Jesus Made Me Whole
Luke 17:11-19, Leviticus 13, Psalm 51
I remember it like it was yesterday.
A spot here. Then in two places.
I went to the priest. He confirmed it.
It was the skin infection. The kind everyone dreaded hearing.
We waited. Each day seemed to get longer.
A week later he looked again. It was still there and bigger and had spread.
He said, “I’m sorry, but you’ll have to move. You can come back if it goes away.”
MOVE!
I have a wife!
Children who depend on me!
My parents live next door.
Move?
I’ve lived in the same house my whole life.
Drank from the same well
Worked the same farm
Traveled the same roads
Move!
This is my life and he tells me I have to move over some skin infection.
Why Ted has that persistent cough and he didn’t say anything to him.
It’s just not fair. Why do I have to move?
Why did this have to happen to me?
Well, they didn’t wait.
The guards came and escorted me out.
They marched me down to the others.
There was a large group already living there.
They actually had built a little village.
But it wasn’t anything like home.
I had no idea because I had never been there.
You see, only people with this disease live here.
Believe me; you don’t want to be here if you don’t have to be.
Well, I got moved in. I had my own house but it was sparse.
My family needed most of our money so I tried to live as cheaply as possible.
Besides, I really felt the best days of my life were over.
I did save some money and traveled to one of those as kle pions (Asklepions).
It’s a health center the Greeks used.
The Greeks like them but it didn’t do me much good.
First, they had me take a bath with some foul smelling bath salts.
Then they feed me some of their healthy foods- that made me sick.
After all that- I slept in what they called a sanctuary room.
I did rest well but my leprosy didn’t get any better.
I know I wasn’t supposed to do this but
I let them make a pagan offering for me.
They made a sacrifice in the shape of my head.
That was where my leprosy started.
But none of this seemed to help.
My leprosy only got worse and spread
I felt terrible lost.
To make matters worse,
The priests and people at home kept saying this was my fault.
They said I must have done something to cause
God to bring this awful affliction, leprosy, on me
And whenever someone walked by me and the other lepers,
We had to call out, “Tami, Tami” which meant, ‘Unclean, Unclean”
So they could avoid coming near us and becoming contaminated.
Sometimes I felt as I was already dead even though I was still moving and breathing.
My days turned into weeks,
weeks into months, months into years,
My years felt like an eternity.
The leprosy had spread over my arms and down my torso and onto my legs.
I was about at the end of my rope- Then I met him.
They said he was a miracle worker.
I had my share of those.
Big on promises and short on results
But everyone assured me this was different, he was different.
The news was he was on his way to Jerusalem.
We lived along the border between Samaria and Galilee.
So I knew he would be coming close to our village.
I really didn’t know how to approach him.
Lepers weren’t supposed to have contact other people.
If he was the religious super person they say…
he wouldn’t want to have anything to do with us, with me
So a group of us who had leprosy stood at a distance
and we just cried out to Jesus as loud as we could
JESUS, MASTER, HAVE PITY ON US!
JESUS, MASTER, HAVE PITY ON US!
We really didn’t know what else to say- we were out of options.
When he saw us, he just said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.”
Well I thought it was a strange request
The priests really hadn’t been much help.
But we went and as we were going…
All of the sudden… our leprosy was GONE!
Every last one of us had our flesh restored like a new born baby.
WE WERE HEALED. HE HEALED US. I WAS HEALED.
We were given a clean bill of health.
I said to others, ‘Let’s go back and thank him.”
But they didn’t seem to care; they just wanted to go back to their families and life.
But I had been healed.
I could go home, to my wife, my children, to my home!
I was so thankful to him for what he did.
I couldn’t help myself so I start praising God.
It must have been loud because everyone was looking at me.
When I got to him, it SO overwhelmed me
I just threw myself at his feet
And I thanked him over and over again.
After all, I was a Samaritan.
What right did I have
To expect something like this
From a great teacher like him
And Jesus asked me,
“Were not all ten cleansed? I said, “yes”
Where are the other nine?” I don’t know
I really couldn’t answer for them.
Then he looked at the crowd following him and said,
“Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?”
The crowd stood in silence
They were in awe of what Jesus had done just like me
Then Jesus looked down at me and said,
“Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”
Made well. He had already healed me.
My years of leprosy had dried up and healed in a few seconds.
What did Jesus mean? “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”
You know, people said this leprosy was my fault.
That my sin, God’s curse, was on me
I knew I had sinned. Everyone does.
And I didn’t think I was better than anyone else
But I never understood why this leprosy came upon me.
So Jesus healed me of my leprosy
Then he forgave my sin
He made whole, complete
You know, after I developed the leprosy
I never could go to the temple to worship
To participate in the sacrifices
I was unclean and I couldn’t go anywhere near there
But now that I have been healed
I can go worship freely
Jesus has made me right
Yea, I’m remembering a scripture
that King David wrote after he sinned and was punished
David repented and he wrote this Psalm in response to God’s forgiveness
It’s found in the Psalm 51- Let me read it to you
Psalm 51:7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. 10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
Boy do I understand what he is saying
Was I ever crushed and alone and far away from God
But now I have new lease on life
Jesus has cleansed me, washed me, renewed me, restored me,
Body and more importantly soul
You know, I think Jesus just might be the answer to your problems
I know he helped me in ways I never could imagine
I believe it’s your thanksgiving season and
Your new testament gives this bit of advice
To go right along with that
Ephesians 5:20 Give thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
