Introduction
In 2000, my wife and two children visited Cape Town, South Africa.
We had the opportunity to visit Robben Island.
Robben Island is an island in Table Bay, about 6 miles north of the city of Cape Town.
It takes its name from the Dutch word for seals, hence the Dutch/Afrikaans name Robbeneiland, which translates to Seal Island.
The Island is roughly oval in shape, approximately 2 miles long north–south, and a little over 1 mile wide.
Robben Island is well-known for housing political prisoners during the apartheid era.
Its most famous prisoner was Nelson Mandela, who spent 18 years of his 27 years in prison on Robben Island.
While visiting the island, we learned that it was once a leper colony.
Initially, lepers were free to leave the island if they wished to do so.
However, in 1892, lepers were no longer free to leave the island, as they were required to be quarantined there.
Doctors and scientists did not understand the disease and thought that isolation was the only way to prevent other people from contracting it.
Before 1892, about 25 lepers a year were admitted to Robben Island, but in 1892 that number rose to 338, and a further 250 were admitted in 1893.
As we drove around the island on the tour bus, we could see the houses where people lived, the hospital where they were treated, the church where they worshiped, and the graveyard where they were buried.
Leprosy was a dreaded disease in ancient times.
John MacArthur has the following description of leprosy:
Like its Old Testament counterpart, lepras (leprosy) is a general term for a number of skin conditions. The most severe of those was Hansen’s disease, which is leprosy as it is known today….
Leprosy, or Hansen’s disease, is known from ancient writings (c. 600 B.C.) from China, India, and Egypt, and from mummified remains from Egypt. It was common enough in Israel to warrant extensive regulation in the Mosaic Law of those suffering from it and related skin diseases (Lev. 13–14). The disease is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae, discovered by the Norwegian scientist G. H. A. Hansen in 1873 (it was the first bacterium to be identified as the cause of a human disease). The bacterium was communicable through touch and breath.
Leprosy attacks the skin, peripheral nerves (especially near the wrists, elbows, and knees), and mucus membrane. It forms lesions on the skin, and can disfigure the face by collapsing the nose and causing folding of the skin (leading some to call it “lion’s disease” due to the resulting lion-like appearance of the face). Contrary to popular belief, leprosy does not eat away the flesh. Due to the loss of feeling (especially in the hands and feet), people with the disease wear away their extremities and faces unknowingly. The horrible disfigurement caused by leprosy made it greatly feared, and caused lepers to be outcasts, cut off from all healthy society, for protection (John F. MacArthur Jr., Luke 1–5, MacArthur New Testament Commentary [Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2009], 313).
Today, we are going to learn about Jesus’ healing of ten lepers.
Jesus was on his way from Galilee in the north to Jerusalem in the south.
He passed through the region of Samaria.
The people of Samaria were a mixed race of Jews and Assyrians.
Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans (cf. John 4:9), and they would go out of their way to avoid traveling through Samaria.
But not Jesus.
He traveled through Samaria on his way to Jerusalem.
As he entered one of the Samaritan villages, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance.
The Mosaic Law forbade lepers from getting close to anyone (see Leviticus 13:45-46; Numbers 5:2-3), which is why they stood at a distance.
When they saw Jesus, they begged him for mercy.
Kent Hughes paints the following picture for us:
On the outskirts of an unnamed village on the borderlands of Samaria and Galilee, ten leprous men stood before Jesus in various stages of decay, their clothing torn in perpetual mourning, their skeletal heads uncovered, their lips unveiled as they warned others, “Unclean, unclean!” (cf. Leviticus 13:45; Numbers 5:2; 12:10–12).
They looked as though they had climbed out of the graves. But they were alive, sensitive human beings, feeling souls living in the nether world of society’s fringe while they rotted away. So from a safe distance they shouted the traditional plea, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” (v. 13). They were loud and persistent. “Have mercy on us!” “Master, have mercy!” “Mercy please!” (R. Kent Hughes, Luke: That You May Know the Truth, Preaching the Word [Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1998], 170).
The vital point to note here is that Jesus is the one who can answer every need.
