And then there was one...

Leprosy was and still is a devastating disease, one that separates you from society. Lepers are outcasts, people fear being near them, they suffer physically and emotionally every day. Imagine losing all of your day to day relationships, even the seemingly insignificant ones like the grocery clerk or bank teller. Imagine seeing fear in the eyes of everyone who sees you, feeling the rejection of people you know and those you don't know, to be unable to touch another human being for the rest of your life. Devastating and hopeless.

In Luke 17:11-19, Jesus encounters 10 lepers along the road to Jerusalem. This story is both extraordinary and sobering. These 10 men called to Jesus from a distance to have pity on them... to see their physical condition and restore them to wholeness.

Christ simply tells them to show themselves to the priest - he is the one man who can declare them cleansed so they can return to normal life. The remarkable sentence here is this one (v. 14), "And as they went, they were cleansed."

AS THEY WENT... they heard a simple command, they simply obeyed and as they obeyed they were cleansed! Absolutely amazing isn't it? That phrase struck me for the first time although I have read this account many times before.

Yet this isn't the most remarkable part... verse 15-16:

"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."

ONE.... one of them came back. One of them praised God. One of them threw himself at Jesus' feet. One of them thanked Him. ONE. Wow. Sobering.

Ten men followed Jesus' directive but only ONE acknowledged the life altering change that took place. The restoration of life, relationships, wholeness. Each one of those men was given physical life back.... physical life.

But ONE. One returned to Jesus, Who asked where the other nine were. Had this one man been the only one to return with gratitude and praise on his lips? Not only was he one man but he was a Samaritan man - a man despised by the Jews for his split nationality: a Jewish Gentile, unclean to the Jews.

This Samaritan man returned with a heart full of gratitude at the physical miracle his body had experienced and Christ healed him even deeper than that...

"Then He said to him, 'Rise and go; your faith has made you well.' ” (v. 19)

The ONE: he believed, he was grateful, he fell at Jesus' feet, he had faith and it made him well. He was whole again, completely whole, not just physically but spiritually as well. Spiritual life. Extraordinary.

There is the greater miracle... faith.

Hebrews 11: 1-2, 6 tells us, "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.... And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."

Do I live my faith? Do I live a life of gratitude? Do I return to the feet of Jesus in humble, wholehearted worship and thankfulness when He heals? When He provides? When He restores?

In what ways am I like the nine lepers who took the good from Christ and never thought to say thank you? Who only thought of themselves?

In what areas do I need to repent because I have not acknowledged God's grace and mercy in my life?

How can I make gratitude an active practice of my living faith in Christ? Every single day?

Lord, enable me to be like the one who returned before he saw the priest to praise You with boldness, to fall at Your feet, to thank You... in ALL things, every moment of every day.