Are You Like the One?

Text: Luke 17:11-19

Focus: Gratitude

Function: To help people see the ease with which we can forget gratitude.

Form: Story-telling

Intro:

I have a friend, a medical doctor who lives very simply. He dresses in old clothes that show signs of wear. He drives a diesel Volkswagen Rabbit that is older than John Hepner’s pickup. He has a modest apartment in Brethren Village, in Lititz PA. I used to work for a building company that supplies material to FORUM group. FORUM group was a retirement community that specialized in luxurious retirement living. They were the kind of place that only the wealthy people could afford. Retired Doctors and wealthy businessmen were their clientele.

But this doctor friend of mine would have never been able to afford such luxury and the reason is bears mentioning. He was a Brethren missionary, a medical doctor to India. At one time, Dr. Pfaltzgraff was considered one of the world’s renowned authorities on the dreaded disease of leprosy.

Leprosy, the dreaded skin disease of the bible. It was the Cancer, or the HIV of the times. There was no cure and if you got it, your life was ruined.

(SHOW) Leprosy was feared then, like Cancer or HIV is feared today.

The OT law said, if a spot occurred on your hand, or a lock of your hair, and the scalp underneath it suddenly turned white, you had to be evaluated by the priest.

After one week, if the spot disappeared, you were safe, but if it remained you had separate yourself from everyone you know and loved.

Lepers had to leave town. They had to wear ragged clothes so that they stuck out. They had to cover their mouths with a rag so that they couldn’t breathe on anybody. Whenever they saw a healthy person, they had to cry out that they were unclean so that people would avoid them. They could never hug their wives, husbands or children anymore. As a sign of their condition, they had to let their hair grow wild. They joined a community of people like them and watched each other as the disease caused fingers to fall off, and patches of skin to rot away and death.

By crying: “Unclean! Unclean!” they signified that there was something wrong with them. The culture assumed that their disease was a punishment from God because they had some terrible moral transgression in their lives.

The only way they could live was to depend on the mercy of others.

This group of 10 lepers were living on the fringe of their cultures. (SHOW map)

They lived right between Samaria and Galilee. You probably know that the Samaritans were hated by the Jews. It was purely a case of racial prejudice. Often, the Jewish people would cross the lake, walk down the East side of the Jordan River just to get to Jerusalem.

But not Jesus. Jesus always traveled through this land and loved these people.

So here are these 10 lepers, living in a community. 9 of them are Jewish and 1 of them is Samaritan. Their common suffering has brought them together.

And it is interesting that Jesus and His followers are even near them. This is the deserted place. It almost seems as if Jesus has chosen this route in order to have this divine appointment with them.

And remember, Lepers depended on mercy.

Their pleas and cries to Jesus are repeated: (SHOW) Keeping their distance, ¹³they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”

Master, give me mercy. What a great prayer! It moves the heart of Jesus.

They probably know about Him. Earlier, Jesus touched a man with leprosy and the man was made immediately well.

This isn’t just them begging for food, but they are begging for a miracle.

They recognize who He is. Master! They cry.

Now Jesus is in a crowd of people. They are on the outskirts of a small village. The lepers know the law, they keep their distance. And Jesus, instead of going up to them, or inviting them into the circle of friends and onlookers merely answers them with a word.

Let me foreshadow the sermon a bit here, the real lesson in this is for the crowd, not the lepers.

I imagine He has to shout it back to them. “Go and show yourselves to the priests.”

You probably know why He said this. Remember, if after one week the spot was gone, the person showed themselves to the priest and the priest pronounced them clean.

Jesus is telling them to show themselves to the priest.

Now, I am preaching on gratitude this morning and how much it is a part of our relationship with God.

And I want to say: (SHOW) Your singing, your giving, your sharing of testimonies, your participation in worship is a regular, ongoing chance to express your gratitude to God.

But, I would be remiss if I didn’t talk a moment about the faith exercised in this miracle.

Jesus instantly healed the earlier leper by touching him. I imagine these lepers were expecting the same: an instant healing.

But instead, He tells them to go, to start walking, to take steps of faith.

And the text says: (SHOW) “As they went, they were healed.”

Picture it, 1^st one step and nothing has changed. Then another step, it all seems the same. Then a 3^rd step and someone notices a little bit more energy. Then a 4^th step, someone else notices energy. Their spirits are lifted up and as they continue their journey to the local priest, they find themselves, gradually, step by step, getting better.

(SHOW) Sometimes, after we pray, we have to take action steps in faith.

10 lepers are healed. 9 are Jewish, one is a dreaded Samaritan. They were accused of being people who had muddied both race and religion with foreign wives and practices. They weren’t “pure” like the rest of the Jews.

But the 9 take the miracle for granted and return home.

Only the one, the one accused of being a pagan infidel expresses true, living, undying faith in Jesus.

So, after this miracle, only the one, the outcast, returns to say thank you to Jesus.

And immediately, Jesus asks the question as to where the other 9 were.

Now look at this. Jesus didn’t ask the other 9. He didn’t even ask the 1. He asked the crowd who was with Him.

He wants His followers to think about gratitude.

(SHOW) Jesus wants US to be intentional about thanksgiving.

It’s like He didn’t ask those outside the Church about how grateful they are; He asked those inside the church if there is a chance that they too, forget to be grateful.

The question is asked of the crowd following Jesus (not the 9 who didn’t come back).

The 9 got a miracle, but not eternal life.

(SHOW) Jesus is pointing out the contrast between those who pray only when it is convenient or they need something, and those who want to walk with Him in a loving, saving relationship.

It is the difference between being merely religious, and knowing Him.

The 9 didn’t get to know Jesus. They didn’t get to learn the lesson. Their lives went on, without God. God, for them, was just a temporary fix.

So the nine don’t even hear the question: “Why didn’t you come back to thank me?”

Apparently (SHOW) they spent the rest of their lives in ignorance to the treasure they passed up.

He’s not asking the 9, He’s asking the crowd. This isn’t a lesson about the ingratitude of the world around us. It’s a question for us.

So I wonder: What was the crowd thinking?

Were they thinking: “why is He blaming us, we’re right here?”

Did they point to the one who returned and say: “I don’t know, ask him?”

Did they say: “It wasn’t me?”

Or, were they thinking: “What if that had been me? What if I was suddenly torn away from my loved ones, forced to live in squalor in the wilderness with people who smell? What if I watched people I bonded with suffer and die? What if I had to humiliate myself by crying out that I am unclean? What if I had to depend on the mercy of strangers to eat? The only thing cool about it was they got to wear dreadlocks. And then, what if suddenly all that shame was taken away? What would I DO?

(SHOW) Would I be one of the ones who ran back to my home, continued on with my life, showed myself to the Priests and done my minimum religious duty and forgot what truly happened?

Jesus is asking those people that question. He is asking the people who are there, in the crowd.

I think about that. When something truly great happens here, like Rosalie Derringer singing a special, or when the praise team brings us into that place of devotion and we feel the arms of God wrap around us. When the liturgy brings out a sense of awe and the scripture moves us to justice and love and then I look outside and I see the cars passing by and I think, if only they knew what they were missing!

I realize they are like the 9 lepers who missed the real blessing.

Let me put it more simply.

He is asking the crowd; He is asking us: (SHOW) Jesus is asking: Are you going to walk with me?

Are YOU going to love me? Are YOU going to be grateful to me? Have I changed YOUR life, or am I merely a convenience to YOU?

This is a question of true discipleship and faith.

This last one. This despised Samaritan received not only a physical healing, but his faith restored him into a saving relationship with the Creator of the Universe.