read about where Jesus was tested or tempted. And that test came through one of those closest to Him. (let that sink in for a moment). You can read about it in Matt. 16:21-23.
Jesus tells those with him that He’s about to be arrested, suffer many things and then be killed. Peter pops off saying “No way will we let that happen, Jesus!” Which is met by a swift rebuke from Jesus who while may be looking at Peter, is really addressing who? (vs. 23) – Satan. What was Satan trying to convince Jesus of? “You don’t have to really die Jesus...there’s an easier way to make God happy. Get off this gloomy subject of ‘dying’. {He tells us that more than you might think.}
It's not a popular message. Dying never has been. But ‘living’...yeah...we are all about that. Jesus reminded another group once who were ‘diligently searching the scriptures for life’ that the only way they could truly have life was to ‘come to Him...but they were not willing’. (John 5:40). And only one...of those ten lepers was willing. And he was made well. See you tomorrow?
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