Advent Hope: There Is Healing Along The Way
Photo by Clemens van Lay on Unsplash
Are you comfortable with waiting? Are you sure in the face of uncertainty? Do you grow impatient with the journey of life? Do you grow weary in the waiting? What hope and healing do you need as you travel along the way?
God meets his children in their need as we journey along the way. God is at work as we are traveling along the way. God is working in our waiting. There is hope for healing as we journey through this life.
Unique to Luke’s Gospel account is Jesus’ healing of ten lepers as he was on the way to Jerusalem. Luke tells us, “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.’” (Luke 17:11-13, ESV).
Jesus met these lepers as he journey along the way to Jerusalem. Jesus met these men in a village between Galilee and Samaria. Jesus met these men where they were, but he did not leave them where they were, or how they were. Jesus sent them to show themselves to the priests for healing.
Luke tells us, “When Jesus saw them he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed.” (Luke 17:14, ESV).
Life is filled with waiting and movement from one place to the next. We live in different stages of the in-between. We are often waiting. We are often moving from one thing to another.
Advent is a season of waiting. It is a season of obedience and preparation as we await the coming of Jesus and the fulfillment of his work in our lives and in the world. God works in the waiting. God meets us in the in-between. As with these lepers, the healing we need often happens as we obey and as we are on our way.
As these lepers went, “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.” (Luke 17:15-19, ESV).
God meets us along the way. God heals us along the way. God is working in the waiting, whether we see him with us along the way or not. Our faith in Jesus brings about our healing and worship from our waiting.
All ten lepers were cleansed from their affliction, but only one turned back to encounter his healer along the road with thanksgiving, adoration, and worship. Only one returned to Jesus along the way, though ten were expected. This one leper understood that being on the road with Jesus is the destination. When we are with Jesus, his presence and work is in the waiting. The journey with Jesus is the destination.
May we encounter the hope and healing we seek in Jesus this Advent—in our waiting and as we travel along the way.
In Christ alone, Robbie
A Collect For The First Sunday in Advent: “Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.” (Book Of Common Prayer, 2019).
Photo by Clemens van Lay on Unsplash
