Sermon – Luke 17:11-19 – Called to Thanksgiving

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Presbyterian Churches
Sermon – Luke 17:11-19 – Called to Thanksgiving
October 10, 2010

As we have seen on these past few Sundays there are many different ways that God calls us and many different responses are required from us. Our call to discipleship comes with great costs. Our call to repentance results in great joy. Our call to serve others is rooted in the command to love our neighbors. And our call to faith requires a lifelong commitment to spiritual disciplines as we grow in the image of Christ. Today we look at our call to be thankful and to praise God and how this causes us to cross barriers. But first, let’s pray.

Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen. (Calvin)
Luke 17:11-19 11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" 14 When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed. 15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him-- and he was a Samaritan. 17 Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" 19 Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well."

We have all heard this story before. Sunday school teachers love to tell it to children. They point out that ten people were healed by Jesus, but only one returned to thank him. The teachers tell the children to be like the one who returned to Jesus. And they give the children a principle to live by: Always give thanks whenever someone does something for you. And this is very good advice. Always have those thank you cards ready and remember to write them for those gifts and meals you receive from others.

But if we look closely at this parable it becomes a little troubling. After all, didn’t the nine do exactly what Jesus told them to do? Remember what Jesus said, “Go present yourselves to the priests.” Nine lepers did exactly what they were told to do. And one disobeyed Jesus. So why are we admiring the one who was disobeying Jesus? And why does Jesus seem to commend him for his disobedience while being critical of the others who obeyed his command? Like much of what Jesus said we have to dig a little deeper to see what he is trying to say to us.

The narrator of this passage, Luke, tells us that Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. Jesus had begun this journey all the way back in Luke chapter nine. And we know from Luke chapter nineteen that his route to Jerusalem passed through Jericho. So he and his disciples were traveling down the Jordan River to Jericho and then took the Roman road from Jericho to Jerusalem. This is the normal root for Jews traveling from Galilee to Jerusalem who wish to avoid Samaria. So how could it be, as our passage says today, that Jesus was on the border of Galilee and Samaria? The answer is that Luke is not giving us a geography lesson. He is doing something else. The border between Galilee and Samaria is not just a matter of territory. It is also a religious and cultural barrier. And this was the border the Jesus was crossing.

Ten years ago I travelled to the Holy Land on a mission and pilgrimage with my church. The Jerusalem office of World Vision International took us into Gaza. At the border we were stopped by the Israeli army and told to get out of the bus. Our passports were taken away. We walked a few yards to an ancient bus that was waiting to take us into Gaza. Off in the distance I saw Palestinians making the mile and a half walk from the buses in Gaza that had brought them to the border to the buses that would take them to work in Israel. I saw gigantic differences between the Palestinians and the Israelis. They were separated by physical, economic, cultural and religious barriers at this border.

So let’s look at the cultural and religious barriers that separated the Samaritans and Jews in the first century. Samaria was the sight of an ancient city built in the ninth century before Christ by Omri, King of Israel. It served as the capital of the northern kingdom until it was destroyed by the Assyrians in the eighth century. From that time on it was occupied by various ethnic and religious groups. In the third century BC, Alexander the Great conquered the area and a new community was established. This community became know as Samaritans. Their religion was similar to Judaism but their Bible consisted of only the Torah, the first five books of our Old Testament. They rejected all the wisdom and prophetic literature that we have in the Old Testament. Culturally, they adopted many of the customs of the Greeks. Because of these religious and cultural differences there were conflicts between the Jews and the Samaritans. A major conflict occurred in the second century BC when the Greek ruler ordered that all temples begin worshiping Zeus. The Samaritan temple, on Mt. Gerazim, was dedicated to Zeus. This outraged the Jews and in the war that followed a Jewish general destroyed the Samaritan temple. So centuries of hated and mistrust had passed resulting in a great division between the Jews and the Samaritans. And Jesus stood at the boundary between these two peoples.

There is another boundary in our story today. This boundary was setup between the Jewish community and those with contagious skin diseases which the Bible lumps together under the term leprosy. Just outside of a village, ten people with skin diseases stood at a distance from Jesus. They had been quarantined to protect the community from contracting their disease. The Book of Leviticus has clear instructions about diagnosing skin infections and what must be done to limit the spread of infections. It says,
Leviticus 13:45-46 45 "The person with such an infectious disease must wear torn clothes, let his hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of his face and cry out, 'Unclean! Unclean!' 46 As long as he has the infection he remains unclean. He must live alone; he must live outside the camp.

