Praising God For His Blessings Series

"Praising God for His Blessings"

Luke 17:11-19

A sermon for 5/21/23 – Seventh Sunday of Easter

Pastor John Bright

Harmony Church & Swansonville Methodist Church

Luke 17 “11 Now on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was entering a village, ten men with leprosy met him. They stood at a distance, 13 raised their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” 14 When he saw them he said, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went along, they were cleansed. 15 Then one of them, when he saw he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16 He fell with his face to the ground at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. (Now he was a Samaritan.) 17 Then Jesus said, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Was no one found to turn back and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to the man, “Get up and go your way. Your faith has made you well.” New English Translation

Pause right there. Why are you listening to this? Do you want to become more like Jesus? The power of the Holy Spirit is available to you right now – right here! Do you want to become more like Jesus? It’s a question only you can answer.

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We live a much different world than what we just heard. We live in world of MRIs and EEGs. Today, my grandchildren can be cured with $10 worth of antibiotics from a bacterial infection that would have been fatal for my great grandparents. Over half of Americans take a daily multivitamin and 70% of folks over 71 years of age take one. The dietary supplements business is huge. In 2024, it’s expected to do $56 billion in sales. By comparison, in 2021 all of Major League Baseball had $9.54 billion in revenue.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/193637/franchise-value-of-major-league-baseball-teams-in-2010/

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/multivitamin/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/828481/total-dietary-supplements-market-size-in-the-us/

We are a health-conscious culture (until it comes to what we put in our mouths over and over, every day). So, the “medicine” of the Bible can seem strange. Leviticus 13 & 14 are detailed instructions for the control of skin diseases. The one that caused the greatest concern for folks was leprosy. The World Health Organization has been working for decades to reduce the impact of leprosy around the world. While new cases are decreasing, there are still thousands of people diagnosed with leprosy every year.

In the Old Testament, it was up to the priest to make the diagnosis: Leviticus 13:1-4 “1The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: 2 “When someone has a swelling or a scab or a bright spot on the skin of his body that may become a diseased infection, he must be brought to Aaron the priest or one of his sons, the priests. 3 The priest must then examine the infection on the skin of the body, and if the hair in the infection has turned white and the infection appears to be deeper than the skin of the body, then it is a diseased infection, so when the priest examines it he must pronounce the person unclean.”

Since there was no cure, the person with leprosy was isolated: Leviticus 13:45-46 “45 “As for the diseased person who has the infection, his clothes must be torn, the hair of his head must be unbound, he must cover his mustache, and he must call out ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ 46 The whole time he has the infection he will be continually unclean. He must live in isolation, and his place of residence must be outside the camp.”

In the Gospels, we find Jesus encountering people with leprosy. Many of our Bibles use the term “leper.” We try not to use words like that today because a person is not defined by their disease.

In Luke 17, Jesus is moving toward Jerusalem. It is outside of a village that 10 men with leprosy call out.

“11 Now on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was entering a village, ten men with leprosy met him. They stood at a distance, 13 raised their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”

These men are together because there is safety in numbers. Today, there are still leper colonies around the world. Mother Teresa worked with lepers in India when nobody else would do it. Still today, people will leave food and clothing for them outside the village – just like they did way back in Jesus’ day.

Those ten men knew who was coming – Jesus, The Traveling Healer. Does that sound strange? Remember, they did not know what we know. They didn’t understand the need for salvation like we do. They were looking for a restoration of their former way of life. Jesus gives them what they wanted. He then sends them to be examined by the priest in keeping with the directions of Leviticus 14. Only he could declare they were “clean” and able to return to homes and families and jobs.