ALL have seen the loving kindness of God, let all sing joyfully to the Lord (Psalm 98:1, 2-3, 3-4). Though many experience the munificence of divine goodness, not all come around to express gratitude and discover the Savior behind the miracle (Luke 17:11-19).
The Lord makes known His saving power
PSALM 98 begins with an invitation to sing praise to the Lord in celebration of the marvelous things He has done for Israel. Like a mighty warrior, His right hand and outstretched arm have brought victory. He has been challenged; His covenant relationship with His people violated. The Lord therefore manifested His saving power in a demonstration of righteousness, a vindication carried out rectifying an injustice. It was out of His faithfulness to the house of Israel and in remembrance of His steadfast love (hesed) that He has made known His saving work, as He has promised: “I hereby make a covenant. Before all your people I will perform marvels, such as have not been performed in all the Earth or in any nation, and all the people among whom you live shall see the work of the Lord” (Exodus 14:10).
Not just Israel but all the Earth is called to join in singing a new song to the Lord, because He has revealed His saving power in the sight of the nations. In coming to the aid of Israel and achieving victory, something of cosmic significance is shown: the Lord is the conqueror of the forces of chaos. God’s sweeping triumph is for all. “All the ends of the Earth have seen the salvation by our God.” That is why the scope of the praise given to God is universal: “Sing joyfully to the Lord, all you lands.”
Grateful and further rewarded
TZARA’AT or leprosy as a gradual erosion of the skin was thought by the Jews to culminate, unless healed, in the disintegration of the flesh and the ultimate escape of life. This leakage of life makes the afflicted person potentially dead and creates impurity. Such impurity must not spread to the sanctuary, hence the priests were commanded to screen the pure from the impure. If a skin lesion was tzara’at, the leprous person must stay away, and expiation prescribed. When the affliction is healed, the priests declare the person pure and purification rituals completed. The 10 lepers outside a town proper who begged for Jesus’ help in their misery somehow knew of His extraordinary power. He merely instructed them to show themselves to the priests for formal certification of what they were hoping for. As they followed His command, they were cleansed of their disease.
One of the 10, a Samaritan, realizing that he was healed and overflowing with gratitude, headed back to Jesus. This manifestation of the universality of God’s blessings of wholeness and healing, which included the despised Samaritan, underlines as well the paradox of an outsider (twice over) connecting with Jesus much better than the others from God’s own chosen people. And the evangelist pointedly contrasts the difference between being miraculously cured and being saved in finding the Savior. A responsible faith in Jesus is the context for salvation. “Go, your faith has saved you,” Jesus told the Samaritan.
Alálaong bagá, the Samaritan spurred by gratitude found his way back to Jesus; that is why his cure led to his being saved, to his being integrally healed body and soul. The miraculous cure was only the initial instance of a wonder; another and deeper wonder is the coming to faith in discovering the Savior, in experiencing salvation beyond a physical cure. In this world of ailments and creeping disintegration, not all are favored with relief and wondrous healing nor do all find their way to a communion with God in living faith and joyous gratitude. The ultimate grace is when as all cures fade away, as they must and eventually do, one finds the sought completeness only in God. Then we “break into song, singing praise” to our Lord forever and ever.
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