#145 Lu. 17:11-19  JESUS HEALING THE TEN LEPERS

Introduction:

    In our text last Sunday Jesus used a slave serving His master
to teach us a lesson about serving our Master.  In our text today,
Luke records the healing of ten lepers.  This record brings to
mind some very valuable lessons for all mankind.

I.  A technical matter

    V. 11, "And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he
passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee."  This verse
describes the course that Jesus took as He went to Jerusalem to be
crucified.  We are faced here with a technicality.  The King James
version reads as though Jesus and His disciples went down deeply
into Samaria even to the midst or middle of Samaria.  Read it
again and see if that is not what the verse appears to say in our
English language.  However, that is not the sense of the original
Greek language in this verse.  The sense of the original language
is that He traveled along between Samaria and Galilee.  That is,
He traveled along the border that lay in the midst between Samaria
and Galilee.  That is just a small technicality, but it is
important in order for us to get a true picture of what the verse
is telling us.

II.  An encounter with ten lepers

    V. 12, "And as he entered into a certain village, there met
him ten men that were lepers..."  In the book of Leviticus the
people were instructed that if anyone suspected that he had
leprosy, he was to go to the priest for a diagnosis to see if it
was really leprosy.  The priest was to use the procedures set
forth in the book of Leviticus to see if it was really leprosy or,
perhaps, some other ailment that merely looks like leprosy.  If
the priest finds that he really does have leprosy, he would
officially diagnose him to be a leper and the leper would be
required to isolate himself from the general public.
    For that reason, whenever a leper finds out that someone else
has leprosy, he will seek the company of other lepers.  This would
not only provide company, but the ones who are still physically
able could help the others.  In this case, there were ten lepers
who had banded themselves together.
    We will see that one of these ten was a Samaritan.  The
Samaritans were half-breeds.  They had Hebrew blood and they had a
lot of Gentile blood.  Even religiously they were half-breeds.
Their religion was a combination of the Law of Moses, which they
had gotten from their Jewish forefathers, mixed with a lot of
heathen beliefs and practices which they had derived from their
Gentile forefathers.  As a general rule, the Jews had no dealings
with the Samaritans, but these all being lepers had accepted a
Samaritan into their group.
    As Jesus and His disciples traveled along the border between
Samaria and Galilee on their way to Jerusalem.  As they started to
enter into a certain village they encountered this company of
lepers.
    You will note that the lepers did not gather right up close
around Jesus as most folks did.  (V. 12), "...which stood afar
off."  The Law of Moses required of them that they not get up
close to other people so as to avoid exposing them to this very
contagious dread disease.

III.  Their cry for mercy

    V. 13, "And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus,
Master, have mercy on us."  We learn something here about the
great popularity of Jesus at this time.  Even these lepers who
were in isolation had heard of Jesus.  They knew about the great
miracles that He had performed.  They probably did not know about
every miracle that Jesus had performed, but the knew enough to
know that the miracles were real.  They knew enough to know that
He was truly a man sent from God and that He had the power of God
to perform miracles.  They probably had not yet understood that He
is the promised Christ of God, but they had most likely heard that
some folks claim that He is the Christ.
    But for them it was enough just to know that He is a prophet
of God with great miracle working power from God and that He could
heal them from their leprosy.  You see, there was not another man
in all the world, so far as they knew, who could heal them of
their leprosy.  Right at this moment, they probably did not care
whether He is the Christ or not.  He could heal them from their
leprosy and for the moment, that was enough.
    Luke says that they lifted up their voices.  That is, they
cried out loudly.  They said, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!"
It is interesting to note that the Greek word which here is
translated, Master, does not carry the idea of being Deity God.
It does, however, carry the idea of being a great personage.  This
further confirms that at this time they did not recognize Him to
be the Christ, but they did at least recognize Him to be a great
man of God.  They were convinced that if He wanted to do so, He
could heal them of their leprosy and they cried out loudly to Him
asking Him for mercy, begging Him to heal them.

IV.  A test of their faith

    V. 14, "And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go show
yourselves unto the priests..."  I am not sure just what they had
expected Him to do.  They surely did not expect Him to lay hands
on them as He usually did.  But they did expect to be healed
without delay.  But Jesus made no effort at all to heal them---at
least not at this time.  Rather Jesus put their faith to the test.
He told them to go and show themselves to the priest.  Now the
only purpose in going to the priest at this stage of this things
was to be declared free from the leprosy.  They had already been
to the priest and declared to be leprous.  What Jesus was asking
them to do was to go to the priest to be declared free from their
leprosy while they still had their leprosy.  In effect Jesus was
saying to them, "Don't wait until you are healed to go to the
priest.  Go while you are still a leper and ask the priest to
declare you to be free from leprosy.
    Now actually, this was quite a test of their faith in Him.  It
was not a test of their faith in Him as the Christ, the Savior,
but it was a test of their faith in His healing power.  It would
not come as a surprise of some or all of them had refused to go.
The surprise is that all ten of them started right off to see the
priest even though they still had their leprosy.  All ten of them
had sufficient faith to believe that by the time the priest would
look at them that they would be free of their leprosy.  This was a
considerable degree of faith.
    Let me tell you that their faith in Jesus was not in vain.
(V.  14), "...And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were
cleansed." They all started off the see the priests still having
their leprosy, but all of a sudden they were healed of their
leprosy.  All ten were healed.

