Series: What He Said
Title: What He Said About Human Nature
Text: Luke 17:11-19
Thesis: People are not innately grateful. We have to nurture having a grateful spirit and learn to express gratitude to God and others.
Introduction
One of the more vivid images I have is that of the scene from the film Papillon where Steve McQueen (Papillon) and Dustin Hoffman (Louis Dega) are attempting to escape a French penal colony. They have been cheated by some smugglers and a guide has taken them to a leper colony where they hope to get a boat and supplies to escape the island.
Steve McQueen is standing in front of the crime boss leader of the leper colony, a man with horribly disfigured leprous facial features and hands. He is smoking a cigar. Mc Queen is obviously ill at ease. The leper leader snarled at him. “Why can’t you give me the common courtesy of looking me in the face?” McQueen raised his eyes to look at the man full in the face. The leper says something to the effect, “So you need a boat. We deal in contraband here. We raid the mainland and we kill anyone here from there.” McQueen said, “Makes sense.” The leper asked, “Do you like cigars?” McQueen said, “When I can get ‘em.” The leper then extended his leprous hand holding his partially smoked lit cigar… McQueen took the cigar and put it between his lips and drew deeply two or three puffs – cigar smoke billowing about his head. The leper is pleased. He asked McQueen, “How did you know that leprosy is not contagious?” McQueen answered, “I didn’t.” McQueen had passed the test.
McQueen was desperate for a boat and supplies and he was desperate enough to smoke a leper’s cigar if necessary to get what he needed.
Our text begins with Jesus reaching the border between Galilee and Samaria… Galilee was Jewish territory and Samaria was Samaritan territory. Jews and Samaritans did not get along.
I. Desperation Breaks Down Barriers that Normally Divide People
As Jesus continued toward Jerusalem, he reached the border between Galilee and Samaria. As he entered a village there, ten lepers stood at a distance… Luke 17:11-12
It doesn’t take much to create a barrier in our culture. I have been sampling the new network programing to see if there might be something I might enjoy following. One of the programs I kind of like is called Mixed ish. It’s a spin-off of another show called Black ish, which I’ve never seen, but I kind of like Mixed ish. It is about a mixed race couple who have moved from a hippie commune to the suburbs and they are raising their bi-racial children there. The premise is that the children are rainbow children living in a black and white world. In the public school they seem to either have to identify as black or white… they can’t just be themselves. They don’t quite fit in as they are. One of the daughters eats her lunch in the girls’ restroom because no one will let her sit with them at their black or white or table.
The Samaritan leper did not fit in with the other Samaritans as he was and the Jewish leper did not fit in with the other Jews as he was but when they both contracted leprosy they found commonality.
We know that there were ten lepers in the group and we know that one of the ten was a Samaritan. The assumption then is, the other nine were Jews. In verse 16, the one leper who returned to thank Jesus for his healing was identified as a Samaritan. In the following verse Jesus referred to him as a “foreigner.” So there were ten lepers, nine of whom were Jews and the tenth was a foreigner, a Samaritan.
Interesting how having leprosy broke down the racial and religious barrier that existed otherwise. Desperation tends to break down most barriers.
One of my favorite commercials is of a group of young mothers of varied ethnicities all pushing their baby strollers and they all meet in a little park. They all proudly pull back the blankets to show off their babies… all so beautiful. And then the last mother pulls back her blanket to proudly show her new puppy. It’s definitely one of those kumbaya serendipitous moments in time when everyone loves everyone and everyone’s baby. There are no barriers in new baby land.
Commentator William Barclay observes that during a flood all manner of creatures that are natural enemies seem to coexist and share space peacefully when they all gather on high ground… there are no barriers during floods.
Visit the guest houses at Mayo Clinic or St. Jude’s or Shriner’s Hospital and you will see families who would never in your wildest imagination every have reason to associate with each other. They are from every imaginable socio-economic, religious, educational, racial/ethnic, political, geographical or age backgrounds but there, nothing else matters but the health and well-being of each other and their loved ones.
Desperation breaks down barriers that normally divide people.
Perhaps that is the silver-lining in any crisis.
They were ten wretched, forsaken, disheartened men. They were hopeless. They had leprosy, a disease for which there was no cure. In fact, leprosy was a death sentence carried out a little bit at a time—an arm now, a leg or ear later. Because the disease was thought to be highly contagious, lepers were driven out of town where they couldn't associate with anybody. These men were hopeless and helpless and alone, but they formed a fellowship among themselves. They lived in what we call leper colonies.
Then one day they heard about Jesus…
II. Desperation Drives People to Do Desperate Things (Desperate people often turn to God…)
As Jesus continued toward Jerusalem, he reached the border between Galilee and Samaria. As he entered a village there, ten lepers stood at a distance, crying out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” Luke 17:11-13
One day they heard about Jesus, and their hopes began to rise. They reached the point of believing, so they began to dream. In spite of a hopeless disease, they began to feel there was a chance to live. Through fellowship, these ten lepers had the courage to keep going. They saw Jesus coming and shouted to him, “Jesus, Master, have mercy upon us." Everybody would have told them they were going to die, that it was useless to ask for help. If they had believed that, they would have died. But they came to Jesus… after all, "All things are possible to him who believes."
Desperate people are willing to try just about anything to get what they need. In this case they were willing to make a spectacle of themselves crying out asking Jesus to help them, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”
Desperate people start going to church and they start praying. Desperate people seek out the finest specialists in the medical field. Desperate people travel to other countries to try experimental procedures and drugs. Desperate people embrace homeopathic remedies. Desperate people order those guaranteed to work or your money back samples offered on late night TV. Desperate people visit faith healers. Desperate people are willing to do business with sketchy leper colony crime bosses and share their cigars to get what they need.
