Luke 17:11-19, ESV

¹¹ On the way to Jerusalem he {Jesus} was passing along between Samaria and Galilee.  ¹² And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance ¹³ and lifted up their voices, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us."  ¹⁴ When he saw them he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests."  And as they went they were cleansed.  ¹⁵ Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; ¹⁶ and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks.  Now he was a Samaritan. 
¹⁷ Then Jesus answered, "Were not ten cleansed?  Where are the nine?  ¹⁸ Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?"  ¹⁹And he said to him, "Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well."

There are a variety of gloves that we use for different reasons.  Some of us, when we wash the dishes we put on dishwashing gloves to protect our hands in the event that a glass breaks unexpectedly or to protect our arms from getting dirty.  We don’t want any new cuts and we certainly don’t like it when our hands get greasy and dirty.  We want to keep glass and grease at a safe distance.  We want to be protected, we want to remain clean. 

When we start working in the yard we find gardening gloves to keep our hands free from dirt.  It’s a pain when dirt gets into your nails.  It takes considerable time to remove all of the dirt and we rather not spend our evening in front on the TV removing dirt from our nails.  We also want to be protected from thorns and or stickers that we may find in the dirt. 

After living in Miami and Miramar for several years one never knows what they might discover when digging ditches or fixing their sprinkler system.  Florida is filled with all kinds of sharp surprises such as construction debris and “fill” used to elevate the land.  These things hurt, but a good pair of gloves will protect us from unnecessary pain.  We want to keep dirt and sharp objects such as stickers and thorns at a safe distance.  We want to be protected, we want to remain clean. 

Before the paramedics begin to work on people who are injured in an accident they take out their medical gloves.  They do this to protect themselves and others from infections, contamination and disease.  They want to protect the patient and they also want to protect themselves.  They want to keep all infections, diseases and potential contaminations at a safe distance.  They want to be protected, they want to remain clean.

In the same way, some of us live our lives with these two ideas:  I want to be protected…I want to be clean.  We keep a safe distance from God.  We don’t want Him to get too close.  We keep him away from our marriage and other important relationships.  We are strong enough to handle our own spirituality.  We are spiritual in our own way and we believe we don’t have to go to church every weekend to prove it. 

After all, we don’t want to get “weird” or start doing things that make others ask more questions.  We want to protect our heart and remain in “complete control.”  We don’t want to get dirty with any form of religion.  We have lived through several bad experiences and examples of what happens when people start down this road.  We want to protect our heart and we want to remain clean.

We find ourselves alone.  It’s not because people haven’t tried to help or get to know us.  It’s that we have created walls, high walls, impossible for others to climb over.  We don’t want to hear about the problems faced by others.  We have more than enough problems to deal with. 

We’re not sure if people would love us unconditionally if they knew what was in our heart.  We’re not sure if they would remain friends with us if they knew the things we’ve done.  So we limit our transparency.  We disclose only the superficial.   We don’t want to be criticized or judged.  We want to protect our heart and we want to remain clean.

What is the connection between protecting our heart, remaining clean and giving thanks?  Carefully read through Luke 17:11-19 several times and connect with us over the next few weeks to find out.  You can subscribe to the Marriage Catalyst Blog through our RSS feed on the top of this page to receive our next update.