1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. Our message from God’s Word today comes from Luke 17:11-19, which says, “On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” The message is entitled, “Give Thanks-Not Just for, But To,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. If you had told me three years ago that I would one day become a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth, I would have laughed. I would have said you were out of your mind. But there I was, journeying with Jesus and the others along the border between Galilee and Samaria. I remember that time like it was yesterday. Jesus didn’t seem to mind traveling near Samaria. That was unusual to us. Most other Jews stayed clear of the Samaritans. We looked down our noses at them. Looking back on everything that’s happened since, I sure wish I hadn’t done that.
3. Anyway, we were heading toward Jerusalem, and I was ready for a rest. Finally, we came upon this little village where I thought we wouldn’t be noticed so we could relax for a little while. I was a little tired of all the commotion we caused everywhere we went. Jesus sure could draw a crowd! On this trip, no sooner had we walked into the village than the saddest group of men you ever saw—standing off at a distance—lifted up their voices and shouted, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”
4. You could tell they were lepers—ten of them—their hair hanging loose, bodies wrapped in tattered cloths. They knew that the Torah commanded them to keep their distance, and when nonlepers would draw near to them, the lepers were commanded to shout, “Unclean, unclean.” But on that day, they weren’t shouting, “Unclean!” They were shouting, “Jesus, have mercy on us!” I thought to myself, “Do they really know who Jesus is, or have they just heard he can heal people, and that’s all they care about—getting healed?” But as I look back at that time, I realize now that I didn’t yet know who Jesus really was either. Pause.
5. I was a little surprised at what happened next. Jesus just called back to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” That’s it? I thought, “Is Jesus refusing to heal them? I know he’s tired too, but I don’t remember him rejecting people who wanted healing, even when he was tired.” That’s not what happened. It turns out that on the way to the priests, they were healed, every one of them. Their skin, which had been flaky and as white as snow, was now smooth as a baby’s bottom. They no longer had to live outside the city limits but could rejoin their families. They could actually kiss their wives again and hug their kids. Maybe they hadn’t done that for a long time. I can’t imagine what that must have been like. They could wear regular clothes again and never again have to yell out, “Unclean!” No longer were they society’s rejects. Jesus healed them, and then he sent them off to show the priests so that they could make a sacrifice—a thanks offering to God. That was appropriate. They obeyed Jesus’ command. I probably would have done the very same thing. I would have obeyed the Healer and gone right to the priests, like he said to.
6. Actually, I’m getting ahead of myself. How did I know they were all healed? Well, one of the ten didn’t make it all the way to the priests just yet. He turned back. We all saw him coming. You really couldn’t miss him. He was shouting at the top of his lungs, praising God, and he didn’t care who noticed. He was jumping up and down, running around; it was quite a sight! The next thing I knew, the man was flat on his face, right in front of Jesus’ feet.
7. “Thank you, Jesus! Thank you, Master! Thank you, Jesus!” he just kept saying over and over. You want to know the most shocking thing about it? He was one of those Samaritans. Jesus even pointed it out, he asked, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” The word Jesus used, “foreigner,” is the word that’s written in the Jerusalem temple forbidding anyone but Jews to enter. Being a foreigner wasn’t a little thing to us back then.
8. But did you notice something else Jesus said? In that one sentence, in a subtle way, Jesus called himself God. “Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Pause. The other nine, who were Jews, obeyed Jesus and went off to the priests to offer sacrifices. But this one, this Samaritan, believed that this Jesus was truly God—God in the flesh, living among the people, preaching to everyone and healing everyone, even Samaritans. This one leper, now healed, got it! Jesus is God.
9. As I said, looking back, I realize I hadn’t gotten it yet by then myself. If I had, I wouldn’t have thought all was lost with what happened not long after—what happened during a week that came at the end of that same trip, when we finally reached Jerusalem. That week I’ll never forget as long as I live. When we first got to Jerusalem, it was like we were in a parade! People were waving palm branches, shouting, “Hosanna! Hosanna!” They were laying their coats down for Jesus to walk on. Kind of like the red carpet at the Academy Awards, you know? But by the end of that week, Friday, he was hanging—beaten, bloody, blistered—on that nasty Roman cross. Pause.
10. Only after that did we finally know what his healing those lepers was really about. Friday became Sunday, and Jesus came back to life. We saw him! That’s how we know, once and for all, that he is God. And here is the thing: Since Jesus is God, and since he died for us, all our sins are taken away. As God, he was certainly a great enough sacrifice to pay for all of us—for everyone who ever lived or will live, for that Samaritan leper, and even for the other nine who didn’t turn back to thank him. For me. For you. And it’s only because those sins are taken away that anybody gets healed, miraculously or just in the plain old everyday way. Because sin separates us from God, and if our sin was still in the way, we wouldn’t get anything from him. Healing those lepers was already a result of what Jesus was about to do that last week. Healing the lepers happened because of Jesus’ dying on the cross!
11. So that Samaritan leper going back to thank Jesus was going back to the source of his healing. He returned to the Source. Where the other nine still obeyed their Healer and went to worship at the temple, they didn’t acknowledge Jesus, God in the flesh, and his cross as the source of their blessing. They missed the opportunity to go to the Source. They were thankful, but they missed the opportunity to be thankful to the crucified Jesus.
12. I know I’ve done the same thing as those nine lepers. I’ve forgotten I have Jesus on the cross to thank for all my blessings. Sometimes I’ve taken him for granted. You’ve missed chances to thank him too, haven’t you? Oh, we remember to thank at Thanksgiving. There’s a national holiday to help us remember. But the holiday doesn’t get us to the cross.
13. We ought to thank Jesus every day for every blessing his cross earned, even the little ones—before a meal, at bedtime, in the morning, when we get our paychecks, when we finish a test at school, when our grandkids come over for a visit. We thank him for the good times, and—You know what?—we even thank him during the bad times. Why? Because he rose to be with us always, to turn those bad moments into something good. Yes, we even thank God when life is difficult.
14. My good friend Paul wrote a couple letters to our brothers and sisters in Thessalonica. In his first letter, he wrote this: “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” And knowing what Paul has gone through, when he says give thanks in all circumstances, trust me, he means the good and the bad. When I was sick as a boy, after my mom gave me chicken soup and medicine, she’d say, “Remember to thank God, even now.” At the time, I thought that was odd, but she knew what God said through Paul about giving thanks in all circumstances. And, remember, don’t just be generally thankful. Be thankful to Jesus.
15. I didn’t tell you the end of that story about the one leper yet. While he was still face down on the ground at Jesus’ feet, Jesus said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has saved you.” That’s what Jesus tells you today too. “I have healed you. That disease called sin that kept you from a relationship with me is gone. It is removed from you as far as the east is from the west. I’ve given you faith in me, and your faith has saved you.” Faith—faith that Christ died for you, faith that Christ rose for you. With the healed leper, we praise God and say, “Thank You, Master! Thank You, Jesus!” In his name. Amen! Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.
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