Title: Where We Are: Thanksgiving
Contents
1. Words that begin
There is a Western proverb that says, “The most difficult math problem to teach is to count our blessings.”
It is not, but there are very few people who know and appreciate the blessings of God the Creator that they received as creatures. Later in Romans 14:23,
It is said, “Anything that is not of faith is sin.” However, there are few people who know and appreciate God's blessing that they live immortal despite their slavery to sin, and that it is God's love waiting for the day to repent and believe.
Those who know and appreciate the blessings and graces received from God or people glorify God, give that person a sense of worth, and bring the beauty of life to those who see and hear them.
As I read the article in the Chosun Ilbo that Korea was the only country on earth that developed into a donor among countries that received aid, I thanked God for blessing me and all those who became the driving force for the development of the country.
2. The pleas of ten lepers
When Jesus was going to Jerusalem, while passing between Samaria and Galilee, he came into a village.
Then ten lepers met Jesus, stood afar off, and lifted up their voices,
“Jesus Teacher, have mercy on us,” he cried.
Leprosy is one of the most unfortunate calamities that can happen to humans.
Leviticus 13-14 and the Mishna fragment Negaim, a compilation of traditional interpretations of the law, dealt with leprosy in detail.
A person with leprosy lived but was considered dead.
In fact, healing a leper was as difficult as reviving the dead.
The leper was considered unclean and was therefore quarantined.
According to Leviticus 13:45 et seq., the leper had to ripped his clothes, had his hair uncovered, covered his upper lip, and shouted 'unclean' and 'unclean' to prevent others from approaching.
In the days of Jesus, there was a quarantine rule that lepers were not allowed to enter Jerusalem and other cities that had been walled since ancient times.
Lepers could stay in other areas, but had to live outside their settlements.
This was because contact with lepers was considered unclean.
Since rabbinic theology regarded leprosy as a divine punishment for their sins, the leper was treated as a cursed sinner.
Therefore, the leper had a painful self-consciousness that he had been abandoned by God.
A person who was cured of leprosy was able to live like an ordinary person only after offering a sacrifice in the temple in Jerusalem and receiving confirmation from the priest.
In a word, the leper suffered from physical pain, mental pain from being separated from his family, and spiritual pain caused by the misunderstanding that he was cursed by God.
After all, the biggest pain was a feeling of hopelessness that could not be recovered.
However, there was a blessing factor in the terrible misfortune.
Nine out of ten lepers were Jews and one was Samaritan.
The wretched leprosy fulfilled the longing between the Jews and the Samaritans and brought them together. Finding happiness in unhappiness is the way to overcome unhappiness. After resolving their long-standing resentment, the ten lepers who became a group were able to meet Jesus, the light of hope.
Because they were living in pain worse than death, they could hear and meet rumors of Jesus who performed wonders and miracles, such as exorcising demons and healing incurable patients.
The ten lepers did not miss a golden opportunity.
Because of leprosy, he couldn't even touch Jesus' clothes, but he did not give up and stood at a distance and raised his voice.
“Jesus Teacher, have mercy on us,” he cried.
The Greek word for “have mercy” is ele eson (?λ?ησον), which means that the feeling of helping is manifested in action.
What I regret is that I did not believe in Jesus as my Savior, nor did I seek holistic salvation.
It is simply asking for a cure for leprosy. Even so, they had faith that Jesus would cure leprosy, an incurable disease and a cursed unclean disease.
They were people of faith that Jesus of love could have compassion on.
There is no person like leprosy without a problem beyond which human power cannot solve it.
There is no one who does not need the mercy of the Lord Jesus.
Therefore, the most serious life problem that cannot be compared with any other life problem is thinking that we do not need the mercy of the Lord Jesus.
Those who think that they can solve everything with human strength without the help of the Lord Jesus are truly pitiful people.
May we all become people of faith who can receive the Lord's help.
3. The command of the Lord Jesus and the obedience of the lepers
Hearing the cry of the lepers, Jesus gave an incomprehensible command.
According to the law, go to the temple, offer sacrifices, show yourself to the priest, and receive confirmation that you have been healed.
The plural of priests (hierucin, ?ερε?σιν) was used because the priests who had to see and confirm the healed body were different in the case of Jews and Samaritans. Also, the same Jews would show their healed bodies to the priests who were close to each other's houses.
Perhaps the Samaritan had to go to the priest in the temple on Mount Gerizim.
However, what is really difficult to understand is that he does not say to go while healing leprosy, and not to say to go after he has been cured, but rather to go as he is in his diseased body. Since you asked the Lord Jesus, you have to believe that you are fully healed, regardless of whether you have been laid on your hands or not, or whether you have received an eye examination or not.
At the decisive moment, the faith of ten lepers was tested.
Their faith was not a dead faith without works, but a living faith with works.
They believed and obeyed the words of the Lord Jesus, and on the way, they experienced a miracle of being completely healed and completely healed.
Mark 11:24 says, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
In Exodus 14:15 and below, God did not command the children of Israel to go out toward the Red Sea after God parted the Red Sea to Moses, who cried out from among the Egyptians after the Red Sea.
God told Moses to first command the children of Israel to go out toward the Red Sea, and then take up the staff and stretch out their hands over the sea to part the Red Sea.
As we obeyed first, the Red Sea parted and a road was created.
The measure of faith is not the status of a deacon, a priest, or an elder, nor the status of a theologian, a superintendent, a bishop, a presbytery, or a moderator, but obedience.
Faith that obeys the word of the Lord is bound to show miraculous grace and blessings that come true according to the word.
The word of God, which has infinite qualitative difference from human beings, does not come to be obeyed after realization, but to be realized after obedience.
Whenever we have a very serious and urgent problem, especially when there is a problem of force majeure, all we have to do is pray, just obey our orders, believe and be thankful that it has been solved.
The ten lepers who believed and obeyed Jesus were healed of their diseases and were blessed with clean bodies.
But only one of them, a Samaritan, came back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and fell down at Jesus' feet to give thanks.
Gratitude is another measure of faith.
If you do not believe in Jesus as a simple healer or exorcist, but as the Savior of eternal life who leads you to heaven, you can even give thanks that is difficult to understand.
In the Talmud, “If only one leg is amputated, thank God that both legs were not amputated. If both legs are amputated, thank God that the neck is not broken. There is a saying, “If you break your neck, you have nothing to worry about after that.”
Gratitude, not resentment, opens a new path.
When Jesus returned and saw one man giving thanks, he lamented, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Has no one returned to glorify God except these Gentiles?"
And he declared to the Samaritan who gave thanks, “Rise and go, for your faith has saved you.”
4. Conclusion
All people of faith have experiences of not only the grace of redemption, but also life problems such as leprosy, which have been resolved through prayer and obedience. In addition, we are living while receiving the grace and blessings necessary for life from time to time.
However, there are very few people who fully know God's wonderful grace and blessings and glorify God with thanksgiving.
Shakespeare said, "Blow, blow, cold wind of winter, how cold you are, better than the ungrateful."
(Poongseong Methodist Church. Book: Complete Commentary on 27 New Testament Books/ Interpretation of Difficult Scriptures I, II/ Salvation Before Jesus Came/Paul’s Understanding of Man/ Prosperity Prayer/ Seasonal Sermonbooks/ Sermonbook 18. -3051)