V.  The one who returned to give thanks

    V. 15-16, "And one of them, when he saw that he was healed,
turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, And fell down on
his face at his feet, giving him thanks..."  This does not mean,
of course, that he abandoned the idea of going to the priest.  The
law of Moses required that a leper who became free of his leprosy,
do to the priest and be examined.  He could not be accepted back
into the mainstream of society or back among his family until the
priest had declared him free of leprosy.  So there was not the
slightest thought of being disobedient to the Lord's command to go
and see the priest.  It merely means that to him there was
something far more important right now than being accepted back
into society.  To him, it was more important for him to first
return to give thanks to Jesus, who had healed him, and to give
God The Father in heaven for sending Jesus.  So he returned to
Jesus, fell down at the feet of Jesus and poured his gratitude.
    (V. 16), "...and he was a Samaritan."  The man who returned to
Jesus and gave Jesus thanks and praised God for his healing was a
Samaritan.  He was not a Jew, but a Samaritan.  It would normally
be expected that the Jews would be the very first to return and
thank God and thank Jesus.  The Jews looked upon the Samaritans as
being outcasts.  But here was one Samaritan who showed more
gratitude to God than the Jews.

VI.  The nine which did not return to give thanks

    V. 17-18, "And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten
cleansed?  but where are the nine? There are not found that
returned to give glory to God, save this stranger."  The word,
stranger, as used here means "One of a different bloodline, a
different race of people."  The Jews were God's chosen people and
those Jews should have set the example in returning to Jesus to
give Him thanks and to give God the glory, but they let a man whom
they considered an outcast be closer to God than they were.
    This Samaritan has set a worthy example for those of us who
are saved to follow.  He showed that he was thankful to the Lord
for healing him and he thanked God the Father for his healing.
Even so, we who are saved ought to express our own gratitude to
Jesus Christ, our Savior, and to God the Father in heaven, for the
salvation of our soul.  Jesus has done a lot more for us than
healing us from some dread disease.  He has saved us from our
sins.  He has spared us from the fires of hell.  He has gained for
us a place in heaven.  We ought to live our lives in such a way
that we would express our undying gratitude to Him for saving us
from hell.

VII.  Saving faith

    But this man's return to thank Jesus did more than express his
gratitude to Jesus; it expressed also his faith in Jesus as being
more than just a man from God.  It expressed his faith in Jesus as
being more than just a prophet of God who is able to work
miracles.  It expressed his faith in Jesus as being the very
Christ of God, whom others had already said that they believe Him
to be.  When he cried out to Jesus to be healed from his leprosy,
he believed only that Jesus is from God and has the power of God
to heal him.  But now that he has been healed, he now believed
that Jesus is very Christ of God.  He is the Son of God.  He is
the Savior of men and he trusted in the Lord to save his soul.
    Listen to what Jesus said in verse 19.  V. 19, "And he said
unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole."  A
literal translation of the later part of this verse is, "...thy
faith hath saved thee."  From this statement of Jesus we learn
that when this man was a leper, he placed his faith in Jesus that
Jesus is a prophet of God and could heal his body from leprosy.
But after he was healed from his leprosy, then he placed his faith
in Jesus as the very Christ of God, who could save his soul.
Jesus said, "Thy faith hath saved thee."
    In this the Samaritan set a worthy example for all who are
unsaved to follow.  Let me say to you who are still headed for the
fires of hell that it is not enough that you should believe that
Jesus was a great prophet of God and a great miracle worker who
could heal those men of their dread disease.  It is not even
enough that you should believe that He is the Christ of God and
that He is able to save lost sinners and keep them out of hell.
You must place your faith in Jesus Christ to save you from your
sins and keep you out of hell.  You must call upon Him and trust
Him and ask Him to save you and carry you to heaven when you die.
In Romans 10:13 we read, "For whosoever shall call upon the name
of the Lord shall be saved."

Conclusion:

    There were present there on that occasion ten men who had the
dread disease of leprosy.  It was a very painful disease.  It
would cause parts of the body to rot and drop off at the joints.
Later other parts would drop off.  It was a slow and painful
disease.
    There may be somebody here today who is in a lot worse
condition.  If there is anybody here today who is lost in sin and
headed for the fires of hell, you are in a lot worse condition
than those lepers.  The fires of hell are a lot more painful than
leprosy or any other disease.  Furthermore, it lasts a lot longer.
With leprosy, a saved man could at least get out of his pain at
death.  But if a man goes to hell he will suffer forever.
    Listen, those lepers cried out to Jesus and asked Him to heal
them of their leprosy.  Won't you come right now and cry out to
Jesus and ask Him to save your soul and keep you out of hell?