On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. 12 And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers,[f] who stood at a distance 13 and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” 14 When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice;16 and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”
Over the last weeks the emphasis of the miracles of the Savior has been on faith…what it is, what it means, what it looks like, and we have found that it is very simple and at the same time…complex.
The Bible says that faith can be small or it can be great, it can be immature and needing to grow up, and it can be mature and wise.
Immature faith has some characteristics about it and whereas we must not think immature faith is desirable…neither should we judge immature faith harshly and without charity, for we have all been there, some of us still are, and most all of us will visit immaturity on occasion throughout our pilgrimage.
Immature faith has a tendency to absolutize methods instead of principles. We see this in our children as they begin to understand the faith, and desire to give expression to it. They become overly black and white, and everything is very simply right and wrong, sinful or not sinful. They ask questions, “Dad, is it a sin to…” And the answer that you know you need to give is that it depends. But you also know that, that is the one answer that immature faith cannot handle and will think is a compromise or relativism. After all, they have heard you a hundred times speak to the evil of relativism.
The Lord built into his word examples that are to take us away from shallow and immature conclusions. For example, He speaks clearly about stealing, what it is and what should happen to those who do so. But he also told his people that for folks to walk through vineyards picking a few grapes and popping them into their mouth, was not only NOT wrong, but a kindness that is to be allowed and even invited.
The Pharisees took the day of rest, the Sabbath day and made it a violation to heal on that day, something that Jesus was constantly doing, as if He were pulling their shirt up over their head and spinning them around 10 times just to watch them walk funny. They were boiling the baby goat in its mother’s milk; that is, they were taking that which was made for life and using it for death.
Sadly, it is not uncommon to find people who genuinely have faith, but who nonetheless take the commandments of life and make them a drudgery, use them for oppression instead of celebration and joy. There are many who seek the letter of the law but deny the spirit of the law.
In Corinth, immature faith led to lining up behind people, some behind Apollos, others behind Peter, some Paul and then the really spiritual ones, behind Jesus.
As an aside, beware when gaining a following, garnering disciples is more emphatic than is losing one’s life, or becoming less so that Christ might increase. Immature faith wants to and loves to jump on the bandwagons that pass by, longing to be part of something bigger…which is not a bad longing necessarily, but what we find is that many are quick to then line up on this or that side of the isle…to stake a claim and to look down at everyone who is not on our side of the isle…and we, the church, we are worse off for it.
Faith has a rhythm to it. It is not an outline, it is rather a tapestry, not a computer program but a symphony. Faith sees life as a moving stream being directed by our Sovereign God, both in its whole, the stream itself, but also with each and every person, situation and circumstance that exists in the stream also being directed by His hand. Faith takes into consideration that there is a context and there is a greater context. The rhythm of faith, the tapestry that faith is, leads us to greater joy in this life!
Our text speaks without confusion to this rhythm, this tapestry, it speaks to us about the relationship between faith and thankfulness. It might be easy to read this text and say, “You know, I need to be more thankful. I need to set aside a few minutes every day for thanksgiving.” That might be very helpful, and I am not discouraging any such thing, in fact I would encourage you to that if it is not already your practice.
However, there is more, there is something deeper that we must see and must grasp onto.
Jesus has just finished teaching the lesson of humility, of forgiveness and of seeing ourselves as servants who never put God in our debt but who are merely doing and living according to our identity…forgiving others, and imitating the life of our Savior. We live that way because that is who we are in Christ.
If we follow Christ’s progression we see that first there is humility and then comes the lesson in thankfulness. If you are not thankful, it is because you are arrogant and proud. Look at your life and the thankfulness or lack of thankfulness you show and to that degree you will find, if you open your eyes, the degree of pride that remains in your life.
To be continued…
Prayer: Father Forgive me for my failure to be thankful. Help me to live in the freedom of gratitude toward You and all Your blessings, adding nothing to it and taking away nothing, through Jesus Christ my Lord, Amen.
Song: Be Still My Soul (An oldie from the Imperials)