Advent Seeking Christ: Day 17

Day 17 Luke Chapter 17

“Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan” {vv. 15-16 NASB}. 

Leprosy was a horrible disease. There was no treatment and no cure. It was a brutal disease that met with a horrific death. Their cry, “Have mercy on us,” is heart-wrenching. Such a cry of anguish that echoes through human history.

The ten lepers cry out to Jesus for mercy because He is their only hope to be delivered from this agonizing existence. One with the curse of leprosy was marked as someone God Himself had cursed. There was no way out from this deadly mark. They desire to be healed because they know that only their healing can lift the ostracism and allow them to enter society and give them a glimmer of hope that life can return to like it was before.

The narrative of the ten lepers is a lesson for us. Before we entered into this Advent season, we were focused on being thankful and not complaining and murmuring about what we don’t have or what we want. God responds to gratefulness, not grumbling at our circumstances. These ten lepers all had faith in Jesus. They knew He was the only one who could deliver them and make things right again. Every hope they had clung to who Jesus was and the power of God within Him. Jesus delivered. They cried out for mercy and He granted it to them. He told them to go show themselves to the priest {according to the Law of Moses}so they could be declared clean. They all went away healed!

This is account is not one of a lack of faith, but of a lack of gratefulness. Only one returned to worship the Lord for what He had done for them. They were in a crisis moment in their lives—in utter despair—yet how quickly they forgot. As soon as the crisis was over, they went their separate ways. What they received was not taken from them. But the one who returned left with more blessing than the others who did not return to worship. Jesus told him that not only was he healed from this crippling disease, but because he came back and worshiped the Lord for the miracle, he would also be made whole. All that he had lost would be restored to him.

That is Mercy’s pen writing a new chapter for each of them. But special prose was written for the one who worshiped in gratefulness to the divine Physician. He took the time to come back and let Jesus know what it meant to him to be healed.

Reflect in this season of waiting for the Christ Child upon everything the Lord has done for you. Let us not forget what He has so merciful delivered us from; how He has healed us and made us whole. Let the Lord know how His mercy has marked your life with deliverance and wholeness.

 

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