Desperate people are willing to do just about anything to get what they need. In this case they were willing to obey Jesus when he said, ”Go show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed of their leprosy. Luke 17:14 Desperate people are even willing to give faith a try!
Jesus saw a way to test their faith. He said to them, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." They could have looked at each other and said, "Well, nothing's happened to us. We're just the same as we were." Instead, they did what he said; they obeyed him. The Bible says that as they went they were cleansed.
Our response to God's blessings is important.
III. Desperate People Respond to Good Things / God’s Blessing In Different Ways
As they went, they were cleansed of their leprosy. One of them saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus shouting. “Praise God!” He fell on the ground at Jesus’ feet thanking him for what he had done. This man was a Samaritan.
There were ten lepers. They all asked Jesus for healing, and they were all healed. But there was a key difference in one of them. Nine of them received healing and went their way. Only one made the effort to come back and say "thank you."
We would hope that:
A. The Degree of Desperation Should/Would Affect the Degree of Appreciation
When we first saw the lepers they were a dejected group crying out to Jesus. They were desperate for his help! Now, having been healed of his leprosy this former leper returns to thank Jesus and he is shouting, “Praise God!” This is a guy who is feeling it! This is a guy who knows what has happened to him… once I was a leper and now I’m not! Once I was blind but now I see!
Researchers have proven what most parents probably know instinctively: gratitude doesn't come naturally. In her book entitled The Gift of Thanks, Margaret Visser cites a study which observed how parents teach their children to say "hi," "thanks," and good-bye." Parents had to prompt their children to say "hi" 28 percent of the time, "good-bye" 33 percent of the time, and "thanks" 51 percent of the time.
In conclusion, children had a much more difficult time learning to say "thanks." Most children have to learn to say "thank you" even before they know what it means. The words come first, the feelings later." Perhaps this applies to adults too!
Based on this research Visser concludes that learning to be thankful involves a steep learning curve. She writes, "In our culture thanksgiving is believed to be, for most children, the very last of basic social graces they acquire … .Children have to be 'brought up' to say they are grateful."
Visser also notes that, although we have to grow into the practice of thanksgiving, once we finally learn to be grateful, we seldom forget it: "Such phrases [like 'thank you'] become so ingrained in us that they last when almost everything else has been forgotten. In states of aphasia, or in people suffering from Alzheimer's disease, these little phrases often survive the shipwreck of other memories." (Margaret Visser, The Gift of Thanks (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009), pp. 8-15)
Maybe the Samaritan leper was raised by parents who taught him how to say, “Thank you.”
Jesus is not oblivious to the obvious. He knew there were ten lepers and he knew the difference between one leper and ten lepers. He knew there were nine fully healed lepers running around out there somewhere whooping it up… too caught up in their new found wholeness to take time to say, “Thank you.” He asked, "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?" Why didn't the nine come back? This may come as a bit of a shock but it seems God might just be aware of our ingratitude and be a bit bewildered by it!
Could it be as simple as their parents never taught them the how to say, “Thank you” or is there more?
B. Desperate People Tend to Get Distracted When Things Go Well
They don’t need to go to church anymore. They don’t need to pray anymore. They took a deep breath, got busy with life once again, went back to work, got involved with family life, started eating better and exercising…
I think that when things turn around and the pressure is off people breathe a sigh of relief and figure it was a little bit of this and a little bit of that and it all worked out. God used the doctors and the nurses and the chemo and the meds and the transfusions and the infusions and the prayers and the fasting and the vigils and it’s good to be getting back to normal.
Sometimes I wonder if when the dust clears and life begins to get back to normal after whatever our crisis might have been, we don’t tend to feel just a little bit entitled. After all, our suffering surely has been sufficient enough to warrant a little well-deserved relief from it all.
So what are a couple of obvious takeaways from the text today?
One obvious takeaway today is for those of us who happen to find ourselves in a crisis and if that be the case we would do well to take our place with the lepers calling out to Jesus, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on me.”
And the other obvious take away is for those of us who happen to find ourselves having been recipients of the many mercies and graces of God to take our place along with the grateful leper at the feet of Jesus thanking him for what he has done.
Conclusion
In the fall of 2000, former megachurch pastor Ed Dobson was diagnosed with ALS (or Lou Gehrig's disease), a degenerative disease with no known cause or cure. In 2012 Dobson shared his ongoing struggle to give thanks while living with an incurable condition. He writes:
There are many things for which I am not grateful. I can no longer button the buttons on my shirt. I can no longer put on a heavy jacket. I can no longer raise my right hand above my head. I can no longer write. I can no longer eat with my right hand. I eat with my left hand, and now even that is becoming a challenge. And over time all of these challenges will get worse and worse. So what in the world do I have to be grateful for?
So much.
Lord, thank you for waking me up this morning. Lord, thank you that I can turn over in my bed. Lord, thank you that I can still get out of bed. Lord, thank you that I can walk to the bathroom …. Lord, thank you that I can still brush my teeth … Lord, thank you that I can still eat breakfast. Lord, thank you that I can still dress myself. Lord, thank you that I can still drive my car. Lord, thank you that I can still walk. Lord, thank you that I can still talk.
And the list goes on and on. I have learned in my journey with ALS to focus on what I can do, not on what I can't do. I have learned to be grateful for the small things in my life and for the many things I can still do. (Ed Dobson, Seeing through the Fog (David C Cook, 2012), pp. 69-70)
