Well, we're going to read together from the Scriptures of the New Testament.
We're reading in Luke chapter 17, and we're reading from verse 11 to verse 19.
! Let's hear and read together in God's Word.
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.
This is the Word of God, and to His name be the praise and the glory.
All right.
We are in a summer series called Questions That Jesus Asked.
And I'm sure that when we announced that we were going to do this series,
nobody thought of the question,
Where are the other nine?
It's not the most common question you think of when you ask,
What are the questions Jesus asked?
But this is a moving story, actually.
Not a well-known story, but a moving moment in the Gospels
when Jesus encounters these ten lepers.
And it's not well-known, but it's so important.
And there's a literary frame that Luke gives us in the passage,
and it starts in verse 12, and it helps us understand it.
Verse 11, I should say,
He came to Jerusalem.
And then in verse 12,
He was met by ten lepers,
but they were at a distance.
And there's the word distance.
Ten lepers are at a distance physically from Him
at the beginning of the story.
But when you get down to verse 18 at the end of the story,
though they've been cleansed,
nine lepers are still at a distance from Him.
Only one has come any closer at all.
And so there's a physical distance at the beginning
because of leprosy,
because of the disease and the separation that was required by law.
But even after the leprosy is cleansed,
nine out of ten are still very far away from Jesus at the end.
And that means that Luke is trying to do what the Bible does,
and that's show us that something like physical leprosy
has always been meant to be a sign of a spiritual reality as well,
of something going on on the inside,
of a relational distance that is still there at the end of the story.
I think every one of us today will know of that colleague at some point
where we've worked with them for years,
but we still don't really know them.
And in the same way, you can sit across from the table,
even from family for years,
and never really have relational depth connection.
So there can be physical distance,
but there can be physical closeness, yet relational distance.
And you have that distinction from the beginning to the end
in this literary frame that we're given.
Why?
What's the difference?
How can it be that He cleanses them from leprosy,
yet they're still far from Him at the end?
And Luke is trying to get us to see that that physical distance
is representative of a different type of leprosy,
not just physical outward leprosy,
but I think He wants us to see that there's such a thing as spiritual leprosy.
And when we realize that, we have to say,
do I have it?
Is that my disease?
Is that my problem?
So let's think about that,
and we'll find out through looking at three things.
Number one, the one that they're distant from,
the person they're distant from.
And then secondly, the heart of leprosy.
And then finally, the leper priest.
So first, who's the one that they're distant from here?
In verse 11, Jesus is traveling.
He's on His way to Jerusalem,
and He passes between Samaria and Galilee.
Now Jesus is going somewhere,
and He's going somewhere on purpose.
He's going to Jerusalem.
And to get there takes not the normal route at all.
So if you were to follow Jesus' travels towards Jerusalem at the end of His life,
He doesn't make a straight line.
He's kind of all over the place.
It's more of a zigzag.
And here, He passes between the liminal space,
between the territory of the Jews and the territory of the Samaritans,
the borderland, the no man's land, really.
A place that nobody normally would go to as a Jew on their way to Jerusalem.
And that's because there's deep ethnic animosity,
the ethnic partiality.
That's quite a minor way to say it, how thick and deep it is,
the hatred, really, between Jews and Samaritans.
Different temple, different priests,
and pretty much utter separation and normal life segregation.
But here, Luke says He's traveling towards Jerusalem.
And that is a significant little moment
because it's the third time we've been told
He has owned His way to Jerusalem in Luke's gospel
since this moment in chapter 9, verse 51,
where we're told He set His face towards Jerusalem.
So that's a moment of fulfillment from the Old Testament,
Isaiah chapter 50, verse 7,
where it said the suffering servant,
talking about a suffering servant,
will one day come and set His face like flint towards Jerusalem.
A weird metaphor for modern people,
to set your face like flint towards something.
But for an ancient person, flint is this quartz-like material
that basically is unbreakable.
And so He's locked in to Jerusalem.
In other words, the reason this is the third mention,
He's on His way to Jerusalem,
is because Luke wants you to read this story,
understanding that it's in the shadow of the cross.
