On his way to Jerusalem, Jesus passed through a region of Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten people afflicted with the terrible disease of leprosy pleaded for Jesus to be merciful and heal them. He did! As the ten newly healed and cleansed individuals departed, one of them turned back, approached Jesus, fell at his feet, and thanked him—and this man was a Samaritan, despised by the Jews of Israel.
And what about the other nine? Weren’t they also thankful and rejoicing? Presumably so, but the point this sermon makes is that merely being thankful is not enough. God wants to hear us expressing our gratitude, for by this he is glorified!
Read the full sermon transcript below!
Thanksgiving Day! It’s only four days away! And if you think of Thanksgiving Day the same as I do, it is hands down the best meal of the year. I love it, and I’m sure you do too. When the Thanksgiving Day meal comes around, I always go for the Big Four: turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, and gravy. Lots of gravy! You can have the sweet potato pie, the cranberry sauce, the green beans, and all the other optional sides. I’ll stick to the Big Four. That’s what I have for my first plate and—as it might be said in biblical language—the second is likened unto it!
Yeah! We’re blessed! Truly blessed! But are we thankful, truly thankful? That’s the question! For you see, anyone can feel happy about enjoying the good things in life. And virtually everybody this year will try to come up with at least some things for which they are thankful.
But there is something that bothers me about our great American holiday that is like no other. Every year, I feel disappointed when I see the TV reporters and others asking people the question: “So, Mr. So-and-So, what are you thankful for this year?”
There is nothing wrong with that question itself; it’s perfectly fine and good. The problem is that the more important question is ignored. “For what are you thankful?” is OK. But the real question, the one that should be asked but usually is not, is this question: “To whom are you thankful?” What are you thankful for as a question is fine as far as it goes, but without an answer to the second question, no gratitude is expressed to our Heavenly Father, who alone is the source and giver of all things good.
The Bible tells us (James 1:17): Every good gift and perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights. Likewise, Psalm 145:15-16 acknowledges, in beautiful poetic fashion, that God is the source of all the provisions of life, saying thankfully to the Lord: The eyes of all look expectantly to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.
So what is it that makes one truly thankful to God, the Heavenly Giver? Several answers could be given to that question, but one would have to be faith. Faith makes one grateful for God’s blessings, so that faith is proven by thankfulness.
As we know, God sees and knows every heart, including our grateful dispositions. There is, however, a further lesson in this morning’s Scripture passage, which is that our gratefulness ought to be expressed to God. Like the duty of Christian forgiveness, thankful gratitude is the duty of every follower of Jesus. And it is quite achievable by every person of faith in Jesus, because outward expressions of gratitude are the fruit of an inner faith—the true faith that lives and breathes within the hearts of Christ’s redeemed sheep.
This morning’s sermon text shows us the difference in the self-centered attitude that makes one happy for what he received. But more importantly, it shows us the importance of giving credit to God as the giver and expressing our thanks to him from truly grateful hearts. It is the story of ten leprous individuals who were healed by Jesus. All ten were happy—probably even thankful—for the healing they had received. But only one of the ten acknowledged from whom that remarkable gift of healing and mercy had come. Ten men were healed, but only one who gave thanks. Let’s learn about it.
As we proceed to our text, the first part of the event on the written page reveals ten men trapped in a very desperate situation, men who were made well through a marvelous expression of God’s mercy (vv.11-14):
11 Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. 12 Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. 13 And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
14 So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.
Here we find one of several events that occurred as Jesus passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee on his way to Jerusalem. In his journey, Jesus comes upon a village that remains unnamed in the Scripture passage. As he approaches the village, he is met by ten men who were afflicted with the very dreadful disease of leprosy.
Leprosy, known today as Hansen’s disease, is a long-lasting, sometimes terminal disease caused by bacteria. It is an infectious disease that causes severe nerve damage. As the nerves die in various parts of the body, severe sores, skin sloughing, and terrible disfigurement can occur.
Leprosy of the Hansen’s disease type has an incubation period of 3 to 5 years, although some people do not develop symptoms until 10 or 20 years after contracting the bacteria. Those conditions contribute to the ease of contracting the disease, as people carry the bacteria unaware. Lepers in the ancient world were usually quarantined and required to keep themselves always at a distance from other people.
