Grace Upon Grace

Grace Upon Grace

 

Luke 17:11-19

 

Today’s passage is the story about Jesus’ healing of 10 lepers. It was when Jesus was going up to Jerusalem. This was his last trip to the Holy City and he was going to be killed there as the Paschal Lamb. Then at some place before entering a village, ten men who had leprosy appeared to Jesus. In the ancient Jewish society, lepers were considered unclean. In the extremely religious society, the meaning of “being unclean” was dreadfully serious. “Being unclean” was almost equal to “being a contagious disease.” Thus, lepers were strictly isolated from the community. If a leper encountered someone on the road, he had to cover his face and cry out aloud “unclean, unclean!” so that the person coming might be warned in advance and run away from him. How sad it is! He didn’t have the right to protect himself from people’s mocking. The most painful part of their suffering was that lepers were often considered to have been cursed and abandoned by God. Simply speaking, they were worse than nothing. If someone draws up the worst scenario of human life using his utmost imagination, it must be the life of these lepers. They were condemned physically, socially, and spiritually. Even they were forced to condemn themselves in public.

 

According to the custom, when they came to Jesus, they could not approach him close. Instead, they stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” They prayed, just relying on Jesus’ mercy. They didn’t have pride in themselves at all. They were poor and humble. They didn’t have any hope in themselves. Their only hope was Jesus’ mercy and his compassion. So they cried, “Master, have mercy on us!” Their earnest and humble prayer attracted Jesus’ attention. When Jesus saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” Hearing Jesus’ word, the ten lepers obeyed the word, and as they went they were all cleansed. Their faith and obedience was amazing. God’s word has a miraculous power but the miracle happens to us only when we obey the word by faith. Hebrew 4:2 says, “For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed.”

 

This is not the end of the story. Something unexpected happened. on their way, the ten lepers found that their leprosy had gone and the skin became clean. Then, one of them turned and came back to Jesus. He praised God in a loud voice, and threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. Luke mentioned that he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” When sending the ten lepers, Jesus didn’t tell them to come back and thank him. Still Jesus’ saying suggests that he was expecting that all of them might come back and thank him. However, none of them remembered Jesus except this one Samaritan man. only this Gentile praised God and thanked Jesus for his grace upon him. In verse 13, all of the 10 lepers prayed for Jesus’ mercy in a loud voice. In verse 15, however, only this man praised God in the same loud voice. He prayed in a loud voice and when his pray was heard by God, he praised and thanked God as loudly as he prayed. on the contrary, the other nine people were silent. We don’t know where they have gone. Still Jesus asked, “Where are the other nine?” “Why don’t they return and praise God?” “Where are they?”

 

In verse 19, Jesus turned his eyes to the Samaritan man and said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you whole.” Jesus blessed his faith and declared that he was now whole.” The wholeness that Jesus mentioned here does not mean the healing of his body from leprosy. The wholeness means that he has been wholly possessed by God’s grace. When Jesus showed his mercy to him, his heart was arrested by the amazing grace. Now he could not continue his travel without giving thanks to God. He was captured by Jesus and became his prisoner. He was seized firmly and securely by Jesus’ hand. Now it became impossible for him to drift away from God’s grace. His soul was nailed down solid and became immovable from God’s love. He now became whole.

 

 

 

 

 

Now we see ten people who received the same grace but responded differently. How much are they different from each other? You may know the word “watershed.” According to the Webster Dictionary, a watershed means “a ridge between two rivers.” This picture above shows a watershed in the Alps. Snow falls and piles up around the ridge, some on the sunny side and some on the shady side. Whether this side or that side, they look all the same. Then snow on the sunny slope melts and flows down to the north into the Rhine River and finally into the North Atlantic Ocean, and snow on the shady slope goes down to the east into the Po River and then into the Mediterranean Sea. When the snow falls and piles up on the top of the ridge it looks the same. But depending on whether it is on the sunny side or on the shady side of the watershed, its destination becomes extremely different, as far as the distance between the North Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. This is the difference between those who thank and those who do not thank. This is also the case for the ten lepers in today’s passage. All of them experienced amazing grace of God. It was the best and most exciting moment in their lives. At the peak, however, nine of them forgot the grace of God and disappeared into the shade. We don’t know where they are. We just pray that they may be all right. on the other side, a Samaritan man remembered God’s grace at the peak exciting moment and came to the light, giving thanks to Jesus by throwing his whole body and heart. When he remembered God’s grace and praised God, Jesus blessed him all the more. Then he would thank God even further and come to God even closer. In this way, his life would be full of God’s unceasing grace and his unceasing praise to God. This is “grace upon grace.”

 

Hebrew 6:7, 8 says, “Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned.” God sends rain on the land. “Rain from the heaven” is God’s grace that reaches every corner of the earth. This grace comes equally over the entire land without discrimination. It is like all of the ten lepers were healed of their disease. But while some land drinks the rain and produces a crop useful to the farmer, some land produces worthless thorns and thistles. Then what happens? The land producing delicious vegetables is blessed by God, and the land producing thorns and thistles is cursed and burned. Although they received the same grace of rain, their ends are the polar opposite to each other. For the cursed and burned land, it might have been better if there was no rain. Grace is not just grace. Each grace is a test for another grace. Each grace is a stepping stone for another grace. We should be thankful as much as God is graceful. This is safe for our soul and then we receive “grace upon grace.”

 

Still “grace upon grace” is not as simple as it sounds. It is because we tend to forget God’s grace so easily. There was a loyal subject to a king. The subject was very faithful, very wise and very diligent. The king loved the subject and promoted him to the highest position among his vassals. The king’s officials were jealous of the subject’s fortune and they despised him because originally the subject was a beggar on the street. The king had pity on him and brought him to the king’s palace. Out of his thanks to the king for saving him from the miserable life in the past, the loyal subject worked hard for the king day and night. Then he became very worthy to the king and, as that much, he enjoyed the king’s special favor and many privileges. But he had a strange habit. Every day, he went into a small room and spent a while in the room. No one knew what was in the room and what he did there. Then some people who were suspicious about his behavior reported this to the king. “King, your loyal subject is doing something very strange every day. Why don’t you question him about that?” Then the king summoned the subject and asked about that. The loyal subject blushed and hesitantly ushered the king to the small room. Do you know what was there? In the room, he kept his old dirty rags that he wore when he had been a beggar. Every day he got into the room, put on the dirty rags, and told to himself, “Look what you were in the past! Don’t forget king’s grace upon you.” He feared that he might forget the king’s grace and become arrogant. He feared that he might become prideful and think that all he was enjoying came from his own brilliance. He feared that he might turn the king’s mercy into his own glory. So every day in the room, he remembered his old days and, at the same time, every mercy and grace that the king had shown to him until now. Then every day he became full of thanks to the king and worked harder for the king. The king was pleased with the subject and loved him all the more. In this way, the loyal subject received “grace upon grace.”

 

Where are our old rags? We can find our old filthy rags in Jesus’ cross. There Jesus removed our smelly clothes and dressed us up with the shiny white robe of righteousness. There he called us as God’s children and led us into his royal court. In the past before God’s grace came upon us through Jesus Christ, we had been hopeless and helpless like the lepers and like the poor beggar in filthy rags. Then Jesus gave us a new life on his cross, and now we are building a new house on the foundation of Jesus’ cross. In building our new house, every brick is God’s grace. We build the house by putting grace upon grace. Even sufferings and trials are grace of God. The only thing we may do is praising and giving thanks to God. Then God will continue to add grace upon grace all the more. May God bless each of us so that we may be full of thanks to you for all your graces, and so that we may receive grace upon grace!