Rather than simply presenting an historical narrative, every story, every parable that Luke records is teaching a particular facet of the gospel, or reinforcing a particular principle of the gospel, or adding another layer to the gospel. In other words, these stories are not just a random biographical detail in the life of Christ. They may fulfill that biographical function, but more importantly they enrich the gospel message by means of an illustration.
As in the story of the prodigal son and other accounts of healing etc, this story is a real story, an actual historical event, but with allegorical implications. I don’t think it’s coincidental that there are 10 lepers in this story. In chapter 15 there were 100 sheep and one is found, there were 10 coins and one is found, there are two sons and one returns. And so in this story there are 10 lepers and one returns.
What is always the focus of Jesus’ preaching is the nature of salvation. Jesus went about preaching the kingdom of heaven. And the point He repeatedly makes is that entrance into the kingdom is only through salvation. He stresses that entrance into the kingdom is not by heritage, not by nationality, not by family, not through religion, and not through works. Now there are several facets or doctrines of salvation. And Jesus keeps revealing these doctrines progressively as He is traveling towards Jerusalem. And it is apparent that if you are going to fully understand the doctrine of salvation then you must continue to follow Jesus Christ, continuing to learn from Him and continuing to be obedient to Him. He doesn’t explain every doctrine in every teaching, in every illustration. But He keeps revealing more and more as people continue to follow Him in obedience. And the same principle of progressive revelation is true for us today as we are obedient to what He shows us.
I’m always kind of bemused by these people that come for a while, and they say we like your teaching, you taught us a lot, you taught us about salvation, but I’m good now. I got it. I’m good to go. And so off they go. The truth is they only got as far as they wanted to go. They don’t want to deal with any more, because they don’t like where you are going. Well, Jesus experienced the same thing. A lot of people followed Him for a while, but when they found out He was going to be crucified, they got off the bus. They didn’t want any part of “take up your cross and follow Me.”
Now this story illustrates a great problem in modern evangelical Christianity. The modern evangelical movement has tried to reduce the doctrine of salvation to embracing a couple of catchwords in hopes of being more seeker friendly. They have tried to reduce discipleship to maybe working with Habitat for Humanity for a week or two, or maybe going on a short term mission trip. And they have tried to reduce worship to singing a couple of songs or clapping your hands. But the truth is that true Christianity is so much more than that.
You know Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are called the gospels. That is they proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ in more or less a biographical form. The epistles, which were coauthored by the apostles through the Holy Spirit, explain the gospels. So in the 4 gospels the teaching of Christ is proclaimed, and in the epistles the gospel of Christ is explained. But when the Apostle Paul sought to write an epistle to the Romans to tell them the truth of the gospel it took him 16 chapters. Amazingly, our modern preachers manage to present it in it’s entirety in about 20 minutes or less. But I can’t but feel that we have lost most of it’s meaning in the translation.
Hosea 4:6 says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” And this story illustrates the danger of a short sided view of salvation that does not address the complete scope of salvation. A lot of people today when asked how they became a Christian will say something along the lines of this; “Several years ago, I was diagnosed with a disease, and I prayed to God that He would heal me. And then I had this operation and I haven’t had a recurrence of it to this day. And so I began to go to church.” Or maybe it is something like this; “well I used to be an alcoholic. And I finally reached the point where it was destroying my life. So I started going to AA and I’ve been sober now for 5 years.” Or maybe their story is like this; “I was in a terrible marriage. I suffered a lot of psychological abuse. So I prayed to God to get me out of it. And one day I left my wife/husband.” The stories are all different. But the theme is the same in many of them. I was in a mess, and I called out to God for help, and He helped me. That constitutes their salvation in their minds.
Now I don’t want to diminish someone who has had a traumatic event happen in their life. Very often such an event can be the inducement to turn to God, and as they come to understand their need and how that relates to the gospel, they end up being truly saved. But there is another type of person that I am really talking about, and I believe this story is illustrating, and that is the person who is drawn to God because they are in a crisis of some sort, they have some sort of experience which they consider spiritual or religious, and yet they may have never been truly saved. They may have even had something happen that seems to be miraculous in their lives, truly an act of God, and yet they have never been saved.
