“Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine—where are they?”
I love Christmas time. We get to see family and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. We also get to exchange gifts. I would be lying if I told you that the birth of Jesus was the reason for the season when I was a kid, it was the gifts. The one time we would get a crazy amount of gifts, and it was not even my birthday. We even got to wake Mom and Dad up super early to open them. Now, I love watching my grown girls open gifts rather than opening the ones for me. I hope I never lose the joy of giving.
Jesus was passing through a small town on His way to Jerusalem when ten leprous men came to meet Him and said, “Have mercy on us!” Jesus saw them and said to go show yourselves to the priest. As they were walking, they were cleansed. Only one stopped when he saw he was healed, turned back, and fell at the feet of Jesus praising the Lord with a loud voice. Jesus then asked him, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine, where are they?”
I think we all want to see Jesus if it means getting healed, especially if we had a life-altering illness like leprosy. If you had leprosy back then, you were isolated from everyone and pretty much sentenced to die alone. So to get healed of this disease was a big deal. If I saw Jesus and knew He could heal me, I would be all in on whatever it took to get close enough to make it happen.
These ten lepers made sure they met Jesus no matter what! Just like Christmas morning was a do-not-miss kind of thing, these ten were not going to miss the chance to be healed. They all were healed, and only one came back to thank Jesus. But what about the other nine? I can only guess that they went on and had a great life now that they were healed.
The Holy Spirit stopped me one day and told me to be careful we don’t become the other nine. Those ones that attend church only to get, and once they receive, they check out. Your life is a wreck, you made bad decisions, and you finally come to that place where Jesus is in your sight. You attend church, cry, get prayed for, receive some help, and begin to clean your life up, and everyone is seeing the hand of God in your life. Then you bug out, check out, exit stage left. You got what you came for, and now you can hear your life calling, and it does not mean staying at church. You are the other nine!
Jesus is asking, “Where are they?” The only one who comes back to church and gets plugged in is someone you would have thought had bugged out at first. We all used to get gifts at Christmas time, and I remember unwrapping those gifts and darting off to play and forgetting to thank my parents. Don’t be the other nine who just seek out the Lord to get and never to give back. Get plugged in to church or a small group and find time every day to praise the Lord for what He has done in your life. Some churches could be called the church of the other nine because all they do is preach what we can get from Jesus. Be the one who turned back to praise the Lord for what He has done.
Prayer: Father, I pray that my devotion to You goes beyond the blessings I get because You are my Father. I pray that I display the kind of devotion to You that transcends all material things, make it a heart thing for me, Lord. I pray that my heart yearns after You all the time. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Let It Go 
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