Title: The Samaritan praised / Luke 17:11-19
The Samaritan praised / Luke 17:11-19
Samaria was the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. King Solomon married many foreign women as his wives while forcibly marrying neighboring countries for the sake of economic development of the country. As the strangers came, they brought idols. As a result, they built temples to idols that God hates so much in the nation of Israel and worshiped them, and it became an idol kingdom. As a punishment, God went to the generation of Solomon's son and divided the kingdom in two. The north was called Israel, the south was called Judah, the north capital was Samaria, and the south was Jerusalem.
Jeroboam, Solomon's henchman, became king over the north, and Rehoboam son of Solomon took over the south as king. The northern kingdom of Israel continued to worship idols and was destroyed by Assyria in 722 BC. At that time, Assyria captured many people living in Samaria as captives and moved people from other countries to Samaria, so many mixed races were born there, so Samaritans were treated as strangers and ignored.
So the Samaritans were treated like Gentiles, and they were ignored like animals. But only the Gentile Samaritan, who was a leper, was praised by the Lord. This morning, we would like to share our grace by examining the reasons why the Samaritans were praised and the Jews were rebuked.
1. Similarities between Jews and Samaritans
1) They were all lepers.
Verse 12 says, “As he entered a village, ten lepers met Jesus, and stood afar off.”
2) Everyone believed in the healing power of Jesus.
Because they all believed in Jesus' power, they asked Jesus for mercy.
3) Everyone cried out to Jesus.
Verse 13 says, “He lifted up his voice and said, ‘Jesus Teacher, have mercy on us.’”
4) Everyone obeyed the words of Jesus.
In verse 14, when Jesus told the lepers to go and show themselves to the priests, they all obeyed.
5) All were healed of leprosy.
Verse 14 says, “As they went, they were cleansed.”
2. Differences between Jews and Samaritans
1) Samaritan
(1) As he went to the priest, he saw that he was healed and glorified God with a loud voice.
Verse 15 says, “One of them saw that he was healed and returned, glorifying God with a loud voice.”
(2) He returned to Jesus and gave thanks.
Verse 16 says, “He fell at his feet and gave thanks, for he was a Samaritan.”
2) Jew
(1) They did not glorify God.
(2) He came back to Jesus because he was so intent on returning home that he did not give thanks.
3. Jesus Christ's Response
1) He praised the Samaritans.
Verse 18 of the text says, “Has no one returned to glorify God except this Gentile?”
Verse 19 says, “He said to him, ‘Get up and go, for your faith has saved you.’”
2) He rebuked the Jews.
In verse 17, “Jesus answered and said, Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the nine?” He rebuked the Jews.
conclusion
1. In the text, a leper means a sinner.
2. Before we were called by Jesus, we too were lepers who sinned a lot spiritually.
3. We have all our sins forgiven through the grace of redemption of Jesus.
No one in this world can solve our sin problem, but Jesus Christ has solved it.
4. Even in 2004, when we think about it, we received tremendous grace and blessings.
But, like the Samaritans, are you giving all glory to God and giving thanks to Jesus Christ? Or are you turning away from gratitude like the Jews did?
Will you be indifferent to Thanksgiving next week? Or would you like to keep it with gratitude?