Lepers, therefore, suffered the further sad misfortune of a life of lonely isolation. They were banished from all involvement in local society, usually unable even to secure a job. Their only recourse, many times, was to beg along the roadside and to live within a colony of fellow lepers, hoping that someone would have mercy enough to help with their normal needs. If lepers came near a town or village, they were required to cry out, “Unclean! Unclean!” lest anyone unknowingly met that dreadful contagion. Lepers were true social outcasts. No one wanted them around.
Jesus, who was known for his ministry to despised social outcasts, had gained great fame throughout the land. People hailed him as an astounding teacher with unique, powerful acumen and authority, and as one whom God had specially gifted with the power to heal sickness and disease. As Jesus approached the village, ten poor leprous men met him and, standing afar off as required, they cried out loudly, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
These men probably heard that Jesus was coming to their village and may have gone to await his coming, hoping and praying that Jesus would show them mercy and heal them. If so, their waiting was not in vain. Upon hearing those mournful and desperate cries for help from ten forlorn men, Jesus said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” The Bible then informs us that as they went, they were cleansed.
Notice Jesus’s carefulness in obeying God’s law. Rather than pronounce them healed and sending them on their way, Jesus made certain that the men followed the Levitical law and went to the priest. He was and is, after all, the sinless Son of God, the lamb without blemish.
Priests filled a multi-faceted role regarding all things related to moral and ceremonial impurity. This included sins committed, of course, but also things like mold and mildew in houses and contagious diseases of the body. Their role in life was dealing with unclean things and helping to set them aright.
The Old Testament priests provide a very good typological foreshadowing of our Lord and Savior Jesus, who came into the world to save us sinners, setting aright our relationship with God. He takes the impure and makes us whole. He takes the guilty condemned and declares us forgiven, reconciled with God, clean and pure on account of his complete righteousness in which we trust.
Regarding the ten lepers, having been previously declared “unclean” by the priests at some time in the past, these men must now visit the priest, tell him they have been healed, and have their condition examined and evaluated by him. If the priest determines that indeed the men have been healed, then they can go back to their families and friends in the community and resume a normal life. But not until their healing was declared by the presiding officials who held that authority.
The ten leprous men having been mercifully healed by God’s power, let us consider what happened next (vv.15-19):
15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, 16 and fell down on his face at [Jesus’s] feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.
17 So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? 18 Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”
Ten men were healed, nine went their way, while only one of them returned to thank Jesus. This scenario has prompted many expositors of Holy Scripture to explain the absence of the nine by insisting that they didn’t return because they weren’t truly grateful. That, we believe, seems highly unlikely and a bit presumptuous, because there is nothing recorded in this account which indicates such a thing.
Leprosy was one of the absolute worst things that could happen to a person in those days. Here were nine men who, because of this cruel disease, had been cut off from society. Nine men who were avoided by their neighbors, who were not allowed to worship at the temple, and who were not able even to live in the village at home with their families.
They certainly would have been most grateful that they were healed and could resume normal lives. Those men probably leapt in the air from sheer joy, shouted praises to God, and got down on their knees thanking him for his goodness, especially since they were with the priest when their healing was confirmed. We can imagine them running home exuberant and excited about once again living together with their loved ones as a family, probably, for the first time in years.
The lesson learned from this true story probably isn’t so much a warning against having an ungrateful attitude, although such a disposition toward God is dangerously sinful. The lesson seems more to be that it is not sufficient just to be grateful; God wants us personally to give him thanks. He wants to hear it from us! He wants us to acknowledge him as the true giver and source of all things good.
Interestingly, the one man who returned to express his gratitude was a Samaritan. They were a mixed-race people whom self-righteous Jews despised. Racism is nothing new. Ironically, it was the man despised by the community who showed the kind of true faith that acknowledges God and affirms his blessings!
It takes faith to believe that God himself is the one who has provided a great blessing in your life. Faith in God as the provider of everything good is an inner disposition. It resides invisibly in your heart. But it ought to be expressed openly to God in thanksgiving. That is what God desires from his redeemed and adopted sons and daughters.
