I Am The One
Scriptures: Luke 17:11-19; Numbers 12
The title of this Thanksgiving message is “I Am the One.” Have you ever been the one person to do something that no else was willing to do? Maybe in school you saw a kid being bullied and you were the one person who stood up to put a stop to it while everyone else just stood by and watched. Maybe you were on your job and there was a situation that needed addressing and you were the only one willing to stand up and bring the issue to light. Maybe it was a situation where a volunteer was needed and no one was willing to step up so you did. In life we will all experience times when we are the one; that one person that steps beyond the crowd to act alone; the only one who will stand up and do what is needed. It is during these times that people may or may not notice your actions but your actions were not dependent upon anyone’s approval. You acted because you believed it was the right thing to do at the time.
In the United States, we are celebrating Thanksgiving this week and I want to share a story about a man who received something from the Lord and was the only one to say thank you. I do not want this to be lost on you. He wasn’t the only one to receive the blessing; he was the only one who chose to say “Thank you.” Before we go to this story, I want to share a personal story with you. In 1973 I started Junior High school. At this time in my life I had a lot of pride. This pride did not originate in me because I came from an affluent family; actually it was the opposite. We were not rich or middle class; we were poor, maybe not as poor as some, but poor nonetheless. This may be hard for some of you to understand when you consider the salaries people earn today but that was not the case in 1973.
For all families, a middle class family in the United States in 1973 earned $12,050 or $69,890 in today’s money. However, the median income for a white family in 1973 was $12,600, or $73,080 today. The median income for a black family in 1973 was $7,270, or $42,166 today, which is 42% less than that of a white family. In 1973, in order to be in the middle class you had to earn $12,050 annually. To be middle class in the black community you had to earn $7,270 which was 40% less than the middle class designation for all families in the United States. If your family was able to make the $7,270 in 1973 they would fall in the bottom 25% of all earners in the United States. In other words, to be middle class in the black community you would still fall in the bottom 25% of earners in the United States. We were not a middle family even in the black community. In elementary school we received discounts based on what my parents earned. Sometimes during the summer we went to a special lunch program at the community center to eat lunch when there was minimal food in the house. It was during these times that I realized how stretched financially my parents were in raising five kids. I did not like the “feeling” of being poor so I determined within myself that I would not act poor which subsequently led to me displaying an air of pride and arrogance. It was a show because I was embarrassed about being poor. I needed you to understand this background so that you can understand the story I am about to share with you – the story of my pride getting me thrown out of a store.
As I said, in 1973 I started Junior high school. I was in the 7th grade and my brother was in the 9th grade. Every day my father gave my brother and me one dollar (fifty cents each) for lunch. Since my brother and I were on different lunch schedules we had to get change for the dollar before school so that we would not have to try to find each other before lunch period. So, on our way to school we would stop by this one store to get change. I would go into the store and ask the owner if he could give me change for the dollar so that my brother and I could each have our lunch money. He would give me the change and then I would walk out of the store and give my brother his portion. This was my routine every day. I would go in, ask for change, get it, and walk out. I had a chip on my shoulder about being poor so I had a lot of pride. It was this pride that made me think that going into his store made me his customer and thus I was doing him a favor in allowing him to give me change for my dollar. Don’t laugh, while it might seem funny now, what I am sharing with you partly shaped who I am today. It was my attitude that I was his customer even though I was not buying anything. In my simple mind whenever I walked into his store it was his responsibility to “serve” me. I want you to see that image clearly. Just because he owned the store and I walked in did not make me his customer even though I thought it did. Now I want you to hear me closely on this because you will hear this again in the story we will read.
Whenever I walked into this man’s store and asked for change, he gave it to me. Once I got my change I left his store. I did this day after day when we needed change and not once, not once did I tell the owner “Thank you.” Imagine for a moment how this made him feel. He was doing me a favor but I was too full of myself to simply say “Thank you.” Saying “Thank you” is a polite expression we use when acknowledging a gift, service, or compliment and this simple expression was one that I had refused repeatedly to say to this store owner. One day I walked in as I usually did and asked for change as I usually did. The owner stopped what he was doing and looked at me. He told me that as many times as I had been in there I had never said “Thank you.” Imagine being called out in front of your friends. So I just stood there and looked at him. Then he told me to leave his store unless I was buying something or until I learned to say “Thank you.” At that point the easiest and correct thing for me to do was simply acknowledge that I had been wrong. But I was young and full of myself so all I did was look at him, pick up my dollar and walk out of his store. I will tell you later how this story ended but for now I want you to remember “why” I acted the way that I did. It wasn’t that I had no home training because I had; it was the chip I had on my shoulder because we were poor. Now let’s transition to a similar story Jesus experienced.
