"Thanking Jesus"
Luke 17:11-19
When my mom was 5 years old her mother died due to complications during pregnancy.
When my mom was 6 years old her father died.
So, my mom went to live with a cousin and her brother--my uncle Jack-- went to live with an aunt.
And so my mom and her brother grew up separated from one another with no living parents.
Not too long ago, I said to my mother, "You sure have had a difficult life."
And she looked at me quite surprised, "Why do you think that?," she asked, "I feel that God's grace has always been at my back."
That sort of gratitude, of looking at life--not with a sense of entitlement or bitterness--but with thanksgiving is an amazing thing to me.
It really is one of the major things which distinguishes a happy person from an unhappy person.
Are you grateful for what you have?
Or are you angry that you don't have more?
In researching for this sermon, I found that over and over and over again on the lists of what makes for happy persons--expressing gratitude for what we have comes out at number 1 every time!!!
So, on His way to Jerusalem, Jesus entered a village and "ten men with skin diseases approached him," they, "[kept] their distance from him."
The skin diseases would have been leprosy.
And according to the law of the day, any person with leprosy was considered "unclean."
They were outcastes.
They were required to live away from other people, and to cry out "unclean, unclean" whenever anyone approached.
But these lepers must have heard about Jesus.
They must have heard that Jesus was a really special guy Who broke the traditional rules, ate with sinners, healed the sick, raised the dead, and touched the "unclean."
So, when Jesus comes along, instead of crying out "unclean, unclean," these guys raise their voices and cry out: "Jesus, Master, show us mercy!"
And literally, the text says that the ten lepers "raised a voice;" they called out to Jesus in unison.
And interestingly enough, their response to the healing will be in sharp contrast to this unison stuff.
When Jesus saw the lepers, He said, "Go show yourselves to the priests."
Why did He say that?
Because if a leper were ever be blessed enough to actually recover from the disease, a priest had to certify that the person was indeed clean before he or she could return to the community.
Now let's backtrack here.
Again, it says that "When Jesus saw them, he said, 'Go, show yourselves to the priests.'"
In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the priest, the levite, and the Samaritan each "see" the man in the ditch, but its only the Samaritan who stops to help him.
Later Jesus blesses His disciples for what their "eyes see" and "their ears hear."
And Jesus' "seeing" the lepers means more than just physical sight...
...Just as when "one [of the 10 lepers] saw that he had been healed, [he] returned and praised God with a loud voice..."
And "He fell on his face at Jesus' feet and thanked him."
Here in Luke, seeing means more than just physical sight or seeing with our eyes.
It means perceiving the opportunity to be merciful to another, and it also means the recognition that God has been merciful to us!!!
The right response, therefore to other people in need is to show them kindness, mercy and love...
...to bind up their wounds, give them something to eat, drink, clothes to wear, visit them when they are sick or in prison...
And the right response to God when we have been healed or helped is not to presume that it's something we deserve or are entitled to, but to praise God for God's saving mercy...God's saving grace!!!
It is a privilege to show mercy and serve God through serving others.
It is a privilege to be served as well.
It should sweep us off our feet, and cause us to go running to our Creator, Sustainer, and Savior with praise and thanksgiving!!!
I love how it says that the leper "fell on his face at Jesus' feet and thanked him."
In Revelation Chapter 7 beginning at verse 9 we get a picture of heaven.
It says, "there was a great crowd that no one could number.
They were from every nation, tribe, people, and language.
They were standing before the throne and before the Lamb.
They wore white robes and held palm branches in their hands.
They cried out with a loud voice..."
...this would be in unison...
"Victory belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.'
All the angels stood in a circle around the throne, and around the elders and four living creatures.
They fell face down before the throne and worshipped God, saying, 'Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and always. Amen."
When this leper in Luke "saw" that he was healed, and returned to Jesus and "fell on his face at Jesus feet," he was celebrating, worshipping the One and Only God Who had not only healed him physically, but spiritually--forever!!!
In verse 19 Jesus says to him, "Get up and go. Your faith has healed you."
The word used here for "get up" is the same word used for the Resurrection.
Like the prodigal son, this man "was dead, and is alive again."
The salvation that Israel had been longing for as part of the age to come, had arrived in this village that day, and it had graced this man with a faith he didn't know he had!!!
And this guy wasn't even an Israelite!!!
He was a Samaritan.
A hated foreigner.
The other nine guys got what they wanted from Jesus.
They had been healed, but only one of the ten had received more than he had ever dreamed of asking for!!!
The Kingdom of God had implanted itself in his heart that day.
Jesus said to him, "Your faith has healed you."
And in this case, the man's faith wasn't expressed by his request for help, but by his gratitude, his thanksgiving, his worship of God!!!
It has been said that "Gratitude may be the purest measure of one's character and spiritual condition.
The absence of the ability to be grateful reveals self-centeredness or the attitude that I deserve more than I ever get, so I do not need to be grateful."
It seems to have taken this Samaritan leper--a double outcaste--to recognize grace for what it is.
Do we recognize grace for what it is?
Are our eyes able to see and praise God for what we have--for--what God has given us?
I think this lesson asks us the question: "What do we see, and what do we do when we see?"
Do we see the need of others?
Or do persons in need just not catch our attention?
And what do we do when we do see?
Jesus saw a need and Jesus acted on it.
And when the leper saw healing, he didn't just celebrate his good fortune or mutter to himself, "It's about time!!!"
He returned to praise God and fall on his face before Jesus!!!
Mother Theresa told this story:
"One evening we went out, and we picked up four people from the street.
And one of them was in a most terrible condition.
I told the sisters, 'You take care of the other three; I will take care of the one who looks worst.'
So I did for her all that my love could do.
I put her in bed, and there was such a beautiful smile on her face.
She took hold of my hand as she said two words only: 'Thank you.'
Then she died. I could not help but examine my conscience before her.
And I asked: 'What would I say if I were in her place?'
And my answer was very simple.
I would have tried to draw a little attention to myself.
I would have said, 'I am hungry, I am dying, I am in pain,' or something.
But she gave me much more; she gave me her grateful love.
And she died with a smile on her face.
Gratitude brings a smile and becomes a gift."
The grateful person reveals that they have a humble spirit, and a sensitivity to the love that others give them.
The grateful person see's the merciful acts of others as an experience of God's grace.
The grateful person is able to see Jesus in the other.
Let's face it.
Life itself is a gift.
Health is a precious gift.
The friendship of others and the love of family and special friends are an overflowing grace that we are to treasure with gratitude.
What do you see?
What do I see?
Gratitude and being thankful is an expression of our faith.
Are we self-made individuals beholden to no one, or are we blessed daily in so many ways...
...in ways that we cannot repay?
Faith, like thankfulness, is our response to the grace of God.
And for those, like my mom who see only God's grace when they could easily be angry and hold grudges--all of life is infused with a sense of Thanksgiving, and every encounter with another becomes an opportunity to see and to respond in the same spirit as the grateful leper.
May we all "be thankful."
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Amen.
