What He Said About Human Nature Series

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.