Will we truly follow Jesus? "Behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

Luke 17:11-37 (NASB) from the daily reading in the One Year Bible (link on links page)

Ten Lepers Cleansed

¹¹ While He was on the way to Jerusalem, He was passing between Samaria and Galilee. ¹² As He entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met Him; ¹³ and they raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” ¹⁴ When He saw them, He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they were going, they were cleansed. ¹⁵ Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, ¹⁶ and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan. ¹⁷ Then Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine—where are they? ¹⁸ Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?” ¹⁹ And He said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well.”

²⁰ Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; ²¹ nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

Second Coming Foretold

²² And He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. ²³ They will say to you, ‘Look there! Look here!’ Do not go away, and do not run after them. ²⁴ For just like the lightning, when it flashes out of one part of the sky, shines to the other part of the sky, so will the Son of Man be in His day. ²⁵ But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. ²⁶ And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: ²⁷ they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. ²⁸ It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; ²⁹ but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. ³⁰ It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. ³¹ On that day, the one who is on the housetop and whose goods are in the house must not go down to take them out; and likewise the one who is in the field must not turn back. ³² Remember Lot’s wife. ³³ Whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. ³⁴ I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other will be left. ³⁵ There will be two women grinding at the same place; one will be taken and the other will be left. ³⁶ Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other will be left.”

Today's text begins with the account of the miraculous healing of ten lepors. Leprosy was believed to be a disease which indicated God's dissatisfaction with the one who had the disease. Those affected by leprosy were outcasts separated from the rest of society. That's why the text says these men stood at a distance and raised their voices. Their unified request was: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”  Jesus, because He came as the fulfillment of the law, as it says in Matthew 5:17: "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill, directed them to show themselves to the priests. This required these men to respond in faith and obedience. It wasn't until they were on their way that they received the physical manifestation of their healing. This faith response to Jesus confirms what He teaches in Mark 11:24. Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.   We don't always see the immediate manifestations of the answers to our prayers, yet we are to pray believing that we have received them. We are to go out confident in the assurance that Jesus will do what He says He will do.

The text tells us that one of the ten returned when he received the manifestation of his healing. It says,  And he was a Samaritan. Jesus does acknowledge this ones heart of praise and thanksgiving in comparison to the other nine. I can't help but think though that this one, because he was a Samaritan, would still be viewed as an outcast and a second class citizen by the priests even though he was cleansed of leprosy. He was not concerned with religious justification. He now was able to come near to Jesus. He wanted simply to thank, praise and give glory to the God who heals. We too should value the restoration of our relationship with God, the fact that we can come into His presence through the finished work of the cross, above any acknowledgement of man.

Verses 20 and 21 hold a key truth for us.  Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; ²¹ nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”     Behold - means to look at to see. We are to see that the kingdom of God is not coming but rather it is in our midst.  When Jesus walked the earth He said in Matthew 12:28:  if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Jesus said that the miracles He worked were evidence of the kingdom of God's presence on earth.  Jesus is coming again. But we are to see that the kingdom has already come. It is in our midst. We are actually to be the ones who maintain the kingdom here until Jesus returns. Jesus said: Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.(John 14:12)   We are to continue the kingdom works that Jesus did in the authority He gives us and the power of the Holy Spirit. If we will truly live as we are called to, in the midst of the kingdom of God, then others will behold the kingdom. They will see and understand the good news of the kingdom. They will understand that Jesus return is not an end of all things, something to be feared, but rather something to look forward to with eager anticipation.  

There will be those who like the ones in the text today continue to live their lives without acknowledging God. Human philosophies like to believe that heaven is something that most people will experience, because after all God is a loving God. Scripture does not confirm or affirm that. While God's desire is that none should perish and all should come to repentance, Jesus says: “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. ¹⁴ For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.(Matthew 7:13-14) Today's text refers to God sparing Lot and his family while Sodom was destroyed in judgment for sin. It talks about one being taken and one being left.

 "Behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.” We should live love and walk in the power and authority of Jesus. Matthew 5:16 says:  Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.(Mark 16:15)  The gospel is the good news.

Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.(Matthew 4:23)

Will we truly follow Jesus?