He is set on going to die for the sins of humanity.
This happens in the shadow of the cross.
It's the story of the cross, really, that this is leading to.
And along that way, Luke has this travel motif.
We saw it in the road to Emmaus.
But part of his journey to Jerusalem and to the cross
is this continual stopping along the way
to make people who you expect to be outsiders into insiders.
And the people that you think are supposed to be insiders,
you find out are actually outsiders.
So as soon as He says in chapter 9, verse 51,
I've got my face set to Jerusalem,
the next chapter is the parable of the Good Samaritan.
You know, who's a good neighbor?
And nobody expects Him to say,
it's the Samaritan that's the good neighbor,
that shows people how to love.
He's constantly showing how outsiders are insiders.
And that means that on His way to the cross,
in the shadow of the cross,
He wants you to see that the kingdom of God
is different than the world expected.
And the kingdom of God is upside down.
It's not normal to human expectation.
And He wants to bring outsiders in.
There's nobody more outside than a leper.
They are the outsiders of all the outsiders.
The king is on his way to be thrown out of the city gate.
And on his way, he wants to bring to himself
people who are the most thrown out in all of the culture.
And that is the Samaritan leper,
the most thrown out person,
the most excommunicated person in the whole culture.
So in verse 12, there's a leper colony
on this borderland between Samaria
and the territory of Jews in Galilee.
And there's 10 lepers.
And they're Jews and Samaritans
because even though Jews and Samaritans
are separated in normal life,
when you are a leper,
all ethnic animosity goes away.
You're cast out from society.
You band together.
And so these Jews and Samaritans are here together,
not thinking any more about racism
or ethnic partiality or anything like that.
And it's because they're excommunicated.
So Leviticus 13 and 14 is the background
to their excommunication.
It's Levitical law in the Old Testament
that requires them to be cast out of the city.
There's a hundred verses on leprosy
in those two chapters, nearly a hundred verses.
And it's important to know that leprosy
is a category more than a disease in the Bible.
So we think of leprosy as a disease.
Leprosy is more of a category.
The first house I ever lived in, in Edinburgh,
had biblical leprosy.
You would wipe mold off the walls in the morning.
You would go to work, you would come home
and the mold would be right back streaked across the walls.
And in Leviticus 13, that's a house of leprosy
because it's got mold.
And it was to be, Leviticus 14, 45,
it is to be knocked down within the camp of God
in the Old Testament because of its leprosy.
And the bag that I purchased
because I was moving to Scotland to study
and you move internationally, you buy a bag, right?
A new backpack and it got leprosy.
And I had to throw it away
because of the first house I lived in in Scotland.
So leprosy is a skin disease,
different types of skin diseases,
but it's also moldy houses
and all sorts of things in the Bible.
And that's because leprosy in the Levitical code,
the God's law is like everything else
in the ritual laws of Leviticus,
an outward sign of an invisible reality.
So leprosy is cast out of the city of God's camp.
Why?
Because it was symbolic,
somebody literally wearing it,
a house having it that says this mold,
this death, this problem cannot be a part of Edenic life,
the life you were made for.
So in the Old Testament,
the people living in the promised land
were a sign of the land that was one day to come,
life in the new Eden.
And that meant that dead bodies
couldn't be inside God's city
and mold couldn't be in God's city
and decay couldn't be in God's city.
And that means that these lepers,
it's not that they did some sin
in order to get leprosy.
Never.
We don't believe in karma.
There's no karma here.
It's that leprosy is one of the chosen signs
in the Old Testament
of what it means as representative humanity
to be in Adam,
as David was talking about early.
In other words,
lepers stand for all of us.
So spiritual leprosy,
physical leprosy is a sign of the truth
that all of humanity has spiritual leprosy.
And so spiritual leprosy represented
in physical leprosy
has to be sent outside of the camp,
outside of the city,
outside of the village.
And so these guys are excommunicated
and it is a triple excommunication.
As one scholar put it,
it is living death.
So religious excommunication,
there's no temple worship.
You cannot go to church.
It is relational excommunication.
Imagine being outside the city
and seeing your family travel by,
but you can never get near to them.
