(Preached on Sunday, October 10, 2010)
One of them, when he realized that he was healed, turned around and came back, shouting his gratitude, glorifying God. He kneeled at Jesus’ feet, so grateful. He couldn’t thank him enough – and he was a Samaritan. -Luke 17:15-16
It’s not fair! It’s easy to grumble when life deals us a mean hand. It takes no skill at all and certainly no courage, to whine and belly-ache to whoever will listen. Feeling aggrieved, we can readily join the herd of those who become sour characters, head over heels in self-pity.
The way we deal with the difficulties in life can, to a great extent, be traced back to our basic orientation in life. I find there are those who expect the world to serve them and those who expect to serve the world. And I suspect part of the difference comes from a genuine sense of thanksgiving. A business executive was walking down the street. He reached down and picked up a toy ball that rolled in his path. As he looked around to locate the owner, a very angry little girl approached him. “Give me that ball!” the girl said. Looking for a polite response, the man said to her: “What is the magic word?” “NOW!” she yelled.
In the Bible, Jesus does not get many expressions of gratitude. The percentage of those who say “thank you” in this story from the Gospel of Luke is not very high: one in ten!
The story begins with ten men, all of whom are lepers. That means all have a terrible disease which makes them outcasts from normal society. It means all of them, even though being men, with families, and backgrounds, and individual stories, are now defined by their illness. People with illnesses were outcasts in Jesus’ day. Just when they needed the support of family and friends most, their sickness set them apart. These individuals saw themselves as unworthy and kept their distance, even as they cried out to Jesus – not for healing or for alms, but for grace, inclusion, wholeness, mercy. “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” they called out.
Jesus heard them. Jesus gave them something to do; he sent them forth to take action! It was in the going that these ten were made clean. Jesus did not heal them at the moment they asked. They had to respond; they had to perform their normal religious duties; they had to get up and go.
This is not a traditional healing story. On the surface that is what it appears to be about. But there is a very specific format to healing stories in the Gospels and this does not fit that bill. Jesus never touches the men; never gives them special instructions about washing or cleansing themselves in any pool or basin; he never pronounces them “healed.” He simply commands them to go, show themselves to the priest, who would document their healing and fitness for return to society. The focus of the story isn’t on the healing, but on their response.
And all ten responded as directed. They all set off to go to the priest. And one the way they find themselves healed. That is then where something different happens for one of them. One of them sees that he is healed. The others certainly knew it; undoubtedly they all felt the healing in their bodies, the wholeness returning. But one of them sees what has taken place. In the Gospel stories “seeing” is an important word. It conveys much more than the art of taking in and registering the world through your eyes. To “see” is to “get it,” to understand. This one man sees – he gets it – and he turns around to show his gratitude and thank Jesus.
The man’s healing was not dependent upon his gratitude. The scripture does not say the other nine were ungrateful and therefore were re-afflicted with their old leprosy. It even appears that Jesus did not necessarily expect any of them to return to him. But he does appear somewhat saddened that only one of the ten came back to say thank you. And he tells that man to get up and go on his way, pointing out that his faith, his trust in God, not only healed him, but also saved him.
The nine men got what they wanted, healing of their bodies, but the one who gave thanks got so much more! One out of ten isn’t bad, but those nine missed out. They were served, they were cured, but they did not gain the blessing of giving thanks! Thanksgiving means giving thanks to God, but also to one another.
Sadly, though, we are far more often like the nine than the one when it comes to demonstrating our gratitude to God and to others. We have a real problem with receiving gifts. We are much better at giving gifts: not so much to show gratitude, but to maintain the upper hand in our relationships. Receiving gifts creates feelings of dependency within us. We are never quite sure how to respond. Watch two people argue over who is going to pay the tab in a restaurant. Listen to what you say when someone compliments you on what you are wearing. Do you ever say, “Oh, this old thing? It’s nothing really.” Or when you are invited to someone’s house for dinner, do you always feel as if you must bring a part of the meal? Or, do you feel as though you cannot accept another invitation from them until you have had them over for dinner at your place? Do you become upset if you receive a gift shortly before Christmas from someone you had not anticipated would give you a gift, and so you had not bought one for them, and now you have to rush out to try to find something at the last minute to reciprocate? You are not alone. We have a real problem with gifts. We don’t know how to handle them.
This is why we have a real problem in our relationship with God. Everything we have comes from God purely as gift. There is no way we can earn any of God’s gifts. Beginning with the most basic, life itself: none of us asked to be born and we had no say in the matter. We are here, purely because of God’s grace and love for us. And everything which proceeds from that point comes from God as gift. But we don’t know what to do in return; after all, God is the ultimate problem recipient: what can you get the Master of the Universe who truly does have everything?!? So we tend to take God’s gifts for granted.
But God continues to pour out gifts on us: gifts of healing, acceptance, and joy. Some of us have experienced statistically defying, medical cures. All of us have experienced minor medical healings, whether it is the ending of a headache or a scab forming over an open wound. Some of us have experienced deep depression. All of us have walked through dark, painful nights. Some of us have experienced broken bones and bodies. All of us have experienced broken hearts. Some of us have been ostracized by society – pushed to the outskirts because of the color of our skin, the amount of our paycheck, or our sexual orientation. All of us have been teased and put down. All of us, every single person in this room, have been healed. We have been found. We have been touched. We have encountered the living Christ. We have received mercy and grace. We have been cleansed. No response is required. No debt is owed. We can choose to go on our way like the other nine, and many of us do. We can also choose to be like the one who returned. We can respond to God’s faithfulness with praise and thanksgiving. Such an attitude of gratitude can make all the difference in the world.
Greg Anderson, in Living Life on Purpose, tells the story about a man whose wife had left him. He was completely depressed. He had lost faith in himself, in other people, in God – he found no joy in living. One rainy morning this man went to a small neighborhood diner for breakfast. Although several people were at the diner, no one was speaking to anyone else. Our miserable friend hunched over the counter, stirring his coffee with a spoon.
In one of the small booths along the window sat a young mother with a little girl. They had just been served their food when the little girl broke the sad silence by almost shouting, “Momma, why don’t we say our prayers here?” The waitress who had just served their breakfast turned around and said, “Sure, honey, we pray here. Will you say the prayer for us?” And she turned and looked at the rest of the people in the diner and said, “Bow your heads.” Surprisingly, one by one, the heads went down. The little girl then bowed her head, folded her hands, and said, “God is great, God is good, and we thank him for our food. Amen.”
That prayer changed the entire atmosphere. People began to talk with one another. The waitress said, “We should do that every morning.” “All of a sudden,” said our friend, “my whole frame of mind started to improve. From that little girl’s example, I started to thank God for all that I did have and stop majoring in all that I didn’t have. I started to be grateful.”
There is always something to be thankful for and thanksgiving needs to be expressed. When we do, it can make a powerful difference, not only in our lives, but in the lives of all those around us.