Description
WOW STATEMENTS OF JESUS
The Tenth Leper
November 30, 2008
Ben Young
Do you take Jesus at His word? Will you act on what He is telling you to do, even before it happens? Will you take that step of obedience, that step of trust, even if the results aren’t in yet? Join Ben as he tackles the radical story of the tenth leper. Find out what the tenth leper did after Jesus intervened in a miraculous way in his life. The attitude and the atmosphere of your heart and life will change when you mirror the simplicity of his actions.
Last week we looked at one of the most challenging WOW statements of Jesus in the entire Bible. It was when he talked to the rich young ruler, also known as the typical American, and told him that he needed to sell everything he had.
Today, we’re going to look at one of the WOW stories of Jesus.
I’ve had a good Thanksgiving! Everybody had a good Thanksgiving? Yeah? It’s been pretty good. Turkey, football, family and shopping—oh my! It’s kind of been our mantra the last several days. I’m just curious; how many of you are from out of town? Raise your hand if you’re here visiting for Thanksgiving! Raise your hand high up there! Don’t be shy! Yeah! Let’s welcome them to Second! Good deal!
As I read this passage today, this WOW story of Jesus; some of you’ve heard it many times before. Some have never heard it. I want you to do something as we start off. Just do this silently in your heart to God. Just pray a simple prayer. Say, “Lord, help me to listen to You today.” Just pray that right now in your heart. “God, help me to hear You speak. I want to hear You; I want to listen to You as we read this ancient story.” The story is found in the Book of Luke. Luke was a unique guy. In the Old Testament and New Testaments, there are 66 Books. There are 39 in the Old, and 27 in the New. Jews wrote 64 of those Books. Jesus was a Jew, and all the disciples were Jewish. Most of the people who wrote the Old and the New Testaments were Jewish. Luke is the exception. He was a physician who was non-Jewish. He also wrote the sequel, the Book of Acts.
Luke tells the story in chapter 17. If you have a Bible you can read it there; if not, the verse should appear on the screen behind me magically. All right! Here’s what the doctor says! “Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, ‘Jesus, Master, have pity on us!’ When he saw them, he said, ‘Go, show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet.” We’ve seen a lot of that over the last several weeks—people throwing themselves at the feet of Jesus.
“He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him, and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus asked, ‘Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’ Then He said to him, ‘Rise and go; your faith has made you well.’”
To understand this WOW story of Jesus, and so it makes sense to our modern ears, we need to look and answer a few questions. The first question is this: What is leprosy? It said these ten men had leprosy. What does that mean? Leprosy basically during the time of Christ was an incurable disease that started off as a small, microscopic, invisible to the human eye, cylinder-like bacteria that attacked your hands, feet, nose, and ears. As these bacteria grew in those places in your body, you would develop little red lesions and sores which would appear in those places. Eventually, they would have a kind of dark outer edge, and they would turn white. Leprosy attacked your sensory nerves so you could no longer feel things, or feel pain. So lepers many times were disfigured, and they would have certain fingers that had been burned off. You could put your hand in a fire and not even know it because there was no feeling or pain.
When someone contracted leprosy during the time of Christ, their life was radically changed. It didn’t matter if you were a CEO, or you were a down-and-out, skid-row bum. It didn’t matter what your name was. It didn’t matter! When you had leprosy, your life was over. You were removed from society; you lost your family, friends, community, your church, and you had to hang out in a leper colony with a group of other lepers. It was by law that when the lepers would approach people who did not have leprosy, they had to shout out and say, “Hey! Leper, leper!” to warn people. That’s why they kept their distance when they saw Jesus, and that’s why they cried out to Him with a loud voice for Him to heal them.
So these men had this incurable disease. They had lost everything, and now they had heard through rumors that there was this new, Jewish Rabbi named Jesus, and that not only was He confounding people with His teaching, but people were saying and believing that He was actually doing miracles and healing people. So they said, “Hey, we’re going to cast out and give it a go.”
Let’s look at the nine, okay? There are ten lepers here, but let’s look at the nine. These nine lepers did something that was unbelievable if you saw it there in the story and were listening. They did something that many times I want to do, but I don’t do. These lepers walked away from Jesus unhealed. I think sometimes we think they had these lepers who said, “Hey Jesus! Have mercy upon us!” Then in an instant, they were healed. They instantly looked down, and their skin was cleansed. That’s not what happened. What did the text say in verse 14?
