The One Who Came Back
The difference between getting your miracle and meeting the miracle-giver...
Ten men healed. One came back.
That’s the math of Luke 17:11-19. And honestly? It cuts a little. Because most of us are probably in the group of nine more often than we’d like to admit. We pray desperately when we need something. We beg God. We make promises. “Just get me through this, and I’ll never forget it.”
And then He does. And we do.
Life goes back to normal. The crisis passes. We move on. But there’s something about the one who returned that’s worth paying attention to. Because he saw something the other nine missed. Let’s walk through the story.
Luke 17:12-13: “And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.’”
Ten men. All desperate. All outcasts. Leprosy didn’t just destroy your body—it destroyed your life. You couldn’t live in town. Couldn’t work. Couldn’t touch your kids. Couldn’t worship in the temple. You were dead while still breathing.
So, when Jesus showed up, they called out. From a distance, that’s what the law required. Lepers had to stay away from healthy people. Had to shout “Unclean!” if anyone got too close. But Jesus heard them.
Verse 14: “When he saw them he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went they were cleansed.”
Notice Jesus doesn’t touch them. He doesn’t say “Be healed.” He just tells them to go. And that would have been something they expected. Going to the priests was what you did after you were healed. The priest would examine you, verify you were clean, and then you could re-enter society. That was Levitical law. So Jesus is essentially saying, “Go act like you’re already healed.”
And they do. They begin walking, and somewhere between Jesus and the priests, the leprosy vanishes. Their skin cleared, and their faces were restored. Can you imagine that moment? Looking down at your hands and seeing them whole for the first time in years? Touching your face and feeling smooth skin instead of decay?
All ten experienced that. All ten got their miracle. But verse 15-16:
“Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan.”
One. Out of ten.
And Luke makes sure we know—he was a Samaritan. An outsider. The one you wouldn’t expect to get it right. The other nine were probably Jews. They knew the Scriptures. They knew about thanksgiving offerings and gratitude psalms. They’d grown up in a synagogue. But they kept walking. Maybe they were in a hurry. Maybe they thought, “I’ll thank Him later. I need to get to the priest first and make this official.” Maybe the excitement of going home and seeing their families just overwhelmed everything else.
But this Samaritan, this outsider, he stopped and turned around. He comes back and falls at Jesus’ feet. What made him different? I think he saw something the others didn’t. They saw healing. He saw the Healer. They got what they came for and moved on. He realized who he’d encountered and couldn’t leave.
There’s a woman I’ve known in a different state for almost 30 years—I’ll call her Anne—who told me about praying for her husband for decades. He is a good man and a good father, but wasn’t a Christian and never seemed interested in Jesus. Anne prayed every single day. Sometimes multiple times a day. Begged God for something to pique his interest. Years go by. And then one Sunday, as the invitation was being led, with no warning, he walked down the aisle. Within a few minutes, he had cast his belief in Jesus, confessed Him as Lord, and was baptized.
Anne told me her first thought was, “Thank God.” Her second thought was joy. She could finally exhale. Years and years of prayers had been answered. And then life started moving again. He kept coming to church and started to get involved. And Anne realized, about six months in, that she’d stopped thanking God. The prayers had been answered. And she’d just moved on to the next thing. She said, “I got what I had always wanted and then got on with our family life.”
That’s what the nine did. They got their healing and went back to their lives. But the one who returned? Look at what Jesus says to him in verse 19:
“And he said to him, ‘Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.’”
Wait. Made him well? Wasn’t he already healed? Didn’t all ten get cleansed?
Here’s what I think Jesus is saying. All ten got physical healing. But this one, the one who came back, got something more. The Greek word there is sōzō. It’s the word for “saved.” Yes, it can mean physical healing. But it also means wholeness. It’s talking about restoration and salvation. The other nine got their skin back. This guy got his soul back. Because he didn’t just see Jesus as someone who could solve his problem. He saw Jesus as someone worth returning to. The nine treated Jesus like a miracle vending machine. Insert prayer, receive healing, move on.
The one treated Jesus like... Jesus.
So we need to realize what happens when we don’t come back. When we get our answer and run. We start to see God as a solution to our problems rather than the point of our existence. We train ourselves to only show up when we need something. We miss the relationship in our rush to get the result. And over time, our faith becomes transactional. “I’ll pray when I’m desperate. I’ll worship when things are good. I’ll engage when it’s convenient.”
But the one who came back, he shows us something different. He saw clearly. Even in his joy, even in his excitement to get home, he knew: none of this matters if I walk away from Him. The healing is amazing. But the Healer is everything. I wonder if the nine ever thought about it later. If they ever looked at their restored hands and remembered the Man who healed them. If they ever felt a pang of regret that they didn’t go back. Or maybe they just forgot. Maybe the miracle faded into the background of normal life.
That happens to us, doesn’t it?
The job comes through, and we’re relieved—but do we thank Him?
The test results come back negative, and we exhale—but do we fall on our faces in gratitude?
The relationship heals, the money shows up, the door opens—and we’re grateful for about a day. Maybe a week. And then life moves on.
We’re not trying to be ungrateful. We’re just... busy or distracted or caught up in the next thing. But what if we stopped? What if we turned around? What if we interrupted our forward motion to go back and say, “Thank You. I see You. I know where this came from. And You matter more to me than what You gave me.”
That’s the one who came back. That’s the faith that made him well. He left with, not just healed skin, but a healed soul. The other nine got to go home. But this one got to go home with Jesus in his heart. Anne, the wife and mom I mentioned, told me she started a new practice after that realization. Every night before bed, she thanks God for her husband and the new life he has in Christ.
She said, “I don’t ever want to take God’s blessings for granted again.”
That’s the spirit of the one who returned. You can have your miracle and miss the point. You can get everything you prayed for and still lose what matters most. Or you can stop, turn around, and fall at His feet. Remember, the greatest gift isn’t the healing, it’s the Healer.
All ten were cleansed. But only one was made whole.
Be the one who comes back.
