Beyond Our Blessings

Luke 17:11-19 Jesus Heals the Ten Lepers

11 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee.

12 As He entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance,

13 they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!"

14 When He saw them, He said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were made clean.

15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice.

16 He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked Him. And he was a Samaritan.

17 Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they?

18 Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?"

19 Then He said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."

Introduction:

Greg Anderson, in Living Life on Purposetells a 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 restaurant 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 was 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 restaurant 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." We all understand and appreciate the importance of gratitude. How it can radically change relationships. In fact, one of the first things we got taught and that we teach our children is to express their gratitude. Yet, when it comes to giving thanks to our Heavenly Father, we so often miss the mark. When it comes to this issue of giving our thanks to God, I don’t suppose there is any story in the Bible that is so endearing to us, so timelessly appropriate, as the story of Jesus healing the ten lepers. We have all heard the story many times, but like so many Bible stories, we never tire of it. The story begins: “And as he entered a certain village there met him ten lepers, and they stood at a far distance...”

I. The Law of Common Need Luke 17:11-13

11 When Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem, he was going along between Samaria and Galilee; 12 and, as he entered a village, ten lepers, who stood far off, met him. 13 They lifted up their voices and said, "Jesus, Master, have pity upon us."

The ten lepers were bonded together by their common misfortune. They forgot the things that normally separated them because the greater plight of their need pulled them together. William Barclay calls this the “law of common need,” and says we can even see it among animals.

When a flood comes to the wild, animals who are natural enemies will scramble to dry ground, and stand peacefully together until the flood waters subside. When the crisis passes, these animals will return to their normal behavior, hunting and killing each other.

A common misfortune had broken down the racial and national barriers among these ten lepers. In the common tragedy of their leprosy they had forgotten they were Jews and Samaritans and remembered only they were men in need.

One of the things which should draw all men together is their common need of God.

Adversity may seem harsh, but it brings blessings with it. Sometimes we are thrown together and sense our need of God and of each other in the midst of our shared sense of loss. The “Law of Common Need” has been at work among us at various times – one of them being that poignant weekend 59 years ago next month. Americans have reached across lines and normally separate them to comfort, support and unite.

One Christian friend said, “This unity and caring for each other is great, but how long will it be before we turn away from God and return to our old habits and attitudes?”

After the assassination of a president on November 22, 1963 and after September 11, 2001, churches filled, people from a variety of walks of life came together for a brief time, but then things began to return to “normal.”

How might we keep that precious unity that was achieved in the midst of those awful circumstances?

· That, I believe, depends on whether we really get back to recognizing the true source of our blessings in God.

II. The Disease of Ingratitude Luke 17:14, 17-18

14 When he saw them, Jesus said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean… 17 Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? 18 Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”

The message of this story is very clear. Many people are ungrateful for the blessings in their life. In Luke 17, Jesus tells these ten lepers to “go and show yourselves to the priests.” The reason for this is that if you had leprosy you could not re-enter normal society until you had proven you were healed and presented yourself for a cleansing ceremony. Incredibly, most of those lepers never made the connection between Jesus and their healing.

Ingratitude – the lack of ability of express our thanks – is like a disease that robs people of many blessings in life. God can shower us with blessing after blessing, and those who are unthankful turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to those blessings.

What this true story suggests is that a rarity of thankfulness in our world is even greater than it was in Jesus’ day, when one in ten returned to thank the Lord. This disease of ingratitude begins early in life.

1) Often We Are Ungrateful to Our Parents.

There was a time in our lives when a week's neglect would have killed us. Of all living creatures man requires longest to become able to meet the needs essential for life. There were years when we were dependent on our parents for literally everything. Yet the day often comes when an aged parent is a nuisance; and many young people are unwilling to repay the debt they owe. As King Lear said of his daughters in the day of his own tragedy:

"How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child!"

2) Often We Are Ungrateful to Others.

Few of us have not at some time owed a great deal to some fellow-man. Few of us at the moment, believed we could ever forget; but few of us in the end satisfy the debt of gratitude we owe. It often happens that a friend, a teacher, a doctor, a surgeon does something for us which it is impossible to repay; but the tragedy is that we often do not even try to repay it.

