GETTING THE MESSAGE/There is room for you in Christ

With Thanksgiving Day now in the rearview mirror and Christmas ahead, we are looking this week at a passage that sets thanksgiving in the context of what Christ alone can do for us. In Luke 11:11-19, we are given the account of 10 lepers who are healed by Jesus and their response.

Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem (to go to the cross) and is not far from Samaria, when he is met by 10 lepers who stood at a distance and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” The strange thing is that there is one Samaritan with nine Jews among the lepers. Jews and Samaritans did not intermingle, but leprosy made for common ground. Lepers were not allowed to get close to people, no close contact even with family, so they were a community of misery. 

Leprosy is analogous to sin in men. It is the common condition of men regardless of ethnicity or social status. Many things divide people, but in this they are united; “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Like leprosy it is a desperate condition, but it is worse in that it puts us at a distance from God with no remedy.

The lepers encounter Jesus toward the end of his ministry. They no doubt have heard of his miracles and of the things he was teaching. They see in him the one hope for relief from the dismal disease that they were afflicted by. 

Jesus tells them to go show themselves to the priests. The priests were health inspectors. They had to give a leper a certificate of being clean before they could return to society. They all set out to comply to Jesus’ command and on the way see that they have been made clean.

At that point they are no longer united. One man turns back, praising God with a loud voice. He goes to Jesus, falls at his feet, and gives him thanks. He is a Samaritan. It is apparent that he saw beyond the gift to the giver. Jesus says to him, “Your faith has saved you.” He received much more than a clean body; his sins also were removed. 

The power that Christ demonstrated in healing people showed the authority he had to forgive sins and the power to save our souls. He came into the world to save sinners. He didn’t come to deny the fact of human sin, to make people feel better about themselves and less guilty. 

He didn’t come to give any sort of false peace, but to give real deliverance from sin by putting it away, taking it completely from our account. It is a true peace: “If the Son has set you free, you are free indeed.” Christ is the one person who can do it; none other can we look to. The angel said to the shepherds, “I bring you good tidings of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.”

Jesus asks the question when he sees the Samaritan at his feet: “Were there not 10 cleansed? Where are the other nine?” The others would have seen their companion turn back and heard him praising God. Certainly, they were grateful for the healing. How could they not be? Nevertheless, the question Jesus asks is a rebuke. They had chosen not to go back.

They knew what it meant to go back to Christ. For one thing, it meant acknowledging that he is Christ the Lord. It meant submission to him, that all he was teaching is true. It meant humbling yourself before him and giving him adoration. Faith implies obligation and true thanksgiving for mercies received. It means following Christ. Not to embrace Christ is to deny who he is.

The tragedy of leaving Christ is ultimately losing your soul. But you also know that the man at the feet of Jesus is not miserable there. He is full of blessedness. He has never been more full or had such joy. He is at the feet of the Lord, who has shown him such grace and love he cannot comprehend it. He would say, “It is good to be here.”

There is more than a word about thanksgiving here. We find instructions of how to glorify and enjoy God; fall down at the feet of Christ. There are many heads bowed down around the feet of Jesus. There is room for yours too.

The Rev. Chris Shelton is pastor of Union’s First Presbyterian Church.