No distractions [Luke 17:11-19]

The leading cause of traffic accidents in America today is distraction – from texting, eating, reading, talking on phone, etc. In the same way we can easily get distracted in our Christian journey and swerve to the left or right, or even sometimes, crush out completely. In our main text, we read about the ten lepers who met Jesus on His way to Jerusalem. One returned and the other nine never showed up. The one who returned received something more than just a healing. In fact, the Aramaic Bible in Plain English translates the words of Jesus in verse 19 as “Arise; go. Your faith has saved you.” This lone returnee received his salvation. In his journey to encounter the Lord He did not allow the blessing of healing to distract him. We are not told of what happened to the other nine, but from what we read it appears they had missed a great opportunity to encounter deeply, the saviour of the world - Jesus Himself. 

This brings to fore, our first source of distraction, blessings. In my mind it seemed counter intuitive that blessings could derail us from our spiritual encounter. But it does. We see it clearly in today’s text from the nine lepers. Not going so far, we even see it in our believing communities where a blessing of a new job, a spouse, a scholarship to mention but a few causes us to start slacking in our pursuit of the Lord. Today the Lord is reminding us to remain focused. He wants us to remember our first love. 

Another source of distraction is sin. Maintaining a life of sin derails us from the path of God. A contemporary gospel singer depicts sin as little foxes that munch on our spiritual health till we break down. Jesus described sin as blinding [John 9:39]. It takes our focus off our goal of a deeper walk with the Lord. Today the Lord wants us to let go of any sin and receive His saving mercies.

Our society or community can also be a source of distraction. In Mark 10:46-52 we read of the story of the blind beggar, Bartimaeus. We are told that upon hearing that Jesus was passing his way, he began to shout for Him. Mark notes that the many that were there rebuked him and told him to be quiet. Luke in his account of the story even went further and commented that those who led the way rebuked him [Luke 18:34-43]. 

This shows that if we are not careful, the society around us can distract us from coming unto the Lord. In present times we are consistently being pounded with all sort of information from different media communicating adverse concepts, belief systems and negative hype. Today the Lord wants us to be aware of the influence of our society on our spiritual lives and to guard our hearts and minds from any form of distraction.

Again, fear serves as another source of distraction. Fear of the future, fear of the unknown and sometimes fear from our pasts. Fear distracts us and cripples us from making the needed strides we must take to move forward in our faith journey. The Lord Himself recognizes this form of distraction and thus prompts us not to be afraid, 365 times in His word. Regardless of our reason to fear, The Lord commands us not to be afraid. Throughout scripture we see how people have responded to this command and have moved ahead to achieve great things for The Kingdom, hand in hand with the Lord. An example fit for the season we are about to enter is Mary. She wholeheartedly claimed the purpose of God for her life and responded in faith that “May it be to me as you have said” [Luke 1:38]. Today the Lord wants us rise up in courage and move ahead without the distraction of fear. 

The last source of distraction I would like us to consider is our own internal voice. Sometimes our own self doubt can distract us from what the Lord is seeking to do in our lives; that internal voice that tells us that we are not good enough, smart enough, rich enough or influential enough to have a part in the Kingdom of God. That voice that whispers that our cases cannot be turned around or that our plights can never be reversed. What would have happened if the lepers questioned Jesus’ command for them to go and show themselves to the priest? Or if blind Bartimaeus doubted that Jesus could make Him see. Today the Lord wants to remind us that nothing is impossible with Him [Luke 1:37]. We need to quieten any voices and open our hearts to the voice of the Lord.

So how can we continue to remain focused on our path of faith? I would like us to consider three points – The first one is consistent scripture study. David described the word as a lamp for his feet and a light for his path [Psalm 119:105]. To remain focused on Him, we have to seek Him in His word in order to know His thoughts and promises for us, and His words of guidance for our lives. We recall how Peter remained walking on the water so far as he kept His eyes on Jesus [Matt 14:22-31]. John describes Jesus as the word made flesh [John 1:14]. Thus, so far as we keep our eyes on the word we will remain afloat.

Secondly we need to have a consistent prayer life. Throughout the gospels we see Jesus constantly spending time in prayer and urging His disciples to do the same. Thus the value of prayer cannot be overemphasised. To remain focused on our spiritual journey we have to spend time at His feet in prayer. We are urged on in 1 Thess 5:17, to pray without ceasing. 

The last point is having a quiet or reflective time. I believe it is prudent that we set some time aside to quietly reflect on our lives in order to assess ourselves and take stock. In our fast paced world of fast food, fast internet and express services, it is very easy to get engulfed in the routine business of life and lose sight of our whereabouts in this spiritual journey. We need to constantly reassess ourselves to know whether we are still on track. In scripture we see many times when Jesus is said to have gone by Himself to a quiet place, showing us the need for being by ourselves to reflect. We need to be able to step on the brakes for a while to consider where we are with the Lord.

So, today the Lord is reminding us to focus back on Him. He wants us to be aware of the manifold sources of distraction that can take us off course and to work on remaining with Him. I pray that we will continue to set our gaze on the Lord and say no to distractions. Amen.