“Not One of Them Ever Thanked Me”

Years ago, Bishop Gerald Kennedy told the true story of a shipwreck on Lake Michigan off the coast of Evanston, Illinois. The students of Northwestern University came to the rescue. One student, Edward Spenser, repeatedly dove into frigid waters and personally saved the lives of 17 persons that day. Fifty years later a reporter was writing a follow up story on the event, and went to interview Spencer, now an elderly man.

When asked what was the one thing that stood out about the incident in his mind, Spenser replied: “I remember that of the seventeen people I saved that day, not one of them ever thanked me.” [1]

3) Often we are ungrateful to God.

In some time of bitter need we pray with desperate intensity; the time passes and we forget God. Many never even offer a grace before meals. God gave us His only Son and often we never give to Him even a word of thanks. The best thanks we can give Him is a life which acknowledges His goodness and His mercy. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits." (Ps 103:2.) [2]

III. The Turning Point Luke 17:15-16, 19

15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16 He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan… 19 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

We could go on and on – I have many more illustrations about how rare gratitude really is – but we need not to miss the vital importance of the one leper who turned back to thank Jesus for his healing.

The First Billionaire: John D. Rockefeller

The very first person to reach the status of billionaire was a man who knew how to set goals and follow through. At the age of 23, he had become a millionaire, by the age of 50 he was a billionaire. Every decision, attitude, and relationship was tailored to create his personal power and wealth. But three years later at the age of 53 he became ill.

His entire body became racked with pain and he lost all the hair on his head. In complete agony, the world's only billionaire could buy anything he wanted, but he could only digest milk and crackers. An associate wrote, "He could not sleep, would not smile and nothing in life meant anything to him." His personal, highly skilled physicians predicted he would die within a year.

That year passed agonizingly slow. As he approached death he awoke one morning with the vague remembrances of a dream. He could barely recall the dream but knew it had to do with not being able to take any of his successes with him into the next world. The single most powerful man in the business world suddenly realized he was not in control of his own life. He was left with a choice.

He called his attorneys, accountants, and managers and announced that he wanted to channel his assets to hospitals, research, and mission work. On that day John D. Rockefeller established his foundation.

This new direction eventually led to the discovery of penicillin, cures for current strains of malaria, tuberculosis and diphtheria. The list of discoveries resulting from his choice is enormous.

But perhaps the most amazing part of Rockefeller's story is that the moment he began to give back a portion of all that he had earned, his body's chemistry was altered so significantly that he got better. It looked as if he would die at 53 but he lived to be 98.

Rockefeller learned gratitude and gave back from his wealth. Doing so made him whole. It is one thing to be healed; it is another to be made whole. It appears that the one leper who returned and threw himself at Jesus' feet in gratitude was not only healed, he was saved by his thanksgiving. "Rise and go," Jesus said, "your faith has made you well." [3]

IV. Closing

As Christians, we need to lead the way in calling our neighbors back to God. Ours should be the first and loudest voice declaring the blessings our Lord has already showered upon us. When the immediate crisis of September 11th subsided, some prayed that things would return to “normal.” But as people of faith, we don’t want to return to “normal”; as psychologist and radio host Dr. Laura Schlesinger prayed, may we never return to “normal.”

As Christians, we know that the way of life we so enjoy in America is subject to the grace of God.

One sure way to lose the blessing is to ignore all that God has done for us, thinking we have accomplished all this by our own effort, as the secular humanists in our nation would have us do.

One way to assure His continued blessings is to acknowledge our Lord and Savior. May we have the faith and wisdom to say as David does in Psalm 103:

Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name.

Bless the LORD, O my soul, and do not forget all His benefits--

Rex S. Wignall, guest minister, Faith Lutheran Church (Menifee, CA)

October 9, 2022 18th Sunday after Pentecost

File: Winword \ Sermons \ Text \ 2022 \ Luke 17_11-19 (10-09-22) Beyond Our Blessings

Notes and Resources

[1] Brett Blair and Staff, www.eSermons.com, October, 2001 [2] William Barclay, The Gospel of Luke, pp. 217-219, Westminster Press, 1975 [3] Brett Blair, www.eSermons.com, September 2001.