“What Has Changed?”

“One of their number, when he saw that he was cured, turned round and praised God at the top of his voice, and then fell on his face before Jesus and thanked him.” – Luke 17:15-16a

This year, while looking ahead to Easter, I’ve been thinking about the tenth leper. 

His gratitude almost seems like an ordinary act of courtesy, but Jesus’ response highlights something more: “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” It was only the tenth man who returned to thank the Son of God — and, in so doing, beheld more than the others did. As the years pass and I witness more answers of mercy to largely unremarkable prayers, I imagine what that man must have felt when he “saw that he was cured”: amazement and relief, certainly, but also a marvelous realization that the One who had healed him was both able and willing to do so. I wonder if he ever learned how much more able and willing Christ was to give life to the full. I hope he did. 

This Lenten season, by way of remembering my own need for this Savior and King, I’ll be pondering the effect that His life and death and resurrection have had on every facet of my life — not in a comprehensive way, but through a few reflections that will hopefully yield sweeter notes of praise as the weeks mount, culminating in a paean of gladness at Eastertide. Each will essentially be a response to the question, “What has changed in my life because of Christ?”

These short essays are chiefly a personal exercise (and a way to keep me focused on the right things at present), because it gives me deep joy to know that He is glad to receive our thanks for what He has done. But if the question sparks answers for you as well, friends, few things delight me more than listening to stories of this kind.