Pete's Blog

On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." When he saw them he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went they were cleansed. 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. Then Jesus answered, "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" And he said to him, "Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well." (Lk. 17:11-19)

I would be so bold as to guess that all the readers of my blog have heard this story before (and if not all then certainly most). It's always nice seeing new things in the Bible that you didn't notice before. I wish that I were smart enough or observant enough to have come up with this on my own, but I make no claim of originality for the following thought:

After the one leper returns (v. 15) he bows down to Jesus (v. 16). When I imagine a scene where a subject goes to his king, he bows down, then the king immediately invites him to rise. Jesus didn't in this case. While the cleansed-leper was bowing Jesus pondered, "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Only after pondering this out loud did Jesus then invite the man to rise.

I heard this in a lecture by Dr. Daniel Doriani, former professor at Covenant Theological Seminary (he's now a pastor), in his course on the gospels, which can be found on iTunes U. Dr. Doriani's point was that Jesus had no problem being bowed down to. He was comfortable with it. He truly thought He was worthy of worship.