One Out Of Ten

“One out of Ten”

“One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” The he said to him, “Rise and go: your faith has made you well.” Luke 17:15-19

Intro: Sara is a person who worked downtown.

She parked her car and walked about a block to work every morning.

Near an abandoned brick building there was always a heavyset, middle-aged woman in a tattered clothes holding a sign asking for spare change for food.

She had a pleasant smile and always said "Good morning."

Sara most often gave her something.

After several months, the woman in the tattered clothes disappeared.

Sara wondered what had happened to her.

Then, one beautiful day,

once again she was in standing on the street in front of the abandoned brick building.

Sara walked by and reached into her purse to give the usual donation,

but this time the woman stopped her.

She said, "Thank you for helping me all those days."

"You won't see me again because I have a new job."

With that, she reached into a bag and handed Sara a wrapped package.

She had been standing at her old spot waiting, not for a handout,

but waiting for people she recognized so that she could give them a doughnut. She was thankful.

A group of lepers were walking together just outside a village along the road to Samaria.

Leprosy in the bible days was the most dreaded disease.

It produces large disfiguring lumps on the face and body, with sores on the skin,

It damages the nerves in the arms and legs,

It is so severe that it eventually will cause numbness and total loss of the use their hands and feet.

It was progressively worse…, until it becomes totally debilitating.

These were marked men and women for their inflamed, scaly skin,

These were people condemned as outcasts to be avoided.

Their common suffering and loss forced them together.

Into this hopeless and depressed scene walks Jesus.

But when Jesus walks into the middle our suffering

When Jesus walks into the middle of our broken lives we are given the opportunity to change.

Think about this question.

Have you said “thank you” for the people in your life who have rescued you?

Have you said, “thank you” to those who have reached out to you with love and help.

Have you said “thank you” for being delivered from sickness, danger, and sin?

Being thankful is a matter of the heart.

Being thankful all depends on what you choose to focus on.

You can either focus on your problems, or you can choose to focus on your blessings.

The question is: Do you want more problems, or do you want more blessings?

When we worry about the things we cannot change the bigger our problems become.

The more we focus on good in our life

The more we give thanks for what we have.

The more positive and hopeful our attitudes

The more we realize how great God is and how blessed we truly are.

When Jesus was heading toward the cross and His crucifixion He passed through the town of Samaria.

Jews had no dealings with Samaritans.

There was a fierce, long-standing shared and common bitterness between Jews and Samaritans.

It dated all the way back many generation to the early days of the Jacob and his twelve sons,

whose descendants became the twelve tribes of Israel.

Later Israel divided into the Northern kingdom and the Southern Kingdom.

As the southern tribes of Judea were captured by the Babylonians

The Northern and Southern kingdoms became more and more divided.

The Jews had a very narrow view of where and how to worship God.

They considered the Samaritans spiritually impure and ceremonially unclean.

But it seems that the disease of leprosy afflicted people of both churches.

Sickness and disease, trials and disasters, affect people of all races, both religious backgrounds.

Car wrecks, house fires, strokes, don’t stop to ask are you Baptist, Methodist, or Catholic.

Regardless of their status or social rank.

From peasant to king, leprosy and suffering had no boundaries.

Learn this lesson: Jesus has no walls. Jesus has no barriers, no restrictions or limitations.

He heals, he saves. His red blood on the cross was shed for all for the forgiveness of the world.

All you have to do is say, “Lord I want to change.”

Luke 17 tell us. Jesus was “on his way to Jerusalem,

Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee.

12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy[a] met him.