Never a hug.
They could leave food for you,
but you could never cross the street
to see them.
And it's civic excommunication.
You know, you can never go home.
You can't be a part of the people
that you would come from.
And so in the first century rabbinic culture,
leprosy had become something
even more than Levitical law.
It becomes such an excommunication
in every way.
And rabbis were famous
for echoing 2 Kings 5, verse 7,
where Naaman, the Syrian,
comes to Israel
to get healed of his leprosy.
And the king, he says,
oh, king of Israel,
tell me how to be healed from my leprosy.
And the king says,
who do you think I am?
God?
Only God can heal people from leprosy.
In other words,
there's nothing we can do about this.
And once you go to a leper colony,
the skin diseases
are obviously going to spread.
And so it's typically
a lifetime sentence.
And it was a horrific life.
What do they ask for to Jesus,
of Jesus?
Verse 13,
they say,
they see him,
they say,
Jesus,
master,
give us mercy.
Send us your mercy.
What are they asking for
when they say this word mercy?
They say master.
Clearly they know
this guy is something different.
He's a prophet.
He's a master.
That's kind of like saying a rabbi,
a great teacher.
And when they say mercy,
normally a leper had to go around
in the first century saying,
leper,
unclean,
unclean.
So if you were to get near them,
they would say unclean.
And that was the signal.
Get away.
I can't be,
I can't be talked to
or communicated with
or got near to.
But here,
when they see the master,
they say,
mercy,
mercy.
And what are they asking for?
And it's clear,
I think,
from the context
and the commentators
all agree on this,
that they're not saying,
have mercy on me,
Jesus,
because I need forgiveness of sins
because I'm a sinner.
They're saying,
give me my life back.
I want to go back
to my family.
I want to go back
to the people that I love.
And that means that
alienation is the wound
they're crying out for.
Alienation is the wound
from which they say,
mercy,
mercy.
Now,
that might not be
the most important thing
to ask Jesus for.
But,
who is this one
that they cry out to
in mercy?
I want to point out to you
before we move
to the main idea here.
Jesus Christ
is the kind of redeemer
who does want to give them
that kind of mercy.
He is the kind of redeemer
who does want to give
them relief
from their skin disease.
He is.
He does.
He does want to give them
their family back.
He does want to put them
back into the city.
He does not despise
that prayer,
that request.
No,
not at all.
Jesus offers
cleansing deeper than skin.
Absolutely.
And that's very important.
But,
he is
on his way to the cross
announcing
that he is indeed
bringing a kingdom
where there will be
no skin diseases
and where people
will not be separated
from their families
because of leprosy
and people will not
starve anymore.
And,
that means that
Christianity
is not
just concerned
with your soul
and it is
very importantly so.
But,
the Christianity
of Jesus Christ,
your redeemer
is as Sinclair Ferguson
put it,
the kind of redeemer
that wants to give
this kind of mercy
to people.
And so,
in verse 14,
he says,
go show yourself
to the priests
and while they were
going to see the priest,
they were healed
along the way.
Now,
the story should end there.
It was a very,
it's a very nice story.
It's a,
it's a great ending.
He sent them
even before they were
ever healed,
which means they had
some measure of faith.
This,
this prophet
can heal me
and I'm going to go
see the priest
and have my,
my cleanliness announced.
This man is powerful
over diseases.
He can heal skin disease
and that would have been
a perfect ending.
And yet,
it's not the end
because that's not the end
of what actually happened
in history
and Luke doesn't want you
to think that that's the end
because there's something
more here,
something deeper
to deal with here.
And so,
he leads us then,
this leads us
to the meat
of the story
and that's the heart
of leprosy secondly
in verses 15 to 18.
Now,
you'll see this
in the passage.
The word in the Bible
most often used
for healing leprosy
is not the word healing.
It's not that they were healed.
It does use that word sometimes,
but most often,
it takes up
the Old Testament language
of cleansing.
And so,
in this passage,
we're told
they were cleansed.
Why?
Because this is ritual language
from Leviticus
that a priest
had to cleanse his hands
to enter God's presence.
the word cleansing
for healing of skin disease
is connecting us
to the religious realities
that are present in it.
