Word of Salvation – Vol. 24 No. 21 – March 1978

 

Were Not Ten Cleansed?

 

Sermon by Rev. J. Postma, B. D. on Luke 17:11-19

Scripture reading: Luke 17:11-19

Psalter Hymnal: 38; 94:1; 289:1,2,3,5; 440; 228:10

 

It is the intention of this sermon to speak in particular to the youth of the Church. That does not mean of course that the rest of the congregation can go to sleep, for it is not meant to the exclusion of the rest of the congregation.

In this gospel story we are confronted with the healing power of the Lord Jesus shown to ten lepers and we are taught what the thankfulness and praise is that He requires of us.

How horrible was the condition of these ten lepers – nine Jews and one Samaritan. Normally Jews and Samaritans hated each other; hence they avoided each other like the plague. But the plight of these lepers was so extreme that the old differences did not matter anymore. Their common sickness and suffering had driven them together.

What an unhappy fellowship they were! One, in their deformity of faces and bodies. For leprosy was a terrible illness. The most feared sickness of that time. Not only was the skin affected, but after a while arms, legs and faces became deformed. It was a horrible sight and a horrible smell.

They were living parables of death. If ever anyone was healed of this sickness he returned so to speak from the dead.

To add to their misery, they were forced to live completely apart from the rest of society. For the Jews had a law, given them by God, that a leper had to live apart, outside the towns and villages.

They were not permitted to worship with the others in the temple. And all that was not just for health reasons, but also because God was the God of life and their sickness spoke of uncleanness and death.

When they met others on the road they were to call out: “unclean, unclean”, in order to warn the people against coming into contact with them.

A horrible sickness, leprosy! It meant one was wasting away, waiting for death in bitter loneliness, the only companions being those who shared the same intolerable burden.

The Bible uses leprosy to symbolise our sin. Just as baptism is a reminder to us that we, apart from Christ, left to ourselves, are dead in our sin and lost forever.

No doubt these men had heard that earlier in the same region, Jesus had healed one of their kind; so when they heard that He was coming, off they went too, to the only One Who could help.

And from a distance they called out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us”. They fully understood that if a miracle did not happen, they would die for sure. Only He could help. And the miracle happened; while surrounded by others, Jesus did not fail to notice these men.

He saw them. In His pity He looked upon them. He saw their need and misery as He has seen ours too. He, Who had been sent by the Father to bear the uncleanness of sinners, listened to their cry for help and gave them His word of grace: “Go and show yourselves to the priests.”

That was not an easy word. At that moment they were still the same, full of leprosy. All the Lord gave them was the command to go and show themselves to the priests. For that was the Jewish law. Before they could return to society, the priests had to declare them healed.

All they were given was the command to go, yet in that command, and this is always so with God’s commands, there was at the same time the promise that they would be healed.

Would they go and believe Him? Would they begin that walk with nothing else than the word of Christ, while they were still leprous? That demanded a lot of faith!

We read that they went. They accepted the gift of His word; and as they went they were cleansed. Their disease disappeared, their skin became normal, their deformities became whole. Their strength returned; they were delivered from death. What blessings they received.

How great their joy must have been when they heard the priest say that they could go back to the community, since they had been completely healed.

Back to their families, to their wives, to their children, to their work, to the temple. No longer did they have to call out: “unclean”, for God’s power had set them free from this disease of death. It is not so difficult to imagine how great their joy must have been!

Yet, and this is the puzzle of this story, nine of these ten forgot something. They forgot the Giver, the One Who had blessed them. No doubt their joy was great, but they were not thankful. For true thankfulness needs more than just God’s gifts. It needs God. It has to come back and give thanks, to praise God.

Nothing is more important to true faith than to come and praise God, to glorify Him by serving Him with our life, because He healed us, who deserved nothing but death.

Yes, faith they had, but it was not saving faith. It enabled them to ask God for blessings, but it did not make them thankful.

It enabled them to call on God in their need, but it did not alter their life. It did not bring them to kneel at the feet of Jesus, to express their thankfulness.

They simply regarded their healing as something to which they were entitled as Jews, as God’s covenant people.

Incredible isn’t it? To receive God’s blessings and then to forget God. To treat Him as something commonplace.

Nine Jews, God’s covenant people; joyful but not thankful. One Samaritan, a foreigner, not a member of the Church, but absolutely amazed, filled with thankfulness.

Should not this account set us thinking? For does that not also happen today, with children of the covenant, that you get used to God’s blessing, begin to count them as rights, are no longer amazed to the point where your heart is bursting with love and praise to God.

For what blessings God has given to all of you – all undeserved! He caused you to be born in homes where your parents love the Lord. Where you read God’s Word and learn to pray. Where parents bring you to Church.