It said Jesus told them to go show themselves to the priest. What does that mean? Well, you look in Leviticus 13. Back then, when someone claimed to be healed of leprosy, or perhaps there was some freak anomaly where it went into remission; they would have to go show themselves to the priest, and the priest would observe them, and look at them, and give them a clean bill of health. That’s why Jesus said, “Go show yourselves to the priest.” When they left Jesus, they still had sores and this disease all over them. The Bible said in verse 14, “As they went, as they were on their way, they were healed and cleansed…”
So these nine lepers stepped out and obeyed Jesus, even before the results came back. That’s the question I ask to you today, and that is, “Do you trust God like that?” Will you act on what God is telling you to do, even before it happens? That’s what these lepers did. They simply took Jesus for His Word, and they went on their way. They took that step of obedience, that step of trust, even though the results were not in yet, and on their way, they were healed.
Can you imagine what that would be like? I can’t! I really can’t, but I can try. Imagine having this disease that’s killing you, and being rejected and ostracized, even though you didn’t invite this into your life. All of a sudden, as you’re going to these priests; you look down, and your hands and feet are clean and normal! You look at your friends and their faces, and the scabs are gone! Can you imagine how they felt inside? “I’m new! I’m free! I’m cleansed!” Now, what would be the results of that? What are they thinking? “I can go back home! I can go back home to my family! I can be re-united with my wife! I can see, and hug my girlfriend again! I can go back to my community! I can go back to my job! I can go back to a normal, healthy way of life because this Rabbi somehow has cleansed and healed me, and He’s made me whole.”
These nine lepers had a lot of faith. They had a lot of trust. They stepped out and did what God told them to do, even though the results weren’t in yet. I commend these men. They were a lot of things, weren’t they? But even though they were trusting and obedient, and respectful to Jesus—they called Him, Master; they weren’t thankful, were they? God had done a magnificent work in their lives, a supernatural miracle that changed everything! Yet, the nine did not go back and thank the One who healed them.
I think many times the root of a lot of our problems is right there. We forget to be thankful unto God. Here’s what happens to us when we are ungrateful. We start to allow this microscopic, cylindrical, bacteria-like issue, or sin called greed, envy, jealousy, coveting, wanting what someone else has, or wanting to look the way they look, or to have the life, and we start allowing that to brood and build inside of our lives… We walk around with a sense of entitlement, or a sense that “God owes me; or life owes me; or someone owes me” and we become really bitter, negative, cynical people. That’s how insidious the leprosy of ingratitude is.
The nine lepers were healed, they trusted, but they weren’t thankful. However, this story as you know is not about the nine, is it? The story is about the tenth leper. Let’s talk about him. What did the tenth leper do? First of all, he looked down at his hands, and they were clean and soft like a baby’s skin! When he looked at his friends, do you know what he did? The Bible says this—he went back! He went back to the source of who healed him! What did he do when he went back? I love this! It says, “He praised God in a loud voice!”
So many times I think, especially in our culture, we’re afraid to praise God in a loud voice! I mean, I will go to a football game, a basketball game, and I’ll watch men and women put a round ball through a cylinder like that; or I’ll watch men take a pigskin and carry it across a line, and I’m like, “yahoo-hoo-hooo!! That is great! Hook ‘em! Gig ‘em! Sic ‘em! Guns up!” We are so excited and so stoked! “Look what they did! Touch down! Three pointer! Yeah!” And then we come to church, and we think about the wonderful and incredible things God has done, and we sing with little or no enthusiasm at all! I’m not saying you need to turn your Christianity into sheer emotionalism, and every time you come to church, you’re like “Whoo-hooooo!” I’m not saying that. But I’m saying there’s a time and place to shout praise unto God, and to thank Him, and to celebrate Him, and celebrate what He has done and is doing! I love the tenth leper! He comes back and he shouts out to God. It’s a Hebrew word—“Hallelujah!” I believe that’s what he said—“Praise God!”