There's a sort of idea
of there's a baptism
that needs to take place.
And that's because
the text,
like all of the Bible,
is pointing us to see
that the leprosy
on the outside
is not just about
the leprosy on the outside.
It's about something
deeper than that,
about the healing,
the cleansing,
the baptism
that humanity needs
deeper on the inside.
External problems
are a revelation
of internal problems
all throughout the Bible.
And so,
cleansing is the word
that we really need.
And so,
in verse 15 and 16,
you'll see that
one of the nine,
when he was cleansed,
healed,
he praises God
with a loud voice,
he turns back.
The word,
the language gets used,
he turns back.
It's almost
a physical word
for an inner
type of repentance even.
You can see how much
the physical
was pointing to the spiritual.
It says,
when he saw
his outward skin
was healed,
he turned around.
And he goes back
to Jesus,
praising God.
And he,
we learn at the end
of the story,
Jesus points out,
he's a foreigner,
he's a Samaritan.
He is the very one
of the ten
you do not expect
to do this.
He's not Jewish.
He's an outsider
in the community,
yet the outsider
is so far away
from being distant
to Jesus Christ
that now he's laying
on his face
at his feet.
The outsider
has become the insider
and you see Jesus
under the shadow
of the cross saying,
I'm here
to make lepers clean
and to bring outsiders,
those with a deeper problem,
spiritual leprosy,
all the way in,
all the way to me.
And it's this one,
this Samaritan
that sees it
and pronounces it.
it's him
that repents
in his physical action
and turns around
and goes back to Jesus
and the exegetical key
in all of it
is in verses 15 and 16
and then down
in verse 18.
What does he say
when he turns around?
It says he turns back
and he praised God
with a loud voice
and then when he falls
on his face
before Jesus' feet,
he gives him thanks
and Jesus answered,
where are the nine?
There's the question.
Was no one found
to return,
was no one found
to return
and give praise
to God
except this one Samaritan,
this foreigner?
Now you might pass by this
but it's so important
because if you were
to go across the street
to New College,
to any of the academic
divinity departments
across the UK,
the places where many
of our church members
have studied,
in the biblical studies
department,
in the New Testament
department,
you would be told
that Jesus never identifies
himself as God
in the Gospels
and instead,
Paul identifies Jesus
as God.
Decades later,
he creates that
and then we read
that back into the Gospels
because we've read Paul
and that's the normal thesis
of the New Testament
departments across the land,
across the academy.
But did you catch it?
What's the exegetical key?
What's the key
in this man's life
in turning around
the one of the ten?
It's that he turned back,
he went toward Jesus
praising God
and then you say,
well,
who is this God?
And then as he laid
on his face
at Jesus' feet,
Jesus said,
where are the rest?
Did no one else
come back
to praise God?
And that means
that Jesus is saying,
he's God
in this moment.
Did nobody else
come back
to get on their knees
and praise God?
And who is that?
Well,
it's whoever the person is
that you're laying
on your face in front of.
That's who the one
you're worshiping is.
You see,
Jesus self-consciously
in this moment
on his way to Jerusalem
identifies himself
as God.
And that's the real key
to understand
the issue
in the heart
that's going on
in the other nine.
And you see,
10 men received
physical healing
from Jesus,
healing from their lepers.
They received
a wonderful benefit
from a great master,
a great rabbi.
One man,
one man among the 10
had an encounter
of worship
with his God.
You see,
10 men got
a great benefit
from him,
a great master.
Boy,
was he powerful.
But only one person
had an encounter
not only with a great master
but his God.
And so,
when he realized
that he turned back,
he came back
and he fell on his face
praising God,
praising God
and giving thanks
before him.
And so,
Jesus said,
where are the other nine?
In other words,
they came for the benefits.
Luke is trying
to get us to see
that leprosy
on the outside
points us to
spiritual leprosy
on the inside.
And spiritual leprosy
in this story
has two aspects to it.
The first is this.
It's when
we have
one of the most common
and respectable
forms of unbelief.
