Graceways September 14 Devotional

LUKE 17:15-16 | ¹⁵ Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. ¹⁶ He prostrated himself at Jesus’s feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan.

Common suffering was a reminder of common humanity for the 10 lepers, overcoming differences to make common cause together. Jesus also points out that faith exists beyond the boundary too.

He emphasizes the Samaritan is a foreigner, a non-Jew, and therefore a stranger to the covenant between God and Israel, outside the promises. Yet, he exercises a deeper faith than the           Jewish lepers, and he has a clear recognition at the need to honor his healer. He gets lost in “wonder, love, and praise.” Faith in Christ is the greatest destroyer of boundaries in history, overcoming the wall of hostility between Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free, men and women, and crossing over differences founded on culture, race, geography, and language.

Has your faith helped overcome differences or boundaries in your life?

Gracious God,

Thank You for the power of faith to heal but also to disrupt, uniting people across boundaries.

Amen.