One Out Of Ten

Dakota Community Church

October 11, 2009

One Out of Ten

Where are the other nine?

Good morning everyone and welcome to this favorite holiday celebration Sunday - Thanksgiving!

The cool crisp early morning air, the leaves crunching underfoot on a walk through the park, the smell of roasting turkey and pumpkin pie filling the house, the sounds of family and friends loving and laughing while a football game drones softly in the background; these are a few of the things that make Thanksgiving the annual favorite holiday that it is for me.

I cannot help but feel overwhelmed at the goodness of God as I reflect on His many blessings to me and mine - and yet, all of these temporal blessings pale in comparison; they cease to matter at all in fact when held up next to the ultimate gift that God has bestowed on each of us in Christ¡¦s sacrifice for our sins on Calvary’s dark hill.

For the Christian who understands redemption; everyday ought to be Thanksgiving!

Luke 17:11-19

11Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!"

14When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed.

15One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him¡- and he was a Samaritan.

17Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" 19Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well."

1. A hopeless condition

Luke 17:11-12

11Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance

Leprosy was and is a horrible disease to have. Not only is there the pain of the disease itself, but also the stigma surrounding the disease.

The Mosaic Law pronounced a leper "unclean". They were not fit to enter into the tabernacle, or later, the Temple to worship. They could not live in the community, but were required to live outside the city.

Numbers 5:1-3

1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 "Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone who has an infectious skin disease or a discharge of any kind, or who is ceremonially unclean because of a dead body. 3 Send away male and female alike; send them outside the camp so they will not defile their camp, where I dwell among them."

The Law required that they rend their clothes as a sign of extreme sorrow, that their faces be covered and that they cry out "unclean" whenever anyone came close to them.

This is why the lepers did not approach Jesus; they were required to keep their distance. Rabbinic tradition said that they had to stand at least 100 paces from anyone else.

This disease of leprosy is a picture of what sin does to all of us.

Eaton’s Bible Dictionary:

Leprosy was "the outward and visible sign of the innermost spiritual corruption; a mere spot or emblem in its small beginnings, its gradual spread, its internal disfigurement, its dissolution little by little of the whole body, of that which corrupts, degrades, and defiles man’s inner nature, and renders him unfit to enter the presence of a pure and holy God".

Now I want us to look at how God describes the Jerusalem’s condition before He intervenes:

Ezekiel 16:1-8

1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 "Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her detestable practices 3 and say, ’This is what the Sovereign LORD says to Jerusalem: Your ancestry and birth were in the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. 4 On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths. 5 No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised.

6 " ’Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, "Live!" 7 I made you grow like a plant of the field. You grew up and developed and became the most beautiful of jewels. Your breasts were formed and your hair grew, you who were naked and bare.