The Need for Deliverance
Luke 17:11-19
Parallel Accounts
No parallel accounts.
Unique to the Gospel of Luke.
Luke’s reason for recording
- Literary device used to transition: this is the final leg of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem.
- The event reinforces the theme that salvation is for all humanity.
The lesson
- Is not so much about gratitude for what Jesus has done (though important).
- Has more to do with Jesus’s ability to set humanity free from their spiritual condition.
Master
- Luke uses epistasas instead of rabbi.
- It conveys Luke’s understanding of who Jesus is.
- Jesus is master over both physical and spiritual realms.
Leper
- Hebrew word is
- Comes from an Arabic word that means to “strike down” or “scourge.”
- It can be applied to both a skin condition and mold/mildew.
- If persistent it can make a person and object unclean.
- Anyone found unclean could no longer participate in communal functions and religious rituals.
- Tzaraat was believed to be a punishment of God for sin.
Mercy
- Not just a feeling of compassion but a desire to do something about one’s condition.
- The nine seem to be seeking deliverance from their physical condition.
- The Samaritan seems to be seeking deliverance from his spiritual condition.
Deliverance
- Jesus commends the faith of the Samaritan saying “your faith has made you well.”
- This would seem to imply that the healing was the result of faith.
- However….
- Se ho pistis sozo se = “your faith has made you well” (ESV)
- Sozo means to be delivered from imprisonment or affliction.
- Se ho pistis sozo se is found at the end of a story in Luke 7 (36-47) and is translated “Your faith has saved you.”
What about our deliverance?
- Our natural tendency in seeking God’s mercy is a desire to be delivered from our external circumstance.
- However, is our external circumstance a result of sin?
- Jesus’s main concern is our deliverance from sin: repentance.
Transformation Expectation
- God expects us to own up to our sin: We may be forgiven, but we still need to repent when we sin.
- Stand firm on God’s promise: “All things work together for good” (Rom 8:28).
- Seek God’s strength to repent and then trust God to bring about good from an evil circumstance.