Jesus Blesses the Thankful Man

October 9, 2022

 

Luke 17:11-19

Key Verse 17:16 “He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.”

 

Let's greet each other. Happy Thanksgiving. When you greet with “Happy Thanksgiving,” what is on your mind? As for me, I didn’t have anything in mind before. It was just a greeting. Nothing special. Through today’s passage, we learn 3 attitudes of life of faith. Pray, Obey, and thanksgiving. Have you ever heard the following Bible verse? “And now these three remain; faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor 13:13) I want to say according to this passage, “and now these three remain; pray, obey and thanksgiving. But the greatest of these is thanksgiving.” So let’s find out together why I want to say in this way.

 

In today’s passage, Jesus heals ten men with leprosy. Jesus reveals his divine compassion and almighty power once again. But the story does not end with the healing. One of the ten came back to thank Jesus. Jesus gave him a special blessing. May God help us to give thanks to Jesus so that we may also receive a special blessing which only God can give.

 

The background of today’s passage is interesting. Let’s see verse 11. “Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus travelled along the border between Samaria and Galilee.” In those days, the Israelites and Samaritans didn’t interact with each other because of racial discrimination. The Israelites despised the Samaritans for being a people of mixed blood with foreigners. They were not pure Israelites. Samaria is the region between Galilee and Judea. Now Jerusalem is in Judea. The most direct route from Judea to Galilee was through Samaria. Using that route, the journey could be made in three days. But because of their hatred of the Samaritans, the Israelites usually did not pass through Samaria. They crossed the Jordan River went through Perea and crossed the Joran River again. The alternate route took twice as long—six days. The Israelites did not mind taking the longer route to avoid the despicable Samaritans. However, Jesus was different. Jesus had no bias against the Samaritans. Rather he tried to break the bias inside people’s hearts.

 

Look at verses 12-13, “As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, ‘Jesus, Master, have pity on us!’” At that time, especially, lepers were considered cursed by God. Leprosy which is called Hansen’s disease, affects the skin and peripheral nervous system; it spreads to the limbs of body’s disfigurement, twisting and curling hands and feet also collapsing nose, earlobes, toes and voice. In Leviticus, more rules regarding those who had leprosy are explained in detail. “Anyone with such a defiling disease must wear torn clothes, let their hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of their face and cry out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ As long as they have the disease they remain unclean. They must live alone; they must live outside the camp.” (Lev 13:45,46)

 

If it is discovered that you have leprosy, you were cut away from all relationships and your status and deprived of what you have, what you achieved, and what you enjoyed before. You cannot be who you are anymore. Your thoughts and your heart are the same as before but people cannot treat you nicely anymore, even someone you love cannot come near to you, instead, they throw stones and frown at you as if seeing a dirty and ugly monster. Because lepers should live outside the village, they cannot go to shop to buy food. The only thing they could do is to shout for mercy to passersby. This can be the reason 10 lepers formed their group of “unclean” people. 

 

What did they do? Let’s read verses 12b-13 again. “They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, ‘Jesus, Master, have pity on us!’” They may heard the news of Jesus who healed the leper in Luke 5. They were wretched in their leprosy. In their helplessness, they begged Jesus for pity. What did Jesus do? Look at verse 14a. “When he saw them, he said, ‘Go, show yourselves to the priests.’” Jesus did not ignore their cry for mercy. Jesus never ignores our cry for mercy. Jesus is the God of mercy who is ready to shed his grace on those who come to him. Jesus did so when he was on his way to Jerusalem to die on the cross.

 

Here comes the first attitude we need to learn: Cry out to Jesus. This is prayer. When we are helpless, we need to come to Jesus and cry out to him for mercy. Jesus may also have shouted to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” What can we learn from this? Jesus always adjusts to people’s requests with consideration. This time, Jesus did not much interact with these 10 lepers. They could not approach Jesus because of leprosy. Jesus knew that. So Jesus ‘told’ them what to do. Let’s read verse 14b together. “And as they went, they were cleansed.” It looks so simple but it is not that simple to follow the command of Jesus to show themselves to the priest even when they did not get any hint of healing. According to Jewish law, after examination by the priests, they could obtain a certificate of recovery and enter society as normal men. So you go to the priest after being healed. If they go before being healed, they bear the risk of being stoned on the way or to meet the priest while having leprosy. These ten lepers obeyed what Jesus commanded.

 

Here we learn the second attitude of life of faith; obedience. Jesus wanted them to learn obedience. Many times, our logic blocks us from obeying to follow what God said. In Luke 8, Jesus tells Jairus who just heard of the news of his daughter’s death, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.” Jesus’ command does not make sense according to our logic. Once you are dead, you are dead. You cannot come back to life. But Jairus believed Jesus’ words and obeyed Jesus. When we obey, the miracle happens. The 10 lepers were all healed at the same time. The rotting flesh and open sores were suddenly healed and their flesh became clean and healthy. The terrible disease of leprosy was gone. Ten men with leprosy were cured when they obeyed Jesus’ word. Jesus is the Messiah who heals incurable diseases with his power. The ten lepers were so shocked and they touched and checked each other again and again. Suddenly they were free from all bondage which suppressed them. They screamed and shouted for joy and danced like crazy without music and tears of joy ran down. No more suffering physically, emotionally and mentally. 

