Greetings in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.    
But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.  (James 1:6-7)
Jesus was always full of mercy and compassion.  He went through towns and villages, and healed the sick, gave the hope to the people suffering, and touched them with His heavenly comfort and peace.   Wherever Jesus went, there was healing and comfort among the people gathered around Jesus.   Jesus was the source of peace and grace in the love of God from heaven.   Jesus also continued preaching the Gospel, and taught them with the truth and love, which was His mission on earth.   However, His greatest mission was to take up the sins for the world, and to be sacrificed on the cross.  Through Him, all of our sins are forgiven, and by Him, we have become God’s children.  Now we can come to God without fear and call Him our Ever-Loving Father. 
Jesus knew His time had come.   From the region of Galilee, He went down to Jerusalem, where He was eventually sacrificed as the perfect and sinless lamb for the sins of the world.   Yes, He had no sin at all, and He died on the cross for us.   He had just started His last journey to Jerusalem with His love for His people.    Jesus even told to His disciples,
There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  (John 15:13)
He called His disciples as His friends.  In reality, none of them was faithful as Jesus did to them, but Jesus chose them in His Love.   Soon, all the disciples fled or even one disciple disowned and cursed at Jesus before a servant girl.   When Jesus was dragged to the infamous court that was set up to condemn Him, no one, even one single disciple was with Him.  The twelve disciples lived together with Jesus for three years, ministering together to proclaim God’s message and increase His kingdom.  They all eye-witnessed numerous miracles performed by Jesus.  They even could not count how many time they heard Jesus’ loving, comforting and peaceful messages because they heard too many.  However, when a trial came, all left.   Jesus knew what His disciples would do ahead of the time, but He loved His disciples till the end.   This is the Love of Jesus.  Then after His resurrection, He came to the disciples who failed miserably before the trail.   First Jesus mended their pains and shames in their hearts with His love.   Jesus never asked why they disowned Him.  Instead, He asked, “do you love me?”   Not just once.  He asked three times to restore His beloved disciples.   Jesus’ love washed away their shame, pains and sins in their hearts.   Jesus showed example how to love each other and how to forgive and restore brothers and sisters in Christ.  Today, the same Jesus touches our hearts with His love.  Why? He is love.   He just wants to love you because we are His children. He is always ready to embrace us and forgive us in His love.   He just wants for us to come to Him, where His unfathomable love is abound.  What a blessing to all of us, how believe in Jesus!
As Jesus continued His journey south toward Jerusalem to fulfill His ultimate mission on earth.   He reached the border between Galilee and Samaria.  There were ten lepers.  Because of the leprosy, they had to separate from their families and had to live outside of the town.  At that time, it was strictly prohibited for lepers to come to contact with any people without leprosy according to the Jewish law.   Thus, they moved out and lived outside of the town.  Nobody welcomed them because of the leprosy.   The leprosy’s initial symptom was just a discolored patches of skin, usually flat, that may be numb and look faded (deeper than the skin around).   As it progresses, the damage on nerves is getting severe, which leads to muscle weakness and paralysis, even to blindness and the disfigurement of nose, and shortening of toes and fingers.   Nobody wanted to get closed to lepers, and lepers lived together.  
The ten lepers, who were lived outside of the town, heard about Jesus, who healed the sick and lepers.    This gave them hope, and they waited to see Jesus.  Their dream was always to go back to their families and have their lives back.   One day they heard that Jesus was actually come to their town.  They ran out to the road where the Jesus was coming so that they could catch Jesus before He was getting into the town.  If so, then it became too late, because they could not follow Jesus by entering the town, which was not allowed.   They were eagerly watching out for Jesus outside the town.   As they saw Jesus coming at a distance, they cried out.   They could not get close Jesus and the people accompanying Him due to the leprosy, and they just cried out to Jesus from a distance.
They truly worried.  If Jesus did not hear them, and went into the town, then the lifetime opportunity would be over.   Thus, with an even louder voice, they cried out so that they could get Jesus’ attention,
“Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”  (Luke 17:13 b)
At a distance, Jesus heard their cry and stopped.    Then Jesus looked at them, and said,
“Go show yourselves to the priests.”  (Luke 17:14p)
Jesus’ answer seems a completely non-sense.  It is not.   In the Old Testament, one whole chapter of Leviticus 13 is dedicated to leprosy.   A priest is the only person who can examine and pronounce a leper is clean.  Then the leper can go back to his home and live with his family.   Only is the issue that showing off a priest is the last step.   Before showing to a priest, one’s leprosy should be healed first.  
