Lessons from the Life of a Leper

Here’s another one of those hard to believe, yet true stories from the U.S. legal system.

A man who lived in Charlotte, NC purchased a case of two dozen very rare and very expensive cigars. In fact, they were so valuable that he had them insured against - get this - fire.

Well, within a month, this man proceeded to smoke his entire stockpile of fabulous stogies, and without having made a single premium payment on his insurance policy, he filed a claim against the insurance company. In his claim, the man stated that he had lost the cigars in a “series of small fires”. The insurance company refused to pay, citing the obvious reason that the man had simply smoked the cigars in the usual fashion. So the man sued… and won!

In delivering his ruling, the judge stated that since the man held a policy from the insurance company in which the company had warranted that the cigars were insurable, and also guaranteed that it would insure the cigars against fire, without defining what it considered to be an “unacceptable fire”, the company was obligated to compensate the man for his loss.

Rather than go through a lengthy and costly appeal process, the insurance company accepted the judge’s ruling and paid the man $15,000 for the loss of his rare cigars. However, the story doesn’t end there.

As soon as the man cashed the check for $15,000, the insurance company had him arrested—are you ready for this?—on 24 counts of arson! With his own insurance claim and his testimony from the previous case used as evidence against him, the man was convicted of intentionally burning his rare cigars. The judge sentenced him to 24 consecutive one year terms!

That’s what can happen when you try to get what you think you have coming to you!

Today we’re going to look at the story of ten men who got what they didn’t think they had coming to them. They had leprosy, but they were miraculously cured. Turn to Luke 17 (p. 1037) - take out study notes.

Luke 17:11–13 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

Lesniewski - 1970’s did his residency at Columbia Presbyterian Hosp. - NYC - homeless man, strange symptoms - Bible scholar - Hansen’s disease. First case ever at C.P.Hosp.

Hansen’s Disease - nerve endings - unable to feel pain - injure yourself without knowing it - sores, lesions, deformed or missing fingers, toes, etc.

Ancient times - lepers were outcasts. Had to leave their families and live outside of the village. They were the “homeless people” of their day. These lepers lived on the border of Samaria and Galilee because nobody in either of those regions wanted them. And they were not allowed to approach anyone - that’s why they stood at a distance and cried out to Jesus.

When you see people who are suffering—and especially when you yourself are suffering—the question that comes up is “Why?” Why does God allow suffering? If He is really sovereign, couldn’t he stop it? (e.g. persecution of Christians around the world)

To put it even more practically, why does God allow ME to suffer? Put yourself in the sandals of one of these lepers. Each one of them had a name. Each one had a family. Each one of them had a story. Each one of them had a heart that was breaking with pain—physical, but also social, emotional, mental. Each one had a future that looked hopeless because of the disease. There was no known cure.

Why did God allow these specific ten individuals to have leprosy? Well, I think you know the answer. So that they could meet Jesus. You see, if these ten men had not had leprosy, they probably wouldn’t have been in a place where they could have met Jesus. They would have been back in town, working at their jobs, raising their families, doing their own thing, not seeing their desperate need for a Savior.

But because they were lepers, they were outside the village—and outside the village was where Jesus was. That’s where they met him.

Look at your study sheet. What are the benefits of suffering?

1. Suffering helps me to see my own need. These lepers cried out: “Jesus, Master, have pity on us.” We are in desperate need for a touch from you.

How often do you cry out to God when everything is going well in your life? You don’t, do you?

Ask yourself this question. When, in my life, have I felt closest to God? Is it not in times of suffering—times of darkness—times of great trial? G.K. Chesterton said “We see great things from the valley; only little things from the peak.”

Suffering helps us to see our own need and to cry out to God. Blessed are the poor in spirit, Jesus said, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.

Frederick Buechner writes: Whenever you find tears in your eyes, especially unexpected tears, it is well to pay the closest attention. They are not only telling you something about the secret of who you are, but more often than not God is speaking to you through them of the mystery of where you have come from and is summoning you to where, if your soul is to be saved, you should go next.

God, in His sovereignty, allows suffering to come into our lives in order to help us to see our need for Him.

2. Suffering helps me to see the needs of others.

There is an interesting detail in this story of the lepers that we often skip over. The fact is that this group of lepers was a multi-ethnic group. Some of them were Jews, and at least one of them was a Samaritan. Now you know that the Jews and the Samaritans hated each other and wanted to have nothing to do with each other.

But here was a group of ten men—some of them Jews, some of them Samaritans— living together. Their leprosy, which had cut them off from the rest of society, had joined them together in a community of suffering.

They no longer saw each other as Jews or Samaritans. They no longer erected those ethnic barriers. Their leprosy made all that irrelevant and inconsequential. They saw each other simply as fellow sufferers.

One of the reasons God allows suffering in our lives is to teach us compassion for others. And when we begin to see others as fellow sufferers, whose lives are scarred and broken by the effects of sin and living in a fallen world, we begin to see them through the eyes of Jesus.

Jesus was a man of sorrows and afflicted with grief. Several times in the Scriptures, we read of him weeping tears of compassion for the lostness and the suffering of others. And this is what God wants us to be like. Like His Son.

3. Suffering puts me in a place where I can meet Jesus.

God’s sovereignty in allowing suffering in our lives is to bring us to Himself. That is why God allowed these ten men to have leprosy. How old were they? We don’t know. How long had they been lepers? We don’t know. But God knew all along that the day was coming when Jesus would meet them on the road outside the village.

How long have you been suffering? Do you believe that God has allowed this in your life to bring you to Jesus—or perhaps to bring you back to Jesus?

God always has that purpose for suffering.

