Where Are The Nine? (Thanksgiving)

As He made His Journey, He heard this pitiful cry from ten lepers “Jesus, Master”!

Notice, they called him “Master”.

They did not call Him “Teacher” or “Lord” or “Messiah” or “Son of David”, they called Him “Master”.

Is this significant?

Yes, they called Him Master because a more literal reading would be: “Jesus, we see your power and respect You as One who works miracles, please have mercy on us.”

It is also significant, they were not professing faith in Jesus as the Messiah, but professing faith in Jesus as a miracle worker.

In actuality they were humbling themselves before someone more powerful than they are and begging for help.

In fact, they were desperate, they said, Have Mercy on Us!

According to the Law of Moses (Lev. 13 and Numbers 5:2-3) were ceremonially unclean and must live in isolation outside the village.

They were to let their hair of their head hang loose, cover their upper lip and cry out ‘Unclean, Unclean’ if they were to meet someone according to Lev 13:46.

This was for the protection of others for what was a contagious disease.

This is why these ten lepers “stood at a distance” and shouted to Jesus.

These ten men cried out for mercy because they recognized their awful situation and Jesus’ ability to help them.

Jesus heard their cry for mercy and granted it. He put their faith in His healing ability to the test by telling them to go show themselves to the priests before they are even healed.

Consider for a moment that they were lepers when they cried out to Jesus for mercy, they were lepers when Jesus told them to “go and show yourselves to the priests”, and lepers when they began walking to the priests. It is “as they went, they were cleansed.” When they began walking, they were lepers, but as they went to the priests, they became cleansed of their leprosy so that when they arrived the priest would inspect them (Leviticus 14:2-4) and declare them ceremonially clean and could enter back into society.

All ten believed that Jesus could heal their leprosy, and all took steps of obedience in going to the priest in order to be healed of their physical ailment.

All ten were cleansed of their leprosy, but “one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.”

Jesus asked a very heartbreaking and revealing question: “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?” Jesus laments that out of the ten only one returns to “give praise to God.”

What distinguishes the Samaritan from the other nine is that this man not only believed that Jesus could help him physically, but also spiritually. This man recognized that Jesus is sent from God, does the work of God, and is worthy of praise and worship.

Notice, our text begins, “It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord...”

We usually think of being thankful as being connected with good manners.

Illus: It seems that there used to be a time when PARENTS used to stress the importance of good manners to their children from the time, they were very young.

• They taught them how to properly address adults.

• They taught them how to show respect for each other and for adults.

• They taught them to express their thankfulness when anyone was kind to them or gave something to them.

These were some basic things just about ALL PARENTS used to teach their children.

Then the PUBLIC SCHOOLS reinforced those good teachings at school.

Along with teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic, they taught such things as:

-Kindness.

-Courteous.

-Cooperation.

-Friendliness.

-Patience

They considered these things to be as important as teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic.

It is a sad day in our country now because it seems that MANY PARENTS and MANY SCHOOLS no longer place emphasis on good manners as they once did.

We have raised a generation of ungrateful individuals. They spend much time griping and grumbling.

What a contrast to the way things used to be.

For example,

• There was a time when store clerks would look you in the face with a smile and thank customers for their patronage. They recognized they would not have a job if it were not for the customers. You could feel the appreciation as you went through the cashier’s line.

Often today when you go through the cashier line the cashier will not even bother to look you in the face with a smile but make you think they are doing you a favor to wait on you. The customer is made to feel that he/she needs to apologize for disturbing the cashiers, or for imposing on their time, to get them to wait on them.