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Luke 17:12-19 - As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance ¹³ and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" ¹⁴ When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed. ¹⁵ One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. ¹⁶ He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him-- and he was a Samaritan. ¹⁷ Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? ¹⁸ Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" ¹⁹ Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well."

This is a simple story this morning, simple but powerful with three very important implications for our life. There are ten lepers, outcasts from their community, unclean, with no hope, no access to the temple for worship of God. Leviticus 13:46 says “anyone with an infectious skin disease must live outside the camp.” So you can imagine how the lepers must have felt when they heard about Jesus, the miracle worker, the healer. And so they cry out to Jesus from outside the village, asking Jesus to have pity on them. And Jesus tells them to go and show themselves to the priests, because the priests were the ones who could declare them to be clean. And on the way there, they are healed.

Now, you can imagine that wherever Jesus went, people wanted to hear him, wanted to be healed by him, wanted to touch him. And these men no doubt are shouting louder than the rest, more insistent on getting an audience with Jesus. The ten lepers, because of the severity of their suffering, are full of desperation. And apparently, from the healing they receive, we see that God welcomes such desperation. He is not put off by those who plead with him out of their suffering and pain and loneliness. He does not demand that they submit a formal request so that he can get to it in the order it was received. No – he hears them and he responds.