Easter Together - Day 26

God delights in our praise of Him. As we do we are positioned in the right frame of mind from God’s perspective.  When we do not, well… we simply aren’t.  

Somewhere around this same time of year, in the year AD29, Jesus was traveling to Jerusalem for what would be His last visit before He was crucified and this is what happened: 

"On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” Luke 17: 11-19

Now this story is not unique to other stories of healing performed by Jesus. As is typical, Jesus encounters a need, performs a miracle, then offers a statement to the effect of, ‘your faith has made you well.’ In this case, however, there seems to be a greater point. Ten lepers were healed but the leper who returned was the one which seemed to get it.  In other words salvation, in this case, was not in the request for healing, nor in healing itself, but in what followed - the recognition and praise of the One who did so.  

In his commentary on this text, David Lose, President of Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia, PA, writes this:

“Taken together, these details orient us to the possibility that Jesus instructs his followers — then and now — that faith is not a matter of believing only, but also of seeing. All the lepers were healed; one, however, saw, noticed, let what happened sink in…and it made all the difference.
*Because he sees what has happened, the leper recognizes Jesus, his reign and his power.
*Because he sees what has happened, the leper has something for which to be thankful, praising God with a loud voice.
*Because he sees what has happened, the leper changes direction, veering from his course toward a priest to first return to Jesus." https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=783

Whatever we may think today, God does delight in our praise.  When we accept Him as our Savior we have offered him our first form of praise,  When we thank Him for what He has done in our life, our praise continues. God requires little from us beyond faith, but He does delight and recognize us as we praise Him.    

As we move towards Easter Together, let's do so by offering Him all that we might - our own sacrifice of praise.  

Pastor Sam