Where are the Nine?

Luke 17:12-19

12 Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off.

13 And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”

14 So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.

15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God,

16 and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.

17 So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?

18 Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?”

19 And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”

Are we thankful for our blessings?

Or do we take them for granted?

Do we tell ourselves we deserve them?

Or do we rejoice so much in our blessings that we forget to give thanks to God Who blesses us?

Notice the questions Jesus asks.

"Were there not ten cleansed?"

Why has only one person come back to show thankfulness and worship the Lord for His love and mercy?

"But where are the nine?"

This is rhetorical of course, but the nine have gone on their way.

They want to get back to their lives.

No doubt they are happy to not be exiled from the community, from their family, but they didn't take time to come back and thank Jesus or glorify God.

Their own pleasure at their better circumstance was greater than their gratefulness to the source of their joy.

"Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?”

This Samaritan was not even one of God's people (in the eyes of Jews and that is the context of Jesus' statement), but this man came back out of gratefulness.

This is something for us to think about.

How do we thank God for our blessings?

Do we recognize that all good things, every blessing is from God?

When we succeed it is from God.

When we perform well, it is from God, Who gives us our ability.

Finally see what Jesus told the man who did return to give thanks and worship.

"Your faith has made you well.”

The literal meaning of the word there means "cured" or "saved".

So, this man's faith, his belief in Jesus, saved Him.

Delivered him from that disease, through the power of God, of course.

But it is his faith that made it happen for him.

The implication is that his faith also brought him back to give thanks and worship.

Because his faith told him Who the source of this healing was.