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Text: Luke 17:11-19
There is a powerful lesson about thanksgiving from these ten men who had a most dreaded disease. Listen now
They all started in the same position – they stood afar off.
Luke 17:11,12
Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off.
Rabbinic tradition said that they had to stand at least 100 paces from anyone else. Lepers were separated. The law shut them out from their family, friends and community. The law said when you pass one, pass on the other side and cry out, “Unclean! Unclean!”
Where the law says man cannot go, Jesus goes. When they could not get to Jesus, Jesus got to them.
Like the lepers, we too were isolated and outcasts (from the Kingdom of God). We are all born with a deadly disease the Bible calls terminal sin; it causes us to be spiritual outcasts. Sin is part of our spiritual genetic code. We got it from my parents who got it from their parents, and it goes all the way back to a couple named Adam and Eve. Jesus reached past the barrier of sin to set us free. They all prayed.
Luke 17:13,14
And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.
All ten said the same prayer. Notice two things:
a. They admitted they had a need and cried out for help.
Rev. 3:16,17
So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, “I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.
b. Prayer without obedience is useless.
As they obeyed the command of the Lord they were healed. Only one came back to say thanks and experience wholeness.
Luke 17:15
And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”
Many see their need to pray but don’t see their need to praise.
Why don’t we stop and thank God?
a. Affluence. Only one did not get so wrapped up in the blessing that he forgot the “blesser”
b. Pride. We are prideful and somehow think we have earned all the things we have received.
Psalm 10:4
In his pride the wicked does not seek God; in all his thoughts there is no room for Him.
c. Habit. Ingratitude and grumbling are just as habitual and addictive as crack cocaine.
d. Circumstances.
I Thessalonians 5:18
Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
With the same loudness and intensity that he prayed, he glorified God. Many times we cry loud for help and are silent with praise. A thankful heart moved the Samaritan from being cured (Greek iaomai) in verse 15 to being saved (Greek sozo) in verse 19. The word means to “be made complete or whole.” Jesus came to make us whole in every area of life! |
