One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. Luke 17:15-16
Take time to read the story of the ten lepers in Luke 17:11-19. This was our Bible reading on this warm morning on our back porch. Usually, it’s just my husband and me, but today, two of our neighbors joined us. We read. We prayed. Then each went their own way.
One of the neighbors emerged from his house later in the day and yelled across the street to my husband, “I want to know what happened to the other nine.” The thing is, we do not know what happened to the other nine. The Bible does not say, but it says that all ten were healed, and they were told by Christ to go to the priest for the ceremonial cleansing. Possibly nine of them did exactly what Jesus told them.
We can conclude that the other nine were happy and grateful for their healing, even though they did not return to Christ to give Him thanks. There is a possibility they were sidetracked to be reunited with their loved ones, and this is understandable. It may have been years since they had seen their wives, their children, their siblings, and their parents.
I think we can all relate to getting sidetracked. We are grateful for God’s gifts, but we lose our focus on Christ. Does God continue to show His grace and generosity even when we get sidetracked? Most the time, He does. God’s ways are far above ours, and we will never fully grasp the depth of His love.
We need to be careful not to judge the other nine lepers to harshly. If we were in their sandals, we might have followed the same exact path as they. We do not know.
We as Christians can learn a lesson from this story. Remember: Never focus on the work of God without remembering our Employer, never focus on the miracle without remembering the Miracle Worker, and never focus on the blessings without remembering first, the Blesser. Acknowledging Christ first shows our faith and belief. Let’s be like the one leper and take time to thank Christ right now.
I do not fully understand all Your ways, oh Lord, but I come to give you my thanks. In Christ name I pray, Amen.
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