I can think of numerous examples of people like that in the years I have been preaching. They were religious people. They considered themselves Christians. Some of them even held leadership positions in neighboring churches. And somehow they came to some of our services for a while and they were stunned at the presentation of the gospel. They had no prior knowledge of the truth of the gospel. So when they first heard it preached, they were stunned. I’ve seen such people cry at the end of the service. I’ve heard them even call their husbands or someone on the phone afterwards and say something like “I just heard the gospel clearly presented for the first time in my life.” And yet a few weeks or a few months later they have moved on. They heard the gospel, but when they found out what salvation actually entailed, they were not really ready to surrender everything to obtain it. They stopped short. As Jesus said in chapter 14, when they counted the cost of discipleship they came up short. They thought that a little knowledge was enough. A religious experience or two was quite satisfactory, in their view. They liked the version of God that they had created and didn’t particularly care for the all consuming version of God that the Bible teaches.
Listen, if you want the gospel of salvation in a nutshell, then here it is: It is surrendering completely to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Authentic, saving faith in Jesus is ultimately a submission to His Lordship. That is salvation in a nutshell. It’s the right of the Sovereign to rule over His subjects. Every experience, every crisis, every prayer, every divine response, whether it be grace or a miracle or healing or whatever, is designed to bring you to repentance of self rule, and to prostrate yourself at the feet of Jesus and say “I surrender all to you, and I will serve you all of my days.” That is surrendering to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and that is the means of salvation. Nothing less will do.
Anything less than that and you will find yourself as Jesus described in Matt. 7:22
“Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ In other words, they called themselves Christians, they even claimed to be proclaiming the gospel, they claimed to casting out demons and even doing miracles, and yet Jesus says “I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.” They failed to obey Jesus as Lord of their lives.
So Jesus has been going to great lengths and with great patience pointing this principle out to the people that were following Him in sermon after sermon, and one illustration after another. And now Luke records yet another incident which helps to illustrate the narrow door of salvation. It’s very convenient to look at this passage and just say it’s a little story that illustrates our need for gratitude. But that isn’t the point of the story at all. Yes, we need to be thankful. And yes, gratitude should prompt us to respond to God in way that is pleasing to Him. But don’t think for a moment that this is just an illustration that God is sitting up there in heaven, kind of moping around, a little dejected perhaps, hoping that someone will just remember to tell Him how much they appreciate Him. God is not that trite. God is not dependent upon our praise for His happiness. God is self sufficient.
We sometimes paint this picture of God that is really actually blasphemous. It’s a picture of a narcissistic God that just lives for the praise of men. How ridiculous. God said in Isaiah 1: 11 "What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?" Says the LORD. "I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle; And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats. "When you come to appear before Me, Who requires of you this trampling of My courts? "Bring your worthless offerings no longer, Incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies-- I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly.” He goes on to say that because they come with unrepented iniquity in their hearts when they pray, He will not listen. God isn’t wringing His hands in heaven hoping we will call. He is self sufficient. In theology it is called the attribute of aseity. (eh see i ty) In Acts 17:25 Paul says that God "is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything." He is self sufficient. He doesn’t depend on our praise for His well being.
Now let’s look at this simple story and what it does illustrate for us. Jesus is traveling towards Jerusalem. He is heading for the cross in just a few months time. He knows that and He purposefully is heading there to offer Himself as an acceptable sacrifice for the sins of the world. And as He comes to a little village between Samaria and Galilee, He is met by 10 lepers who must have heard he was coming and in desperation to be healed come out to meet Him.
Leprosy was a terrible disease. It’s something that is still around in some third world countries, but today it is called Hanson’s disease. Thankfully there are medicines today that can treat it. But for thousands of years it was a terrible disease. It was characterized by horrible scaling of the skin, loss of hair, loss of appendages such as ears or noses or fingers. It attacked the nervous system which deadens the skin and appendages in such a way that they are destroyed. It was a terrible, crippling, blinding disease that was also quite communicable. In Leviticus 13 and 14 God gives a series of laws concerning how this disease was to be handled among the Jewish people. They were put away from the rest of the people. They were cut off from all contact. They had to announce that they were unclean when they came near anyone so that the person could be sure to keep their distance. It was a terrible, terrible disease that isolated a person from the rest of society and ultimately destroyed them.
Now in this case there were ten of them that were together on the outskirts of this village. And they hear that Jesus is coming. They know that they are going to die from this disease. They know that there is no cure. And yet when they hear that Jesus is coming they come out to meet Him. They are desperate. They want to be healed more than anything else in the world.
So they call out to Jesus, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” Now the word Master shows that they recognized Jesus as one having authority. The Jews said that about Jesus that He taught as one having authority. And undoubtedly they knew that He had authority over diseases and evil spirits as well. These were indisputable facts of Jesus’ ministry. There was never any denying of His miracles. So that is what they are appealing to. Someone who has authority over disease.