All ten of the people with skin infections obeyed these instructions and cried out to Jesus for healing. The lepers hoped for healing from Jesus. Probably they heard about the healing he had done in Galilee and wanted it for themselves. So they approached Jesus and asked to be healed.

Those who were Jewish knew the story of the General Naaman of Aram whom the prophet Elisha had healed from leprosy because it was in the Hebrew Bible. Those who were Samaritans had no knowledge of this story because the Book of Kings was not in their Bible. The Jews therefore knew that healing was possible from a prophet like Jesus. But the Samaritans could only hope for something extraordinary to occur. We are told that Jesus did heal all ten of the lepers. Nine of them, presumably Jewish, did exactly what both Jesus and the Book of Leviticus told them to do. They went straight to a priest who would examine them for any sign of the infection and if none was found would reintroduce them into society. But one of lepers was so overwhelmed with gratitude he went to Jesus to praise God. This act revealed the leper’s belief that Jesus had healed him with God’s help. We don’t why this leper did not go with the others to be checked out by a priest as the others had done. Maybe he thought that Jesus was his priest. And so Jesus crossed a boundary. A Jewish rabbi became the priest for a Samaritan, and a healed Samaritan became a faithful follower of Jesus Christ with praise and gratitude in his heart for all the blessings he had received from God.

The Samaritan was thankful for the healing he had received from Jesus and for the effect that transformation would have on his life. He was thankful for being restored to what God had created him to be. In his gratitude he glorified God and this demonstrated his faith in Jesus Christ. This is the model for us to follow. We, who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, should be thankful for the blessings God has given us. We, who have been sanctified by the Holy Spirit, should be thankful for our transformation into disciples of Jesus Christ. And we, who have the saving faith in Jesus Christ, should be thankful for the assurance we have of eternal life.

After their encounter Jesus told the Samaritan to go on his way. There must have been a strong desire to just hang around Jesus. Maybe the Samaritan wanted to be a disciple. Maybe he was afraid to go off alone. But Jesus told him that he had received the best gift of all. Yes, being healed was an important gift. But the bigger gift was the gift of faith, which Jesus said was what really healed him. So the former leper, a Samaritan, went on his way confident, healed and thankful for all that God had done for him and filled with faith in Jesus Christ which will sustain him whatever happens for the rest of his life.

This offer has been made to us too. We have been filled with faith in Jesus which sustains us in this life and assures of eternal life. It would be tempting to just hang around church all the time. But just like the leper we are sent on our way to our own lives, with all the problems and possibilities lives have. And we will be sustained and assured as we live those lives by our faith in Jesus Christ. So God calls us to be thankful by blessing us richly with the gift of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

The singer Kelly Clarkson has a song called “Thankful”. Here us part of what it says:

I’m thankful for the blessings and the lessons that I’ve learned with you by my side.
I’m thankful so thankful for the love that you keep bringing in my life
I’m thankful for the moment when I’m down you always know how to make me smile.
I'm thankful for the moments & the joy that your bringing to my life.
For the lessons that I’ve learned
For the trouble I’ve known
For the heartache & pain that you’ve thrown my way
When I didn’t think I could go on
But you made me feel strong. With you I am never alone
Thankful so thankful

Three thousand years before Ms Clarkson another singer sang these words.

Psalm 30:1-12 I will exalt you, O LORD, for you lifted me out of the depths and did not let my enemies gloat over me. 2 O LORD my God, I called to you for help and you healed me. 3 O LORD, you brought me up from the grave; you spared me from going down into the pit. 4 Sing to the LORD, you saints of his; praise his holy name. 5 For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. 6 When I felt secure, I said, "I will never be shaken." 7 O LORD, when you favored me, you made my mountain stand firm; but when you hid your face, I was dismayed. 8 To you, O LORD, I called; to the Lord I cried for mercy: 9 "What gain is there in my destruction, in my going down into the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it proclaim your faithfulness? 10 Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me; O LORD, be my help." 11 You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, 12 that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever. Amen.