We all know that Jesus healed a lot of people during His three year ministry, but there was one instance where it appears that some of those who were healed – who had received a precious gift – had an attitude that might have been similar to mine. As we read the story, I want you to think about the one as well as the other nine. As we read this story, I want you to consider why each one responded the way that they did. Turn to Luke chapter seventeen and we will begin reading at verse eleven.
“And it came to pass, as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as He entered into a certain village, there met Him ten men that were lepers, who stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices, and said, ‘Jesus, Teacher, have mercy on us.’ And when He saw them, He said unto them, ‘Go show yourselves unto the priests.’ And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God. And fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, ‘Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? There was not found one that returned to give glory to God, except this stranger.’ And He said unto him, arise, go your way: your faith has made you whole. (Luke 17:11-19)
Before I go deeper into the story, let me first set the stage with a little history about leprosy. Leprosy was the great equalizer. What do I mean by this? No matter what your status or station in life – from the high ranking religious leader, or despised tax collector, to the ordinary citizen – if you were a leper, all lepers were equal. You were treated the same. Leprosy was a disease which the Jews thought was inflicted for the punishment of some particular sin, and to be, more than other diseases, a mark of God's displeasure. This thinking was based on historical examples of people becoming lepers because of sinning against God. An example of this is the story of Miriam, Moses’ sister, who spoke against Moses. In the twelfth chapter of the book of Numbers, Aaron (Moses brother) and Miriam spoke against their brother Moses because he had chosen to marry an Ethiopian woman. In their anger they stated that they were his equal as far as God using them all as prophets. God was not pleased resulting in Miriam being punished with leprosy.
In ancient times, leprosy was interpreted as a physical affliction caused by the moral transgression of gossip. The Torah teaches that during the early stages of what seemed to be a serious skin affliction, a sick person would stand before a priest who would diagnose the illness. If it was determined that the person was a leper, he or she would be expelled from the community for the duration of the recovery process. The priests were involved from the moment a person started showing symptoms. They would wash the affected area, shave the hair from the body, and observe the nature and progression of the affliction. The priests monitored the wound for up to two weeks. After this period, the afflicted person was either pronounced clean and permitted to resume normal life or declared a leper, or unclean. If the person was declared a leper, the public health needs of the community were made paramount and the patient was placed outside the community until fully healed. Lepers were not allowed to live near other Jews; they were forced to live in caves or desert places. Sometimes they were able to live near the Samaritans – the half Jews – because the Jews had little respect for the Samaritans. In the biblical narrative, a leper was considered the ultimate “other,” distinguishable by the white, scaly skin that was prone to painful peeling and oozing. As long as the signs of the disease remained, the person was obligated to live outside the community and if anyone came near them, the leper would have to say “Unclean, unclean.” Imagine being a leper and when anyone approached you had to yell out that you were unclean. This was the condition of the ten lepers in this story. As they were lepers, they could commune with one another in the same encampment but they could only be in the presence of other lepers. And, only the priest could declare someone a leper or someone healed of leprosy. For this reason Jesus sent the ten lepers to the priest to be pronounced healed or cleaned.
Now, as the ten are walking away, they were healed. Let me pause here for just a moment. Do you think that if they had not obeyed, and I’ll say it like this, “the word of the Lord,” that they would have been healed? When Jesus told them what to do, they had to act on what He said – they had to have enough faith to “begin walking.” So many in the church have heard the Word, the Bible, but are not “walking it out.” Once the ten were examined by the priests and shown to be fit to be looked upon, the priests would certify them as clean. Now pay close attention to this. Only one of the ten, only one, upon seeing that he was healed returned to Jesus to give God praise and to thank Him. When he saw that he was healed, instead of continuing his journey to the priest to be declared clean, he turned back towards Jesus. Based on what we read, it truly appears that he was very hearty and affectionate in his thanksgivings. With a loud voice he glorified God and fell down on his face at Jesus’ feet. He was not ashamed to praise God publicly and to give thanks to Christ. Jesus took notice of him as he had distinguished himself from the others. You see, he was the one, the only one, to come back to give God praise and to thank Jesus for His healing. And what makes this story so interesting is that the one who returned was a Samaritan while the others were Jews. The Samaritans were a group of people who were despised by the Jews (even though there were a blend of races including Jews.) The Jews would not associate with Samaritans but as I stated earlier, leprosy was an equalizer. Leprosy broke down walls because it you had it, your background or affluence no longer mattered. There was one Samaritan among the nine Jews and he was the only one to return to Jesus and say “Thank you.”
