Luke 17:11-19 (Christian Character 1) Pastor Ron Koehler Grace—Benson/Vail, AZ
October 6, 2019
In the name of Jesus our Savior, dear friends, Birthdays are great, aren’t they? Especially if you’re a kid and you have a party—you might get lots of nice presents. But there’s something that comes after the party that isn’t always as easy to get excited about—Thank You notes. It’s not that you aren’t thankful, however it can seem like a chore to write a thank you to each person. But it’s a really nice thing to do. Whether it’s for a birthday or some other gift that you receive, some of you know what it’s like to be a little late in writing a thank you. A week passes, you get busy, then another week goes by. By week three you’re wondering if your friend or family member will be more annoyed that it took you so long. You even think, “Will they even miss it?” Is it better to just let it slide rather than be embarrassed that it took you so long? Saying, “Thank You,” and when to say, “Thanks,” are at the heart of our Bible lesson today. The kindness shown by Jesus to these hurting men and the issue of thankfulness are the centerpieces of a story that causes each of us to think about this question: ARE YOU THANKFUL? As we go along this morning, I’m going to ask you to 1. CONSIDER WHAT YOU HAVE TO BE THANKFUL FOR, and 2. CONSIDER HOW YOU EXPRESS YOUR THANKFULNESS TO GOD You wouldn’t think that 10 guys with leprosy could cause enough racket to get the attention of Jesus. After all, by law they had to remain a decent distance from other people because of their disease—a disease that not only caused unsightly lesions and lumps, but also caused fingers and toes to fall off and vocal chords to function poorly. One leper’s voice may not have gotten the attention of someone traveling by, but the 10 of them together, knowing the hopelessness of their situation and their dire need to have Jesus heal them, gave them enough volume to catch the Savior’s ear. Somehow they knew that Jesus was their only hope. They knew Jesus could “have pity on” them and have the power to heal them. And as the God of all grace, Jesus did. What he told them to do was simple: just follow the law. If you were one of those men, you were to go present yourself to the priest, who would examine you. If things looked good, you would come back seven days later. If you were indeed healed, you would offer sacrifices to God. That’s the way it went with skin diseases. If these men wanted to be allowed back into the city—and everyday life and worship—this is what was done to ensure that they were truly healthy. As you can see, this process took some time.
The amazing thing with these men is that they trusted Jesus and were fully healed on their way to start the process of re-entry into the community. Can you even imagine the joy in their hearts over a healing that gave them back their wives, their families, their friends, even their worship life with fellow believers? They could move back home and go to the market and go to church again! Oh my, did they have things to be thankful for! If you have ever received a second chance—I mean like a big-time second chance, like from a spouse whom you wronged or from the law or from your employer—maybe you have an idea of what it’s like to get your life back. Yes, they had much to be thankful for. Jesus showed his divine power over all things as he brought healing to those hurting men. All he had to do was say “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” As they went away, they were cleansed. It’s told matter-of-factly here but what Jesus did was anything but natural, normal, or routine—for anyone but him! As Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem for the last time—on his way to the cross—he showed that he was true God. And in the power he displayed, he also showed love and concern. In a way that we cannot comprehend, Jesus was not so overwhelmed with the sufferings and death that awaited him in Jerusalem that he failed to see the needs of those around him. What love he showed! That’s the way Jesus is though, isn’t it? Think about this—those 10 men needed that healing from Jesus in order to live life again. Doesn’t that sound suspiciously like us? Didn’t we need healing from Jesus in order to live free from sin and to live eternally in heaven? You might look at sin as a kind of infectious disease that leads to death—like a kind of a spiritual leprosy. It doesn’t just go away on its own. It damages the soul. It makes you an outcast with God and it will kill you for all eternity. Every person has the disease of sin! That makes us disgusting in the eyes of the righteous and holy God and causes us to be distanced from him, just like “unclean” lepers were kept away from “clean” people. And then Jesus comes along. Jesus saw our condition and had pity on us. It was that love that brought him down from heaven to this world. It was that kindness and compassion that propelled him through his life of perfection in our place. And it was that grace that allowed the abuse and torment of the cross and the piling on of all our sins as he hung there. Jesus saw our condition, took pity on us, and he healed us. Jesus’ death on Calvary’s cross healed our sins by bringing forgiveness to the world. And where there is forgiveness from God, there is eternal life. We were separated from God like lepers were cut off from society. But God allowed us to enter his presence and feel his love because of Jesus’ cleansing work. How do you feel about that? Is that not the best news you’ve ever heard? Isn’t that why you continually come back to church—to hear that gospel again? If I ask you to CONSIDER WHAT YOU HAVE TO BE THANKFUL FOR, wouldn’t the love of God in Christ top your list? And just like the healed lepers were given a new lease on life to
