The Humble King

“As he entered a village, ten men with leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and raised their voices, saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’” (vv. 12-13). Leprosy was a skin disease. The disease, sometimes contagious, made them “unclean” according to Jewish law, so they had to be isolated from the city and from people. Wherever lepers traveled, they were to call out, “Unclean! Unclean!” as a warning to others to stay away from them. How difficult it must have been to be required to be the prophet of your own uncleanness, the herald of your own unworthiness before God. Imagine the burden of having to tell everyone you encountered that you were “unclean.”

Imagining such a life helps us understand why they call out for mercy. In our sin we differ very little from these lepers. Our sins make us all unclean. We should all cry out to God for mercy.

In sending them to see the priests (v. 14), Jesus was obeying the word of God. Before a leper could be declared clean and brought back into the camp, a priest had to examine him. Even more wonderful than our Lord’s simple obedience to God’s word is his mercy to these men. “While they were going, they were cleansed.” In the very act of turning to obey Jesus, the Lord took away their disease. With a word, from a distance, the Lord answered their prayers for mercy. He heard their humble cries. He healed them. A prayer for mercy is the prayer Jesus always answers in the Gospels.

I love the way Jesus loves lepers. I love the way the Master gives attention to the unclean. Before him is the most important task in the universe—the cross. He has fixed his face like flint to go to Jerusalem. But on the way some nameless lepers on an isolated hill call out to him, and the Savior of the universe takes time to show mercy! Is this not a beautiful God? Some people worship cruel gods who crush their worshipers, but the one true and living God does not crush us in our weakness or finally cast us out in our uncleanness. When we cry for mercy, he answers our prayer!

One of the men saw that he was healed. When he saw it, he “returned and, with a loud voice, gave glory to God,” and “He fell facedown at [Jesus’s] feet, thanking him.” He had been a leper separated by the law and social distance, but in mercy Christ eliminated the distance between the leper and God. Now he’s a healed, clean man right at the feet of Christ. That’s reason to give thanks!

Now, you’d think everyone who was healed would have given thanks to God. You’d think the other nine, when they heard this man “with a loud voice” praising God, would have turned back to see what he was saying. You’d think that the most thankful would have been the Jewish persons in the text. But it was the Samaritan who turned back (v. 16).

Perhaps two things should happen with each of us every morning when we wake. If nothing else, we should first say to the Lord, “Thank you for waking me this morning.” Then, second, we should pray, “Lord, have mercy.”

The Lord wonders, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Didn’t any return to give glory to God except this foreigner?” (vv. 17-18; emphasis added).

When the Lord answers our prayers, the only appropriate response is thanksgiving. From the moment we’re children, our parents teach us to say “Thank you” when someone gives us something. How much more should we do that when God answers our prayers for mercy?

And how much more should it be the case when the people of God receive mercy? We’re supposed to recognize the irony here: It’s the Samaritan foreigner who returns with thanks—not the nine Jewish people. God’s people take him for granted and don’t even give thanks, but this man outside the covenant of Israel recognizes what has happened and falls down in worship.

Here’s another reason I love Jesus: Almost no one reading this would even hope to know God if the Lord had not determined, before the world was created, to establish Israel as his chosen people but then to send the Messiah to justify Gentiles as well (Gal 3:8). If the Lord had not appointed “foreigners” to eternal life, none of us would have a prospect for salvation. But the Lord determined to take a people who were not his people and make them his people (Rom 9:25-26), one new man, Jew and Gentile (Eph 2:11-22), known by his name. We would all be lost if our merciful Lord had not thought from eternity past to include us.

It’s to this foreign man that Jesus says, “Get up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you” (v. 19). The gospel says to the unclean foreigner, “Come to your Lord’s feet and receive his mercy.”

We should never forget the Lord’s love and concern for the lepers of society. The Lord loves those who have been cast out of the community. He loves those who are thought of as “unclean.” He hears their prayers for mercy. He heals them. He accepts their worship and their thanksgiving. In the Bible it’s not the religious Jews who get praise for their religious attitudes and actions. In the Bible, especially the Gospels, it’s the social rejects who receive the most praise for coming to the Lord in faith.

Luke 17:20-37

Our third and final scene begins in verse 20. Verses 1-19 give us commercials for the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God produces a community of people who repent and forgive. The church is meant to practice these graces constantly until Christ comes to perfect his bride. The kingdom breaks into the world with healing and restoration, which points to the ultimate healing and restoration when all imperfections and distortions of beauty are fixed.

These “commercials” prompt the Pharisees to inquire of Jesus “when the kingdom of God would come” (v. 20). Though the Pharisees asked the question, the Lord’s answer addresses several groups.