And that's
to believe God exists,
to be a religious insider,
to be interested
chiefly
in the benefits
of belief
rather than
any sense
of a living relationship
with my God,
our God.
God.
And that's
the beginning
of the revelation
of spiritual leprosy
deep in the heart.
The difference
in the nine
and the one
is the nine
got a benefit,
the ten did,
but only one
realized that
this is my God
and I want
a living relationship
with him.
And Jesus,
he said something
really similar
in John's gospel
after feeding
the 5,000
in John 6.
He turned
to a group
of people
that came to him
and he said,
you seek me
because you ate
the loaves of bread
and were filled.
So you're chasing
after me
because I filled
your belly
last week.
And it's important
to say Jesus
wants to fill bellies.
And Jesus
wants to heal
skin diseases.
And Jesus
wants to restore
people to their family.
And Jesus
wants to put
us back
into the city
we were made for.
And he also
saying,
but the real
heart of living
faith is to
want him
and to come
back because
you want him
more than any
benefit.
And so that
leads to the
second and
deeper aspect
of spiritual
leprosy here.
And that's
this,
the one,
the Samaritan,
he came back
and it says
he got on
his knees,
he got on
his face
and he gave
thanks.
And Jesus
asked where
the rest to
come and give
thanks to me.
Spiritual
leprosy
is a problem
humanity has
and it is
in this passage
I think being
implicitly taught
to us that
it is a heart
of ingratitude
to God.
It's living
a life of
ingratitude.
Where does
unbelief start?
You know,
unbelief does
not begin
with atheism.
It's striking
that in
Paul's
most important
definition of
unbelief in
the book of
Romans,
Romans chapter
one,
the way he
begins it
all,
Romans 1
21,
he says,
although
humanity
knew God,
they didn't
honor him
as a God.
nor did
they give
thanks.
So when
you asked
Paul,
what is
unbelief?
And he
said,
to not
come and
honor God
or give
thanks to
him.
And so
when we
think about
ingratitude
in our
lives,
you know,
I think
when I
think about
it at
first,
I think
I chalk
this up
to an
issue of
manners.
You know,
that's not
a very,
my kids
aren't being
grateful
enough.
And I
think you
need to
learn your
manners.
But the
Bible
takes in
gratitude
and says
it's not
just manners,
it's
spiritual
leprosy.
A lack
of gratitude
to God
and to
other people
and all
the things
we've been
given.
You know,
you think
about it,
no one
tonight
would ever
say,
you know,
I want
to live
with ungrateful
people.
We know
how important
gratitude
of the heart
is to
being a
healthy
human.
And how
do you
diagnose
spiritual
leprosy?
How do
you know?
Well,
spiritual
leprosy
manifests in
the modern
world in
a newer
phrase we
have,
and that's
just a
sense of
entitlement,
of being
owed
things.
How do
you know?
How do
you know
the places
in your
life where
you've
got that
disease,
where you've
got entitlement,
where I've
got entitlement?
I was thinking
about this,
and it's
not by making
a list of
the things
you're thankful
for and
then asking
what's not
here.
These are
the things
I'm not
very grateful
for.
I think
it's far
more can
be diagnosed
by addressing
your irritations
and asking
what irritates
me the most.
So when
you're at
work,
when I'm
at work,
when I'm
here downstairs
and the
Wi-Fi
goes out,
I get this
lump down
in my
stomach,
my chest
that says
I cannot
believe that
I'm going
to lose
hours here.
I can't.
The Wi-Fi
went out.
Or when
you're
Amazon
Prime
delivery
does not
come because
it said
Amazon Prime
is next
day delivery
and you
think,
can you
believe this?
The Amazon
Prime delivery
package did not
come the next
day.
Well,
it's silly,
but what's
actually happening
is what's being
expressed is that
our irritations
show us far
more our sense
of entitlement
than making a list
of things we're
grateful for and
looking,
what have I not
listed here?
You've got to
look at your
irritations.
And friends,
modern people,
people of
2026,
with me,
we are far
more prone
to this
spiritual
leprosy
than any
other era
of human
history
because we
are customers.
We are
perpetual
customers.