When we have any need, we should take it to Jesus, just as the ten lepers did.
Jesus, ever merciful, responded immediately to their cry for help.
But this time, he did not touch the lepers.
Nor did he announce healing, as he had done previously (in Luke 5:13).
When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests” (17:14a).
Jesus commanded the ten lepers to do what a cleansed leper would do, namely, to show themselves to the priests, as required by the Law (Leviticus 14).
If they were cleansed of their leprosy, they would joyfully undergo the required eight-day ceremony and then be reunited with their families, society, and worshiping community.
Jesus’ command is interesting.
At this point, the lepers were not yet healed.
They must have looked at themselves and seen that they still had leprosy.
What would they do?
Luke noted in verse 14b that as they went, they were cleansed.
They were healed!
I love Bishop J. C. Ryle’s comment.
He said, “Help meets men in the path of obedience” (J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Luke, vol. 2 [New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1879], 233).
I wonder how often God does not work in our lives because we are not walking in the path of obedience?
We struggle because we think of God as a genie.
He is there to do for us what we want and when we want.
However, as J. C. Ryle went on to say:
If the lepers had acted in this way, they would never have been healed. We must read the Scriptures diligently. We must try to pray. We must attend to the public means of grace. All these are duties which Christ requires at our hands, and to which, if we love life, we must attend, without asking vain and captious questions. It is just in the path of unhesitating obedience that Christ will meet and bless us (J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Luke, vol. 2 [New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1879], 233).
But, as we shall see, only one leper returned to thank Jesus for healing him.
That is what I want to focus on today in a message I am calling, “Where Are the Nine?”
Scripture
Though I will focus on Luke 17:15-19 for today’s exposition, let’s read Luke 17:11-19 for the sake of context:
11 On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. 12 And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance 13 and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” 14 When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; 16 and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”
Lesson
Acts 17:15-19 teaches us about thankfulness to Jesus.
Let us use the following outline:
1. The Peculiarity of Thankfulness (17:15-17)
2. The Characteristic of Thankfulness (17:17-18)
3. The Blessedness of Thankfulness (17:19)
I. The Peculiarity of Thankfulness (17:15-17)
First, note the peculiarity of thankfulness.
Luke said in verses 15-17, “Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, ‘Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?’ ”
R. C. Sproul makes an interesting comment about this healing.
He says, “The interpretation that I have heard again and again is that although Jesus healed ten lepers, only one of them was grateful. I don’t believe that for one moment” (R. C. Sproul, A Walk with God: An Exposition of Luke [Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications, 1999], 324).
He continues:
If we have any understanding what a leper went through, we would know that not even the most corrupt and crass sinner could fail to be grateful for healing. When these lepers saw that their ?esh had been restored, that this marvelous healer, Jesus, had done his work, no doubt they began leaping for joy and couldn’t wait to go home to be reunited with their families…. That would be the normal thing to do. So nine out of ten went straight home (R. C. Sproul, A Walk with God: An Exposition of Luke[Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications, 1999], 325).
But one of the ten healed lepers, instead of going to the priest, rushed back to Jesus.
His meeting with the priest could wait while he fulfilled a deep desire to thank Jesus for his healing.
His spiritual desire took priority over his ceremonial duty.
I want you to note the peculiarity of thankfulness.
By “peculiarity,” I mean “a trait, manner, characteristic, or habit that is odd or unusual.”
Nine lepers were healed, and they said nothing to Jesus.
One leper was healed, and he returned to thank Jesus.
Expressing thanks to Jesus for his mercy is peculiar.
People don’t usually thank Jesus for his kindnesses and blessings.
G. K. Chesterton once said:
The worst moment for the atheist is when he is really thankful and has nobody to thank. The converse of this proposition is also true…. The great saint may be said to mix all his thoughts with thanks. All goods look better when they look like gifts (G. K. Chesterton, St. Francis of Assisi [Image Books, 1957], 78).
My dear Christian brother and sister, you and I have so much for which to give thanks to Jesus.
All goods look better when they appear to be gifts.
Mix all your thoughts with thanks.
You can do this even in the most difficult of circumstances.
Don’t blame God for your difficulties.