 

Let’s read together verses 15-16. “One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.” This is the key verse of today’s Thanksgiving message. When the Samaritan leper saw that he was healed, he turned around and came back to Jesus. He stopped in his tracks, turned around and came back full of joy, of course, full of amazement, full of wonder. He is trying to process what this means. Think about all the implications of now being able to go back, to his family, friends, and life. But he saw more than that. He understood the real implications of what had just happened. He had been in the presence of God and he wanted more than physical healing. His heart was longing for a relationship with the divine Healer. He wanted to worship and praise him and thank him. He wanted something more than just physical healing. He knew enough about the Old Testament to know that God was not just a healer but the Redeemer and the Savior. He understands the reality of his alienation and need for reconciliation with God. So he comes back and he does three things. 

 

First, he praised God in a loud voice. Perhaps a voice that now was able to do what it hadn’t been able to do for years. No more hoarse voice. Now he could sing with new vocal cords. Second, he threw himself at Jesus’ feet. He doesn’t just praise God. He knew that Jesus was more than a mere man. He worships Jesus. Third, he thanked Jesus. He knew that it was Jesus who healed him. He could not restrain his praise, he could not restrain his worship, he could not restrain his thanks. He knew he was in the presence of God.

 

Look at verses 17-18. Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” Where are the other nine? I do not doubt that after they were declared clean by the priest, they made their way to be with their family and their friends. To hug and kiss the wife and the children. To visit with Mom and Dad. To talk with friends. Their minds were occupied with all that the blessing brought to their lives, except one person. He loved his wife and children just as much as the others. He wanted to hug and kiss his wife and children just as much as the others. He wanted to spend time with his friends just as much as the others. He wanted to enjoy the blessing just as much as the others. But he had his priorities in order. He did not get so wrapped up in the blessing that he forgot the one who blessed him. He put family, friends and fellowship on hold so that he could worship the one that made his being with his family and friends possible.

 

Here is the punch line. “And he was a Samaritan.” The least likely from a Jewish viewpoint to be healed is an outcast. In verses 17-18, Jesus asks three rhetorical questions emphasizing ingratitude and indifference. “Were not all ten cleansed?” Yes, there were ten cleansed. And then he asks a second rhetorical question, “Where are the other nine?” In the original Greek, it would read like, “But the nine, they are where?” They ought to be here, they are where? Probably, they are on the way to the priest. They don’t have any interest in Jesus anymore. They got what they wanted out of Jesus. They have no desire to worship Jesus, no desire to glorify Jesus, and no desire to thank Jesus. They don’t see Jesus as God. Also, these 3 questions are to rebuke all Israelites who lost their thankfulness toward God’s blessing. At the same time, this is the proclamation for salvation to anyone who shows their faith like this man.

 

Look at verse 19, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” This can be misleading. All ten were made well. The correct translation would be, “Your faith has saved you.” When the Samaritan came back and worshiped Jesus, Jesus healed his soul and gave him salvation. This is the second miracle uniquely for this man. Only this man got salvation when he came back to Jesus and thanked him. All ten lepers were healed from the physical illness which is great and miraculous but it is temporary. That joyous moment would fade away in the following trials of life. However, when this man gave thanks to Jesus, Jesus gave him the spiritual healing and salvation which would last forever.

 

Today, we learned 3 attitudes in life of faith; pray, obey and thanksgiving. Even 9 lepers did pray and obey. But only this Samaritan leper gave thanks to Jesus. And He got the most important thing in life, salvation and eternal life. During the preparation of this message, I repented my unthankful heart. Because of life trials, I used to be pessimistic in all situations. I was also like the 9 lepers; I so quickly forgot how much I was blessed and turned out to be an unthankful person. Whenever my wife says, “I’m so thankful to have my hubby and my sonny,” I wonder “Why she should hypnotize herself?” But when I found out she meant what she was saying, it struck my mind; where did my thanks go? Why am I always complaining when she praises God with a thankful heart in the same situation? I want to be truly thankful and praise God with a humble heart. I also want to hear Jesus’ approval of my faith. “Rise and go Jacob; your faith has made you well.” This is the starting point of faith. Even though the Samaritan leper did not spend enough time with Jesus, he felt Jesus’ love and knew that this Jesus, the Son of God would be with him all through the journey of faith to the kingdom of God.         

 

 

Big Idea: Thanksgiving in every situation builds us and completes in God