Jill Minnich                                                                          11/21/2001

Thanksgiving Eve
“A Ten-Percent Return”
 
Luke 17:11-19

Ten lepers stand by the road to Jerusalem.  By Law, they must keep their distance.  They have a contagious skin disease and must be quarantined for the safety and health of the rest of the community.  They have been forced out and forced to fend for themselves.  And they long to be healthy.  They want nothing more than to return to be with their families and friends.  As Jesus passes by they call out for help.  Jesus keeps his distance and keeps the Law, but tells them to go and see the priests.  The local priest was the public health official who could declare that the quarantine was over.  As they were going to the priest, they were healed and one of them, a Samaritan, realized that he was whole and well.  I remember hearing this story in Sunday school.  It seemed to me that the moral of the story was to always remember to say, “Thank you.”  And that may be an appropriate lesson for a 5-year-old.  Tonight I see so much more in this story.

Did you know that there is no word for “thanks” or “thank you” in Hebrew?  Showing gratitude is very important in the Old Testament, but there is no such thing as a “simple thank you.” In Hebrew, you “give honor or praise” to the person who has helped you or given you a gift worthy of thanks.  That is just what the Samaritan did—“he came back, praising God. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and” honored Him. 

Who came back?  It was the Samaritan.  This is not so surprising since Luke tells us that Jesus was passing along the border between Samaria and Galilee.  But the passage is not about geography; it is about expectations and prejudice.  You wouldn’t expect a Samaritan say “thank you” because ‘we all know what Samaritans are like.’  These were stressful times in Palestine and Samaria.  Stress sometimes accentuates subtle prejudice into full-blown racism as we have seen ourselves lately.  Jesus, however, never calls him a ‘Samaritan’, but refers to him as a ‘foreigner’ or a ‘stranger’.  The worst kind of worshipper according to common prejudice returns to give the right kind of worship. It is the ‘stranger’ who returns to praise God and honor Jesus for his healing and Jesus won’t let us forget this important point.  “There were ten who were healed; where are the other nine?” 

Where are the other nine?  We can’t be too hard on them can we?  After all, they were cured on the way to the priest.  The Law required them to be declared ‘clean’ by the priest before they could rejoin society.  The nine may have been isolated from the community for years.  Who can blame them if they rushed home to share the good news with family and friends?  One Sunday, “the pastor was speaking about heaven, about eternal bliss and the joys that are awaiting each person on ‘the other side’.  He paused for effect and asked, ‘How many of you here want to go to heaven?’  All hands were raised except for an eight-year-old boy sitting in the front pew.  The minister asked, ‘Don’t you want to go to heaven, too, son?’  The boy replied, ‘Yes, but I thought you were making up a load to go right now.’”[1] Maybe the nine others wanted to return to offer praise, but not right at that moment.  They would do it tomorrow, or the next day.

There was one out of ten, a stranger and a Samaritan, who realized that he had been made well and returned to praise God and honor Jesus.  Jesus didn’t need his gratitude.  Jesus didn’t need the gratitude of the other nine.  But they all needed to be grateful.  And Jesus commends the one who returns in a powerful way: “Rise up and be on your way.  Your faith has saved you.”  There were ten men who were made well that day, but only one, the stranger who returned, was made well and was saved.  Jesus doesn’t need our gratitude, but perhaps we need to be grateful. 

Did you know there’s a new diet out?  Well, I suppose there is always a new diet.  This one is called “The Right Age Diet”.  The theory is if you eat the right things and live the right lifestyle you can actually be decades younger than your chronological age.  Of course, do the wrong things and you can be decades older than your chronological age.  I usually don’t pay much attention to these diets, they come and they go so quickly.  But the doctor who designed this one was being interviewed on the TODAY Show and something he said caught my ear:  “People who are grateful and who regularly count their blessings are happier, less stressed, and live longer.”  Jesus doesn’t need our gratitude, but perhaps we need to be grateful.

Listen to this quote from another Thanksgiving Proclamation:

“We have been the recipients of the choisest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown.
But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.  Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, to proud to pray to the God that made us.

It has seem to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father Who dwelleth in the heavens.” Abraham Lincoln, 1863.[2] 

 

We have so much for which we could be grateful:  For the police officers, firefighters, and paramedics who never hesitate to rush to our rescue.  For the young service men and women who endure duty far from home and risks beyond measure to keep us safe and free.  For community services, health care, and transportation we can depend upon.  For leaders who work to preserve justice and freedom.  For the right to gather and worship according to our conscience.  For every breathless day, fresh flower, golden sunset, or ice-cold snowflake.  For quiet moments with friends, a baby’s smile, hearts that love and understand.  For all this and much more we owe our Creator honor and praise.

 

Ten men were healed.  Only one stranger returned to praise God and honor Jesus.  Ten men were healed but only one was saved. God doesn’t need our thanks and praise, but we need to thank and praise God: tonight, tomorrow and every day of our lives.