The Returning Leper

UV 4248/10000 The Returning Leper One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, glorifying and praising and honouring God with a loud voice; Luke 17 v 15 An amazing miracle took place- ten lepers were miraculously healed and made clean by the Word that is Jesus, the word of Jesus. They met Jesus as He entered a village and called out to Him from a distance as it was required of lepers to stay at a distance to prevent the leprosy spreading to others. They raised their voices crying out not for healing but for mercy. Jesus, the Merciful One through whom God had given mercy to all, had mercy on the ten lepers and told them to go and show themselves to the priests for they were to obtain a certificate of cleansing and healing as required by law. On the way, they were miraculously healed and made clean. But only one of them thought it fit to return to Jesus, rejoicing in his healing, glorifying, praising and honouring God with a loud voice. The other nine were silent. When they needed healing they cried out loudly, not ashamed of being noticed but when they received healing, they chose to be silent. Are we like the returning leper or the nine who remained silent, who didn’t turn back to thank Jesus, to glorify God, to honour Him for the cleansing we have received from God through the word of Christ, the salvation we have been blessed with, the blessings we have inherited as heirs of Christ? In my experience even as a secular speaker and writer, only one out of ten bother to come up and give feedback to the speaker or the writer whose word had blessed or encouraged, inspired or empowered him or her. Giving feedback is as significant to the messenger as to the one who has received the message. It encourages the former and further blesses the receiver. In more than one sense, we are like the ten lepers who have received healing from the Lord, blessed by His word, cleansed or sanctified by His teaching, made whole by His touch. Like the returning leper, we should not once but daily and regularly fall on our face before the Lord, worship, praise and thank Him for the mercy He has shown us. We have to set aside our self consciousness, our dignity to praise Him even with a loud voice. While we are yet on the way, the word of God works in us to cause a healing, a miracle in our lives. We are no longer spiritual lepers but spiritual leapers and reapers of miracles wrought by the spoken word of God. We need not call out to Him from a distance but approach Him as a child would run into the lap of his parent. Having received that which we needed, we need to keep returning to Him to honour, thank, praise and worship Him. Mindless of our status, position or dignity, sometimes we need to prostrate ourselves like the returning leper in the presence of the Lord, acknowledging every word He has spoken, every miracle, every blessing He has released into our lives.