Don’t get angry with God because he is not doing what you want him to do.
Learn to thank God in all circumstances because you “know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
II. The Characteristic of Thankfulness (17:17-18)
Second, note the characteristic of thankfulness.
When the one healed leper returned to him, Jesus asked three questions in verses 17-18: “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”
At one level, we understand that the nine were so glad to be healed that they went at once to the priests to begin the ceremonial process of being declared healed so that they could return to their families.
However, as Kent Hughes notes:
There is a deadly problem here—God was not the center of their gratitude…. Only the foreigner, the Samaritan, gave praise to God! The other nine were so earthbound, so like the shrewd manager and the rich man of the preceding parables, that they missed the spiritual dimension altogether. Vague gratitude to divinity was not an adequate response to what had happened. Christ wanted their hearts! By failing to glorify God and returning to thank Jesus, they missed the greatest possible moment of their existence (R. Kent Hughes, Luke: That You May Know the Truth, Preaching the Word [Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1998], 172).
The key characteristic of thankfulness must be gratitude to God.
He is the one who sent his Son, Jesus, to live and die and pay the penalty for our sins.
He is the one whose wrath has been propitiated.
Let us never be guilty of ingratitude.
Vance Havner said the following regarding ingratitude:
Our biggest problem in the church today is this vast majority of Sunday morning Christians who claim to have known the Master’s cure and who return not [at other times] to thank him by presence, prayer, testimony, and support of his church. In fact, the whole Christian life is one big “Thank You,” the living expression of our gratitude to God for his goodness. But we take him for granted, and what we take for granted we never take seriously (Vance Havner, The Vance Havner Quote Book in Christianity Today, Vol. 31, No. 17).
Ouch!
Do you take God for granted?
If you do, it is no wonder that you struggle to give thanks to him.
When I was visiting someone in the hospital several decades ago, who was dying, his family assured me that he was a Christian.
I asked which church the man attended.
They said he did not attend church and had not done so for most of his life.
But, he was a Christian, they said, because in 1957 he signed a card saying that he had given his life to Christ.
He died the next day.
I doubt that man was accepted into heaven by God.
Why?
Because he gave no evidence of living a Christian life.
In the words of Vance Havner, he claimed “to have known the Master’s cure and who returned not to thank him by presence, prayer, testimony, and support of his church.”
May that never be true of you.
If God is not at the center of your gratitude, you will be casual in your worship, you will not be involved in serving Christ, and you will not tell others about your changed life.
But if God is at the center of your gratitude, you will love to worship God and serve him and his people with your time, treasure, and talents.
III. The Blessedness of Thankfulness (17:19)
And third, note the blessedness of thankfulness.
The nine lepers were healed.
But they were not as blessed as the one leper who returned to praise God and thank Jesus.
Jesus said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well” (v. 19).
The second part of the verse in the Greek text can be read as Jesus saying, “Your faith has saved you.”
Kent Hughes says:
Jesus’ words were clear: only the Samaritan who returned to praise God and offer thanksgiving to Christ himself had saving faith. Indeed, his gratitude and praise to God were signs of his saving faith (R. Kent Hughes, Luke: That You May Know the Truth, Preaching the Word [Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1998], 172).
The leper who returned to Jesus knew that Jesus had not only healed his body but that Jesus was the one who could save his soul.
Jesus affirmed that by assuring him that his faith had saved him.
Luke was not teaching that salvation is granted to those who are thankful.
No, Luke was teaching that one evidence of salvation is thankfulness.
People who know that Jesus saves them are blessed indeed.
Conclusion
The great nineteenth century preacher Charles Spurgeon was sharing the gospel with a very talkative woman who was beginning to understand the good news when she burst out: “Oh Mr. Spurgeon, if Christ saves me he will never hear the end of it!” (R. Kent Hughes, Luke: That You May Know the Truth, Preaching the Word [Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1998], 173-174).
She spoke beyond her understanding, because such praise will be the eternal occupation of the redeemed.
Has God saved you through the person and work of Jesus Christ?
If so, then give praise to God and thanks to Jesus for his work of salvation in your life. Amen.