An unknown Confederate soldier penned these words in the midst of the Civil War:

I asked God for strength that I might achieve.

I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked for health that I might do greater things;

I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.

I asked for riches, that I might be happy.

I was given poverty that I might be wise.

I asked for power that I might have the praise of men;

I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life,

I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing I asked for—but everything I had hoped for.

Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.

I am, among all men, most richly blessed.

The Psalmist said in Ps. 119: Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word. It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.

King Hezekiah said in Isaiah 38 after being delivered from a terrible illness: “God has spoken to me, and he himself has done this. I will walk humbly all my years because of this anguish of my soul. Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish.”

Can you thank God for the pain He has brought into your life? Thanking Him is the first step toward realizing His purpose in allowing that pain. When we rail against the pain; when we fight against the pain, when we try to push it away, what we are really doing is questioning God’s sovereignty in allowing the pain.

2. The Lord’s Cure

Luke 17:14 When Jesus saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

The OT book of Leviticus describes (ch. 13-14) how various diseases were to be handled. The priests were given the responsibility for serving as public health officials. If someone came down with a disease like leprosy, the priests were the ones to make that determination and declare that person quarantined. And if a person was cured of a disease, again the priests were the ones to declare him officially cured and allow him to take his place in society once again.

Jesus says to these lepers “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” Now the only reason they would do that—and they had to go into town to do that because that’s where the priests were—was because they believed that they had been cured of their leprosy.

In other words, Jesus was asking them to take a step of faith. What did they do? They obeyed. “And as they went, they were cleansed.” Their cleansing came as they obeyed His word. As they began to put one foot in front of the other in the direction that Jesus indicated, their bodies were cured of that terrible disease.

Do you trust God enough to obey him, even before you can see any evidence that He is doing something in your life? Are you willing to put one foot in front of the other in the direction that Jesus shows you—not knowing what the outcome will be—but just because you trust Him?

The lepers obeyed him and were cleansed. So often we try to figure our own way out of suffering, and we just end up making everything worse and suffering even more. Maybe we ought to try just listening to Jesus and obeying what He tells us to do.

3. The Lone Convert

Luke 17:15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.

Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

Q. - How did this man come back? He came back praising God (v. 15) in a loud voice. Don’t know if he came back before or after he saw the priests, but he came back praising God, he threw himself at the feet of Jesus and he thanked him. And then Jesus affirmed what he did as “giving praise to God”. That is significant—remember that point. He came back praising God.

Q. - Why did the other nine NOT come back? Were they not grateful for their healing? Of course they were! Who wouldn’t be? They had literally been given their lives back.

Most Bible commentators accuse them of being a bunch of ingrates for their healing, but I think that that viewpoint is wrong. It is too simplistic.

I think they were grateful that they had been healed, but I don’t think they were grateful for having been allowed to have leprosy in the first place—AND THAT IS WHAT KEPT THEM FROM COMING BACK AND PRAISING GOD.

Let me explain what I think they were feeling. After they went to the priests and were declared clean, and whole, and cured, they were thinking “Yes! Now I can finally get on with my life. Now that horrible chapter is closed. Now I can pick up my relationships, and get back to my job, and live with my family again.”

They were anxious to get on with life—THE WAY THEY THOUGHT LIFE SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN THE FIRST PLACE. They felt that they were now finally getting what they deserved from God. God had finally dealt them a decent hand. At last, life was measuring up to their expectations. Do you sense the subtle undercurrent of bitterness and resentment toward God in that kind of thinking?

They didn’t want to go back outside the village for anything. They didn’t want to go back outside the village ever again, because that would remind them of where they had come from; of the awful pain and suffering that God had inflicted upon them.” So they didn’t go back. But back outside the village was where Jesus was waiting for them.

But one did go back. I told you to remember that the Samaritan came back praising God in a loud voice. You cannot praise God in a loud voice unless you are convinced that God has dealt with you fairly; that God has dealt with you well. The other nine guys were grateful for the cure, but they weren’t grateful for the disease that made the cure necessary, so they didn’t come back praising God. They held that against God.

But this one Samaritan was grateful for the whole package. And that’s what brought him back to the feet of Jesus to worship.

We need to remember that there is a big difference between thanksgiving and worship. How often our worship times turn into thanksgiving times!

Thanksgiving focuses on me. Worship focuses on God. Thanksgiving is oriented toward the tangible material blessings that God sends into my life. But worship is oriented to God’s character and His dealings with me, whatever those dealings might be.

Q. Can you worship God, even when he is not blessing you? Can you praise Him in a loud voice even when life seems to be going down the tubes? Can you say with Habakkuk (3:17)

Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.

Jesus said to this man—“Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” He wasn’t talking about his leprosy. He was talking about his soul. The expression “made you well” is a single word in Greek - the word “sesoken”. It is different from the word used in v. 14— “cleansed”. That meant a physical cleansing, but the word “sesoken” comes from the verb “sozo” which means to save. It refers to salvation of the whole person; body, soul, and spirit.

Jesus said “Your faith has saved you.” You are now one of mine. You are now in proper relationship with God. Your attitude toward God—willing to praise him in all circumstances, willing to trust him, even when he allows suffering to come into your life—that is an attitude that God recognizes and blesses and brings into the kingdom.

What did the other nine end up with? Well, they got a physical cure, but their souls were still in darkness. They were still lost. They may have been back in the village, but they were outside of the kingdom of God.

The lesson from the life of this leper is that we will not be truly well until we learn to praise and thank God for His sovereignty in our lives—even when that sovereignty brings suffering to us.

Will you come back to the feet of Jesus praising God in a loud voice this morning? Can you worship Him, even though your life might not be a bed of roses?