The Jews were the chosen people and maybe they believed (as I did with the store owner) that Jesus was “supposed” to heal them – that it was His responsibility. And if it was His responsibility because they were God’s chosen people, then it was an expectation that He would heal them out of a sense of duty because they deserved it. When the Samaritan returned to Jesus, Jesus took notice of him and the ingratitude of the other nine who did not return to praise God or to thank Him. Jesus asks the man “Were there not ten who were cleansed – where are the nine?” Why did the nine, upon seeing that they were cleaned, not return to the one who had healed them? Think about the arrogance of the Jews who were lepers deciding to live near Samaritans, but it was only the Samaritan who returned. Although he, who had no expectation of receiving “good” from a Jew, when he was healed he returned to give God praise and to thank Jesus. Those who “expected” to receive something from Jesus just kept walking. They did not return to acknowledge what Jesus had done for them. I want you to think about what Jesus did for all of them. New Light, Jesus gave these men back their lives! They could go home again to their families. They could return to their jobs. People would see them and not avoid them. Instead, they would greet them again, and some may even give them a hug, especially if they were relatives. This is what Jesus did for them. Do you see the magnitude of what being healed of leprosy meant to these men? And nine of them didn’t even say “Thank you.” They took their healing for granted and maybe they remained healed and maybe they did not, we do not know. What we do know is that once they were healed they walked away without giving God thanks!
When the store owner told me to leave his store and not come back until I could say “thank you” or to purchase something, I was too proud to admit I had been wrong. I was too dug in to tell him I had made a mistake, especially in front of my friends. No, I had something to prove. So for the next several weeks I would have my brother or a friend go in and get change for me. When they grew tired of doing it, I had to go in. Instead of just going in and apologizing, I would go in and buy some candy in order to get change. The problem with that was I was spending my lunch money in order to get change which led to me not having enough money for lunch. One day I had had enough. I walked into the store and apologized for my rudeness. From that moment forward whenever I went into his store for change or to buy something I always made it a point to say “Thank you.”
In our story, one lone man returned to Jesus to say “Thank you.” Just one! Ten were healed, but only one returned. There are many that receive mercy from God but only a few, a very few that return to give thanks in a right manner. If you factor in those that are willing to give God thanks, they do not necessarily want to do it publicly. It is proven that those who are often most grateful is when they receive something from whom it was least expected. We know God loves us. We know God wants the best for us. We know God provides for our every need. But in all of this knowledge, is there such an expectation for Him to provide for us that when He does we do not feel compelled to fall on our faces before Him in worship, praise and thanksgiving? A Samaritan, a despised man who expected nothing from Jesus returns and gives thanks while the Jews who expected everything did not. Which are we? Are we the one who are willing to give God praise and say “thank you” or are we part of the nine?
In 1973 I had a first world problem. The struggle was real for my parents but I made it worse for me because of my pride. There were times I refused help because I did not want to be that poor kid who needed a handout. I was so prideful that I remember a time of being hungry and refusing a free lunch. I still hate government cheese but again, that’s a first world problem and attitude. Remember that I told you the median income for a black family in 1973 was $7,270? Today, in India, if you are one of the higher skilled wage earners you would make $7906 U.S. dollars annually. The living family wage in India this year is $3242 U.S. dollars annually. The minimum wage currently is $0.98 per hour. I am sharing this so that unlike my teenage years of being ungrateful and prideful, we understand there are many places in this world where people are struggling more than we ever have in our temporary struggles. We should be grateful and willing to give thanks. As I close this morning, I have a few young people who are willing to be the one this morning and share why they are thankful for what God has done or is doing in their lives.
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
(If you are ever in the Kansas City, KS area, please come and worship with us at New Light Christian Fellowship, 15 N. 14th Street, Kansas City, KS 66102. Our service Sunday worship starts at 9 a.m. and Thursday night Bible study at 7 p.m. Also, for use of our social media, you can find us at newlightchristianfellowship on FB. To get our live stream services, please make sure you “like” and turn on notifications for our page so you can be notified when we are live streaming. We also have a church website and New Light Christian Fellowship YouTube channel for more of our content. We are developing more social media streams so please stand by and we will notify you once those channels are up and running. We look forward to you worshipping with us. May God bless and keep you.)
