42 lines
2.2 KiB
Markdown
42 lines
2.2 KiB
Markdown
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title = "Luke 17:11–19"
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date = "2023-01-08"
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### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Lk17.11-19)
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It's funny how perspective changes when you read through an entire Gospel,
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versus discussing individual stories from the same book. When you take a story
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by itself, it's usually pretty easy to get the surface-level meaning and
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application. In context, with this one in particular, I wonder, "Why is this
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here, in this chapter? What else do we learn from the next and previous
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passages together with it?"
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That said, I don't think I have any answers to those questions. As best I can
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tell, Luke is reminding us that Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem for the last
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time, and this is something that happened on the way. Ten lepers met Jesus,
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apparently knew who He was, and asked for mercy. It's interesting that they
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called Him "Master", which is not something people address Jesus with often, if
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ever. More typical is "Teacher", even among His disciples. Clearly these lepers
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are trying to exalt Jesus and humble themselves in the hopes that He will help
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them. Surely they have heard that He has healed lots of people before, possibly
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even other lepers.
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It is also interesting that Jesus doesn't heal them then and there. Instead, He
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tells them to go show themselves to the priest with the unspoken expectation
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that they will be cleansed by the time they get there. But as they all had
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faith that Jesus could heal them, they go in faith to see the priest. But then,
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one of them sees what happened, and turns back to praise God and thank Jesus,
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and this one was a Samaritan.
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Jesus expresses disappointment, it sounds like, that the other nine did not
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praise God for their healing too. And then there's a text note on the last
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thing He says to the man: instead of "your faith has made you well", it might
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mean "your faith has saved you". (_v. 19_) Considering that all ten lepers
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were healed, "saved you" makes more sense for Jesus to say to this one who came
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back. We don't know what was in the hearts of the other nine, but this
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Samaritan was grateful for the mercy he was given, and responded appropriately.
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* * *
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Give us the faith that saves us, for we are sick and need Your mercy.
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