It’s interesting the way you say “Hallelujah” in Japanese. It’s “Hallelujah!” The way you say “Hallelujah” in Thai is “Hallelujah.” The way you say “Hallelujah” in German is really different; it’s “Hallelujah!” It’s the same word. “Praise unto God. Praise unto I AM, Yahweh.” There’s a time to shout and to thank God in that way.
What else did the tenth leper do? He threw himself at the feet of Jesus! I love that! He threw himself at the feet of Jesus, and the Bible says he thanked Him. Then Jesus kind of like the old, short-story twister “Oh Henry” adds this kicker—“And He was a member of Al Qaida.” It doesn’t say that in your translation? That’s the effect that it would have had on Jesus’ listeners when they heard this story. Luke said, “He was a Samaritan.” Why do you think Jesus said in that little verse, “He walked along the border?” Why did he walk along the border between Samaria and Galilee? Because if twelve Jewish men are walking through Samaria; it’s time to rumble!
There’s going to be a fight! But this guy, this outcast from Samaria; this half-breed fell at the feet of Jesus and cried out in a loud voice to this God that he knew or maybe didn’t know. He was thankful. He had gratitude.
By the way, I want to say this. It is so important that we don’t miss this here today. This is not a Thanksgiving message. It is Thanksgiving weekend; we’re all here and kind of have a carbohydrate-coma hang-over from the turkey… I understand that! But listen—if you want to be a part of the K.O.G., the Kingdom of God; if you want to start living out the lifestyle of someone who is a kid in God’s Kingdom, and living that out in the market place, and in your relationships and family, then listen: This attitude of gratitude; this sense of thankfulness and thanksgiving in all things needs to be a part of your DNA. It’s not just a November thing, or a holiday thing; this is a God thing, a Jesus thing, a Kingdom of God thing, and it’s got to be a part of your DNA and my DNA if we’re sincerely going to be followers of Christ. We’ve got to be like the tenth leper.
Naomi Williams said this, “It’s impossible to feel grateful and depressed in the same moment.” I like that! When you look at Scripture, many times it says what? “Give thanks; be thankful.” It doesn’t tell you what to be thankful for. It just kind of gives you a blank check of thankfulness. It’s kind of cool, isn’t it? Just give thanks to God! “God, I thank You for ________.” Or “God, in the midst of my pain, struggling and suffering; in the midst of my own sickness, I give You thanks for _________.” You fill in the blank!
I like Paul in the Bible. Paul wrote a good portion of the New Testament. He was a brilliant man, scholar and theologian. He had a pretty dark past when it came to Christianity before he got converted. Paul was the real deal. He just had it all! He wrote about the realism of life. Read II Corinthians, 9, 10 and 11 where he starts talking about how he is depressed, but not totally depressed. He’s knocked down, but he’s not out. He was beaten, shipwrecked, stoned… Not that kind of stoned, but with rocks! He had been whipped and had all these things happen to him in his life; but he was still “trucking” if you would! He was still following Christ! In the midst of all the junk and chaos, I know that God is still with me.
In this passage I want to read to you, I want you to know that Paul is not in some palatial palace when he’s writing this. He’s not on some hammock, you know, sipping a Corona, looking at the Caribbean Ocean and flicking off a line! He’s not doing that! Paul is in prison! He’s traded in some Gucci loafers for a pair of steel-toed boots.
He’s got on an orange jumpsuit, and he writes these words to a church in Philippi. It’s a very short letter; it’s four chapters. It’s really a long thank-you note. Here is what he says, “Rejoice in the Lord always, and I will say it again, rejoice!”
This guy is in prison! He’s in the hole! He’s saying, “Man, rejoice in the Lord! Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say, rejoice!” He says, “Let your gentleness be evident to all; the Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God, and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” WOW!
How do we get the peace of God in our lives? How do we manage the chaos that may be our life right now, or how do we enjoy the good times in a time of blessing, a time of prosperity? How do we do that, thanksgiving…being thankful unto God?
