One of the other teachers in my Sunday School class likes to start lessons with a joke The Sunday morning that I taught the lesson that became this series of articles, I thought that I would follow suit:
One day, in Home Economics, the class was baking a cake. The teacher asked Suzie to go and check to see if the cake was done.
“How do I do that?”, Suzie asked.
The teacher replied, “Stick a knife in the cake and see if it comes out clean.”
Suzie leaves and comes back, excited.
The teacher asks, “Did the knife come out clean?”
“Yes”, Suzie answered, “The knife came out so clean that I stuck in all of the dirty knives, too!”
As one Samaritan (out of 10 men who were healed) returns to Jesus to praise God, Jesus speaks:
Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?”
Luke 17:17-18 NIV
It sounds to me like Jesus appreciates the irony here, but perhaps He was just capitalizing on a “teachable moment”.
We are made to give glory to God, and both our words and our actions should lead other people to do so, as well. So, if some of your friends are just taking up God’s blessings and not giving Him the credit, why not be the exception who will fall down and praise God? We can praise Him both for who He is and what He has done.
Jesus continues…
Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”
Luke 17:19 NIV
In light of this statement by Jesus, let me ask this: Did the other nine lepers have faith?
Personally, I suspect that they did have faith, since they obeyed Jesus and proceeded to go to the priests. However, not every person with faith and not every person who is healed takes the time to praise God for His work. Like the “dirty knives” that Suzie put into the cake, the other lepers came out clean, but they didn’t necessarily allow others to enjoy the cake (in this case, the glory of God).
We can theoretically have faith and be healed without giving thanks and praise to God…but we shouldn’t stop at receiving God’s blessings. Considering what Peter said in Acts 2:22, just as the miracles performed through Jesus attested to the truth of His word, God’s work in our lives should attest to the truth that His followers proclaim – in word and in deed – about the character of God and the salvation of Jesus Christ.
Faith may be necessary in some cases for healing, but it is not necessarily sufficient to guarantee that we will always be healed in the way (and timing) that we want. God’s will and power is required for sufficiency, but God’s glory is worth praising in all cases.
So, what do we do with what we have learned in this example from Jesus’ ministry, from Luke 17:11-19?
For one thing, let’s be humble enough to ask God for help when we need it. Combined with faith, this provides God an opportunity to “connect the dots” for us between our faith and His power, which often allows our faith to grow stronger.
Then, let’s not forget to be grateful to God for His blessings, and to give Him praise. Like the healed Samaritan leper, let’s make our praise to God just as loud as our requests to Him. If we have publicly shared our prayer requests with others who pray for us, let’s also make sure that we’re spreading the news about God’s answers to those prayers.
However, there are times that we feel far from God. Our sin and our trials seem to keep us at a distance, and our prayers seem to – as some say – “bounce off of the ceiling”. In these times, let us remember that God reached out to sinners (including us) who had separated ourselves from Him, and made a way for us to return close to Him again. We do not have to bridge the chasm that keeps us from God. Jesus – God the Son – did that for us.
From Sunday School lesson prepared for September 17, 2023
References:
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- The College Press Commentary, Luke, by Mark C. Black. College Press Publishing Company, © 1996.
Those Who Sin Differently 