How Do You Interpret the One?

“And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,” Luke 17:15

Only one of the ten lepers returned to Jesus and thanked Him for his healing. The other nine lepers presumably went to present themselves to the priest for an examination and receive a certificate so they could rejoin their family and village. They were required to do that under the Jewish law (Torah) to prove they were clean. The nine who went were Galilean Jews. The one who returned to Jesus, and fell down on his face before Him, was a Samaritan. The Jews considered the Samaritans almost as bad as the Gentiles, who were referred to as ‘dogs.’ Still, isn’t it interesting how a common disease would bring together nine Jews and a Samaritan to share, as outcasts, a common place outside of the community; let alone they all agreed to call out to Jesus, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’

Only one in ten. Ten percent of the population. I have often wondered just how many would be among the elect of God (Titus 1:1; 1 Peter 1:2) at the final trumpet; how many names are written in the book of life. Could the end number approximate ten, twenty, thirty percent of the billions that have lived since Adam’s creation? In Matthew 7:14, we read where Jesus said, “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” What did He mean by few? Few, combined with the description of straight and narrow, would suggest the majority would not turn to Him. What did He mean when he said, “For many are called, but few are chosen?” (Mat. 22:14)

In the case of the Samaritan woman Whom Jesus met at the well, it is written that many of the Samaritans of her village believed as a result of her testimony (John 4), but how many would that have represented? Even if all of them believed, there were other villages that turned Him away; such as those from Gergesenes (Mat. 8). Don’t you wonder? Then, if we consider that in the days of Noah, only eight were saved from the flood. Before that, only Lot, his wife and two daughters were spared the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (although his wife ultimately was turned to salt because she disobeyed and looked back.) I have to ask just how many of us today would suffer becoming a block of salt for just one look back? But lest I digress….

In the days of Elijah it was written that seven thousand did not bow down to the false god, Baal, (1 Kings 19:18), but then I thought, ‘how many lived at that time in Israel?’ Let’s assume that one million Israelites lived then. What percentage is that? Less than one percent (.0007) of the Israelites remained true to worship Jehovah? Really? While that percentage may be believable related to our tithing, surely there had to be more believers!

What I don’t get is that the Bible admits that Jesus was not popular and wasn’t loved by all. Come on now, couldn’t just one of the disciples or apostles have embellished just a little…you know, stuffed the ballots; tipped the scales? Did John really have to tell us about the hard sayings of Christ, which caused many of his disciples to turn from Him? “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.” (John 6:66) It is so contradictory to what we do in human nature! Everyone wants to be popular, respected; beloved, but no, that is not true of Jesus. He was rejected; despised of men. Why? Because He spoke the truth and was the truth! “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6) Was He a liar? Delusional? I would say that the majority of us today would say, ‘yes,’ because they have said it. But what does the wise man say?

I thank God for the one leper that returned. Why? Because of what happened! Jesus made him whole, which transcended what the other nine received and how they defined the ‘mercy’ to be shown when they, “…lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”  Mercy for nine of the ten was only expected to be manifest in a physical healing. Mercy as it is known by God, and intended for man to be made whole, was Christ Jesus being the propitiation of our sins: “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 1 John 4:10. Many of us, like the nine, want something in particular, and when we get it, we later go our way, or as Lot’s wife, we look back. Few seek to be made whole.

The question is, ‘How do you interpret the one and are you among the few or the many?