Making Praise A Priority
12. As He was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met Him. They stood at a distance,
13. And called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master have pity on us!”
14. When He saw them, He said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.
15. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice.
16. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked Him – and he was a Samaritan.
17. Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?”
18. “Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”
19. Then He said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”
Luke 17:12-19
The Luke Perspective
Luke, Matthew, and Mark are considered the Synoptic Gospels due to the fact of similar content. Each Gospel gives a different perspective of the same miracles that Jesus performed, the same sermons of Jesus, and some of the same people that Jesus met. Yet, the account of the ten lepers is only found in Luke’s Gospel. While the other Gospels include the healing of leprosy, Luke highlights this miracle in such a way that it reflects Jesus’ compassion on those considered to be outsiders and even outcasts. We should understand that each Gospel gives a unique perspective in such a way that they do not duplicate each other and yet they all provide such details that the results would lead to faith in God and the acknowledgement of Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
Luke was a Gentile physician who came to believe in Jesus as God’s Son. While he certainly knew about the Lord, he was not one of the original Disciples. Thus, his Gospel is not from personal experience but is based on Mark’s Gospel and research of the events and people Jesus met. He presented his findings to a person by the name of Theophilus, who was either a dignitary, a person of noble descent, or a statesman in the Roman government. Either way, Luke presented his full account of Jesus Christ and was himself, a true believer. Today, we read this “orderly account” in order that we too might know the certainty of the things that have been taught. Luke 1:4
Doctor Luke helps us reflect not only on the miracles but also on the persons on whom the miracle was performed. Zacharias and Elizabeth are presented as believers who had hopes for a child but found themselves struggling as old age beset them. Yet God came through for them. Luke also tells about the struggles of a man with a withered hand that religious leaders would have ignored due to their laws. Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath day to prove that it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath. Luke also presented a woman with an issue of blood who touched the hem of Jesus’ robe and was made whole. These were obscure people with tremendous needs and yet Doctor Luke brings out the fact that Jesus had mercy on them.
The healing of the ten lepers presents not only a unique perspective on Jesus healing of obscure people; it also presents a unique perspective on praise. Luke brings out the fact that praise should have been the natural response to God’s healing and yet it took a stranger to recognize the Goodness and Mercy of God over religious traditions. Nine of the lepers were of Jewish roots and one was a despised Samaritan. But it was the despised Samaritan who returned to offer thanks. This should serve as a reminder that praise is our priority and should be our immediate response to God’s Work.
Praise is the Priority
Everyone should have and does have a praise priority. Praise is a natural response to good things happening. You see praise every day. When your favorite team scores over their opponent, fans will send up a praise. When someone shows an act of kindness to another person, the response is to show gratitude and praise. Even a simple gesture of someone allowing you to enter their lane in heavy traffic is generally followed by a wave or other expressions of gratitude. Praise should come naturally.
Yet, praise is not a religious ceremony as much as a heart-felt expression of thanks and honor to the one who performed the act of kindness. Any time you add a ceremonial feature or ritual, the praise becomes cumbersome and you don’t enjoy it. This is not to say that we should just offer God anything, but if the praise does not come from a heart overflowing with appreciation, the ceremony won’t add up to much. With that being the case, let us explore several aspects of gratitude that will help develop praise as a natural priority in our life. There are four features that we find in this text concerning the ten lepers. Praise was Anticipated. Praise was Applied. Praise was Acknowledged. Lastly, Praise was Answered.
Life in a leper colony was a hopeless existence. The disease was incurable. Once a priest pronounced a person as a leper, they were to be separate from all other community life. Lepers were required to maintain a distance of 300 feet from everyone else. Whenever anyone came near they were to cry out with shouts of “unclean, unclean” in order to warn people of their dreaded disease. Leprosy was and still is highly contagious. According to the World Health Organization, there were over 125,000 cases of leprosy spread over 139 countries in 2020. The number of new cases actually decreased in 2021 due to COVID-19 restrictions of masks and isolation. So, we should never think that leprosy has gone away. There is, however, an even greater disease than leprosy, it is called sin. The wages of sin is still death. Sin is still highly contagious. Sin still causes separation, pain, and uncleanness. In actuality, all of us have the leprosy of sin that could have and would have destroyed us if the Lord did not have Mercy.
Thank God for Mercy. When Mercy is shown, praise is anticipated. Please notice that all ten lepers called out to Jesus. They called in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master have pity on us!” When He saw them, He said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. Rather than crying out “unclean, unclean,” these lepers called out “Lord have Mercy.” In other words, the miracle was anticipated, therefore they knew that only God could answer their prayer.
When we make a request, we cannot and should not demand a time for God to respond to our request. As they true worshippers would say, “God may not come when you want Him – but He is always on time.” While the lepers were anticipating their healing, Jesus was also anticipating their gratitude. When the miracle did happen, not all ten expressed their gratitude.
When He saw them, He said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed … One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. Something happened in the heart of the stranger, the leper from Samaria. He not only recognized that God had performed the miracle but went on to express that gratitude with worship. This is when praise is applied. Praise is applied when we offer the praise to God. That leper recognized that all the priests in the world could not bring about the healing. While it was true that Jesus had sent them to the priest, the best thing to do was to turn around and show appreciation to the One who did the work.
You see when we know that God will hear our prayer, at that point, we should get our praise ready. Think about it in your mind and meditate on it with your heart. That is the anticipation of praise. Then when God answers your prayer and performs the work that you have requested, we must respond. That is praise applied. Believers must not only say they praise the Lord, but they should also live the praise life and make honoring God their highest priority.
As believers express their praise, something happens in the spiritual realm; God honors our praise. Jesus, God in the flesh, acknowledged the praise of the Samaritan who had returned to give thanks. The one lone leper threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked Him – and he was a Samaritan … Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?” “Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” The praise was acknowledged by the Lord. Based on the text, Jesus was expecting the other nine to also respond, but this was not the case. Rather than demonstrating their gratitude, they demonstrated their lack of praise. In our world today, there are millions who enjoy the Goodness of God, but would rather go on about their way. Warning: this is a trap of the devil. If Satan can convince you to stop praising God, he will then fill your mind with vain thoughts and wickedness. See Romans 1:21.
That one leper serves as a wonderful example of praise. He was not familiar with the Jewish rituals, but he knew that God had blessed him. He did not know the local priest, but he understood where his blessings came from. He returned to Jesus and offered to Him the only thing that he had: his praise. That is when Jesus acknowledged his praise. “Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” The Lord should never have to ask, where is our praise? The Lord should never have to question what has happened to our praise. When praise becomes the priority, it naturally flows from the heart and from the lips of true worshippers. Today, you must decide if you are going to be a “true worshipper?” The only other worshippers are false worshippers and ceremonial worshippers. Both stand in jeopardy of being condemned by the Lord.
Jesus did something else that is rarely recognized when this text is explained. The Lord looked upon the man and pronounced him not only cleaned but blessed. This is the part where Jesus answered the leper’s praise. There was no need to see the priest because the Lord gave the final Word over the leper’s life. Then He said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” The true worshipper makes praise their priority because they know that God’s Word means everything to them. God is not obligated to hear our prayer much less grant our request. God owes humans nothing and yet He freely gives them His Grace. The least we could do is return the thanks. Make praise the priority of your life and watch God continue to pour out Mercy upon you.