On Rounds with Jesus

Tag: On Rounds with Jesus

  • The one who came back

    The one who came back

    Scripture reading: Luke 17:11-19

    You can listen to this devotional via Spotify or YouTube.

    Sometimes work becomes so overwhelming that we begin to treat our clients as though we are doing them a favour, when in reality we have been placed there to serve them. Perhaps that explains why one client returned to thank me for simply doing my job.

    I had not done anything extraordinary. I listened to her complaints, examined her, ordered a few laboratory tests to review later, and discussed what her condition might be—just as I had done for many others that day. Yet sometime later she returned simply to say, “Thank you.”

    Perhaps she appreciated the care she received, care she might not have been used to. But even if such care was expected, why hadn’t the others said thank you?

    In today’s Scripture, Jesus passes between Samaria and Galilee and enters a village where ten lepers meet Him. Standing at a distance, they cry out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” These men were helpless and hopeless. Their disease not only ravaged their bodies but also made them outcasts from society. Separated from family, community, and worship, their lives were marked by isolation and suffering.

    Moved by their plea, Jesus healed them and instructed them to go and show themselves to the priests, as required by the Law of Moses (Leviticus 13–14). The priests would examine them and declare them clean so they could return to society.

    Overjoyed, the ten men hurried off. But one stopped and turned back. While the others continued ahead, this man returned, “praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving Him thanks” (Luke 17:15–16).

    Even more striking, the one who returned was a Samaritan, a people many Jews despised. Jesus remarked with surprise that although ten had been healed, only one returned to give thanks and glorify God.

    Do you see yourself in the grateful leper, or among the nine who never returned?

    We often pray to ask God for what we need, and rightly so. Jesus encouraged us to ask the Father (Matthew 7:7–11). Yet we frequently move from one request to another without pausing to thank Him for what He has already done.

    The fact that you are alive today, that you are healthy, that you were able to eat, or that you woke up this morning is not accidental. These are all expressions of the grace and mercy of God. Yet when we begin to treat such blessings as expected, gratitude quietly fades.

    Jesus did not withhold healing from the nine who failed to thank Him, but He did highlight their lack of gratitude (Luke 17:18). All ten were physically healed, yet His final words to the Samaritan suggest something more: “Rise and go; your faith has made you well” (Luke 17:19).

    It seems this man received more than physical cleansing: he experienced spiritual wholeness.

    When we pause to acknowledge the Giver and not just the gifts, we honour the Lord and experience the deeper blessing that grows from a grateful heart.

    Let us pray

    1. Pray, thanking God for all he has done for you – the good and the not-so-good. 1 Thessalonians 5:8 says, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Pray that God will give you a heart that remembers to thank Him for His daily mercies and blessings.
    2. Pray that the Lord will open your eyes to recognise His hand in both the big and the ordinary provisions of life, that He will guard your heart from becoming like the nine lepers who received blessings but never returned to give thanks.
    3. Ask that your words, attitudes, and actions will continually honour God for what He has done in your life.
    4. Pray that your faith in Christ will lead not only to receiving His gifts, but to a deeper relationship with Him and true spiritual wholeness.

    Amen.

    Thank you for joining us for today’s encouragement. If this message blessed you, kindly share it with someone who may also be encouraged by it.

    Until next time, stay blessed.

  • Sensitisation

    Sensitisation

    Scripture reading: Matthew 5:27-30

    You can listen to this devotional via Spotify or YouTube.

    For today’s rounds, we return to the familiar field of obstetrics, reflecting on rhesus sensitisation.

    A rhesus-negative mother may feel completely well after exposure to her fetus’s rhesus-positive blood. There is no fever. No pain. No outward sign that anything lasting has occurred. Yet quietly, within her immune system, something permanent has taken place: memory has formed.

    The next exposure will not be silent. It will be swift. Forceful. Harmful. The consequences may unfold as recurrent miscarriages, fetal anaemia, hydrops fetalis, intrauterine fetal demise, or hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn. To prevent this, pregnant women are screened for their Rhesus status. If a mother is Rh-negative and the baby may be Rh-positive, she receives anti-RhD immunoglobulin to stop sensitisation before it begins.

    In today’s passage, Jesus reshapes our understanding of sin. It is not merely the outward act that matters; it begins in the realm of desire.

    Small exposures can carry far-reaching effects.

    In Song of Solomon 2:15, Scripture urges: “Catch the little foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines…” Not wolves. Not storms. Not raging fires. Little foxes.

    Vineyards are rarely destroyed overnight. Damage usually comes slowly, through small breaches, repeated nibbles, subtle erosion over time. So, it is with the soul. The first compromise seldom feels catastrophic. The first indulgence rarely feels fatal. The first step away hardly feels distant. But something forms inside: memory.

    From there, progression is familiar. James 1:14–15 describes it plainly: desire is conceived, conception gives birth to sin, and sin matures into death. It begins quietly, internally, almost invisibly. No one sets out intending to ruin their integrity, marriage, or ministry. The path often begins with exposure that is entertained rather than resisted.

    The enemy seldom presents the outcome. He offers only the first step. Just look. Just try. Just once. Just this small compromise.

    Yet repeated exposure reshapes the heart. In immunology, sensitisation makes the immune system more reactive. Spiritually, repeated compromise often produces the opposite effect — dullness. Hebrews 3:13 cautions us not to be hardened through sin’s deceitfulness. Sin deceives because it hides its destination. It whispers that nothing has changed. But over time, what once convicted now entertains. What once disturbed now feels normal. What once shocked barely registers.

    As 1 Timothy 4:2 describes, the conscience can become seared. Wrong remains wrong, but sensitivity fades.

    Prevention is better than cure. Once Rh sensitization occurs, it cannot be reversed. Management becomes complicated. Risks increase. Spiritually, the stakes are even higher. Small patterns form strongholds. Private indulgences shape public outcomes. Tiny permissions grow into entrenched habits. No one drifts into holiness. Drift moves in the other direction.

    But here the analogy reaches its limit, and grace begins. In medicine, sensitisation is permanent. In Christ, renewal is possible. 1 John 1:9 reminds us that if we confess our sins, He forgives and cleanses.

    Let us pray

    Lord Jesus,
    Guard my heart from seemingly innocuous exposures that could eventually turn it away from You.

    Help me catch the little foxes before they spoil the vine.

    Holy Spirit, soften my hardened heart. Convict where numbness has grown and renew where drift has occurred. Do not let what is wrong become normal in me. Renew my sensitivity to Your voice.

    Amen.

    On today’s rounds, the lesson was not only about antibodies, it was about attention.

    What you repeatedly tolerate, you eventually normalize.
    What you normalize, you eventually defend.
    And what you defend, you eventually become.

    Stay vigilant. Stay sensitive. Stay surrendered.