Daily Devotions

With today’s exploration of 9 I home into Luke 17 where we find Jesus, in the early part of 30 A.D., traveling south through Samaria when he runs into ten leprous men. After the men cry out to be healed, they are sent to show themselves to the priests. On their journey they are miraculously healed of their wasting disease! Yet of the ten men only one of them returned to thank the Lord.

“Then one of them, seeing that he was healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice. . . Jesus said, "Were not ten cleansed? But where are the other nine? Are not any found returning to give glory to God except this stranger?" (Luke 17:15, 17 - 18).

Just imagine this scene? Ten miserable individuals have to call on Jesus from a distance for fear of contaminating him. Think about what is going on in them? Then consider what happens?

Someone contemplating this scene wrote this 

“I have done it myself, Lord. I go looking for something, advertising my need, seeking sympathy. And when somebody helps me, part of me is muttering He was only doing his job, or what you'd expect of a neighbour. I take kindness for granted, and do not bother to say Thank you. It was the stranger, the Samaritan, who took the trouble to go back to Jesus and became an icon of gratitude. The other nine went for a drink, feeling - Sure that's only what the priests/doctors/healers are there for.”

Yet in my minds eye I also see the one who returned to Jesus praising him. Do we too praise God for al that he has done for us. Our daily prayer at its best includes praise of God – for who God is and for what God does for us. Jesus often praised God himself, and asked others to do the same. He highlights here that a foreigner was the one to return in praise. Praising God is not limited to any one people or religion. We all share our faith in the God who creates us and the world day by day. We share faith too in the God who helps us in life, regardless of creed or colour. 

Ever-present God 

you meet us in the borderlands,

in places neither here nor there, 

at times when we are well out of our comfort zone; 

even if we don't know where we're going,

when we feel most lost, 

you are there: 

Thank you, God. 

You meet each of us where we are,

and many of us in our need, 

people marginalised by illness,

not wanting to be a burden, 

those who see their poverty or problems as unacceptable – 

feeling rejected – with faltering self-worth. 

It was in the borderlands that Jesus met a band of lepers, 

whose livelihood was begging,

whose status was untouchable, 

and touched their lives with hope. 

And it was the Samaritan,

the one most of all an outsider, 

who turned back to give thanks. 

We thank you for all we can learn 

from our sisters and brothers who live on the edge, 

in poverty, in the borderlands: 

about gratitude, grace and healing hope. 

Thank you, God. Amen.