Let’s be in the shoes of the ten lepers.   We really want to be healed by Jesus.   We cried out to Jesus for His mercy of healing of leprosy.   Then Jesus suddenly tells us to go to the priests to show ourselves.  Wait a minute.  Jesus did nothing on our leprosy.  He did not say anything about healing of the leprosy, which was the main reason why we had to live outside of the town.    We looked at our bodies, but nothing was changed.    Then what will we do?   Should we ask Jesus again to heal our leprosy first before sending us to the priests?    If not, what’s the point to go to the priests with the same body with the hateful leprosy?  
Here is what the ten lepers did.   They blindly followed what was told by Jesus.   They went to the priest although their bodies were still suffering from leprosy.   Even so, they walked to the temple where the priests were.  However, on the way, they suddenly realized that their bodies started healing!   Soon their bodies were completely healed from the leprosy.   They could not believe what was happening.   It was a truly miracle, and they were truly in joy.   Soon there were pronounced by the priests “clean.”   How long did they dream about this moment since being isolated from their families?    Without knowing, they were already running to the priests.   It was the most joyful moment in their lives.
One of the ten lepers suddenly stood still, while the others continued running to the priests.   As the nine lepers were disappearing from the eye sights of the one leper, he gave a thought on what to do.   The town was on the border between Galilee and Samaria, both the nine Jewish lepers and one Samaritan leper lived together.   (At that time, the Jews did not associated with non-Jews such as Samaritans.)   When they were healed, one Samaritan realized that he would not no longer associated with the rest nine Jewish lepers.   He was no longer part of the rest.   He turned back and saw Jesus, who was so merciful to heal himself although he a Samaritan.  Yes, Jesus loved both Jews and Samaritans not like the other Jews at that time.   As the Samaritan Jew was looking at Jesus’ face, his heart was filled up with Jesus’ love and compassion.    
He knew what to do.   Instead of following the other nine Jewish lepers, he ran back to Jesus shouting, “Praise God!”    Then, he fell to the ground at Jesus’ feet, thanking him for what he had done.   He knew he was not worthy like the other nine lepers to get Jesus’ healing, but Jesus equally loved him.  His   heart started being overflown by the love of Jesus.   From the deepest part of his heart, he gave thanks to Jesus for His healing in His mercy and love.
Jesus saw the Samaritan lovingly for a while.
Jesus asked, “Didn’t I heal ten men? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?”  (Luke 17:17)
Yes, there was nobody except the Samaritan, who came back to Jesus.   He was the foreigner and a gentile, who was looked down on by Jews.  
How about us?   When we got what we have prayed for, what was our first response?    Were we in joy calling family to tell what happened?   Or immediately going back to God and humbly bowing down to God to give our thanks to Him?   The Samaritan was the only one out of the ten, and who was the least expected non-Jew Samaritan.    The nine Jewish lepers were in joy for themselves while focusing on their return to families.   What a contrast between the least expected Samaritan and the nine Jews after being healed from the miserable leprosy!
And Jesus said to the man, “Stand up and go. Your faith has healed you.”   (Luke 17:19)
Jesus, who was full of mercy and grace, gave His unfathomable blessing on the Samaritan, who was a foreigner and a gentile.   Indeed, the Samaritan was only one who got both Jesus’ physical healing and blessings of Jesus of healing of His heart too. 
Do we have a problem that we cannot deal with any more in our life?    Come to Jesus, and cry out to Jesus for His mercy.    He will answer to you in His mercy and grace.  Then let’s not forget to come back to Jesus and give our genuine thanksgiving from the deepest part of our hearts.     
Jesus is always waiting for us with His open arms, and He loves to hear our life story – our pains, desires and burdens.   Then He will loving answer to us with His heavenly comfort, peace and blessings.   Yes, what we need is to come to Jesus.   He welcomes all of us regardless who we are, what we are, and what we have done because He loves us.   He carefully hears our heart’s cry – “Jesus, Our Lord, have mercy on me.”   Then He will answer to us as He did to the Samaritan leper.   Let’s continue having faith in Jesus, and fix our eyes on Jesus on cross.  We will find His mercy in our lives, which is our faith and hope.   After all, our faith is the last frontier in our heart where we have never gone before, and is the engine powering our hope in Jesus.    Come, come to Jesus!
Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”   (Matthew 11:28-30)

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