Inner faith should manifest itself outwardly through joyful thanksgiving to God. Our appreciation of God’s goodness should not be bottled up inside us, but given in the view and hearing of others around us. Perhaps then they, too, will see the great things God has done and also turn to him, praise him, and live for him through Jesus Christ. And then what is true of you as a follower of Christ can be true of them also, as Jesus said in v.19: “Your faith has made you well.”
Conclusion
Now, having discussed the event of the healing of the ten lepers, let us consider some lessons we can learn from this wonderful deed of mercy rendered by our blessed Savior.
First, notice that the diseased men were not healed instantaneously. Oftentimes, Jesus did heal immediately, but this time it was different. Luke tells us that “as they went”—as they began walking to where the priest was—“they were cleansed.”
Our God and Savior can do all things. God created the world, and all that is in it, in six days, but he could have done it in an instant had he so decreed. Nothing is more difficult for God than any other thing, for he is omnipotent. Just as God decreed to create the world over a six-day span of time, he also ordained that those ten men would be healed quickly but gradually.
God supplies all our needs, but not always according to our time. And sometimes, like those ten men who were required to start walking, God’s provisions are not without some effort on our part. We pray to God, “Give us this day our daily bread,” then we get up and go to work because that is the way God ordained that we attain it.
Similarly, like those men who were not healed immediately but after one step of faith, that was the beginning of their journey, so with us. The things for which we ask God in faith will usually be supplied by him when we are willing to obey what he commands. In cases like that, the receiving comes through the doing.
Next, Jesus demonstrated once again, to all around him who had eyes to see, that the coming of his kingdom of redemption and reconciliation with God includes people of all nations and ethnicities and of all circumstances and statuses of life. The one man who returned to give thanks was a Samaritan, a people looked down upon by pious Jews.
Again, this lesson points out what the Jews often took for granted: God’s saving mercy. Salvation had come to the house of Israel, true enough, but with the coming of Christ’s kingdom, redemption was beginning to be extended to all the world, to all who, with faith, repentance, and genuine gratitude, will come to Jesus.
Perhaps we would do well to ask ourselves and seriously consider, “What do I take for granted?” Have I become so comfortable in my walk with God over the years that I think too little about the amazing magnitude of his love, in that he would deign to save such a wretched sinner as I?”
We might ask ourselves, “Have I become so accustomed to God’s blessings that I assume they will always be there, as if they are mine by right?” Christians are, through the saving atonement of Jesus, adopted sons and daughters of God. And, yes, we have been given a title to all the benefits of Christ’s saving work on our behalf.
That is true, but it is not as if God owes us anything, as if he were obliged to give us everything we expect. Sons and daughters with that kind of attitude are very ungrateful and unappreciative toward the generosity of their parents, aren’t they? Our Father in Heaven expects us to praise him and thank him for every blessing. Are we truly grateful for God’s goodness to us? If so, then the gratitude in our heart should be expressed personally to God, the giver of every good gift, by sincere thanksgiving.
What an opportunity we have this coming Thursday to express our sincere gratitude to God on a national holiday set aside by our forefathers, for the very purpose of expressing our heartfelt appreciation to God by thanksgiving.
There is the old song that exhorts us: “Count your blessings; count them one by one. Count your many blessings; see what God has done.”
That is a very good principle, but I have never figured out how to do a complete job of it. Were you to attempt to count all your blessings from God, you would quickly find yourself lost somewhere amid an inexhaustible litany, a list that could never be completed.
On the other hand, we all could list, perhaps, the ten things or five things or even one thing for which we are most thankful at a given time and express to God our sincere, heartfelt gratitude for them. Surely that would be a good spiritual discipline, one that God might use by his grace, to help us grow stronger in our appreciation, love, and obedience to our kind and generous Father in Heaven.
Let us therefore take to heart and put into practice those always apropos words of Ephesians 5:20: Let us be giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us never cease giving thanks and praise to God for the greatest of all his gifts toward us: salvation through his son, our savior, Jesus Christ. The healing of the soul is to us the most precious, valuable thing of all.
Let us take home with us the overall lesson of this morning’s account: A faithful person is inwardly grateful, and God sees and knows the heart, but our gratitude ought to be expressed to God through sincere thanksgiving. Because, as we noted in the beginning of our sermon, outward expressions of gratitude are the fruit of an inner faith.