What is our response to the wonderful grace of God? Do we take it for granted? Do we relish in the gifts but forget the
giver? Do we get so preoccupied with
life that we forget to worship the giver of life? In Luke 17 there is an account of just such questions
and answers.
In Luke 17 ten lepers came to Jesus crying out to Him to
have mercy on them. In His mercy and
grace He sent them away healed of their dreadful disease. Upon seeing their healing, though, only one
turned back to give thanks to the healer.
This one was a despised Samaritan.
Philip Bliss wrote a hymn titled “Where Are the Nine?”
Ten men rejoiced to be healed. One man rejoiced in the
healer. Bliss’s second verse captures
the moment for us. “Loudly the stranger
sang praise to the Lord, knowing the cure had been wrought by His word,
gratefully owning the Healer divine; Jesus says tenderly, where are the
nine?” Are we the one’s singing His
praises or are we the nine who rejoice only in the gift given?
The world is looking for a savior. They just don’t know where to look. There are too many saviors being
offered. The One who is truly able to
make whole, Jesus Christ the Son of God, has cleansed many but is acknowledged
by few of them as the source of their healing.
Bliss’s chorus is a simple question that Jesus asked, “Where are the
nine, where are the nine, were there not ten cleansed, where are the
nine?”
In his final stanza Bliss sets forth the situation we
find in our world. Christ is doubted, derided
and considered irrelevant. Into this
courtroom of accusation against the Savior, where is the witness of the
nine? “Jesus on trial today we can see,
thousands deridingly ask, Who is He? How they’re rejecting Him, your Lord and
mine! Bring in the witnesses—where are the nine?” Let us gladly lift our voices with the
Samaritan and declare to all that Jesus Christ is the healer of men’s souls and
witness to that truth each day.
The Friday Benediction
Until Monday, my friends, may the
good God envelop you with His grace; may you prove the common confession of
faith, “I believe in the holy Christian church and in the fellowship of the
saints”, and may you be enriched with joy and hope as you exercise that
confession this weekend. Amen
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