“Gratitude, or Ingratitude?”
Luke 17:11-19
The story is told of a man who had traveled to a distant city on business. While walking through the city he happened upon a man whom he known some years before. The man, who had fallen upon hard times, was now a homeless beggar. The businessman, after talking with his friend for some time, and feeling greatly sorry for him, pressed a $50.00 bill into his hands before walking away.
Several years had passed when the businessman, once again visiting the city, ran into his former friend. Again, after visiting the man for a while, the businessman turned to leave. But before doing so, he pressed a $10.00 bill into his friend’s hand. The homeless man, looking at the ten dollars, said: “Hey, what’s this? The last time you saw me you gave me $50.00. Now, this time, only ten?”
The business man replied, “Well, friend, since the last time we saw one another, I have gotten married, bought a house, and had a child. My expenses are far greater than what they were then.”
“Oh, I see,” said the homeless man, “you are trying to raise a family on my money.”
Is there any thing that strikes a raw nerve with any one of us more than someone having an attitude of ingratitude? We go out of our way, sometimes at personal expense and great sacrifice, only to have someone be ungrateful for what we have done.
This particular story, like so many others concerning the Lord Jesus, is one that has a number of different lessons to be learned. One: it is a story of love and great compassion as Jesus reaches out to those who have been completely rejected by others. It exemplifies that which was intended to be an insult spoken by the Pharisees: “Jesus was, indeed, a friend of sinners.”
Two: it is a story of healing; not just the physical body, but also the healing of the sin-sick soul unto salvation and eternal life. And three: it is a story of gratitude –vs- ingratitude for all that God, in Christ, has done for sinful men.
Verse 11 tells us that Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem, and on His journey passes through Samaria and Galilee. Samaria, as you well know, was a place filled with people whom Jews hated and saw as a people who were the very scourge of the earth. Galilee, on the other hand, was home to the Jews who were arrogant and self-righteous because they understood themselves to be God’s chosen people. Jesus, passing through both regions, comes to a certain village where some Jews and Samaritans lived in co-existence; not because they had come to love one another, but because they had a common need. According to verse 15, at least one man was a Samaritan; possibly the others were Jews.
As the story unfolds, the first thing that we see here is a PITIFUL PLIGHT. “There were ten men who were lepers.” Leprosy was the most dreaded disease known to man at that time. It was a disease that not only was hideous as it caused the body to outwardly decay, but it was a disease that caused one to suffer emotionally because of the social stigma it carried. A leper was considered to be unclean. He was sent away and isolated from society. And, not only was he cut off from his family and friends, but he was in essence cut off from God because he was not allowed to enter the temple in Jerusalem which was the “House of Habitation” for God because of his uncleanness.
The leper also was restricted. Though he was allowed to travel from one town or village to another, he had to keep his distance from others: and, every other man’s rights superceded his own. If a leper walked down the road, and saw another man approaching, he had to leave the roadway and yell out to the stranger that he was a leper by covering his mouth and crying out, “Unclean, unclean!” One historian wrote that a leper could not come any closer than 50 yards to a person who had not the disease. If a leper, in an attitude of rebelliousness, dared to approach and possibly infect others, he could be stoned to death.
Throughout the Old Testament writings, leprosy was a picture of the sin and disobedience of man against God. Just as leprosy eats away at the outward man, sin eats away at the inside: at the heart of man making him unclean and unacceptable to God. In Isaiah 1:4-6 we find that God, speaking through His prophet, describes the sinful condition of the nation Israel in terms that they, because of the affliction of leprosy, could understand. He said:
“Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoke to anger the Holy One of Israel. They have turned away backward. Why should you be stricken again and again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; that have not been closed or bound up, or soothed with ointment.”
What a pitiful picture….and yet, it describes the hideousness of sinfulness and disobedience against God. And, beloved, it is not only a picture of the spiritual condition of Israel, but of every man and woman born of Adam’s race….for…. “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” And, like the lepers who were outcasts; alienated from friends and family and cut off from the temple of God, so is every one who has not entered into a relationship of love with God through faith in Jesus Christ. Every unregenerate soul is plagued by the pitiful plight of spiritual death and separation from God.
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Verses 12-13 lead us to understand that these men were well aware of their pitiful plight. They knew that there was no medical cure for their disease. They knew that they would die a horrible death further plagued by social stigma. But, they also understood that where there was no hope in medicine, there was great hope in the Messiah. And, so we see their PASSIONATE PLEA.
