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Hear the devotional: https://anchor.fm/eradio-valverde/episodes/Your-Faith-Has-Made-You-Well-e1on4pk
11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” 14 When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. 15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. 17 Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” (Luke 17:11-19 New International Version Bible)
A most joyous and marvelous Monday to you, dear Friend. May our time together bless us with God's grace and peace. As we pray let us pray for each other, and let us pray for the family of Mrs. Sara C. Reynolds, who died this weekend. Sara was the loving wife of The Rev. John W. Reynolds, a retired pastor from The Rio Texas Conference. We first met in the Rio Grande Valley through the suggestion of a mutual seminary friend. We met on a Tuesday night wedding of a colleague. We hit it off immediately and we became fast friends. John and Sara had two daughters and we had four and the girls became friends. We even vacationed one summer together. Tragically, the Reynolds lost their eldest daughter, Claire in an auto accident on a Memorial Day weekend when they were serving in San Saba. Claire had been working in San Antonio and attended my church, Trinity UMC for a time. The Reynolds had moved to North Carolina to be near their daughter, Ariel,who had moved to Durham. Please pray God's comfort be with John and Ariel and their family. Our granddaughter Eliana is doing much better and we praise God for her healing. May we continue to pray for Linda Barcus as she begins her cancer treatment soon. Pray for yourselves and the needs of the world.
One of the matriarchs of one of my churches, to her credit, knew the Lectionary texts very well, especially the ones for Thanksgiving Day. I served a church, yes I'm that old, that still had a worship service on the actual day of Thanksgiving. "None of this Monday Thanksgiving worship service with other churches!" And one particular day, the prelude is playing and here comes a family member with a note from "Mama." It said, "Please do not preach on the lepers because that upsets Mama's stomach and we can't have that on Thanksgiving Day. Mama does not like to hear about leprosy." Uh. I already had my sermon written and prepared for that day. And, it was not like I could tear that passage out of the Bible!
This is a very powerful passage on thankfulness. And yes, it does involve the reality of the dreaded skin disease that was prevalent in the day. The thought during Jesus' day was that it was highly contagious and the law forbid those with leprosy from living among the living. Most villages and towns would regulate them to living among the tombs or cemeteries. The law also said that it had to be a priest to declare them clean if they had been found unclean from leprosy. We could say it was like receiving a life sentence to live among the dead. The good thing was these men were not so isolate they did not hear the news of what was going on beyond their realm. Someone had told them about this traveling rabbi who had the power to heal, hey, "He heals the lame, even raises the dead!" They certainly wondered if maybe, just maybe, Jesus could heal leprosy? "It won't hurt to ask!" And so, here comes Jesus. In a region between Samaria and Galilee and here are ten lepers meet Him. Knowing the law they maintained social distancing and from that space yelled to him in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" Jesus sees them and simply says, "Go, show yourselves to the priest." And in faith, they took the first steps towards the priest, the door to a new life and freedom. "And as they went, they were cleansed."
That in and of itself, is powerful. Steps of faith lead to change, to new lives, to new discoveries, and to profound blessings. And it all starts with that first step. One can only imagine that if one leper had held back and didn't quite believe, they would have stayed where they were and would have died as a leper. As the ten walked towards the priests, one of them realized that he was healed! And unlike the other nine, he goes back to Jesus, as he's praising God! Then, he throws himself at Jesus' feet and thanked Him. And interesting that it is here that Luke inserts, "And he was a Samaritan." The nine others, we believe were Jews, brothers in faith to Jesus, they did not come back to thank Jesus, or God, but kept walking towards the priests to be declared healed from their illness. If you are reading this you see the graphic for this; the nine are celebrating with family and rejoining them for the first time in years, while the Samaritan is kneeling before Jesus, thanking Him and praising God.
Jesus' question still remains today, even to us; "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then, turning to the healed, grateful man, "Rise and go, your faith has made you well." This becomes another one of those stories that we know will be answered in Heaven of what became of this man versus the other nine. We can think and perhaps ask, did the other nine have a sense of entitlement, thinking, "I deserved this!" or did at least one later on, maybe in private, kneel and thank God? We don't know, but this I know, it is a very powerful Thanksgiving sermon passage as well as a daily reminder to not take anything from God for granted. Our hearts should be ever thankful and ever grateful to God for how God blesses us.
PRAYER: Loving God, You are ever faithful in sharing with us just what we need. May we never lose count of how many blessings come from You and may we always give You thanks; in Christ Jesus we pray, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! YOUR CALL ACTION TODAY: Ask someone to thank God with you for a blessing you have received!
Receive love and blessings for a great day,
Pastor Eradio Valverde
