On the Other Side Part 5 “On the Other Side…Of Healing” THRIVE Service Livestream

How do you get to the other side?

Of your deepest fear? Of the pain and regret from the past? An interrupted life? Of healing?

Jesus is always helping us get to the other side. Whatever the other side is. Because he loves us just as we are but also loves us too much to let us stay there.

Ten lepers call out to Jesus for help. He heals all ten of them but only one turns back to give thanks.

What makes this story unusual is that the lepers are traveling with a Samaritan.

Leprosy is a sentence to exile. Clothing affected by leprosy was burned; houses afflicted with leprosy were torn down; people beset by leprosy were avoided like the plague. The Samaritan is afflicted with the disease and also bears the isolation of being a foreigner.

Ten lepers – one of them is a Samaritan.

If everything is normal, you’d have 10 people, 9 grouped together and 1 standing on the outside.

But Leprosy is the great equalizer. When you are diseased or considered unclean, honestly it doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor, male or female, a Jew or Samaritan.

Shared pain does that to you.

It’s something you discover if you’re ever in a cancer support group. Or if you find yourself in a dementia caregivers’ group. Nobody is asking about job titles net worth or career accomplishments.

In a normal world, nine of them wouldn’t be seen with the other one who happens to be Samaritan.

But it’s not a normal world.

All ten are healed. Only one is made whole.

Only one makes it to the other side.

The other side of healing is gratitude.