10.10.04 Colin Luke
17 verses 11-19: Faith and Thanks
Back
We
live in a world today, where most of us, in the Western World, have
come to expect a great deal from life: where the vast majority have
achieved freedom from hunger, comfort, well-being, health, happiness,
good holidays and enough wealth to live more than adequately.
Simultaneously we have a society in which
Many complain about the problems of our society and our way of life
Where obsessive avoidance of risk is high on the agenda of many
Where litigious action is rapidly rising with lawyers offering to sue, free of charge, on our behalf
And, we also hear a barrage of negative publicity from the media about the problems we have in our society and how someone (usually the government) should do something about it.
We hear much about suffering in our world that is unmerited or we think is unmerited, but seldom do we hear about, or give thanks for, the unmerited good that we all experience mostly every day of our life. The sun, as they say, shines on the righteous and the unrighteous.
Today’s passage is a wonderful antidote to the complaining society. Jesus models for us the way in which we should live and relate to other people, and models how to lead our lives in a way which really helps to make us whole people
The 1st lesson is from Jesus. The lepers, who are both medical and social outcasts, are kept by the society of the time at a distance from everyone. Jesus however listens to their pleas. He does not ignore them as many did. And he not only listens, but responds to their needs and to their request for mercy. Jesus does not have long discussions with them about their request. He doesn’t debate the medical ethics of whether he should heal them. He responds to their request without any preconditions and without considering whether they deserve help or not. He responds without wondering whether he will get any payback for his generosity. For Jesus, there are no social outcasts. He ignores the social norms for dealing with lepers and he listens to what they have to say. Jesus teaches us by his action how to lead our lives. Jesus does not complain about the added pressure of dealing with these lepers – he just acts.
The 2nd lesson is from the 10 lepers. Their desire to be free from the terrible disease of leprosy was great and therefore on hearing about Jesus, they come and make their request. He responds with clear instructions about what they need to do to find healing. And then in faith, the lepers follow his instruction. As far as we are told, they were not healed at that point, just told to go and show themselves to the priest. It is only once they act on what Jesus has told them, and turn away to find the priests, that they find they are healed. The lepers have to act in trust, before they can be healed. They teach us a lot about real faith – they act on the command of Jesus and are made whole. They teach us about real trust in the Word of Jesus and about our need to obey that Word in order to experience its reality. However, the Gospel story gives no information about them thanking Jesus, and having got what they want, most of them just go off.
The 3rd lesson is from the single leper who follows the instructions of Jesus and leaves to find the priest, but turns back when he discovers he has been healed, praising God and thanking Jesus very profusely. This single leper who returns to give thanks is not only an outcast because he is a leper, but also because he is a Samaritan. Yet, he is the one who profusely expresses his gratitude for the healing power of Jesus. Jesus declares that leper’s ‘faith has made him well’ or in the words of the authorised version ‘his faith has made him whole’ or in the words of The Message version ‘your faith has healed and saved you’. The action by the Samaritan in turning back in gratitude to praise God and to give thanks to Jesus, changes what was a physical healing experience into one that makes him whole, or saves him, bringing him into a real relationship with Jesus. Thankfulness, gratitude and praise, it seems, are perhaps rarer than the kind of personal faith that just wants for personal gain, yet are the key to establishing a depth of relationship with both other people and with God.
We learn a lot about how to lead our life from this passage:
From Jesus we learn that your racial origin, your medical condition and your status in society are irrelevant to your relationship with God. Jew, Samaritan or Gentile; socialite or social outcast; these bear no importance in forming a relationship with God. We also learn that Jesus responds to social and medical needs. These are real practical things that we can do as Christians – to ignore status and to positively work for the ending of a society which is still very status dominated; to challenge the social norms when we see people being badly treated by those of us who have plenty; and to respond to the needs that we personally see day-by day.
The second practical lesson for us is the example of the 10 lepers. They seem to have had no hesitation about publicly calling on Jesus to deal with their personal problem, and more importantly acting on what he told them to do. Like the lepers, we should always bring to God in prayer our personal needs and difficulties and ask for his help. The practical lesson for us is to pray about the issues in our life and to act on God’s word.
The third practical lesson comes from the single leper who turned back to praise God and to thank Jesus. Thankfulness and gratitude do not depend on our status or on how much we have – they are rather a way of life for the Christian. The Roman orator Cicero described gratitude as ‘not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others’. Thankfulness and gratitude to others are at the very heart of being human and at the very heart of being in relationship with God. On the other hand, those who have complaining, cold and thankless hearts rarely rely on others or let them into their lives; they don’t have the humility to recognize how much we all depend on others, can never surrender their feelings to others and therefore can never really know others. Lack of thankfulness, ingratitude, complaining, coldness and bitterness not only creates barrier between us and other people, but between us and God. So the third practical lesson from today’s reading is to learn to be continually thankful and to give praise to God day-by-day.
The great writer Samuel Johnson said that ‘gratitude is the heart’s memory’ but that it ‘is a fruit of great cultivation’. Gratitude is not just emotion. Gratitude is rather a disciplined way of life that can be cultivated, and need to be cultivated. Thankfulness does not develop unless we intend it to. Let us then in our daily life, follow the lead of the 10th leper who turned back to give thanks. Let us cultivate in our life, a daily act of recognizing all that God has given to us and expressing to God our thankfulness and our praise.
MEDITATION TO END
'Thank
you' -
two simple, everyday words,
yet how hard to say.
We
are taught to use them from early childhood
but they don't get any
easier.
Sometimes I'm too proud
to acknowledge my debt to the
giver.
Sometimes I feel too ashamed
because I didn't make the
first move.
Sometimes I behave as if it's my right
instead of
recognising the generosity behind the gift.
If
I had been one of those ten lepers,
how would I have reacted
to
Jesus' instruction to go..?
(Pause.)
How
would I have reacted
when I realised I had been healed?
(Pause.)