We live
in an age
of being
a customer
at all
times,
and customers
paid,
and therefore
they're entitled.
And,
you know,
the customer's
never grateful.
The customer
is always,
always owed.
I was thinking
about this
through the lens
of imagining,
and I have to
hustle here.
In 18th century,
Edinburgh,
I've heard that
word a couple
times,
so I'm going
to use it,
Edinburgh,
an Edinburgh
a citizen
in the 18th
century,
living out here
on Victoria
Street,
where the
poorest of the
poor lived
in the 18th
and 19th
century.
And there
were 50
people to a
flat at times
when Thomas
Guthrie planted
this church
and visited
those poor.
And the
disease was
rampant,
and once
Thomas Guthrie
found a
whole pig
living,
a couple
pigs living
inside one
of the flats
that he
visited.
That's where
you kept
your animals
too.
And imagine
showing them
a tap
of water
that never
stops right
here in our
little kitchen
hut.
And then
imagine
turning and
taking them
a step
further,
taking them
to Waitrose.
Boy.
And then
imagine taking
that 18th
century Edinburgh
poor living
in 50 in a
room across
the street
and pulling
out your
phone and
saying,
I have
every song
that's ever
been recorded
in this
device right
here.
And you
know,
if my
phone doesn't
play my
podcast on
the way to
work on
Monday,
I want to
throw it.
I'm so,
you know,
why?
Because what
happens in a
customer culture
is that what
was once a
gift becomes a
norm.
And what was
once a norm
becomes an
expectation.
And what was
once an
expectation
becomes something
that we're
entitled to.
And because we
live in a
customer culture,
boy, we live
in a world
where people
publish Google
reviews for
worship services.
We live in a
customer world,
and that means
that we struggle
with entitlement,
rights,
more than any
other in human
history.
And the Bible
says,
ingratitude and
not seeing
everything as a
gift of God,
we don't deserve
anything,
is spiritual
leprosy.
There's two
ways to come
before the
Lord.
One is to
say, I love
your benefits
and I'll take
your goods.
And the
other is to
say, this is
my Lord and
my Savior,
and I want to
get on my
knees and say,
Lord, thank
you, I don't
deserve anything.
Now, how do we
fix it as we
finish?
Very briefly,
thirdly, the
leper priest.
This requires
self-examination
in our lives.
Of course, the
question as we
close has to be,
do I struggle
with ingratitude?
Do I have
spiritual leprosy
in my life?
Am I an
ungrateful person?
And am I
entitled?
And the answer
is yes.
Yes.
And that is
why Jesus'
face is set
like Flint
towards Jerusalem.
And here in
verse 14,
as we close,
we can ask,
why did Jesus
send them to
the priest in
the first place?
He said,
go to the
priest,
because the
priest in the
first century
in the ancient
Near East is
the public health
official,
the public health
officer.
And so you
got to go to
the priest,
and once you're
healed,
you have to
show that to
the priest,
and then the
priest pronounces
that you can
come back,
you're not
excommunicated
anymore.
Where is Jesus
sending them to?
He's sending
them to the
priest,
and who is
the priest?
The priest
is the most
important official
in the culture
that reads
the law,
and then declares
the law over
someone.
He takes
Leviticus,
he says,
have the rules
of Leviticus
been followed
in this person's
situation?
And if it
has,
he says,
now you can
come back.
But it's very
important to know
the priest could
never make
anybody clean.
The priest could
only declare
somebody clean.
All they could
do was look at
the law and
ask,
is this enough?
And I think
in the same
way,
as it's been
pointed out
by others,
when Jesus
sends them
to the priest,
he's sending
them to the
law of the
old covenant.
And when you
diagnose in
yourself,
I do have
spiritual leprosy,
I am a person
who struggles
with ingratitude,
I do have a
sense of
entitlement,
I'm not
grateful to
God for so
much.
If you say,
how am I
going to deal
with it,
and you go
to the law,
you go to
the priest,
and you read
the Bible,
and you
will find
this,
that the
law is a
perfect mirror,
but a
useless medicine.
