Your Faith Has Made You Well

On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. 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? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” (Luke 17:11-19)

This scene is quite interesting because it shows us a great miracle that Jesus performed for ten men all at once, but also shows us the way most believing people respond, the way we should actually respond, and the way Jesus views it all.

Before we take a closer look at the general response to the healing, let’s first take notice of the fact that these ten men were in essence outcasts between two cities, standing at a distance from Jesus as He was passing along. The ailment of leprosy made them outcasts, and yet because of their ailment we see both Samaritans and Jews together. That was not a thing in those days because Jews and Samaritans despised each other. The cool thing is, these men were basically bonded together over their misery but together they all came to Jesus; yet they didn’t come to Jesus as Samaritans and Jews, they simply came to Jesus as men in need of healing.

The General Response

We saw that these ten men came to Jesus for healing saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” And instead of Jesus touching them to heal them like He had done with others, He simply said, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” AND AS THEY WENT they were cleansed. This took obedience on the part of the ten men to do what Jesus said simply because He said to do it and without any indication that they would be healed on the way. They had come to Jesus claiming Him as master, and it was going to take obedience to prove they actually meant what they claimed.

Now, generally speaking, a Christian is going to obey what the Lord tells them to do. Of course, that’s not always the case, but we have that general understanding that if we are going to claim to be His servants and call Him Master, then we must be obedient to whatever He says. But in practice, that can be much easier said than done. We are called to walk by faith and quite literally, they had to physically walk to the priest by faith with the intention of showing themselves cleansed BEFORE they could see that they were cleansed.

Similarly, we are called to put on Christ and to walk in Him even though we still might feel like our old selves. Those men didn’t feel cleansed, but Jesus said to do it, so they went to do it – they trusted His words, acknowledging Him in their obedience over their own understanding, and Jesus directed their path to healing. They literally lived out Proverbs 3, Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. (Proverbs 3:5-8)

And yet, there’s an even better way when we don’t just stop at obedience.

The Way We Should Respond

We read even further that one of them, when he saw he was healed, returned to Jesus, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks.

When we look at this situation as a whole, we see that all ten of the lepers were willing to obey the religious ceremonial requirements but only one was stirred with a heart of thanksgiving that brought him to worship at the feet of God.

And yet that one man’s response is the way we too should respond to Jesus. Obedience is a must, but how sweet that offering of thanksgiving and praise is to God. And when we examine even further, we see that Jesus desires us to have that kind of response and the text even tells us what He feels about those who don’t respond that way.

Jesus’ Perspective

Let’s look again at Jesus’ response to this - Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Jesus missed the nine that didn’t come and He asks about them. Jesus wants us to come and expects that we will come with thankful hearts, having that attitude of gratitude before Him. And why wouldn’t we? Well, that gets deeper into yet another heart check area, doesn’t it?

If God does anything for us, no matter how big or small, shouldn’t we have a grateful heart of praise that we bring to Him? In our heads we know we should return to Him with thanksgiving and praise, and God does so much for us, so why don’t we do that every time?

I’m going to be really transparent here – for myself, I would say that if I’m not taking the time to sit still before God regularly, then my mind can easily get bogged down with doing things that I don’t stop long enough to have an attitude of gratitude. Or other times I may just have a selfish perspective, being so focused on how God’s work in my life affected me, that I don’t take the time to turn my eyes back to Him and offer thanksgiving for it. But I can’t actually answer that question for you personally. Maybe you can relate and maybe you can’t, but God can reveal why you don’t always return to thank Him – you just need to ask Him and then sit and wait for Him to tell you.

Made Well

And here’s the thing, if we stop at obedience and don’t turn back to God in thanksgiving and praise, we effectively miss out on a blessing. God doesn’t need our praise, but our hearts do well to praise God because we were made to worship Him.

The very last thing that Jesus said to the one man who turned back to Him in praise was, your faith has made you well. On first reading of this, we assume that being made well is only referring to the physical healing of the man, but that word for being made well is to heal and make whole. All those ten men were healed, but it appears that only that one who returned to Jesus was made whole.

Jesus was speaking to the heart of the man. That man had been healed outwardly along the way as he exercised his faith in obedience, but it was in that man’s returning to Jesus to fall at His feet and worship in thanksgiving and praise, he was made inwardly whole.

Our physical healing in this life isn’t a guarantee that Jesus ever offered us, BUT making us whole and restoring our soul in Him is something He offers to us on this side of eternity. Being made whole inwardly happens when you come to Him again and again to receive rest, casting your cares on Him and making your requests known to God with thanksgiving; being still and knowing God, and waiting on Him as He renews your strength.

Jesus tells us all these promises and how to receive them, so the only question remains – will you come to God and take Him up on His promises, receiving them with thanksgiving and praise the way you were made to?