November 14

And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: and they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. - Luke 17:12-13.

OBSERVE, the name of the village into which our Saviour now entered is not mentioned, but we read that there met him ten men that were lepers. To them the meeting was perfectly accidental, but not to him. Nothing occurs by chance in his operations. He is master of events and circumstances; he foreknows them, ordains them, procures them, dispenses them, and he would teach us never to separate his agency from what is contingent on other things. “The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing of it is of the Lord.”

Observe these petitioners, and their miserable condition. How instructive and edifying the spectacle. They were lepers. There are some who think very lightly of sin; but surely it has done enough to induce us to call it “exceeding sinful,” and to excite all our abhorrence of it. How many evils has it gendered? It has turned our earth into a vale of tears, and our world so far into a hospital. It has rendered the body mortal, and sown in it the seeds of disease, which ripening by external influences prove malignant, and bring forth fruit unto death.

Observe their diversity. What a mixture is here. It is remarkable that we find among these ten lepers nine Jews, and one Samaritan. The “Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans;” they could not endure the presence of each other; they were to each other objects of mutual envy and dislike, hatred and exclusion. But there is a force in affliction to soften prejudice and to remove alienation. We find Esau and Jacob, after all their quarrels, weeping together over the remains of their father Isaac.

Observe their position. They “stood afar off.” The disorder was supposed to have been an immediate infliction of God, and to have been incurable by any human means. It was also considered to be infectious, and the sufferer became a kind of exile, being forbidden to approach either the camp or the congregation. But Jesus was passing by, and they were near enough, by a united utterance, to make themselves heard; and therefore observe their prayer. They lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”

By “mercy” they intended a cure. This was all in all with them for the present. And what a mercy is health. These men must have known something of our Saviour, or they would not and could not have addressed him as they did. They had heard something of Jesus: his fame was spread abroad: it was made known especially by those who had been the subjects of his delivering mercy; for even when he enjoined silence on the recipients of his favour, the more abundantly, it is said, “they published abroad all that had been done.”