In Luke, chapter 17, Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem and is met in a village by ten lepers who cried out asking Jesus for mercy.  Jesus cleansed them all, then one of them realized he had been healed and turned back praising God in a loud voice.  He then fell on his face at Jesus’ feet and gave thanks.  This man was from a foreign country.

This drawing is entitled “Christ Healing a Leper” by Rembrandt (1606-1669).

In verses 17-18, Jesus asks a series of questions:  “Were not ten cleansed?  Where are the nine?  Was no one found to return and give praise to God except the foreigner?”  It was a huge thing for Jesus to heal those lepers.  They were outcasts from society because of their disease.  People thought they had leprosy because they had sinned.  No one came near them.  No one touched them.  So Jesus not only healed their skin disease, he also healed their isolation from the community.

So why did nine out of the ten run on down the road and never look back?  Was it that they were so excited to embrace their family and friends again?….to touch and be touched?  Or did they not yet recognize they had been healed?  Or did they not realize that Jesus was the one who healed them?  I wonder in all the healings that happen in our world, are the odds of one in ten turning back to give thanks about the same odds that exist today? Clearly Jesus was looking for gratitude…some recognition that he had touched them and healed them!  Lent is a good time for us to examine our own lives in respect to our gratitude for who Jesus is and what Jesus has done for us.

In her book “The Cup of Life”,  Joyce Rupp writes these words about living our lives in gratitude….

I love her thought that the key to gratitude is surprise!  I think perhaps the one leper who gave thanks was joyfully and wonderfully surprised at his miraculous healing.

Pondering….

Let’s watch for surprises that awaken us to God!

nk