Luke 17:11–19
This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.
We live in a world that is constantly marketing hope from signs that we see around town to social media ads that we see. We are constantly bombarded with the promise that a product or a service will ultimately give us what we're looking for or will solve our problems, make life easier, and ultimately make us happy. Think about it for a moment.
Major companies tap into our deep longing for hope and satisfaction. They craft slogans to capture our attention. For example, Sprite tells us to obey your thirst, as if a drink could really unlock all the joy and contentment that you're looking for and that our souls crave. Coca-Cola tells us to taste the feeling, which I quite don't know what that means. I mean, I think we, it sounds nice and we get caught up in the emotion of it, but how do you taste the feeling?
Other drink companies like Red Bull make you feel like you can just grow wings and just fly away or do all the things that you're really just too tired to do. Nike tells you to just do it, whatever it is, just do it. Toyota says, let's go places. Now, I think that one is inspiring. I think people like to travel. They want to go see new things. So that sounds nice. Food companies are trying to tell you that you'll be satisfied if you eat your food.
McDonald's tells you, I'm loving it. Whether you're really loving that Big Mac and large fries or not, they sure want you to think so. Subway tries a healthier tactic by telling you to eat fresh. And KFC just goes for it. They tell you it's finger-licking good. Disney even gives you an ideal location where you can experience the happiest place on earth. And I could go on and on. But at the deepest level, these companies want you to place some level of hope and satisfaction in what they have to offer in their product.
What makes these companies even more effective at times is when you are placed in a displeasing or ill-favored circumstance. When you are convinced that you need what they are offering. Our scripture for this morning is going to be found in the Gospel of Luke. It's going to be in Luke 17, verses 11 through 19. I want you to go ahead and turn there with me. It is on page 876 of the Pew Bible, if you're using one of those.
And while you're turning to Luke 17, verses 11 through 19, let me give you just a little context for the gospel of Luke, since we're dropping down into a particular story about Jesus. The overall structure of Luke is fairly simple. Chapters 1 through 9 tell us about Jesus' birth and takes us through his ministry and teaching. healing in a city or a place called Galilee. So you have that through chapters 1 through 9. In the middle of Luke, you have this travel narrative of Jesus. Jesus is traveling from Galilee to Jerusalem from chapters 9 to 19. And this is where our passage is situated for today, in chapter 17.
It takes place during Jesus' journey from Galilee to Jerusalem. Then we know at the end of Luke, Jesus is going to reach Jerusalem. We see this in chapters 19 through 24, which reaccount his arrest, his trial, his crucifixion, his burial, his resurrection, and his post-resurrection experiences. Our passage this morning is the story of Jesus encountering ten lepers. It is unique to Luke's gospel.
It's not found in the other gospels. The story of Jesus and the ten lepers is the fourth or fifth miracle in this journey section, depending on how you count up or add up the miracles that have been encountered so far. And one thing that you should notice is that each miracle emphasizes not the healing, but the teaching that follows, particularly on the placement of this story. If you scroll your eyes above and below our passage and look at the headings, you may read this. You may think that this seems like a random placement. It's not randomly placed. Luke placed this real-life example of Jesus and the ten lepers here because it's connected to a previous parable, and also It shows an example of faith among those who are suffering and counted out by their circumstances, which is reinforced by parables in chapters 18 and 19.
Primarily, the two big things that happen in our story is that you have a focus about a miracle itself, and then you see a focus on one Samaritan man's response to Jesus. So let's read Luke 17, starting in verse 11. On the way to Jerusalem, he, Jesus, 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. So the main idea that I want to focus on this morning, that I want to draw out of this text, is this. Displeasing and ill-favored circumstances reveal your dependency.
But there is only one true hope that will satisfy your soul. Let me repeat that. Displeasing and ill-favored circumstances reveal your dependency. But there is only one true hope that will satisfy your soul. And I want to work through two points as we look at Luke 17, 11 through 19 here. The first point is going to be that a dependency revealed.
A dependency revealed. We're going to focus on verses 11 through 14 for the first point. The second point, the one true hope. Verses 15 through 19. So the first point, a dependency revealed. Our passage begins with a reminder from Luke that Jesus is winding his way slowly towards Jerusalem. Our text says that on the way to Jerusalem, he, Jesus, was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. It simply is a travel note, but doesn't give us an exact location as if you were looking on a map. You do need to be aware that there was cultural tension between Samaritans and Jews during this time. Many Jews during this time viewed the Samaritans as a racially mixed society with a mix of Jewish and pagan practices. Luke has already highlighted some of this tension
that I just noted there between Samaritans and Jews earlier in his gospel. In chapter 9, He wrote about Jesus and his disciples entering a Samaritan village. And the Samaritans rejected Jesus because he was heading to Jerusalem. So we know that Jesus was met with some difficulty when he was ministering to the people in Samaritan villages. These cultural differences are also found outside the Gospel of Luke.