And vs. 14 says, when Jesus “saw them, He said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they were going, they were cleansed.” Boy what a difference between the way Jesus heals and the fake healers heal on television. Jesus doesn’t remonstrate in a loud voice. He doesn’t draw attention to himself. He doesn’t smack anyone on the forehead and knock them down. He simply tells them to go and show themselves to the priest and as they were going, the 10 lepers were healed.
Now the reason that he told them to go show themselves to the priest is two fold. One, it was in keeping with the Old Testament law concerning leprosy found in Leviticus 13. The priests were to examine the person to see if there was any sign of leprosy. And there was an eight day period where the priest had to reexamine them in order to declare them clean. So first of all, Jesus is keeping the law regarding leprosy. Secondly, this examination by the priests will also serve to be a witness to the priesthood. You can be sure that this was a section of the law that wasn’t utilized very often. There was no record of the healing of leprosy except in the case of Elisha healing Naaman the Syrian about 600 years earlier. They had to dust off the books for this one. And you can imagine that the priests would want to know how the lepers had been healed. This would have been a really fantastic thing; ten lepers walk in and say we have been healed and Jesus told us to come present ourselves to you. What a testimony it would have been to the priesthood, who for the most part were not believing in Jesus.
But there is one guy that as he is healed turns back and returns to Jesus, glorifying God with a loud voice. The Greek says megas phone. That is where we get the word megaphone. He came back bellowing as if he had a megaphone, praising God. And the next vs. says that when he came to Jesus he prostrated himself at His feet giving thanks to Him. Now there is a connection there. He is coming to Jesus, glorifying God and then casting himself down at Jesus feet, giving thanks to Him. I think the connection is that this leper realized that Jesus was in fact the Messiah, nothing less than God in the flesh. This is the same realization that Peter comes to when Jesus asks the disciples in Matthew 16, “who do men say that I am?” And Peter answers, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Christ is the Greek word for Messiah, and Son of God renders Him God in the flesh. I think that is what is represented by this leper prostrating himself at the feet of Jesus. I think it is symbolic of worship of the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Then Luke adds in vs. 16 that this leper was a Samaritan. Now the Samaritans were considered unclean sinners in the eyes of the Jews. A good Jew would walk twenty miles out of his way to avoid walking through Samaria. They hated them. And to some extent they had good reason. The Samaritans had disobeyed the commandment of God and intermarried with pagans. And as such their worship was flawed and they no longer worshipped in the temple, and they only considered certain scriptures valid while discounting others. So this guy that comes back and worships Jesus is actually really low on the totem pole from a Jew’s perspective. He was not only a leper but a Samaritan. But now he is healed and worshipping Jesus.
So Jesus says in vs. 17, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine—where are they? Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?” Here is the deal; the nine are healed but continue on to the priests. They are going back to what that represents; being reinstated in the community. Being able to rejoin their families, back to their careers. I’m sure they were thrilled to be healed, but the result is that they go back to the lives that they once knew.
So in vs. 19, Jesus turns back to the Samaritan and says, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well.” Actually, the Greek text says your faith has saved you. The word translated “made you well” is the Greek word sozo, which is almost always translated as saved in most other times it is used. I guess the translators were considering the physical implications of the word rather than the spiritual. But I think that it should be translated saved. He had already been healed. The other 9 lepers had also been healed. But the distinction for this man is that in addition to being healed, he was also saved.
Now quickly here are the spiritual applications of this story. All of the 10 men suffered from the same terrible disease. And spiritually speaking, nothing speaks of the nature of sin in the eyes of God more so than the disease of leprosy. You know, the devil does his best to glorify and glamorize sin. But the fact is that under it’s initially appealing exterior is a corrupt disease that once it gets into your system will continue to eat away at you until it destroys you. It is disfiguring. Sin kills the conscience, it destroys the spiritual nervous system of the soul in the same way that leprosy deadens the nerves in the skin and appendages of the body so that they are destroyed. Sin is a contagious disease. I think that is another reason that Luke juxtaposes this illustration so shortly after the admonition of Jesus in the beginning of this chapter not to put a stumbling block in front of another person. Because that is the way sin is spread; from person to person. It’s a communicable disease. It got it’s start with Adam and Eve and is passed down from generation to generation. We all have inherited the bad gene of this disease. Like leprosy, sin isolates. Because God is holy we are estranged from God. We cannot come near God. We are unclean in the sight of God because of our sin.
O ladies and gentlemen! We need to see God’s perspective of the horror of sin. If we saw sin as it really was we would stop playing around with it. We would stop courting it. We would run from it, flee from it. We would be desperate to be saved from it. And we would be desperate to save our friends and families from the ravages of sin. Sin is disfiguring. Sin is crippling. Sin is a monster that God told Cain in Genesis 4 is crouching at the door and if you don’t master it, it will destroy you.
