Using words

I wrote a devotion for an awesome ministry that my wife, as well as my congregation is a part of here in San Antonio, LINC, and it was based on the story of the ten lepers. We've all heard it many times, but my focus was on the aspect of words. I hope it blesses you.

“When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.” Luke 17:14

            Words have power, don’t they? Three words put together, “I love you” have much meaning coming from a parent to a child, spouse to spouse. Conversely, “I hate you” takes on just as much meaning in a negative sense. There is much power that comes from words spoken out of love, words spoken out of hate and words spoken out of anger.

            Another phrase that has power, whether coming from God, another person we’re in relationship, be it a spouse, child, coworker, parent, or anyone else, we hear, “I forgive you”. We will sin, there’s no denying that. When we realize that we have sinned and caused hurt, we apologize, and whether it comes from God, or another person, those words, “I forgive you” brings healing and restoration.

In today’s Gospel, the parable of the ten lepers, we hear the lepers using words to call out to Jesus. “Jesus, Master, have pity on us” (vs. 13b), they call out. These men were no strangers to hearing words. Whenever people came close to them, they had to call out “unclean, unclean” because of their leprosy. And probably, they heard the insults and taunts from the mouths of others. They knew enough about Jesus and His power to heal.

In the story of the healing, Jesus could have performed a major sign to show His power. He did this in raising the dead, healing others who were sick, feeding over 5,000 and with many other signs. Jesus chooses to not use His physical power through touch or a sign, but He uses words. “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” That was policy, according to the law. To be ceremonially clean, the priests had to declare that they were clean. Whether it was out of faith or desperation, or something else, all ten went to the priests to show themselves.

After all ten are cleansed, nine of them go their own way. But one, a Samaritan, returns to Jesus. He goes to Jesus and praises God. Essentially, he is thanking Jesus for healing Him. Once again, he uses those words of praise, words of thanks to rejoice in his healing. And Jesus tells the man, “Rise and go, your faith has made you well.”

There are many takeaways from this story.  If Jesus specifically says that the Samaritan’s faith has made him clean, what was it about the other nine that led to their cleansing? Was it Jesus’ point to make that in cleansing all, the foreigner, or outsider, responds with thanks and praise? It could be. After the other nine are cleansed, they leave the story. The Samaritan continues and is blessed by Jesus.

What does this story say to us today? God uses little things, things that sometimes seem insignificant to us in our busy, hectic lives, to cause change. Most of the time there is no flash of lightning, no smoke and loud noises. But yet we are changed. How does this happen? Through interactions with others, through hearing God’s forgiveness and also in receiving the forgiveness given to us in Jesus’ body and blood, broken and shed to take away our sins. We receive insights into our relationship with God in our private and corporate worship times, reading His Word, and many, many other ways. Do we always see those things at work? For many of us, the answer to that question is no. We make small changes over time, or we are so busy to really even notice them, yet they are there. For these ten lepers, Scripture tells us that they were healed on their way to see the priests. Something significant changed about them.

For us, even if we notice those changes, do we always acknowledge where those changes came from? “I lost weight”, “I quit smoking”, or “I turned away from drugs” may just be a few things that we say. In those statements, who is making the change? We say that we are. This is impossible, as on our own, we are powerless. God is the giver of life; God is the giver of transformation in our lives. The only way that all ten lepers were healed was that Jesus had to impact their live. In this case, He impacts their life through telling them to go see the priests. In our lives today, it is through our baptism, receiving forgiveness of sins, reading and hearing God’s Word and the exposition of it in our corporate gatherings that God comes to us and changes us.  In 2 Corinthians 5:17, Paul says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

Finally, after acknowledging where the changes and transformation comes from, comes the response. The Samaritan realized through the eyes of faith that Jesus was the one who healed him. He returns and praises God and rejoices. As we acknowledge the transformations in our life, do we always give honor and glory to God? Maybe we are regular church goers, and we are active in the worship life of the church, and we give our offering and maybe we are active in ministry activities of the church. But are we truly, each and every moment of every day, rejoicing in the transformation that God has made in our lives?

John Newton was a slave owner in the 1700’s who had his life radically transformed by God. He is the author of the hymn “Amazing Grace”, a somewhat autobiographical testament to the transforming power of God’s grace.

“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see.”

We all were wretches who were lost and blind on the journey of life. But through Jesus Christ and His amazing grace, we are found, we see, we are forgiven and restored. We can go out into the world, and show everyone around us the amazing, healing, transformative power of God, rejoicing in His grace, mercy, forgiveness and love, as well as showing that to the world.

Lord, we thank You for your forgiveness and healing that You gave to the ten lepers, as well as to us. We ask You to help us to see those changes that You bring about in our lives, transforming and restoring us. Help us to share those changes, restoration and grace to the world around us, making an impact for You. In Jesus’ name. Amen.