17 Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" 19 Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well."
Is it not interesting that all ten lepers were healed yet only the foreigner distinguished himself with his humble gratitude over the mercy of our Lord? Where were the rest? The other nine who were Jews, like our Savior Himself, shared in the mercy yet remained silent in the praise. Of this the Bible Knowledge Commentary states:
“The lack of gratitude by the other nine was typical of the rejection of His ministry by the Jewish nation. He alone had the power to cleanse the nation and make it ceremonially clean. However, the nation did not respond properly to Him. The nation accepted the things that Jesus could do (such as heal them and feed them), but it did not want to accept Him as Messiah. However, those outside the nation (such as this Samaritan leper—a person doubly repulsive to the Jews) were responding.”
The free hand-out mentality was obviously rampant in that day and age too! It seems that many do not have any trouble receiving only in doing - perhaps like being grateful. May that never be said of us!
“Never give a child more than they have the capacity to appreciate.” Barbara Barker
I might add – “no matter what age the child is” – 30, 40, 50, etc. – you get my drift! The “What’s in it for me” mentality permeates our thought processes. I suppose that is why Jesus speaks of denying self in all four gospels:
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul ? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. Matt 16:24-27 (NIV)
“We must deny ourselves for ourselves; deny the appetites of the body for the benefit of the soul.” Matthew Henry
One soul is of greater value than the whole world. In our verses for today, the nine Jews, though healed physically, missed being healed spiritually. When Jesus tells the cleansed Samaritan to "Rise and go; your faith has made you well", the wording actually means “your obedience consisting of or identified as faith (i.e. a faith that is manifested through obedience) has saved you, delivered you, has preserved you from danger, loss or destruction.” Jesus uses the same wording in the healing of the blind beggar later in Luke. Here we find the same situation - the sick crying out for the healer and the Beloved Healer healing:
35 As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. 36 When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening. 37 They told him, "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by." 38 He called out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" 39 Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" 40 Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, 41 "What do you want me to do for you?" "Lord, I want to see," he replied. 42 Jesus said to him, "Receive your sight; your faith has healed you." 43 Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God. Luke 18:35-43 (NIV)
“Great symbolic value is here in Luke’s account. The man was a beggar sitting by the side of the road, waiting for something to happen. He was blind and could do nothing to improve his condition. The Messiah came through his town (as He had walked through many towns). Immediately the blind man recognized Him as the Messiah, the One who could save him from his blindness. Spiritual outcasts, unable to help themselves, far more readily recognized the Messiah and asked for His help than did the Jewish religious leaders. The man had faith in the Messiah, and it was the Messiah’s power that had healed him (cf. 7:50; 17:19). In the same way, if the nation had faith in the Messiah, their faith would have healed them of their spiritual blindness. As a result of the man’s healing, he and all the people who saw the miracle praised God.” Bible Knowledge Commentary
Not too dissimilar to the leper and the begging blind man, apart from Jesus, we have nothing within us to remedy our spiritual condition. We are blind, naked, pitiful and wretched. I am reminded of Paul’s stern warning to us in Romans showing what occurs when man chooses to go his own way – sounding much like our world today:
28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. Romans 1:28-32 (NIV)
5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 God "will give to each person according to what he has done." 7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; 10 but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 11 For God does not show favoritism. Romans 2:5-11 (NIV)