Let Me Be the One

Luke 17:11–19
There were ten of them.

Ten people crying out for mercy. Ten people who had been pushed to the margins. Ten people who had lost not only their health but also their homes, their jobs, their families, and their communities. That’s what leprosy did. It didn’t just destroy your body; it erased your place in society.

When they saw Jesus, they cried out to him for mercy. When Jesus saw them, he didn’t heal them on the spot. Instead, he told them to go and show themselves to the priests. Before you could re-enter society, Jewish law required that a priest had to inspect you and declare you clean. So, all of them started walking toward the temple, even though they were still infected with leprosy. And somewhere along the way, while they were still walking, they were healed.

All ten were healed, but one of them turned back to praise God. I used to read this story and shake my head at the other nine men. Why didn’t they come back to say thank you? Were they just ungrateful? Had they already forgotten the source of their healing?
But now, I think it’s more complicated than that. They were doing what Jesus told them to do. They were doing what the law required. They were doing what they had been taught their whole lives. Go. Get inspected. Get your life back. They weren’t bad. They were obedient. And maybe that’s the point.

The man who turned back wasn’t just healed. He was different. To start with, he was a Samaritan. He didn’t head to the temple to get his healing validated. Maybe because, as a Samaritan, he knew he wouldn’t be welcome there anyway. Maybe because the priest’s approval didn’t matter as much to him. Maybe because something in his spirit told him that the one who healed him was greater than any temple priest. Whatever the reason, he turned around. And he came back to Jesus. He fell at his feet and raised his voice, not in desperation this time, but in praise.

And Jesus says something to him that he doesn’t say to the others: “Your faith has made you well.”

In the Greek, the word for “well” is sōzō—a word that also means saved. The others were cleansed, physically healed. But this man received something deeper. A healing that went beyond the surface. A healing that made him whole.

So, here’s my question for us this week:
Do we want to be cleansed? Or do we want to be made whole? Do we want skin-deep healing? Or do we want healing that penetrates our hearts?
Are we just following the steps we were taught, checking the boxes of religious life? Or are we willing to break from the crowd, turn back toward Jesus, and throw ourselves into a posture of praise?

Sometimes, praise is the most radical thing we can do.
To pause in the middle of a blessing and say, I know where my help comes from.
To turn back, when everything in the world says, “keep going.”
To come back, not for more, but just to say thank you.
Let me be the one who comes back.
Not just the one who got the job.
Not just the one whose body was healed.
Not just the one who made it through the storm.
But the one who remembers who brought me out.
The one who knows that praise is a gateway to deeper healing.
Let me be the one who doesn’t just want to be cleansed but wants to be made whole.
 
Prayer
Gracious God,
Thank you for seeing and hearing us, even when we feel forgotten.
Thank you for meeting us on the road and offering healing in ways we didn’t expect.
Give us hearts that remember. Teach us to praise you in every circumstance.
Make us whole, not just in body, but in spirit.
Amen.
Written by Jennifer Nelson