Luke 17:11-19
It came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.
And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.
J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): What a rare thing is thankfulness. We are told that of all the ten lepers whom Christ healed, there was only one who turned back and gave Him thanks. The words that fell from our Lord’s lips upon this occasion are very solemn: “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?”
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Christ keeps count how many favours men receive from Him, and will call them to a particular account thereof.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Our Lord had cured nine Jews: yet not one of them returned thanks, but with the view of obliterating the remembrance of their disease, they privately stole away. One man only—a Samaritan, acknowledged his obligation to Christ. There is, therefore, on the one hand, a display of Christ’s divine power; and, on the other hand, a reproof of the impiety of the Jews, in consequence of which so remarkable a miracle as this received scarcely any attention.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): This is particularly remarked by the evangelist, because the Samaritans were reckoned by the Jews to be ignorant and irreligious persons, and no better than Heathens; and yet this man behaved as a religious good man, who had a sense of his mercy, knew his duty, and his obligations, and performed them; when the other nine, who very likely were all Jews, acted a very stupid and ungrateful part.
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): In this view we should not be too forward to condemn the Jews;—for have we not too much reason to doubt whether, of the multitudes who are indebted to the divine goodness, one in ten has a becoming sense of it.
J. C. RYLE: The lesson before us is humbling, heart-searching, and deeply instructive. The best of us are far too like the nine lepers. We are more ready to pray than to praise, and more disposed to ask God for what we have not, than to thank Him for what we have. Murmurings, and complainings, and discontent abound on every side of us. Few indeed are to be found who are not continually hiding their mercies under a bushel, and setting their wants and trials on a hill. These things ought not so to be. But all who know the church and the world must confess that they are true. The wide-spread thanklessness of Christians is the disgrace of our day. It is a plain proof of our little humility.
H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): How little time we usually take in telling the Lord how grateful we are for what He has done for us. This is so important. Take that little prayer our Lord taught His disciples in Matthew 6:9-13: Have you noticed that about two-thirds of it is taken up with worship—and only one-third with petitions?
JOHN CALVIN: Let us learn that this complaint is brought generally against all of us, if we do not at least repay the divine favours by the duty of gratitude.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): This man appears to have been very hearty and affectionate in his thanksgivings: “With a loud voice he glorified God,” acknowledging it to come originally from Him; and he lifted up his voice in his praises, as he had done in his prayers.
JOHN TRAPP: He was as earnest in praises as he had been in prayers.
MATTHEW HENRY: He also made a particular address of thanks to Christ: “He fell down at his feet,” put himself into the most humble reverent posture he could, and “gave him thanks.” We ought to give thanks for the favours Christ bestows upon us, and particularly for recoveries from sickness; and we ought to be speedy in our returns of praise, and not defer them, lest time wear out the sense of the mercy. It becomes us also to be very humble in our thanksgivings, as well as in our prayers.
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): But the most remarkable feature to be noticed in this miracle, as it related to this man, is that the Lord Jesus said unto him, his faith had made him whole. How is this? The whole ten were healed by Christ: and was there then anything special in this man’s case? I would not be understood as speaking decidedly upon the subject; but I am inclined to think that there was, and that those persons differed widely in their characters, and in the mercy received. What leprosy is to the body, such is sin to the soul. They were all healed of the leprosy of the body; but this man only of both leprosy of soul and body. And hence the different effects. When the ten felt their cure, nine of them had all they desired, all they asked for. But in this man, grace had entered his soul, and healed a far deeper and more dreadful leprosy there; and therefore, led by that awakening grace in the heart, he had forever done with Jewish priests and legal sacrifices, and fled to Christ, the Author and Finisher of his salvation. If my views be right, we see at once the effect of distinguishing grace.
H. A. IRONSIDE: Notice what it says: “One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet.” When you have a pronoun like that, you must have a noun as a precedent of it. The noun that precedes that “His” pronoun—is “God.” He realized that God was there in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, and so he glorified God and fell down at the feet of God manifested in the flesh, to worship and adore Him. He realized that only God could cleanse a leper, and that Jesus was worthy of worship and adoration. This man, who might have been considered the very worst of the whole company, manifested more spiritual insight than the rest, who were Israelites.
ROBERT HAWKER: Nine lepers, if only healed in body, will rise from beds of sickness the same as they lay down, never discerning the hand of that Lord, whose name is Jehovah Rophe—I am “the Lord that healeth thee,” Exodus 15:26. But the poor sinner, who feels and knows the leprosy of the soul, no sooner finds that Jesus Christ hath made him whole, but falls at His feet with a loud voice of thankfulness.
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): The simple reason is, Those who have much forgiven will love much, Luke 7:47.
J. C. RYLE: This, after all, is the true secret of a thankful spirit. It is the man who daily feels his debt to grace, and daily remembers that in reality he deserves nothing but hell—this is the man who will be daily blessing and praising God. Thankfulness is a flower which will never bloom well except upon a root of deep humility!
G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): The question of Jesus, “Where are the nine?” becomes arresting and revealing, showing, as it does, that He waits for the worship of healed souls, and often is robbed of it.
JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): If He has made us clean from our leprosy of sin, we are not commanded to conceal it. On the contrary, it is our duty to publish it abroad.
