Sermon Preparation, Part Four: Nine Obedient Lepers and One Grateful Leper

I am reflecting on the distinction between the nine lepers and the one. They are all the same in their condition, their request for mercy, and their instructions from Jesus. However, the nine lepers do what Jesus says down to the letter. They go off to see the priests, are cleansed along the way, and (presumably) are declared clean and accepted back into society. The tenth leper is disobedient. He never goes to see a priest, it seems. He discovers he has been cleansed and turns around and goes back to Jesus. Whereas the other nine lepers are characterized by obedience, this last leper is characterized by thankfulness.

I was reading the exegetical commentary on CrossMarks, and it really struck me. Stoffregen writes,

Note v. 15 in our text. The one healed leper "praises (or glorifies) God with a loud voice." Tannehill (Luke) asks, "Why is it necessary to return and praise God?" [p. 257 emphasis in original]

That's a good question. Can't God be praised everywhere? Wouldn't the priest he was traveling to see be somewhere near a worship center? Wouldn't that be the place to praise God?

Tannehill gives his comments: "Presumably God could be praised elsewhere. Yet it is assumed in the story that praising God and thanking Jesus should go together." [p. 257-8]

The place to praise God is at the feet of Jesus. Faith, beyond being a response of thanksgiving, is seeing the connection between praising God and worshiping (illustrated by falling on one's face at his feet) and thanking Jesus. However, Luke may be telling us a bit more in v. 16. The word for "thanks" is eucharisteo. This word is used four times in Luke. Twice it is used of Jesus "giving thanks" over the cup and the bread in the upper room (22:17, 19). Although it might be exegetical stretch, we might connect praising God with participating in the "eucharist" -- an act of thanksgiving in the presence of Jesus.

Related to this, I would think that it was highly possible that the other nine may have attributed their healings to God. However, they didn't make the connection between God and Jesus of Nazareth. The nine may have been praising God during their whole journey to the temple. The one saw what could only be seen through the eyes of faith -- the human Jesus is the power of God. Later, we will be asked to see and believe that the dying Jesus is the power of God.

What makes the one leper stand out is that he connected his glorification of God with his gratitude to Jesus. By returning to Jesus, this one showed his faith, obstinate, disobedient faith. Jesus cleansed all ten (proof of grace!), but this one saw something in Jesus that the other nine did not. Jesus says, "Your faith has saved you." Regarding these words, Stoffregen quotes Green: "Here, something more than healing must be intended, since (1) the efficacy of faith is mentioned and (2) all ten lepers experienced cleansing. The Samaritan was not only cleansed, but on account of faith gained something more -- namely, insight into Jesus' role in the inbreaking kingdom. He is enabled to see and is thus enlightened, itself a metaphor for redemption."