So today PLMC cradle roll came to visit me and Siping and it was an interesting time with them. Surprisingly, we were the first home they visited in over a year cause many of the new parents didn't want visits. So anyway I got into a chat with the husband of one of the ladies who came..... It was about miracles which he claims should be so much of a norm now. In fact he feels that they are usually under reported, citing the church at Suntec probably has more but nobody shares about it. Hmmmm.. So he started sharing the story about how Jesus healed the 10 lepers and only 1 came back. He said that if the people had ask and we should ask for miracles as the Lepers did. This showed that if more miracles were shared, we would really see it in more and we have to believe. Didn't want to argue too much... but hey perhaps we should just look at the passage.
Luke 17:11-19 11 While He was on the way to Jerusalem, He was passing between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As He entered a village, ten leprous men who astood at a distance met Him; 13 and they raised their voices, saying, "Jesus, aMaster, have mercy on us!" 14 When He saw them, He said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they were going, they were cleansed. 15 Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, aglorifying God with a loud voice, 16 and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a aSamaritan. 17 Then Jesus answered and said, "Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine-- where are they? 18 "1Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?" 19 And He said to him, "Stand up and go; ayour faith 1has made you well."
Perhaps the logic is simple that if there were really 9 who came back then more would see the miracle. But Let's look at the passage more carefully. The Lepers asked for.... mercy. The understanding of sin was usually tied to the disease they had and so they wanted Jesus to have mercy on them. Jesus didn't exactly heal them, all he did was say go to the priests and in the midst of them going, they were cleansed. The point of the story was the turning of just one leper to give glory to God and the writer's touch to personally say, the Samaritan, the foreigner whom Jesus went through the town of Samaria was to contrast the second part of the story.
Luke 17:20 20 Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, "The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed;
See the point? It is not with signs to be observed. Its strange that Luke would suddenly switch from the scene of the Samaritan to "Now having been questioned" a bunch of Jews (Again the contrast with foreigners) who supposedly believed yet did not have the faith to believe that the sins of the foreigner can be forgiven by Jesus, let alone the cleansing.
This was even more strange consider that Jesus actually said these words earlier.
Matthew 10:7-8 7 "And as you go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' 8 "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give.
He specifically commanded the disicples not to go to the Samaritan villages to proclaim the kingdom of heaven. Yet here on, he is cleansing the Lepers of which the one who comes back is a samaritan. Basically, this was earlier on when Jesus started the ministry and was focused on the Jews yet he was rejected and strangely enough the foreigners had more faith in him...
My point on miracles is this... It's fine to believe as the bible clearly shows that it did occur. Yet we need to ask ourselves what was the writer trying to say when he wrote them, that we should focus on the miracles? Its quite clear that even with miracles people would turn away, see the 9 Lepers.... So perhaps the miracles were simply showing that Christ was God, the he was able to forgive sins and a testimony to his diviness. (See the parts when the disicples and people ask who is he? in Luke 8:22, 8:28,9:9, 9:18 and the climax of 9:20) This all occured after miracles... Just taking a casual reading would leave you amazed that the miracles point to Christ so that the people then could see. What purpose do they serve today?
SO anyway.. 9/10 well isn't that good a number... would we return to glorify him?
Luke 17:11-19 11 While He was on the way to Jerusalem, He was passing between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As He entered a village, ten leprous men who astood at a distance met Him; 13 and they raised their voices, saying, "Jesus, aMaster, have mercy on us!" 14 When He saw them, He said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they were going, they were cleansed. 15 Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, aglorifying God with a loud voice, 16 and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a aSamaritan. 17 Then Jesus answered and said, "Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine-- where are they? 18 "1Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?" 19 And He said to him, "Stand up and go; ayour faith 1has made you well."
Perhaps the logic is simple that if there were really 9 who came back then more would see the miracle. But Let's look at the passage more carefully. The Lepers asked for.... mercy. The understanding of sin was usually tied to the disease they had and so they wanted Jesus to have mercy on them. Jesus didn't exactly heal them, all he did was say go to the priests and in the midst of them going, they were cleansed. The point of the story was the turning of just one leper to give glory to God and the writer's touch to personally say, the Samaritan, the foreigner whom Jesus went through the town of Samaria was to contrast the second part of the story.
Luke 17:20 20 Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, "The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed;
See the point? It is not with signs to be observed. Its strange that Luke would suddenly switch from the scene of the Samaritan to "Now having been questioned" a bunch of Jews (Again the contrast with foreigners) who supposedly believed yet did not have the faith to believe that the sins of the foreigner can be forgiven by Jesus, let alone the cleansing.
This was even more strange consider that Jesus actually said these words earlier.
Matthew 10:7-8 7 "And as you go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' 8 "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give.
He specifically commanded the disicples not to go to the Samaritan villages to proclaim the kingdom of heaven. Yet here on, he is cleansing the Lepers of which the one who comes back is a samaritan. Basically, this was earlier on when Jesus started the ministry and was focused on the Jews yet he was rejected and strangely enough the foreigners had more faith in him...
My point on miracles is this... It's fine to believe as the bible clearly shows that it did occur. Yet we need to ask ourselves what was the writer trying to say when he wrote them, that we should focus on the miracles? Its quite clear that even with miracles people would turn away, see the 9 Lepers.... So perhaps the miracles were simply showing that Christ was God, the he was able to forgive sins and a testimony to his diviness. (See the parts when the disicples and people ask who is he? in Luke 8:22, 8:28,9:9, 9:18 and the climax of 9:20) This all occured after miracles... Just taking a casual reading would leave you amazed that the miracles point to Christ so that the people then could see. What purpose do they serve today?
SO anyway.. 9/10 well isn't that good a number... would we return to glorify him?
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