John shares about the Samaritan woman at the well in his Gospel. The Samaritan woman said to Jesus, How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? For the text tells us that, it says this, For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. So it was common to see the cultural tension between Jews and Samaritans. But nonetheless, Jesus enters a village in verse 12.
The village is unnamed, which is common in Luke's writings. He was met by ten lepers. The lepers were standing at a distance. We don't actually know how far they were standing, but we know it was far enough here that it was noticed. It says that they stood at a distance. This would have been common for lepers to keep their distance. At that time, to have leprosy was to face ostracism and a life of isolation.
This was commanded in Leviticus. This was also a necessary provision at this time because this condition was contagious. So you can imagine the difficulty this would have placed on someone socially and emotionally. During that time and culture, it would have been a living death. So what did the lepers do? The lepers called out to Jesus and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.
The lepers obviously had previously heard about Jesus' ministry, and they were wanting his help. They had a simple request. They even acknowledged Jesus' authority by calling him Master. And they asked for his mercy. They obviously have heard about Jesus and the word has made it to this town because these leopards called out to Jesus. They recognized his authority and they requested that he show compassion upon them.
They wanted to be healed. We could assume here that they probably would have been satisfied if they were immediately healed. It was an urgent request. And we know they didn't go about this in a shy manner. They lifted up their voices to make sure they got Jesus' attention here. So how does Jesus respond? Look at verse 14 in our text.
It says, when he saw them, he said to them, go and show yourselves to the priests. And as they went, they were cleansed. So what is happening here? We see Jesus responding to the request of the ten lepers. And the first thing that comes out of his mouth is, go and show yourself to the priests. And they were told that they were cleansed as they went.
Now the law required that a leper go show themselves to a priest after, not before being cleansed or healed. So in this case, they probably were responsible to go to the local priest who would certify that they were healed. And then they would be allowed to return back to society so that they could just do normal things and be around people. The priests themselves were never responsible for the healing.
It would have been a priest's job to authorize and examine a person and pronounce that they have skin disease or that they have been cleansed from it. The priest could not heal but only diagnose. That is why Leviticus 13 and 14 goes into so much detail describing the various skin conditions dealing with leprosy. A person wouldn't dare go to a priest before he was healed. That would have been unheard of. But here we see Jesus telling them to go before the healing is accomplished. And I think that this shows us something about Jesus. This tells us who Jesus is and what authority Jesus has.
Immediately, we understand that we're not dealing with someone who is bound by the laws of physics. This man doesn't answer to the laws of nature like we have to. We're dealing with the one who can heal physically and spiritually, on the spot. When Jesus acts, we can be sure it will be effective. So the progression of the events here in verse 14 is that Jesus first tells the lepers to go show themselves to the priest.
And second, as they were walking on their way to the priest, they were then healed. The lepers departed as a group and they're healed on their journey. The healing occurred in the process of obeying Jesus' command. The leopards did nothing to deserve this cure. The leopards begged for mercy, and they trusted the instructions to go. They were dependent.
They were hopeful. Now, this text doesn't mean that we should demand physical healing as a result of obedience. Obedience to Christ is a beautiful thing. We should strive to obey God's word. We should not expect some type of physical or material gain because of our obedience. We should be thankful, praising the Lord, when God gives us good things.
God doesn't work this way for good reason. He desires a greater and better good for us. God knows that this earth is temporal. and that there is an everlasting life. We should pray for change and healing when our circumstances are bleak and gloomy. But we should also understand that God has promised this ultimate healing and comfort for all Christians in the life to come.
Another important note. Notice the simplicity of the task. that we're given. As human beings who are sinners, once we encounter Jesus, the only one who can save us from our sins, there is simplicity in the task before us. All ten of the leopards here trusted and obeyed Jesus at some observable level. We can see that. The task given to the ten leopards wasn't like Naaman's, as you heard in the scripture reading from 2 Kings earlier. Naaman was told to go and wash in the Jordan seven times and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.
Let me remind you that God doesn't expect you to clean yourself up before you come to him. He doesn't say that, he doesn't say, why don't you just give this a test run? Let's just see how this goes for five or six weeks and then you come back to me and then we'll think about your spiritual healing. Let me encourage you that God tells you to come just as you are. God knows and expects for you to come dressed in torn and filthy garments.
Spurgeon said that man is so utterly ruined, so depraved, so estranged from God, and so in love with sin, that unless a power altogether unearthly shall operate upon him, he will never turn to God. Your spiritual health before encountering and understanding Christ is like the health of a leaf in the dead of winter. You are not green. You are dry and dead, ready to be blown in the wind.
