THE GOSPEL OF LUKE: - Vital Christianity

151INGRATITUDEThe Healing of the Ten LepersLuke 17:11-19“God has two dwellings—one in heaven and the other in a thankful heart.”--Isaak Walton“When you drink from the stream remember the spring.”--Chinese ProverbIt is likely that our Lord set out from Capernaum, journeyed through the remainingvillages of Galilee as far as Samaria, and then passed through the small country of Samaria,preaching and teaching every where, and curing the diseased, as He usually did.”Now on His way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samariaand Galilee” (17:11).Luke mentions three times in this section that Jesus went to Jerusalem. Three differenttimes Jesus interrupted the journey to go into the religious capital of Israel on specific missions,each time returning to take up the final campaign as before. Just before this Jesus had gone toBethany to raise Lazarus from the dead, after which He withdrew for a while to Ephraim in thehills north of Jerusalem, later going through Samaria and Galilee to resume that journey toJerusalem.THE LEPERS ASK FOR PITY (17:12-13)“ As He was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met Him. They stoodat a distance and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!"(vv. 12-13)The dreadful malady of leprosy was a terrible scourge of Mid-East cities in the times ofChrist; and, for that matter, still is. The disease itself was considered a type of sin, notnecessarily related to specific sins of the victims. They kept a distance because they wereforbidden by law and custom to come near those who were healthy for fear of infecting them(Lev 13:45-46; Nu 5:2; 2 Ki 15:5).Sin reduced these men to a common level before God:. 1. It made them unclean