October 11, 2015 · Luke 17:15–16

The Wholeness Of Thankfulness

Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan.

“These lepers had to stay away from everyone. This is, like, a high social cost. All they had was each other. People were afraid of you. People were disgusted by you. If you were a leper, you were told to stay at a distance. That's what it says at the beginning of the paragraph there. It says they stood at a distance and they called out with a loud voice, because they need Jesus to hear them, because they're following the law. Can you imagine that — not only the physical and the social pain, but the psychological pain that goes with that? Being ostracized, being forced into isolation, facing day after day rejection, thinking ill of yourself. You would start to think of yourself. And on top of this physical, social and psychological pain, there's spiritual pain. They're not allowed to go near the temple of God. They're not allowed to worship in the way that they were commanded to. They're not allowed to go to Jerusalem. They weren't even allowed to go to a local synagogue. They had to stand off in a distance, just believing that they're unacceptable to God. That God doesn't love them. Maybe God's angry at them. That God doesn't care about them. And so these scream out — Jesus, have mercy on us. And it's not a specific request for healing. They just want mercy. Can you show us some mercy? If anyone's going to care for us or show us any little droplet of love — Jesus, mercy on us. I want you to notice that their voices are loud, because this becomes a theme in this section. Do something. Jesus, just please do something.”