Are you saved?

That’s the question that brings a flutter to our tummies and a pain in our necks.

Are you saved?

I know folk who are so convinced of their convictions that they wouldn’t hesitate to ask Jesus that very question.

It is precisely this and never that, they boldly declare.

I’m not so sure.

In one sense, of course, we are all saved. That is, we are all, now and eternally, loved by God. The God described by Jesus through story and action is a God who would never abandon, never stop loving.

Ten lepers were healed by Jesus. Ten men cleansed of the most vile and frightening of diseases but only one returned to offer thanks.

All benefited from the love of God in Jesus. All experienced the amazing grace but only one returned.

Yet nowhere does it say that the nine who went merrily on their way, without so much as a token of gratitude or the briefest of thank yous, had their healing reversed. The love of God was not rescinded even for those ill-mannered nine. Whether they returned had no bearing on God’s loving action. Whether they proclaimed the faith or started a new religion did not affect the work of Christ.

It was a gift freely given.

That is the answer to the question.

Albert Schweitzer wrote,

"I have never interpreted the story of the ten lepers to mean that only one was grateful. All ten were surely grateful, but nine of them hurried home first so as to greet their friends and attend to their business as soon as possible, intending to go to Jesus afterwards and thank him. But things turned out otherwise; they were kept at home longer than they meant to be and in the meanwhile Jesus was put to death."