"A Come Back Shout"

The reason? The smell overwhelmed her. She could not work up the stomach to go inside the colony. She could not bear the thought of witnessing for the Lord, but at the same time becoming violently ill as she faced human beings already acutely aware that they were different. The trip passed, and she was not able to go inside.

The emotional pain of a leper, however, must have been even worse than the physical pain. He was removed from his family, from his community. There could be no contact, whatsoever, with his children or grandchildren.

And yet, in this account, ten men encounter Jesus, and hear him say the most unusual thing. "We want to be well!" they scream at Jesus. And the great teacher responds, "Go and show yourselves to the priest."

Move 2. Sometimes you have to share the unthinkable!

Now, Jesus says to these lepers, "Go and show yourselves to the priests."

I wish I had time to tell you that one of the values of a local pastor is sometimes that’s the only one that you can talk, because of our vow of keep thing private and not telling all we know sometimes the only person you can show your stuff to is the pastor, The local priest had duties other than leading worship on each Sabbath. He was also something of a health official. If a person was miraculously healed of leprosy, it was up to the priest to inspect the body, to test for a complete removal of the disease, and to announce the person healed.

They look down at their bodies. The hands of one man are still mangled. Another man looks at his leg, which ends with a filthy rag at the knee. Another looks at his skin, and finds it as repulsive as ever.

In other words, all of these men were no better off than they had been ten minutes earlier, when they had first spotted the famous teacher. Some one needs to know that your break though is not gonna come until you break down and share you stuff.

And yet, they headed off in search of the priests. And on their way, they were healed. On their way, a hand reappeared, and tingled with life. A crutch tripped on a filthy rag, as it fell to the ground. The leg was back, healthy, whole, complete. The skin cleared, and the tiny hairs on a forearm turned from snow white to brown.

One looked at the other, another looked at the rest, and the screaming started. The smiles broke into cheering, and a sweet madness. They raced off in the distance, not believing that the nightmare was finally over. But in order for the miracle to happen, these men had to start walking in faith before their circumstances had changed one tiny bit.

Move 3. A Comeback Shout,

One of the men came back to Jesus, and praised God. He was thankful. He was public about it. He was loud - he wasn't shy at all. Why was he so loud? This guy had been forced to yell for as long as he'd had leprosy. Had it been years? He'd probably yelled so long, he didn't know how to come to the Lord quietly, or even in a normal voice. When he came back and fell at the feet of Jesus, he was just louder than the normal person, and he was praising God. Don't miss the opportunity to worship God this week. And be loud about it!