Spiritual Insight

This post is more for me to look back on than anything else, but feel free to keep reading. :)

In Sunday School today, one of Jesus' parables became a little more clear to me.  The reason why that has any kind of significance at all is I often read the same "Bible stories" over and over again and seem to think things like, "Oh yeah, I know this story" or "Yep, I understand the meaning of this one" and sit patiently in class, feeling confident that I already know the answers, etc.

Today it was the parable of the 10 lepers (Luke 17:11-19).  So the simple version is Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem and passed through a small village where he met 10 lepers.  They ask Him to heal them and he does.  Only one comes back to thank him and Jesus asks-- But where are the other 9?  There were 10 healed.  So that one who comes back is made whole because of his faith.   The end.

What do we learn from this parable?  Well it has come up in talks, lessons, and discussions at church several times in just the past 2 weeks, and the main concept is gratitude. It teaches us the importance of giving thanks to the Lord for the blessings He gives us, and we often seem to view the other 9 healed lepers in a negative light, like they were selfish and ungrateful.  Well... today I learned a little more.

We had split up into groups to read certain passages in Luke, discuss them, and come up with a few main points to share with the class.  We read our simple verses on the 10 lepers and I was thinking, "Really?  We just heard about this in Sacrament Meeting, and talked a lot about it in Relief Society last week."  Our group was relatively quiet and it felt as though anything that needed to be analyzed or discussed had already been said previously.  So we all sat there staring at our scriptures-- a few of us giving obligatory comments just to break the silence.  Finally the teacher joined us all together again and continued the lesson.  I sat there thinking about our verses in Luke, wondering which person in our group was going to be the "spokesman" and what else there was to say that wouldn't be repetitive and boring.

So I re-read the verses again just to feel more confident in case I needed to speak up.

This time I noticed a footnote in verse 14 that I hadn't read before.  It was about leprosy and the custom back then for a leper to show himself to the priests to receive instruction on what to do, etc.  Interesting-- I'd never read that.  So that verse became different to me.  After the lepers went to Jesus asking for His mercy, he told them: "Go shew yourselves unto the priests.  And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.  And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God."  I realized something I'd never noticed before!  Jesus told them to go to the priests, and AS THEY WENT, they were healed.  Already, this shows the obedience of all 10 lepers.  They came seeking help from Jesus and He gave them a solution.  But it's the one who saw that he was healed that came back to thank Him.  What does that mean for the others?  Perhaps they were so determined to get to the priests, to do what Jesus had told them to do, that they didn't notice right away that they had already been healed.  For some reason that one leper noticed before the others, and therefore got to thank Jesus face to face.

But how often do we pray and seek for answers and continue down our "tunnel-vision" path and perhaps fail to see the blessings... or the answers that have already come?  I don't think that makes us ungrateful or selfish-- we're just not totally in focus with the Lord's perspective, but we'll probably get there.  It takes longer for some than others.  And I have a new found appreciation for those other 9 lepers!  :)  Indeed, this parable teaches us about gratitude, but I'm glad that I learned a few other tidbits just by re-reading those verses one more time today.

Have I mentioned that I love my new ward?  Well, I do.