Notice in verse 12 that they “stood afar off.” There was obvious distance between them and the Christ. But, in verse 13, “they lifted up their voices,” and their plea was: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”
In Ephesians 2, Paul reminded the believers that at one time, they, as the children of wrath and disobedience, were alienated from God. They were strangers to all of the covenants and promises of God. They were at enmity against Him. In other words there was a separation of great distance between God and man because of his sin. But Jesus, having died on the cross and shed his blood as a covering for our sin, abolished the enmity between God and man: and, as Paul declared in Ephesians 2:13…. “But now in Christ Jesus you who were once afar off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
To some men, salvation seems distant and beyond reach. Basing their hope of salvation on the basis of their own moral goodness, they question whether or not they might ever be acceptable to God. But, beloved, our salvation and God’s gift of eternal life is never to be ours on the basis of what we have done, but on the basis of what Jesus Christ has done for us. And all that stands between the sinner and the gift of God is a passionate plea for mercy as one humbles himself before God and calls upon the name of Jesus, for, as Paul declared unto the Romans in 10:8-10; 13:
“But what does it say? The word is near you, even in your mouth and in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we preach: that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation…..For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
I am reminded of the story which Jesus told in Luke 18:10-14. It is the story of the Pharisee and the publican. Jesus said two men went up to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee, and the other a publican……………
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Notice verse 13…the tax collector was “afar off.” He knew his sinful state separated him from God. And being without help, and hope, he threw himself upon the mercy of God as he humbles himself. Jesus said: “This man went down to his house justified, rather than the other.” Why? Because “God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.” Beloved, the only thing that stands between our Holy God and sinful man is a passionate plea for mercy and grace.
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Looking back to verse 14 Jesus told the lepers to “Go, and show themselves to the priests.” It was the priest who would, upon examination of their flesh, determine whether or not they had been cured of their disease, and were therefore able to enter back into the city, and into relationship with their family, and with God. But, notice, Jesus did not touch them physically to bring forth healing, nor did He even speak the word saying, “According to your faith, be it done unto you.” He simply said, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.”
This journey from where they stood to where they would pass examination was a walk of faith. It would be a walk of experience wherein they would see an outward manifestation of a truly inward experience. The same is with us. At the very moment of our salvation experience we may feel better as the burden of guilt and sin has been lifted from us. And, of course there may be some immediate outward change that others can readily see; but the real difference is seen as the journey of faith takes place: as we change from experience to experience, from encounter to encounter with the Christ of God.
I think that when Jesus told the lepers to go and show themselves to the priests, it is saying to us that we also must show ourselves as changed and cured to those around us. People should be able to see a difference that will glorify our Father.
I think of the demoniac of Gadera, who came running to the Lord crying out, “What have I to do with thee, Jesus?” The demons within had control of him. They caused him to run naked through the tombs and cut himself with stones, but when Jesus had commanded that the demons come out of him he was forever changed. He wanted to follow after Jesus, but Jesus told him to “go home, and show his friends and family what great things the Lord had done for him.” A changed life will have as an outward show a PROVEN PURITY.
Verse 15 of the text tells us that one of the ten lepers, seeing that he was healed, stopped, and with a loud voice glorified God. He fell down upon his face at Jesus feet and gave thanks. It was a PURPOSEFUL PAUSING.
Several years ago, someone wrote a song, which I believe Robin Peters sang just a few weeks ago, that reads:
“How can I say thanks, for the things you have done for me.
Things, so undeserved, yet you give to prove your love for me.
The voices of million angels, could not express my gratitude.
All that I am, or ever hope to be, I owe it all to Thee.”
Beloved, how can one truly say thanks to God for all that He has given to us in Christ Jesus? We say it with a life that is lived holy unto Him. We say it with a life that glorifies Him in all that we do. Paul, in writing to the believers at Colossae said in 3:17: “And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”
Last of all, in verses 17-18 Jesus asked, “Were there not ten that were cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?”
Indeed, where were the nine? They experienced the same gift of healing; the same miracle of God. And yet, they went forth from the presence of Christ without the gratitude expressed by the one. To Jesus, it seemed to be as a PERPLEXING PROBLEM.
Beloved, this is not by any means an isolated case. In fact, Paul, in writing to young Timothy states that it will be the norm in the latter days. Look at I Timothy 3:1-5. “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a form of Godliness but denying its power.”
This sad commentary is not a picture of the lost world, it is a picture of the church! Many will go about their daily walk being unthankful, as though God owed to them everything He has given.
There will be those who are unholy, living lives that cannot be distinguished from any lost person in the world:
Surely this is a perplexing problem in the mind of God? Or, is it: because God knows man’s heart? He knows what we are made of; exactly what we are like. Yet, in spite of it all God manifested His grace to us through the giving of His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus knew that nine of the lepers would receive His gift of healing, and yet never turn to give Him thanks. But to the one who did, there was more than just a physical cleansing of a defiled body, there was the cleansing of a sin-sick soul. Jesus said to him: “Go your way. Your faith has made you whole.”
Beloved, in closing, I would ask you this morning if you have realized that you are facing a PITIFUL PLIGHT through your lostness in sin? And, have you, or will you today, make a PASSIONATE PLEA unto the Lord Jesus for salvation and cleansing from sin? He, alone, can save you!
Perhaps you are one that is a believer in Christ, and you have already called unto Him, but are you walking in a PROVEN PURITY as a testimony of your faith?
