The boundary lines between who might be saved, leper or clean, Samaritan or Jew, have been breached. John W. Martens is a professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn. Twitter: BibleJunkies. Your source for jobs, books, retreats, and much more. Faith The Word October 3, issue. Martens September 22, Consider the 10 lepers. All were healed physically, but only one returned to thank Jesus. In addition to the healing from his leprosy, Jesus blessed the foreigner, according to Luke Had the leper kept going along with the others, he would have missed out on the additional blessing.
We know what happened to the Samaritan leper after he was healed, but there is no word in the Bible about what happened to the nine Jewish lepers. What we do know is that showing themselves to the priest was not a brief encounter. The inspection was a process that happened over a long period of time. The obvious life application from this story is to always thank God for your healing even if you have to change your direction to do so. It also shows that when it comes to thanking and praising God, it is acceptable to leave the group to do so.
Sometimes we have to do what we know to do even if we have to do it alone. Jesus told the lepers to show themselves to the priest even before they saw they had been healed. In other words, we must believe the manifestation of something before it actually happens. Like the Samaritan leper, return to your healer with a grateful heart. The healing was significant enough. However, when you thank God for one thing, there is more in store for you.
In other words, you put yourself in the position to have even more to thank God for. The leper who went back received more. Jesus is no respecter of persons. He did not discriminate between the nine Jewish lepers and one Samaritan leper. He healed all of them without making an exception. This story is usually preached around the Thanksgiving holiday. However, it should not be limited to just that time of the year.
Also, like today, some take their blessings for granted. They feel no sense of thankfulness. Let's ask ourselves. Do we confessed Christians really thank God for what He has done? Do we really understand and value the significance of what He has done and is continually doing for us in our lives?
Will we be like the Samaritan who glorifies God and falls down before Him for what He has done? Or will be like the other nine who simply go on and disappear after receiving what we ask God for?
The uncomfortable truth is that so often, we are more like the other nine than the one who returned to give thanks. Free CP Newsletters Join over , others to get the top stories curated daily, plus special offers! Do you want award-winning journalism with a Christian worldview , delivered to your inbox? They could not go to the market place and were forbidden to take part in worship. Palestine was divided into three regions - Galilee, Judea and Samaria. The Jews hated the inhabitants of Samaria who were known as Samaritans.
In the past, their ancestors had married foreign invaders from a non-Jewish background. The ten men with leprosy stood at a distance as they understood the law forbidding them to have contact with people who did not have the disease.
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