No, not for everyone homes free of difficulty, for also Christian homes still feel the force of sin; but where nevertheless you saw a glimpse of God’s forgiving grace and power. Where in difficulties you experienced God’s help.

Not in homes where in times of grief there was no answer, but where God gave comfort and strength.

And the greatest blessing of all, of which all these other things are evidences that God made an eternal covenant of grace with you who deserved like the rest of mankind only His unending anger because of sin.

Yet, while you were still in your mother’s arms, even before you could call for mercy, He gave you His promises; claimed you for Himself; promised each of you that He would be your Father and care for you. In a very personal way He gave you His promises in baptism, so that you would never need to doubt whether you were wanted by Him.

He promised Christ to you as your Saviour from sin. There, when you were so small, He promised you His life-giving Spirit to renew your life, to deliver you from the power of sin, to make you obedient, willing to serve God and man out of gratitude for His mercy.

Perhaps some of the youth here are not from Christian homes. But somehow you have come to the youth clubs with the young people from the Church. And you too are greatly privileged, for you too have been called by the Lord to come to Him for salvation every time you have heard the Gospel at Church or youth club.

All our blessings are countless! Yet sometimes so little appreciated. Oh, the blessings we want; for who wants death and hell? And when we are sick or in some other trouble, we are quick enough to call out: “Jesus, Master, have mercy upon us!” But how quickly we forget; how easily we treat all these things as rights; fail to devote our lives to His service in joyful gratitude.

Being ungrateful does not always mean that you leave the Church. It may also mean that you stay in the Church your whole life long, even doing profession of faith. But with a cold heart, never really joining in, always complaining, keeping your purse under tight control.

Never really understanding that all these blessings were totally undeserved – that they were gifts of mercy at the cost of Christ’s blood, – that they were anything but rights.

“Were not ten cleansed?” said Jesus, in puzzled amazement, “Where are the nine?

Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”

One day we and these nine healed lepers will meet the Lord Jesus and He will say: “What did you do with all My blessings? Did they bear fruit? Did they bring you to Myself? To a living trust in Me? To repentance? To a desire to serve Me with your whole being?”

For that is the reason God made a covenant with you. And that is what true thankfulness and praise is. Wholehearted commitment to Christ. Being unable to live without Him. Never being able to do enough for the One Who, in His endless pity, looked upon you.

That is what this Samaritan saw and what God wants us all to see. That the normal response to God’s blessings is thankfulness and praise. Not just in words, but also in a new way of life.

The normal response! That is why the Lord was so amazed. True, He had not told them to come back to express their thanks for their healing; but does that need to be said? Another reason why He would not have said that was because He wanted them to return freely, because they could not help it.

So it was with this Samaritan. He came out of love and gratitude. It appears that He also forgot something. The nine had forgotten to come back to Christ, but this man forgot to go to the priest. When he saw that he was healed, he came back immediately.

He forgot the priests of the old covenant, for he was so moved by God’s mercies that he only saw the other Priest, the greater One Who had blessed him so marvellously.

There was nothing cold or formal about him. He could only fall at His Jesus’ feet, to thank Him and praise God with a loud voice. His whole life became worship to God. He could not stay away from Christ, he had seen the grace of God. He knelt before the Lord to express his unworthiness as well as give thanks.

That is true thankfulness and praise! That is saving faith. It means not just an acceptance of the miracle, but above all a devotion to the Lord of the miracle. He was not content with the gift without the Giver.

His whole action said as it were: “Lord, here is my life”. He saw what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Roman congregation: “Therefore my beloved brothers, because of the mercies of God, I beseech you that you present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and accept- able to God, which is your reasonable worship.”

God’s mercies had the desired result in him. This Samaritan, who until now had not belonged to the Church, came to Christ, confessed his unworthiness, gave himself away, committed himself to the Lord. He was truly thankful.

And listen to the reaction of the Lord: “Rise and go your way, your faith has made you well.” Already physically whole, he also became spiritually healed. He, an outsider, a non-covenant child, received the full blessings of the covenant. Christ Himself!

Eternal salvation! Deliverance from the guilt and power of sin. And all that through his faith in Christ. A living faith that showed its genuineness in thankfulness, worship and praise.

The other nine had the gift of physical health. This one had that too! But he had an even greater gift. The Giver Himself, Whom to know is eternal life.

That is the thankfulness God also requires of you. The response of wholehearted praise and gratitude.

“Lord, because of all you have done for me, here is my life. Let all of it, every day, be a song of praise to You.”

May He help you to make that response of love; of going to Him and falling down in worship. May He make that characteristic of your life, then you too will hear: “Rise, go your way, your faith has made you well”.

AMEN