Isaiah says that we all fade like a leaf and our iniquities like the wind take us away. There is simplicity in the task before us when we encounter Jesus Christ. because he is the one who has already done the work for you. There's nothing that you can do to earn God's favor. But when you do realize that your heart has changed, then you need to respond in faith and follow him.
Also, we notice here in verse 14 that Jesus didn't do anything miraculous or powerful to display his power here. We can only gain from the text that he saw them. He saw and then he spoke. There's no healing touch, no prayer of intercession here. There's no special directions to follow besides the simple command to follow Jesus in obedience to the priest.
Jesus did see the lepers, and that's all it took. Our Jesus is so powerful that he's able to see the lepers and heal them. Jesus saw them in their situation. He heard their cries for mercy, and Jesus responded to their cries for mercy. And he is actively doing the same thing for you. If you're tempted to believe the lie that our God doesn't care about you or doesn't listen to you or that he wants you to experience pain and suffering in this world without notice, then I want to tell you this morning that that is false and not the way the Bible describes our God.
The psalmist says, in my distress, I call upon the Lord to my God. I cry for help. From his temple, he heard my voice and my cry to him reached his ears. Isaiah says, he will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he will answer you. I want to remind you that Jesus sees your situation. He notices your pain.
And I want you to encourage you to cry out to this compassionate Savior because he listens to your cries for mercy. So cry out to him today. Point number two, the one true hope. Look down at your Bibles at verse 15 and 16. It says, 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. So we don't know how far the journey was to the priest. But as the ten are making their way to the priest, we do know that one leper notices that he was healed and he turned back. So I want to point this out to you. Verse 15 helps us understand what is meant by the word cleansed in verse 14.
So I didn't mention this earlier, but I want you to see it now. In verse 15, we see specifically that he was healed. The healing is the cleansing in verse 14. So we can be certain that all 10 lepers were healed. And we can very clearly see that Jesus did the healing. So what do you notice about the leper's response? He comes back joyful.
He's physically restored. He comes back with an excited confidence in what the Lord just did. We see his response as bold and spontaneous. I mean, these are the characteristics of faith that we get excited about, even here at 3rd, especially during members meetings and Sunday nights, when we hear that another student from UofL has heard the gospel and they're getting loud about it and they're being spontaneous and they're showing up at random Bible studies.
They're being bold with their faith. They're sharing it with others. This man, the one leper who turned back, he correctly connected Jesus with God's work in his life. We can tell that he had a deeper understanding that took place in his mind and heart which drove him to action. What do you notice about the distance between the now healed man and Jesus?
We see that he fell on his face at Jesus' feet. He was so excited, he was filled with thanksgiving, that he came right up to Jesus. For many people, this would have been shocking. Remember, in the beginning of our passage, before he was healed, he shouted at a distance. And then now that he is healed, he seems to still be shouting, or at least be loud with excitement here.
But he fell on his face at Jesus' feet. He went right up to Jesus. This mirrors the access we have to God because of what Jesus has accomplished for us. Hebrews tells us that we should approach the throne of grace with confidence to receive mercy and grace. He directs his thanksgiving to God, praises him, but closes his distance between him and Jesus.
His joyful confidence leads him to come right up to Jesus, where before he only stood at a distance. In the beginning, before he was healed, he used distance shouting to get Jesus' attention, but now he's healed. He's still loud with excitement, but he fell on his face at Jesus' feet. This is surprising because this action came from someone who was previously a leper. It wasn't acceptable for a leper to get close to someone.
Also, this is surprising because of what Luke says at the very end of verse 16. Look at the end of verse 16. Now he was a Samaritan. So why does Luke add this small detail? Luke adds this detail for emphasis. This is the one thing that Luke wants to know about the situation. It is surprising because this response, a response of praise and thanksgiving towards Jesus is coming from a foreigner, a Samaritan.
He was an outsider. The Samaritans and outsiders were distant from the covenant promises. Hearing this, this should do something to your heart. Primarily because you know that you are an outsider. What does the Bible say to us as outsiders?
Galatians tells us that there is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. We don't know the ethnicity of the other nine, but it is implied that the other nine, or at least a number of them, are Jewish.
Finally, I want us to see how Jesus responds to all of this. So look down at the last three verses of our passage, starting with verse 17. 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. Jesus uses three rhetorical questions here in which all three cause you to think. And just to state the obvious, Jesus knew the answer to these questions before he asked them. His purpose for asking these questions was not to gain information, but it was to judge the heart.
The first question, we're not ten cleansed. All ten leopards had experienced God's mercy and were healed. This question was asked in order to set up the next two questions. The second question, where are the nine or other nine? this question was not asked in order to elicit some cute response back.
You'll be able to relate to this if you're a parent, but many times I tell my kids to go clean their room. So I tell Wilder and Lottie to go clean up. I want your room to be clean. And then as a parent, you probably do the same thing, but I like the part where the inspection comes. You get to go and inspect their work to see how good a job they've done. So sometimes I'll go into the room and sometimes they've done a fantastic job.
