Scripture
Luke 2:25
Mark
1:40-45 (also in Matthew & Luke)
A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his
knees, "If you are willing, you can make me
clean." Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and
touched the man. "I am willing," he
said. "Be clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him and he was
cured. Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: "See that you don't tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself
to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing,
as a testimony to them."
Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a
result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely
places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.
Moses' instruction for the person who is cleansed of
leprosy
Leviticus
14:1-20
God spoke to Moses, "These are the instructions
for the infected person at the time of his cleansing. First, bring him to the
priest. The priest will take him outside the camp and make an examination; if
the infected person has been healed of the serious skin disease, the priest
will order two live, clean birds, some cedar wood, scarlet thread, and hyssop
to be brought for the one to be cleansed. The priest will order him to kill one
of the birds over fresh water in a clay pot. The priest will then take the live
bird with the cedar wood, the scarlet thread, and the hyssop and dip them in
the blood of the dead bird over fresh water and then sprinkle the person being
cleansed from the serious skin disease seven times and pronounce him clean.
Finally, he will release the live bird in the open field. The cleansed person,
after washing his clothes, shaving off all his hair, and bathing with water, is
clean. Afterwards he may again enter the camp, but he has to live outside his
tent for seven days. On the seventh day, he must shave off all his hair — from
his head, beard, eyebrows, all of it. He then must wash his clothes and bathe
all over with water. He will be clean. (And we thought wearing a mask in public, keeping 6' apart
and using hand sanitizer was a lot to ask)
10 "The next day, the
eighth day, he will bring two lambs without defect and a yearling ewe without
defect, along with roughly six quarts of fine flour mixed with oil. The priest
who pronounces him clean will place him and the materials for his offerings in
the presence of God at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. The priest will
take one of the lambs and present it and the pint of oil as a
Compensation-Offering and lift them up as a Wave-Offering before God. He will
slaughter the lamb in the place where the Absolution-Offering and the
Whole-Burnt-Offering are slaughtered, in the Holy Place, because like the
Absolution-Offering, the Compensation-Offering belongs to the priest; it is
most holy. The priest will now take some of the blood of the Compensation-Offering
and put it on the right earlobe of the man being cleansed, on the thumb of his
right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. Following that he will
take some oil and pour it into the palm of his left hand and then with the
finger of his right hand sprinkle oil seven times before God. The priest will
put some of the remaining oil on the right earlobe of the one being cleansed,
on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, placing
it on top of the blood of the Compensation-Offering. He will put the rest of
the oil on the head of the man being cleansed and make atonement for him before
God.
"Finally the priest will sacrifice the
Absolution-Offering and make atonement for the one to be cleansed from his
uncleanness, slaughter the Whole-Burnt-Offering and offer it with the
Grain-Offering on the Altar. He has made atonement for him. He is clean.
Luke
17:11-19 (only in Luke)
Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the
border between Samaria and Galilee. 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."
seswken = NT:4982
sozo (sode'-zo); from a primary sos; to save, i.e. deliver or protect
(literally or figuratively):
To
save from the evils which obstruct the reception of the Messianic
delivererance, - from the punitive wrath of God at the last day. Rom 5:9 Since
we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from
God's wrath through him! This is a salvation that begins in this life - in
deliverance from moral impurity with a pardon of sin and receiving a blessed
peace having been reconciled to God - but on the visible return of Christ from
heaven will be perfected in the consummate blessings of eternal life.
This
has become a life story for me. I have not always done well at saying thank you
- to people or to God.
I now say, I never want to be one of
the 9, I want to be that one that daily gives thanks to God for all He has done
for me.
THANKS is different than PRAISE.
Praise is Thanksgiving for who God is - His attributes (ie. Love, faithfulness,
grace, mercy, power, etc.) Thanksgiving is giving Thanks for the things God has
done or has given us.
Psalm 100:4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise
his name.
BIG QUESTION
“What if you
woke up tomorrow with only the things you thanked God for today?”
Consider
how much God has done for you - for everyone - for the world since creation
till today.
In
light of that thought - hear this story that may relate to how often God is
thanked compared to how often he has blessed us.
Remembering
to Thank People
One day in the early thirties, William Stidger and a
fellow pastor sat in a restaurant talking about the worldwide depression—the
suffering people, rich committing suicide, the jobless. The pastor said, "In two or three weeks I have to preach on Thanksgiving
Day. What can I say?"
Stidger said it was like the Spirit of God answered
that question: "Why not thank those people
who've been a blessing in your life and affirm them during this terrible time?"
He thought of an English teacher who had instilled in him a love of literature
and verse, affecting all his writing and preaching. So he wrote to her.
In a matter of days he got a reply in the feeble
scrawl of the aged. "My Dear Willy: I can't
tell you how much your note meant to me. I am in my eighties, living alone in a
small room, cooking my own meals, lonely, and like the last leaf of autumn
lingering behind. You'll be interested to know that I taught in school for more
than 50 years, and yours is the first note of appreciation I ever received. It
came on a blue, cold morning, and it cheered me as nothing has done in many
years."
What happens when we don’t thank God
for His blessings - much like our parents who may rarely get thanks for all
they do for us…they will keep on blessing us even as God does. However, like
the Samaritan leper, when he returned to give thanks to Jesus, he received so
much more than all the others, he not only received physically healing, he
received eternal life. We don’t thank God to get more, but when we thank God,
He does seem to give more. Thanking God for His blessings gives us more in the
act itself - it reminds us of how much we are loved by God!
When my heart, mind and mouth are full
of Thanksgiving to God, I no linger have space to complain about anything and
so fulfill the scriptures that encourage us to speak only words of blessing to
others and to God. "Fritos
Scoops - Life ain't so bad"
May we all not be like the 9, instead, be like the one
who came back to give thanks to Jesus!
People give their thanks
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