Luke 17:11-19
Cultivating an Attitude of Gratitude
One day a woman was rushing home from a doctor’s appointment. The doctor had been late, so by the time she left the clinic she was running quite a bit behind schedule. She still had to pick up her prescription, pick up the children from the baby-sitter, and get home and make dinner. As she began to circle the busy Wal-Mart parking lot, looking for a space, the heavens opened up with one of those South Texas downpours. While she usually wasn’t one to bother God with small stuff, she began to pray as she turned down the row closest to the front door. "Lord, you know what kind of a day I’ve had, and there’s still an awful lot to do. Could you please get me a close-in parking space so I don’t get soaked?"
The words weren’t even completely out of her mouth when she saw a car’s backup lights come on at the end of the row. It was the best space in the whole parking lot, right next to the handicap spots and straight out from the front door. She made straight for it and as she pulled in, she said, "Never mind God, something just opened up."
How many times do we pass up saying a simple “thank you” to the one who gives every good thing we have? That is certainly the case in today’s story. Ten lepers. Ten men desperate for a miracle, and only one out of ten expresses thanks.
In Bible times the word “leprosy” was used to describe all kinds of skin diseases, and the prognosis was tough: you were potentially contagious, so you were cut off from the community. No longer could you live at home with your family or shop with others at the market or sit with friends in the Synagogue. You had to keep your face covered and you had to live separately with other lepers, never mingling with clean people. Everywhere you went you had to announce, “Unclean!” and stay apart from the crowds. And everyone suspected that your disease was some kind of divine judgment for your sin. So leprosy was a social and spiritual ailment as much as a physical one.
No wonder these ten lepers cried out for mercy. First, they had to cry out because they couldn’t get too close to Jesus. And secondly, they needed mercy because most of these skin diseases had no known cure. The term “mercy” means, “not getting what you deserve.” They felt condemned by God and were hurting all over, so they appealed to the Messiah to bring some relief.
And relief he brought. Jesus told them to go to the priest and be declared clean again, as per the law of Moses. The priests functioned as health inspectors back then. And scripture says “as they were going” the lepers found healing. Notice how Jesus called them to take a step of faith in their healing. He didn’t heal them first and then send them on their way. No, he told them to go ahead and act as if they were already healed. And as they obeyed and stepped out on faith, they experienced God at work.
This reminds me of the Old Testament story of the prophet Elisha who healed the foreigner Naaman. You’ll find it in 2 Kings 5. Elisha told Naaman to wash himself seven times in the waters of the Jordan River. At first Naaman was incensed. He thought, “I can bathe at home! This is all he’s got for me?” But Elisha, like Jesus in today’s story, was calling his leper to faith. Will you begin to act on faith as if you had already received the miracle? And in both Naaman’s case and the case of these ten other lepers, as they obeyed, as they stepped out on faith, they received.
Can you imagine how exciting it must have been for these ten fellows as they started their walk to the Synagogue and began to see the leprosy vanish from their skin? As the white spots began to subside and life returned to their fingers and toes? They must have been thrilled out of their minds. At first they may have had doubts, but now certainly they began planning for some grand family reunions, some wonderful celebrations that night, as soon as they were cleared by the priest. No doubt they had much on their minds. It’s almost excusable their forgetting to return and thank Jesus.
Yet, one remembered. As soon as he noticed his healing, he delayed his re-entry into society and returned to the source. He paused in his busy schedule and took time to acknowledge his great gift by thanking the giver. And using that same loud voice of before, he fell at Jesus’ feet and worshiped God. He got it right.
Jesus noticed the ethnicity of the thankful leper, a Samaritan, a half-Jew, the least likely to appreciate a miracle at the hand of a Jewish rabbi. Yet, appreciate he did. And he was rewarded for it. Jesus told him, “Go in peace. Your faith has made you whole.”
Folks, the point is simple today: you and I need to cultivate into our lives an ongoing “attitude of gratitude.” We need to be thankful for the little things: waking up in the morning, capturing a beautiful sunrise, noticing the people around us, giving and receiving a smile, seeing a dog out on a walk or a cat scampering across the lawn, tasting a bite of delicious food, watching someone’s grandchild at play, feeling alive (even when it hurts). “Thank you, Father. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Holy Spirit. You’re a good and gracious God! Scripture says, ‘Every good and perfect gift comes from heaven above’ (James 1:17). So I just want to say, ‘Thank you.’”
You know how it feels when someone genuinely thanks you. And you know how it feels when they don’t, when you have bent over backwards to serve someone and they don’t even appreciate it. I wonder how many times God feels slighted by us!
I know what some of you are thinking: “I’d be more thankful if life didn’t hurt so much. There’s too many things to not be thankful for!” In that case, you need to cultivate an attitude of gratitude most of all!
Research shows that being thankful is actually good for your health. Robert Emmons, professor of psychology at the University of California in Davis, says, “Clinical trials indicate that the practice of gratitude can have dramatic and lasting effects in a person’s life: It can lower blood pressure, improve immune function and facilitate more efficient sleep.” The University of California San Diego’s School of Medicine linked gratefulness with better heart health, specifically less inflammation and healthier heart rhythms. Paul Mills, another researcher, found that thankful people “showed a better well-being, a less depressed mood, less fatigue, and better sleep.” Researchers at the Universities of Utah and Kentucky linked optimism with more disease-fighting cells in their bodies. And if that’s not enough, consider this: People who keep a gratitude journal have a reduced dietary fat intake – as much as 25 percent lower. Stress hormones like cortisol are 23 percent lower in grateful people. And having a daily gratitude practice could actually reduce the effects of aging to the brain. (Lauren Dunn, “Be thankful: Science says gratitude is good for your health,” in “Today,” November 26, 2015)
Science is merely documenting the goodness of obeying God who says in his book, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). You want to know God’s will for you? It’s to cultivate an attitude of gratitude.
I talked about being thankful in the little things, but what about in the big things? For these lepers, being restored physically and socially was huge. And what about the greatest gift of all: God himself? The fact that we can call God our Father, that we can be adopted into his family and have all our sin forgiven, that we can call Jesus our friend and big brother, that we never have to be alone again, even in the valley of the shadow of death, that “he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4)? Do we ever thank God for our salvation, for saving us from our sins and ourselves?
Jesus said to the last leper, “Rise and go; your faith has made you whole.” In fact, the most literal translation of what Jesus told him is, “Your faith has saved you.” This leper found both physical and spiritual salvation. God, thank you for giving us the faith to lead us to your salvation. Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, too often we are either smug in our own accomplishments or desperate for you to come through, but sometimes forgetful in our gratitude to you. You are not only mighty, you are good, much better than we ever deserve. You have given us salvation itself, a free gift to all who ask. Help someone here ask you for it today and receive your gift of eternal life, of entering into your family forever. Help those of us who have already become your child to never lose sight of all the little and big things you do for us on a daily basis. You are great, and greatly to be praised. We ask this in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, amen.