It can show
you what you
should be,
but it will
not make
you clean,
it will not
help you,
and if you
say,
today I'm
going to
practice
gratitude,
and I'm
going to
keep a
gratitude
journal,
and I'm
going to
talk to
the Lord
every day
about all
the things
I'm
thankful
for,
do that,
absolutely,
but the
problem already,
it's too
late.
The spiritual
leprosy is
already there.
The ingratitude
has already
been established,
the rebellion
has already
been,
and so you
can try,
we can try
our hardest,
but even if we
do it so well
tonight,
by tomorrow,
well,
we have been
grateful enough,
and when he
sends them to
the priest,
what is he
doing?
There's a
moment,
I think it's
in verse 15
and 16,
when the
one of the
ten sees
his arms
cleansed,
his body
cleansed,
and then as
soon as the
cleansing comes,
he turns
back,
and he goes
the other
way.
Why?
It's like he
realized,
guys,
he told us
to go to
the priest,
and we've
been cleansed,
the priest
is behind
us,
the priest
is the one
that sent
us.
He turned
around,
why?
Because he
knew that
the priest
of the old
covenant
could not
do anything
for him.
This is the
declaration of
the end
of the law,
and now in
this moment,
the one of
the ten,
the Samaritan,
the outsider
realizes Jesus
Christ is the
true and better
priest.
I need a
priest that's
not just going
to declare me
clean,
maybe,
according to
Leviticus,
I need a
priest who
can make
me clean.
And he
comes back
because he
realizes that
this is not
only my
master,
not only my
rabbi,
not only my
God,
but he is
also my
priest.
And Jesus
just so
happens to
be set
with his
face like
Flint towards
Jerusalem,
where the
true priest
will become
the supreme
leper in
all of
history.
The true
priest who
is God
also became
leprous for
you.
And the
way to
deal with
the problem
of our
ingratitude
is to
come and
say,
the law
can't
cleanse me
and my
gratitude
can't
cleanse me
and I
can be
as grateful
as possible
for the rest
of my
days and
that will
not help
me.
Instead,
we've got
to say
that he
was stricken
at the
cross for
my
entitlement.
He was
crushed
because of
my life
of ingratitude.
He was
excommunicated
ultimately
because of
my spiritual
leprosy.
And only
on that
basis then
can he turn
to you
in faith,
in your
faith,
because that's
what you're
saying.
And he
says,
rise up
and go
on your
way.
And so
in verse
18,
the last
word here
in verse
18,
rise and
go your
way.
Your faith
has made
you well.
And I have
to point
out the
footnote
in the
ESV,
if you
have a
Bible
in front
of you,
which says
that it
could also
be translated,
your faith
has saved
you.
And I
think it
should read,
rise,
your faith
has saved
you.
He was
one amongst
the ten
who said,
this is
my priest,
he will
be stricken
for my
ingratitude.
If you
say that
tonight on
that basis,
now go,
now go
and practice
gratitude.
Gratitude
has to be
shown to
God.
And to
protect
ourselves
from
ingratitude,
it's got
to be
shown every
day,
that's the
practice of
gratitude
we're
called to.
So in
verse 15,
gratitude,
what does
it look
like?
It looks
like a
man,
a woman
who
daily
gets on
their face,
on their
knees before
the Lord
Jesus and
says,
thank you,
morning and
evening,
thank you,
Lord,
I don't
deserve it.
That's the
practice of
gratitude.
Let's pray.
Father,
we ask that
you would
teach us to
be grateful.
We know
that we're
not,
so we
come before
you,
declaring our
spiritual
leprosy and
our need and
needing your
forgiveness.
And we
look to the
true leper,
the Christ
who was
made supremely
leprous for
us in the
middle of
history.
And now
we ask,
Lord,
that on the
basis of
being cleansed
by him,
you would
give us
fresh gratitude.
Gratitude brings
joy to us,
and so we want
it this week
even.
So forgive us,
Lord,
change us,
send us in a
new direction,
help us to be
like the
Samaritan who
turned back
and got on
his face and
worshipped you.
And so,
Lord,
we say thank
you as we
sing the
final hymn.
In Christ's
name we
pray.
Amen.