‘Thankfulness’ from Luke 17:11-19
Luke 17:11” Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.
17:12 Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off.
17:13 And they lifted up their voices and said, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’
17:14 So when He saw them, He said to them, ‘Go, show yourselves to the priests.’ And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.
17:15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God,
17:16 and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.
17:17 So Jesus answered and said, "Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?
17:18 "Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?"
17:19 And He said to him, ‘Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.’ ”
Jesus was not at home. He was away with His disciples beyond His home town of Nazareth, and having to travel through Samaria to get back home.
Jesus showed what God is like in healing 10 men.
All of them were lepers.
Maybe He came near a colony of lepers, for such people often had to live together so as to keep away from the rest of society and in order to help each other.
Only one man came back to thank Jesus for healing him.
I don’t know whether Jesus was annoyed exactly, but He was not pleased: “So Jesus answered and said, ‘Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?’ ” (Lk 17:17)
As I said, Jesus was not at home. At the time this happened He was not even in Jewish territory…He was probably in a Samaritan village.
You may do different things when you are away from home…but not Jesus. He was concerned about the people. He had compassion on the people whoever and wherever they were. He healed people to get the message across that He cared about their sad times their illnesses, their family problems.
He did this to show that God the Father cared about them and that God was now doing something about the needs of ordinary, sinful people, people who were ordinarily rejected and considered outcasts….including lepers
Even lepers whose main problem, according to the way people thought in those days, was that they were cursed by God and so God sent them this horrible disease.
This separated them from other people so they stood far away from Jesus and His disciples (V12). While they could not find a way to come to Jesus, He came to them and then kindly healed them.
As they left excited at the idea that they could start their life properly, Jesus healed them as they traveled.
And so Jesus in His compassion healed 10 of them but only one returned to give glory to God.
Jesus was disappointed about this, especially since it was not one of His people, not a Jew who came to give God the glory, but a Samaritan!
Now we see here that there is thankfulness to God on behalf of this man who returned to Jesus. His thanksgiving is expressed in praise to God.
The Apostle Paul says some sad words when he describes people who do not know God personally as their Saviour and Lord. He says of them one thing that always stands out in my mind when I think about thankfulness.
This is what Paul says: “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools…” (Rom1:20-22)
I always think this is a very sad statement about those who really do not know God’s love in their own hearts; who do not know God as their own personal Saviour and Lord.
“They did not glorify Him as God nor were thankful...” (21)
It makes me think that we cannot really be thankful in our hearts and so give out thanks and praise to God from our hearts unless we are filled with God’s Spirit and love.
Oh, we can stand and give prayers like the best Pharisee, but does it come from the heart?
This one leper was so changed, not only physically (the disease was gone), not only ritually (his priest could now clear him to enter the synagogue for worship), not only socially (he was now able to be accepted with the other 9 into society again)…not only all that, but he was changed within!
His heart was changed by the Holy Spirit and He was made new; born again.
He was acceptable to God!
That was why he came back to Jesus, to give God the glory!
That was why he gave thanks to Jesus and praise to God for the salvation of Christ!
So, how are you responding to God’s love?
He offers you, unworthy as the next person, unworthy as the 10 lepers, the freedom and the acceptability before God of all who are blood washed and cleansed by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Are you thankful like this man?
If so, what difference does it make in your daily life?
V19 “And Jesus said to him, ‘Get up and go; your faith has made you well.’ ” Amen.
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