Melody Beattie writes this. It should be on the screen here behind me. It says, “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance; chaos to order; confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast; a house into a home; a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past. It brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
I like that, because many times my prayer life is reduced to a spoiled kid with a Christmas list. I find myself going before God, and I’m not praying for a Bentley or a Mercedes convertible yet… I’m just asking for good things: “God, do this. Lord, will You do this for me? God, will You change this person? Will You change him? Will you change her? Will you change me? Can you do this? Will you heal this? Will you help this?” I’m just kind of like, “Lord, give me, give me, give me! I want this, I want that, I want a Wii; I want a Red Rider B.B. gun!” You’ll poke your eye out! I want all these things! “God, give me all these things! I want, and I need, I need, I need!” I find myself going before God so many times with this long list of things that God needs to do for me, and requests. Many times, many of them are good. Sometimes, they aren’t.
I’ve been doing something recently, and it is not a formula or anything. It’s just what I’ve been doing in the last couple of weeks, and it’s kind of worked in many ways. Before I get out of bed in the morning, I just get on my knees, right there on the mattress. I’m an American—I don’t want to get on the floor and hurt my knees! I may not be able to work out or something like that… So I’m in the bed, on my knees.
My face is planted there in the pillow, and I just start thanking God for things. I’ll say, “God, thank You for this pillow. Thank You for this bed. Thank you for this house, this roof that’s covering my head right now. God, thank You for my family. Thank You for my wife, Elliott. Thank You for my daughters, Nicole and Claire. Thank You for my parents and brothers, and thank You for my friends. Thank you for my church. Thank You for this city that we live in. Thank You for our Mayor, Mayor White. Thank You for the people who serve on the City Council. Thank You for our firemen and policemen who do so much for us. Thank You for our nation. Thank You for our new President, President Obama. I pray for him. Lead him and guide him.” I just start thanking God for all these things that come to mind. “God, thank You for rescuing me from myself and my selfishness. God, thank You for being with me! Thank You for living inside of me, though many times, I’m not living out the K.O.G. the way I should be. Lord, thank You for empowering me with Your Spirit. God, thank You that You have forgiven me. God, thank You that by Your incredible grace, You’ve invited me to be a member of Your family. Thank You that I’m forgiven. Thank You that You’ve given me the gift of righteousness so I know Your acceptance. I know Your embrace! I don’t have to worry any more about the fear of men, or their opinions. I thank You, Lord.” I just keep thanking God for as many things as I can think of! I just thank Him until I’ve run out of things to thank Him for! That’s what I do! That’s what I’ve been doing for a couple of weeks. It’s weird! I don’t have to go to my little wish list anymore!
You might say, “Don’t you ask God for anything anymore?” Of course I ask God for things! Of course I do! We should do that. Present your prayers and petitions unto God! But when you start off with just thanking for the simple things to the other things; it’s amazing how the attitude and the atmosphere of your heart and life will change when we simply say, “Thank You.”
Here is my prayer: I pray God will make me become the tenth leper. That’s my prayer! My prayer is, “Lord, I want to be the tenth leper.” Not, “Lord, I want to act like the tenth leper and be thankful at a certain time in my life.” No, I want to be in my being, the tenth leper who goes back continually and falls at God’s feet and says, “Thank You. Thank You, God.” Let’s pray.
God, I thank You that You are a God who knows us to the core. God, we can’t hide our thoughts or actions from You. God, we can’t run away from You at church, and we can’t run away from You at a club. We can’t run away from You in a book, and we can’t run away from You when we’re online. You seek us out! God, you seek us out that we might be changed by You again. You seek us out that we might be forgiven, cleansed and put on a path where we can learn to live a life of gratitude unto You; to be thankful in all things.
God, we thank You so much that You have not left us alone; that You have revealed Yourself to us. You have revealed what true love looks and feels like, and that is in Your Son, Jesus Christ, who came and died and rose again on the 3rd day. It’s through knowing and trusting Him that He will heal us of this leprosy called sin, selfishness and greed. He will forgive us, and He will put us on that path.
God, I pray for men and women here today on this Thanksgiving weekend who need to stand and walk down these aisles and say, “Today is the day. I’m receiving this gift. Today’s the day I’m going to learn the two more important words in the spiritual life, and those are the words thank you.” They are simply going to say, “Thank You for what You’ve done,” and You will welcome them to Your family. God, give them the courage to stand and come down front today. May they step out in faith, though the results are not in yet.