Do you know what leprosy is? It is a horrible skin disease that basically eats away at your body until body parts fall off. If you had leprosy in biblical times, there were not any leper hospitals around to help you. If you had leprosy, you were required to stand about fifty yards away from a healthy person so they would not catch what you had. Not only that, but you were not allowed to take care of yourself. Your hair, your body, your clothes. None of it could be kept clean or washed because you were condemned to die outside the city walls. And if you ever did feel like moving among the healthy, you had to scream the word, “unclean!” everywhere you went.
Luke 17:11 tells the account of ten lepers. Jesus was walking through Samaria and Galilee one day, when a group of men stood up and yelled, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” This unruly, unkempt band of death-row inmates needed a miracle. They needed Jesus. As always, Jesus had compassion on them and ordered them to go see the priest. Why the priest? Because the only way a person could be ruled “clean,” was at the command of the priest. Jesus didn’t lay hands on them. He didn’t pray for them out loud. He simple obeyed the Spirit of God and commanded them to go and see the priest. With Jesus’ reputation well-known, these ten lepers did exactly what He said, because they knew that Jesus healed people. The moment they made a move to obey the command of the Lord, they were healed.
Think about what life would have been like to be a leper in the first century. Then imagine yourself getting healed. What would you do? Wouldn’t it seem right to go and find the one who restored your life back to you? Out of the ten lepers who were healed, only one of them showed a heart of thankfulness. He came running up to Jesus, fell down on his face, and thanked Him over and over again. Jesus was happy to see him, but then asked where the other nine were? Gone. They were long gone. They got what they wanted from Jesus and left.
How many of us often fall into the category of “the other nine.” God has saved us, healed us, delivered us, yet, we carry on in life, holding our breath until the next crisis, then go running back to Him for help. Thankfulness and gratitude require action. God gave away the one and only possession that was more important to Him than air is to us: His Son. How do we thank God?
We often show our appreciation to our friends and families by giving them something that brings them joy. What brings God joy? When another soul is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. When the orphan and widow are defended. When the imprisoned are visited. When the naked are clothed. When the hungry are fed. What we do unto the least of these, we do unto Him. Global Infusion focuses on all of the above, for the people around the world who need it the most.
