Topic: WHERE ARE THE NINE?
(Luke 17:17).
‘And Jesus answering said, “Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?” (Luke 17:17).
On His way to Jerusalem at a point in time, Jesus passed through a village in the midst of Samaria and Galilee. There He met ten lepers who begged Him, even from afar off, to have mercy on them and heal them of their leprosy.
According to the scripture, Jesus merely told them to go and show themselves to the Priests and, as the lepers were going, they found out that they had been cleansed of the leprosy. However, of the ten, only one, a Samaritan, came back to thank Jesus for the marvelous healing. The others took their healing for granted.
The story of the ten lepers and their healing is a message of hope for everyone showing that no matter how immersed you have been in any affliction, even in sin, the moment you meet with Jesus, and you earnestly seek His compassion, all you require from the Lord is something like, “Go and Sin no more”, and/or, “Show yourself to the world that your life has been changed for better”. The lepers must have been afflicted for a long time and must have sought help in various places but their problem was not solved until they met Jesus. Have you been to Jesus for His cleansing power to purge you of all unrighteousness and heal your affliction? When you received mercy, are you one of the nine that Jesus asked of their whereabout?
Whenever you submit your life to the mastery of Jesus Christ, it’s a call for higher ground (Psalm 61:2) and you should not remain in the mire you had sunk into before then. It’s an invitation to distinction (2 Corinthians 3:18) because no matter the high level you had attained before in human calculation, or the level of debasement you had descended into, Christ will lift you to higher level of distinction, especially, in your behavioral pattern. Your submitting to Jesus is a call from darkness to light (1Peter 2:9) and an instant lift from obscurity to limelight (Matthew 5:14-16) because you will no longer be in darkness for Satan to torment rather, the light of God will powerfully shine on you that evil will not have a foothold in your life. Similarly, your obscured and lack-lustred life would receive the torch of God such that your ‘light will so shine before men that they may see your good work and glorify your Father which is in heaven’ (Matthew 5:16). Finally, your submission is a move from minimum to maximum and achieving your God assigned destiny.
Most of us, even among the elect, more often than not, take the grace of God for granted and fail to thank God for even calling us to His marvelous light to partner with Him in the work of salvation. We sometimes take our existence, miracle of sleeping and waking up everyday, food on our table, loading us with daily gifts, His faithfulness which is new every morning, for granted and thus, numbered with one of the ungrateful nine.
The gratefully healed leper came back to express appreciation and thus, received the ‘balance’ of his miracle, obtaining his complete wholeness (Luke 17:19). Like the grateful leper, we ought to express appreciation to Christ Jesus always in order to be made whole.
It’s my prayer that you will not lose in transit what the Lord has done for you as a result of ingratitude in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Ven. I.K. Odunlami