One of the couples in our church is involved in Teen Challenge which helps people get free from substance abuse. And just last week they came upon a scene of police cars and ambulances and as they drove up they were told that one of their graduates from Teen Challenge was in the car ahead. And when they walked up on the car, there sat a man that they knew very well, who had gone through the program, who was sitting in the car dead, overdosed on heroin. I wonder how this man started on drugs all those years ago. I wonder if it was just a joint. Just a little pot, which is harmless of course. It’s fun. It’s no big deal. But how much heart ache must he have gone through. How many years did he waste being wasted. He left behind two boys who will undoubtedly never get over it. Sin is a cruel master. Sin is destructive. Sin makes leprosy look like a fever blister in comparison. It has eternal complications. It not only destroys you in this life, it sends men and women to hell.
There is another spiritual application in this story. And that is that you can have a religious experience, you can be delivered from some great physical crisis in your life, and yet still be unsaved. I think that is what these 9 lepers who failed to glorify God represent. They are like people who call out to God for help overcoming something like alcohol and are delivered, but not saved. They are like someone who comes out of an abusive relationship which they think was a result of prayer to God, and yet they are not saved. Like someone who is healed from a disease and yet not saved. Whatever the crisis, no matter how dramatic the incident, they experience some sort of physical deliverance which they even ascribe to God, and yet they are unsaved. They return to their lives. They go back to the way things were before and they forget the God who delivered them. They forget that Romans 2:4 says that the kindness of God is supposed to lead you to repentance. They go on their way, thinking all is well with their soul, and yet though they have been delivered from some physical crisis, they are still unsaved. I trust that no one here leaves here trusting in some experience that comes short of salvation.
Now lastly, the spiritual application of the Samaritan’s response. Though the other 9 went on their way, the Samaritan was sozo. He was saved. He recognized the depravity of his condition. He came to Christ in desperation. He realized the bankruptcy of his soul. He was helpless and trusted in Jesus to help Him. And when in faith he turned and went towards the priests and suddenly realized that he had been healed, he turned around and ran back towards Jesus. He runs to Jesus realizing that He is the Messiah, He is the Son of God, He is the source of life that is now coursing through his once dead flesh. And so he comes back glorifying God and throws himself down at the feet of Jesus and worships Him, praising Him.
This Samaritan reveals the nature of repentance. He turns away from the past life and runs to Jesus. He prostrates himself. That means he has the humility that God requires. He has the right kind of attitude that God requires. He may not know every doctrine of the gospel at this stage. But his attitude is right. He doesn’t just have faith, but he has saving faith. He has the correct view of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. That He is Master, Messiah, Savior, Son of God. Jesus is deserving of his allegiance, of his servitude, of his adoration, of his worship, of his trust and of his obedience. That is what it means to accept the Lordship of Jesus Christ. To bow at the feet of Jesus as Lord. To say I surrender my all to you, to be at your service. Like the prodigal son who returned to his father and said, “I am not worthy to be your son, let me be as one of your hired servants.” That is the attitude required in Lordship. This man exemplifies that. His faith in Jesus as Lord saved him.
That gospel of salvation is explained further in Rom. 10:8-10, “But what does it say? "THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART"--that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”
Listen, please examine yourselves today in the light of God’s word. Have you come to surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in your life? This Samaritan was saved Jesus said because of his faith. Authentic, saving faith in Jesus is ultimately a submission to His lordship. Not just believing that He existed. But having faith to be obedient to Him no matter how great the cost. Have you surrendered everything to Him, to do with as He wishes, to use your life for His glory, to live according to His will? That is the faith that results in righteousness. That is the way of salvation. There is no other way that we can be saved. We must come all the way to the feet of Jesus and prostrate ourselves in submission to His will. Nothing less than full surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ is what God requires of us.
Edward Perronet wrote All hail the power of Jesus name in 1780.
All hail the power of Jesus’ Name!
Let angels prostrate fall;
Bring forth the royal diadem,
And crown Him Lord of all!
Ye chosen seed of Israel’s race,
Ye ransomed from the fall,
Hail Him Who saves you by His grace,
And crown Him Lord of all!
Let every kindred, every tribe,
On this terrestrial ball,
To Him all majesty ascribe,
And crown Him Lord of all!
Oh, that with yonder sacred throng
We at His feet may fall!
We’ll join the everlasting song,
And crown Him Lord of all!
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