Say that you've done a great job. You did a good job here. Fantastic. And I give them praise for that. But there's other times where I'll go in the room and I'll ask questions. I'll enter the room. It's not that I don't know the answer, but I'm asking a question for a purpose here. And I don't even want a response back sometimes. But sometimes I may say something like, didn't I ask you to clean your room?
And then sometimes I follow that up with another question. Do you call this cleaning your room? the second question was asked by Jesus in order to leave a mark. It was a stinging observation. It was asked to show that they missed the moment. The third question was, no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner.
This question is a rebuke. It hurts reading this because it's, it is a question that, that brings judgment. So if you are sitting here today, I want to, to beg you not to be found among the other nine here with this question staring you in the face. Why didn't you return to God and give him praise and thanks? Why didn't you return to Jesus Christ himself and praise him and thank him?
Jesus comes with mercy, grace, and compassion. Jesus also comes with authority. He is the one worthy to be praised. And worshiping him will not always be an option to you. finally the three questions are followed up by a response from jesus so look at verse 19 and he jesus said to him rise and go your way your faith has made you well what did the man receive here that the others did not well essentially the jesus tells the Samaritan to leave and that his faith has been delivered to him. We can be confident here that Jesus is alluding to saving faith. What Jesus tells the Samaritan here is unique to the other nine.
This is not to say that the other nine at some level were not thankful to be healed. I'm sure they were. I really can't imagine a world where they weren't. But the manner in which you respond to God's kindness matters. There's a warning here that you need to be aware of. When you experience God's grace, when you encounter the truth of the gospel, it should move you beyond a general reception of kindness or acknowledgement of God.
When you encounter the truth of the gospel, then it should propel you to action and cause you to exercise your faith frequently in a way that is solely dependent upon Jesus Christ. You have encountered the good news of Jesus this morning. Your exposure to God's goodness is not enough.
Exposure to the gospel message is not enough. You must receive it and respond in faith by believing that this is true. I think that one of the most dangerous lies that people end up believing is that God will surely have mercy on me because I am good enough. I was raised in a Christian home, or people may say I went to church.
My parents are believers. I was a good kid. I surely wasn't as bad as some of the people that I knew. Your exposure to God's goodness is not enough. You must respond in faith, a response that propels you to action. Jesus' actions required a response from the leopards, and Jesus' actions also requires a response from you. I also want to speak to some of you that may be feeling like your displeasing or ill-favored circumstances are negatively affecting your faith.
One fact of life, even as a Christian, is that you will face dark days ahead. Sometimes the wounds that are self-inflicted are because of our own sin, our own doing, and other times they're inflicted because of just the world that we live in. We live in a sinful world. And my encouragement to you is that God loves you with an internal and secure love.
One that is effective and he has his firm hand on you. We don't always realize this, but God is always preparing you for a time when your suffering will soon make sense and it will be used for his glory and your reward. the world is going to tempt you to buy into the satisfaction and hope that it offers the truth is in life we often find ourselves in situations where we deeply desire for our circumstances to change. These moments often reveal how dependent we really are. When you're beaten down by sin and you find yourself in a valley, the slogan from the world is, what's right for you is right.
Keep on doing what makes you happy. When you're in a marriage that seems like all hope is lost, the enemy is going to whisper to you that your needs are not being met and you deserve something better. Some of you I know experience bouts of extreme loneliness and the slogan from the world is to love yourself and fill that void with things that make you happy. The enemy wants nothing more for you to think that your situation is a result of God's judgment.
upon you. Some of you even recently have experienced terribly sad news about your health and the enemy wants you to get tunnel vision so that the temporary things of this world become the only thing that you see. The enemy wants you to think that God doesn't care So therefore, he is not real. And I know many of you have experienced great sadness from the loss of loved ones over the years.
And I know that many of you are still grieving those losses, even years later. I want to encourage you that Christ came, that we don't have to love the same way that the world loves. We don't have to hope the same way the world does. We love because of Christ's work in our lives and we hope because Christ didn't stay in the grave. The world will continue to offer us temporary hope and temporary satisfaction.
But there is only one true hope that will satisfy your soul. That hope is Jesus Christ himself. Let's pray. Father, it is a wonderful and beautiful thing to see how a God as so powerful as you cares for us who are sinful creatures who have rebelled against your authority.
In our own rebellion, we are unable to see our dependency. We are unable to see that we need you, but you didn't leave us in a state to rot away. You sent Jesus Christ, your own son, to show us the way to you, and we praise you for that act of mercy and grace in our lives. We pray that you would continue to build our faith. We pray that you would guard the satisfaction and hope that we have so that it will be centered on the foundation of what Christ has accomplished for us. We pray this for the glory of Jesus. Amen.