enjoy the blessings of everyday existence with family and friends and community, hasn’t God blessed you with similar things—both people and material blessings and opportunities to worship him? I would guess that you have little trouble counting the many ways God has been good to you. I bet that you realize you have much to be thankful for. It’s interesting, isn’t it, that 90% of the men who were healed by Jesus didn’t come back to thank him? Jesus found it more than interesting; he found it disappointing. You can hear it in his words, can’t you? “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give glory to God except this foreigner?” You might think that this history is flawed, that it’s impossible for all but one of those healed lepers to walk away, see that they were really cured, and not come back to thank the Savior. That doesn’t even make sense, does it? I mean, who in their right minds would take blessings from the Lord—even a new lease on life—and not say thank you? Well you would. I do. It happens all the time, doesn’t it? When you hear about the 9 who got the answer to their prayer they were looking for and just ran off to enjoy the blessing and then compare them, like Jesus did, to the 1 who immediately thanked Jesus, it ought to cause you to CONSIDER HOW YOU EXPRESS YOUR THANKFULNESS TO GOD. Even though we know the love of Christ in our lives, we still sin, don’t we? One of the ways we offend God is when we just take, take, take from him and rarely look back over our shoulder to say, “Thank You.” We might pray for many things that we want, and when we receive a “yes” answer to our prayers, we are happy, but prayers of thanks back to God are sometimes forgotten. How many meals are eaten without remembering to thank the One who provided the meal? At other times, we only look at the bad things going on in our lives and totally forget the many good things the Lord has provided. It’s hard to remember to say, “Thank You,” when we’re only focused on life’s difficulties. And so, we find ourselves in the pack of lepers running away from Jesus with his blessings in our hands and little or no thanks offered to the Giver, the Healer, the Savior. We do need to ask for forgiveness for those times. And Jesus, the One who heals not only the body, will also heal our souls with his sweet love and assurance that those sins are paid for by him and forgiven. It also happens that the new person in us, the person of faith, can and does express thanks to God, doesn’t it? By the power of Holy Spirit, we can return to thank Jesus for his love and goodness! When we do that, we live the faith shown by the leper who couldn’t stop himself from thanking Jesus!
That healed man trusted that Jesus could help him, and his faith in the Savior continued as he was healed. This man was so overjoyed at what the Lord did for him that he didn’t even keep going to show himself to the priest and get that whole process of reintroduction to society going! He HAD TO thank Jesus right then! You heard his reaction to the great blessing God had given him: He turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice. He fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, thanking him. HOW DO YOU EXPRESS YOUR THANKFULNESS TO GOD for his goodness to you? Do you see yourself in this man? Maybe you do! Do God’s blessing sometimes cause you to drop to your knees—figuratively or literally? Aren’t there times you are so happy with God’s answer to your plea that you can hardly say thank you enough? This is what faith looks like; it’s what faith does. A Christian sees the hand of the Lord at work in his or her life and responds quickly with prayer and praise that shouts “Thank You, Lord!” Our thankfulness to God is shown in other ways too—and these are ways that God says he looks for in a life of faith. We thank God as we worship him together and sing songs of praise and offer gifts back to him—things like our particular skills, our time to serve him and others, and a portion of the treasures he has blessed us with. Did you see from this account that Jesus notices this stuff?! He’s actually looking for our thanks! He expects it! When this Samaritan leper, now healed, came back to thank Jesus, Jesus asked, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give glory to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Get up and go your way; your faith has saved you.” Jesus noticed those who did not give thanks to him. He also commended the faith of the thankful man. His faith made him well, Jesus said. He didn’t mean that the man’s faith made him physically well because the 9 who didn’t come back were physically well too. But they weren’t spiritually well like this man was. This man was full of faith and it showed when he came to say, “Thank You,” to Jesus and give praise to God. All was truly well with this man then. He was physically healed and spiritually alive. He loved the God who helped him—and he showed it. You and I have been healed from the greatest, deadliest disease there is—sin. We have a new lease on life and the assurance of eternal life ahead of us—all because of Jesus. He even forgives our grave sins of ingratitude toward him and wipes our record clean time and again. Nothing is more important than those spiritual gifts from God, but the truth is, he also brings us physical blessings. And so, after seeing Jesus’ love in action with those lepers and considering our own lives, we are back to the question with which we began: ARE YOU THANKFUL? If so, don’t delay. Don’t let time pass as you might with a thank you note. Instead, turn to your God and Savior now, praise him with a loud voice, throw yourself at his feet, and say, “Thank You, Lord!” Amen. Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.