As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem, he traveled through Samaria and Galilee. As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him. They stood at a distance from him and raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!” Luke 17:11–13
This story begins very well for all ten of these lepers.
For nine of them, it ends tragically. For one, it ends in an even better and
more glorious way than it began.
The lepers represent us all. Their illness was a symbol
of all sin and the consequences of sin. When the disease began, the lepers
began to experience the effects of their disease. Discolored and thick dry
skin, sores, and rashes would set in. Once detected, each leper was removed
from the community to stop the spread of the disease and was only free to
associate with other lepers. They no longer could gather freely with their
loved ones as the lepers entered isolation and shame. Analogously, all sin has
similar effects. Sin causes pain within our souls as we discover the growing
wounds it causes. Sin affects our relationships and our ability to freely
relate to those whom we love.
The initial cure for sin is simple. We cry out, “Jesus,
Master! Have pity on me!” But that is only the first step. By curing the
lepers, Jesus was showing us that He had power over our sin. He could forgive
us and will forgive us when we seek His mercy. But forgiveness will end in
tragedy if it does not lead us to faith and to a following of the will of God
with zeal and determination. If we take the forgiveness of sins for granted,
then we will be in an even more miserable state than before. The nine lepers
who failed to return and give thanks to God represent those who do not convert
their lives when touched by God’s merciful hand.
This story highlights the importance of our response to
God when He does touch us. We must glorify God with a loud voice, fall on our
knees before Him and express our deepest gratitude. When the one leper does
this, Jesus says to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.” That
mercy from our Lord was a mercy that touched his soul. It imparted the gift of
faith and enabled this man to go forth and be healed with eternal graces.
Too often we turn to God in prayer only when we have a
problem. Then, once the problem is taken care of, we pay little to no attention
to our Lord. God’s role in our lives is not to fix our problems so that we can
then go about our daily lives as normal. His mercy must evoke ongoing and
profound gratitude. Gratitude to God is nothing other than an acknowledgement
of the truth. We owe everything to God. Without Him, we are nothing. We are
dead in our sins. Just one leper realized this and was blessed with the gift of
faith that saved not only his body, but also his soul.
Reflect, today, upon the ways in which you turn to God in
prayer. It is good to come to Him with your needs and problems. It is good to
cry out “Jesus, Master! Have pity on me!” It is good to come to Him as the
Physician of your soul and the source of healing you need. But that is not
enough. In fact, if you stop there in your life of prayer, you will end in a
most miserable state. You will be using God for your selfish advantage. Reflect
upon whether you are able to take the next and most important step in faith. Do
you come to Him when all is well? Do you praise Him with all your might for all
that He has done for you? Do you fall on your knees before Him with the deepest
gratitude in your heart? Reflect upon your prayer and seek to imitate this one
leper. If you do, your faith will also save you and our Lord will invite you to
rise and go forth, healed in the truest way possible.
Most merciful Lord, You are able to do all things. You are able to heal all my wounds, forgive my sins and solve every problem I encounter. As I cry out to You in my need, please do heal me. In response, may I always turn back to You with the deepest gratitude and praise so that my faith in You will grow and my love for You will truly flourish. Jesus, I trust in You.
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