The Pharisees expected a literal physical kingdom on earth. They wanted an earthly ruler. They didn’t understand the nature of God’s kingdom. It’s not a kingdom you can mark with borders or establish with war. It’s a spiritual kingdom that was already in their midst. Everywhere the gospel goes and people respond to it in faith, there you have an expression of the kingdom. The rule of God had already begun and was spreading, but they couldn’t see it. They didn’t have spiritual eyes to see it though it was in their midst. They had asked the question of the very King of the kingdom because they missed it!

If you are not a Christian, you do not have to search in far-off places to find the kingdom of God. It is in your midst. It can even be in you if you would put your trust in Jesus Christ.

While the Pharisees couldn’t see the kingdom, the disciples couldn’t miss it. The Lord turns to talk with his disciples in verse 22. He says essentially three things to them.

Do not believe it when people tell you they know where the kingdom is (vv. 22-23). Don’t follow them. Think of how many cult tragedies would never have happened if people would take seriously these two verses. There would be no Jim Jones at Jonestown. There would be no David Koresh and the Branch Davidians in Waco. There’d be no Heaven’s Gate cult massacre. All of these people died because they listened to someone say, “The kingdom is over there!” or “Look! There’s the messiah!” If someone tells you they know the secret path to the kingdom, point to Luke 17:22 and refuse to believe them or give them a hearing.

The coming of the kingdom will be like lightning that fills the entire sky (v. 24). The disciples can’t miss it. It’s unmistakable. You won’t need someone to point you to it. It’ll be plain for all the disciples to see. Christ’s coming will be so glorious and obvious it will petrify the world. The world will stand still in awe of the brilliance and glory of the coming of the Son of God. His coming is the blessed hope of the church (Titus 2:13). If you have this hope in you, it will be fulfilled.

There’s only one event before the coming (v. 25). A lot of Christian theology presents the Lord’s second coming in elaborate schemes and charts. But notice how Jesus puts it. Verse 25: “But first it is necessary that he suffer many things and be rejected by this generation” (emphasis added). In other words, first the Lord must make it to Jerusalem where he will be mocked, rejected, tried, and crucified. In Jerusalem the Lord Jesus will die for the sins of the world and be resurrected three days later to save all those who believe in him. That’s first. But there is no “second” mentioned. After the Lord’s death, burial, and resurrection, the coming of the kingdom could happen at any time.

The world will continue with its business. That’s what the world was doing “in the days of Noah” (v. 26). That’s what the world was doing “in the days of Lot” (v. 27). The world was going to work, partying, marrying, eating and drinking, starting businesses, planting gardens, and so on. Life continued as it had always happened. The righteous Noah warned his generation, but no one believed him. Lot attempted to warn his sons-in-law, but no one believed him. And in a moment—as the world continued on without expecting—the floods began in Noah’s day and fire began falling from the sky in Lot’s day. When the rain and the fire came in those two judgments, it was already too late for those who thought life would continue as usual. So, captivated with the hum of a busy world, they failed to consider the announcement of God’s salvation from God’s judgment. The judgment of God came against the world and against Sodom and there was no escape. God “destroyed them all” (vv. 27,29). God’s judgment against sin is so complete and perfect there will be no escape unless we escape through Jesus Christ.

God’s judgment is real, and it is coming. God’s salvation is free, and it is for you. Through the atonement of Christ for your sin and his resurrection for your justification, God freely offers to you his escape from wrath and his invitation to his love. Repent of your sin and believe on Christ before the judgment of God comes!

When the day of the Lord comes, it will not be a time for getting your possessions and going back to your homes. Those three simple words of verse 32 are poignant: “Remember Lot’s wife!” When the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, he sent angels to rescue Lot and his family. But Lot’s wife loved that wicked city. While they were fleeing, she looked back with longing and was turned to a pillar of salt. She nearly escaped the judgment, but while running away she broke God’s command to not look back. She paid the price. The day of the Lord will be like that. Those who look back with fondness for this world will perish.

But the ones who lose their lives will keep them. The Lord is fond of this saying; he uses it at different times in the Gospel. Verse 33 captures the counterintuitive nature of the kingdom. We don’t save our lives by tightly grasping them in this world. We die to ourselves. We deny ourselves. We lay down our lives in faith in order to live for Christ. Everyone who does that will keep his or her life forever in God’s kingdom. We can’t live for God until we die to ourselves.

That’s the sad truth. “Where the corpse is, there also the vultures will be gathered” (v. 37) is not heaven. Everything in heaven is alive. There are no corpses, no carrion. A corpse is a dead, lifeless body. Vultures are birds that eat dead things. There is no rapture to be with Christ from that place. This is a final judgment, a picture of death.

There are only two ways to live. We may sleep peacefully and work joyfully knowing we have a place in the kingdom of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Or we may be taken suddenly and carried to the place of death because we never repented and believed in Christ. If those are the only two ways to live, then surely the choice is clear. Believe in Christ and enter his kingdom.