When the Jews were accused of looking beyond the mark they were looking for things that ultimately lead them away from the Messiah. When the leaper was made whole he turned to look at the Messiah. The grace of God himself made him whole. The law is a schoolmaster that leads us to Christ. After we have Christ, through being born again, what need have we of the law? Are we not new creatures in him? Do not we become joint heirs of salvation through the merits of the Holy one of Israel?

All your smart talk don’t draw pretty enough pictures for me. Heres a paradox for you–you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. All this church is about is gettin on your knees and askin Heavenly Father if the church is true. That’s it! All this pretty boy talk is a waste of time for you, boy. You’d be better served find a nice young lady to take to an ice cream social than to waste time talkin about lepers and changin one’s heart. You work for Hallmark, boy?

You can talk about all the Markan sandwiches you want–one story explains another and yada yada yada. When you standin at the gates and good ole Saint Pete is standin there, what’s he gonna ask you? Did you write pretty, boy? Nope, no sir. He’s gonna see what kind of man you were and either let you in or kick your butt down the telestial escalator.

Cicero, speaking of looking beyond the mark, I think you missed the point of my post. First, the title is just a teaser, and do believe you can be both thankful and obedient.

In all likelihood, all ten lepers were probably both obedient AND grateful—they just had different ways and sequences of going about it. Who’s to say the nine didn’t go thank Jesus after visiting the priests?

I point out this seeming contradiction because I’ve found that the gospel is full of paradoxes: He that loses his life shall find it, the first shall be last, the humble shall be exalted, the poor in spirit receive the riches of eternity. These juxtaposed opposites are not presented in the scriptures to confuse us or invalidate the prophets, but rather they cause us to shift our point of view and gain a true gospel perspective, where these paradoxes find elegant resolutions. It is from this transcendent vantage point that we can understand the gospel’s “treasures of knowledge” (or “nonexistent hidden knowledge” if that’s how you wish see it)

I didn’t come to any conclusions about the paradox presented in the story of the ten lepers. Again, it could be that they ultimately were ALL thankful and ALL went to the priests, and that the only difference was their timing. But the clear message is that going to the priests was NOT was cleansed them—that was done by Christ. All ten lepers showed their willingness to obey by setting out to see the priests, and that was they key that gave them access to Christ. Christ in turn bestowed the gift of cleanliness, which was accepted by “grace” (same root as the word “gratitude”…and “gracias”) The gospel connection between obedience and gratitude is keenly analogous to the relationship between faith and works.

The gratitude of the one illustrates the emphasis that the higher law places on one’s heart, rather then one’s works. In any case, the one leper was both made clean, and also was made whole. His willingness to obey the law led him back to Christ, who then, by grace, became the author and finisher of his salvation. And if THAT is looking beyond the mark, then I am guilty as charged.

First of all, I do not think it is clear from the text (Luke 17: 12-19) that the one leper “turned back” before visiting the priest- and even if he did there is no evidence that the leper didn’t go to them after thanking Jesus. (In fact he probably did as the priests would need to certify him cleansed for him to resume his normal life).

Additionally as you point out, Christ himself was a high priest after the higher priesthood.

Trying to go from this example to suggesting that we have to choose between being obedient and being thankful, (or that one is more important than the other) is foolish.

We should be both obedient and grateful to God, we don’t have to choose between these two virtues.

This is what happens when we become unsatisfied with the simple and straight forward interpretations and start looking for nonexistent hidden knowledge instead of accepting the knowledge that God gives us. We have plenty of sources for legitimate hidden knowledge in the temple ceremonies, we don’t need to try and create something out of nothing.

In a sense, this makes being ‘freed from the law’ distinct from ‘fulfilling the law’ – one may not be burdened with the specific requirements of the law but still not ‘get’ it.

Thanks for the insight!

Keeping in mind that the word translated “perfect” means “whole” or “complete,” perhaps the statement merely means that the one leper was more “perfect” than the others, in that he additionally offered gratitude.

I like Michelle’s solution – that the one still had to go show himself to the priests. He only delayed his obedience by returning to thank Jesus.

When you juxtapose this account with the account of Lot’s wife (and substitute “returned back” for “looked back” – as most Biblical scholars do), it is clear that her mistake was returning to a place she had been commanded to flee. The cleansed leper had not been commanded not to return and give thanks prior to showing himself to the priests (and there was no stated time table, meaning he didn’t have to show himself immediately or simultaneously with the others), so there would be no disobedience in him returning first to thank Jesus.

Finally, I think Jesus’ own question is instructive. I don’t think there is a condemnation in that question, since, as you say, they simply were obeying his directive, but it appears to be a sincere question – that they should have stopped, thanked him then continued on to the priests.

Perhaps a reason is that the nine were healed physically, but verse 19 says that the one was “made whole”. I take that to mean the same as “thy sins are forgiven thee” – which the other nine were not told. They were blessed for their request to the physical healer, but only the one was blessed for his expression of thanks by the spiritual healer.

I wonder sometimes if we are thankful for the chance to be obedient, or if we think unthoughtful, unfeeling, rote obedience will suffice.

I really liked this post, KC. It made me stop and think about something I’d never considered previously. Thank you.

But your way of looking at it could bring up the higher/lower law thing. Interesting. I think if the one recognized Jesus as the great high priest, he did fulfill the directive, but that is speculative from my part.

May be to deep for me, though.