Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 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!” When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. 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. Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”
(Luke 17:11-19)
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As I was reflecting on what I might say about this passage in the light of Thanksgiving weekend, I found myself thinking back to Heather's time with the children last weekend. If you were here you might remember that she used a doughnut, and comparing the actual doughnut with the hole in the middle, she reminded the children that it's important to be thankful for what we do have rather than to focus on what we don't have. That seemed to me to be very good advice for adults as well, because for whatever reason I do think we have a tendency to focus more on what we want than on what we have; to lament what we don't have than to celebrate what we do have, and that mindset has a tendency to affect how we react to what we have. Basically, if we spend too much of our time in lament, we're failing to be thankful. You might say that the prerequisite for being thankful is to have hope. You don't need hope if you know that you're going to get yourself out of a tough situation. You just push the pedal to the metal so to speak and get yourself out of the tough situation. But if you're facing a desperate situation and you have absolutely no possibility of finding a way out of it by yourself, then you have to live in hope that something can happen to set things right. That seems to have been the situation that Jesus encountered as he came to this village.
Jesus found ten men, all with a horrible disease. Ebola has been much in the news lately. There are fears being raised by some people of a mass pandemic that could sweep the world . There are apocalyptic visions I'm sure in some minds of what this horrible disease might do to society. Or remember SARS a few years ago. Or AIDS a few years before that. Or fears about various strains of flu. There's always something it seems that causes some people at least to panic. Right now, it's ebola. And what's our usual solution to these problems? We isolate the victims. We blame them. We cast them aside. We live in fear of them. Two thousand years ago it was this dreaded skin disease the Bible calls leprosy. We don't really know what it was. We don't know if it was what we think of today as leprosy. The word really just means a skin disease, but apparently it was an infectious skin disease and the Old Testament had very clear rules that had to be followed when such an infection broke out. In an era when sanitation was non-existent, when there were no public health services and there were no vaccinations to protect people – you cast out those who were afflicted. You literally threw them out of the villages and left them in the wilderness on their own to make do as best as they could. It was harsh, but it was perhaps understandable. But even if you can understand why it was done, you can still imagine how those who were afflicted felt. Alone, outcast, they didn't have the protection of the walls that surrounded most villages so they were at the mercy of wild animals. And they were sick. It was a miserable, pitiful existence. And Jesus walked right into the middle of it as he came to this village. Ten men, horribly afflicted, outcast and isolated. Ten men who suddenly discovered hope and looked to Jesus for relief from their suffering: “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” they cried out.
Jesus had pity. Jesus showed mercy. The men were healed, which must have been a joyous thing for them. And then what happens is jarring; even perhaps a bit shocking. I'm not talking about the lack of gratitude from nine of the men. I'm talking about how Jesus responds to the lack of gratitude that the nine men showed.
One man returned to Jesus. One man said “thank you.” One out of ten. That's a pretty poor percentage! But one man did come back and give thanks. But Jesus' response was one of irritation perhaps. He seemed almost rude in his response. In fact, at first at least he seemed to ignore the grateful man who was in front of him and he spoke past him, presumably addressing his words to the crowds of people who were likely at the gates of the village and within earshot and who had seen what happened. And his words were words of rebuke. “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?” It's as if Jesus couldn't grasp this lack of gratitude that was being shown. It's a strange image of Jesus. I never think of Jesus wanting thanks for the things that he does for people. But as I think about it I'm not really sure that Jesus wanted thanks. I think what Jesus wanted from these men was an attitude of thankfulness – and not just for this particular incident. I think Jesus wanted them to have a spirit of thankfulness – to God – and to express that thankfulness to God.
The great irony of the passage is that Jesus found this attitude of thankfulness that he was looking for only in one of the men: “Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” he said with what seems to have been a bit of incredulity. This man was a foreigner. He was a Samaritan and not a Jew. Jesus saw a problem when he realized that the people who hadn't returned to give thanks were among the people of God. They had been restored to their community. They were back among their people. They rejoiced; they celebrated; they were happy. But they didn't say “thank you.” Only a foreigner – who would still be rejected by the people of the village because he wasn't considered one of them – bothered to really live out any sense of gratitude. It wasn't so much about giving thanks to Jesus. It was simply about being thankful. I wonder what Jesus would think about society in 2014?
I don't know about the rest of you but I see a society that's becoming far less polite and far less courteous. I'll freely confess that when I was a kid, I didn't grow up in the most functional of households, but at the same time I was at least taught that I should say “please” and “thank you.” Lynn and I have raised Hannah to do that, and I suspect that most of you have raised your kids the same way. But it still seems that we live in a society today in which many people feel “entitled” to things, and when we feel entitled, we're not as inclined to be thankful for them when we receive them. We take a lot of things for granted and sometimes we don't show much gratitude. In Luke's story, I wonder if the nine men who neglected to give thanks did so because they felt entitled to divine healing because they were a part of the community of God's people. God was their God; healing them was something their God should do for them. It was just something their faith should result in, while the one man who wasn't part of the community of God's people couldn't take divine healing for granted, was surprised to experience it, and was so overwhelmed that he could do nothing except throw himself at Jesus' feet and say “thank you!” There's a lesson there.
It's wonderful to celebrate Thanksgiving. It's wonderful to share time with family and good friends, to eat big meals and to give thanks for what we have. That is wonderful. But as the people of God it seems to me that we need to have more than just a day of thanksgiving. We need to live with a spirit of thanksgiving – a spirit of thanksgiving that fills our hearts and pours forth from our lips and touches the world around us. When Paul wrote that we should “... give thanks in all circumstances ...” I don't think he was simply mouthing an empty religious platitude. I think he was speaking of a profound spiritual truth. The only possible way to approach God (and for that matter to approach life, which comes from God) is with a spirit of thanksgiving every day, all year round, whatever the circumstances we're facing might be. This never-ending attitude of thanksgiving might be the best witness to Jesus and to our faith that we could possibly offer because I think it would stand out in a world in which giving thanks for what we have isn't the default position!
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