THE REAL MIRACLE

THE REAL MIRACLE, A THANKFUL HEART

Luke 17:15-16 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan.

The stories of the miracles of Jesus are full of divine revelation. Today’s verse describes a heart bursting with thanks after being healed by The Lord. This was no average, ordinary miracle. This man was healed of leprosy. Leprosy was a feared disease at the time of Christ. Your life was over, outcast and doomed to a life of solitude, suffering, and poverty. That was all over now, this man was healed. He couldn’t contain his joy or his thankfulness. His heart was absolutely bursting and overflowing with praise. He had been given his life back. The unusual behavior here wasn’t the passion of the healed leper, the stunning behavior is in the unthankfulness of the nine other lepers who never returned to give thanks. They got there miracle and they were out of here. Ungratefulness is rooted in the hearts of our fallen race. The greatest miracle that day was the one we see in the man who returned. Not only was he healed, his heart was made brand new. Here are some comments from Matthew Henry on this verse.

“The particular notice Christ took of him, of the grateful return he made, and the ingratitude of those that were sharers with him in the mercy—that he who was a stranger to the commonwealth of Israel was the only one that returned to give glory to God. How rich Christ is in doing good: Were there not ten cleansed? Here was a cure by wholesale, a whole hospital healed with one word’s speaking. There is an abundance of healing cleansing virtue in the blood of Christ, sufficient for all his patients, though ever so many. Here are ten at a time cleansed; we shall have never the less grace for others sharing it. How poor we are in our returns: “Where are the nine? Why did not they return to give thanks?” This intimates that ingratitude is a very common sin. Of the many that receive mercy from God, there are but few, very few, that return to give thanks in a right manner, that render according to the benefit done to them. It intimates how justly he resents the ingratitude of the world of mankind, for whom he had done so much, and from whom he has received so little.”

The real sign of a changed life is the fruit we see in the heart. Everyone on the earth receives daily miracles from The Lord. Miracles like health, provision, and protection are all around all of us. These nine lepers who were healed and didn’t return to give thanks didn’t get it. God was there just to do their biding in their minds. They never realized that they could have received more than just physical health, they could have been made whole.