THE GRATEFUL ONE

Introduction:

A. Illustration: Story Of Two Angels

There is a legend about two angels who were sent to earth to gather up the prayers of men. One was to fill his basket with the petitions of mankind. The other was to gather their prayers of thanksgiving. Sometime later they went back to the Father’s house. One had a basket heaped high, and running over, with the innumerable petitions of men. The other returned with a sad and heavy heart, for his basket was almost empty. The thanks of men were heard but rarely on earth, even though the angel had searched diligently. Let us not forget the thanksgiving side of our prayers.

—The Expositor

B. Context of the Text

Jesus is the third year of his earthly ministry, this particular incident took place during the Judean and Perean ministry. He is on his way to Jerusalem where he would face the religious leaders, rulers and Romans and ultimately be crucified. While he is on his way to Jerusalem he takes a route between Samaria and Galilee that brings him into a village where he is met by 10 lepers. There is no telling how long these lepers had been together but when we see and hear them, they all look and sound the same. Upon seeing Jesus, they adhere to the law concerning them…they keep their distance. See Lev.13:45

Leviticus 13:45 NASB95

“As for the leper who has the infection, his clothes shall be torn, and the hair of his head shall be uncovered, and he shall cover his mustache and cry, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’

And then they begin to cry out in concert; “Jesus, Master have mercy on us.” it sounds at first like this is an intimate cry because they use the word Master. Scripture uses master in two basic senses: in authority and teacher. 1. As one in authority, master applies to slaveholders and to heads of households (which in biblical times frequently included slaves or servants). Greek terms translated master (of servants or a household) include despotes, kurios, oikodespotes (Mark 13:35; Luke 13:25; 14:21; 16:13; Eph. 6:9). 2. KJV regularly translated the Greek didaskalos (teacher) as master in the Gospels (Matt. 8:19; 9:11). KJV twice rendered kathegetes (guide, teacher) as master (Matt. 23:8, 10). KJV sometimes also translated rabbi (rabbi, teacher) and rabboni (my rabbi, my teacher) as master (Matt. 26:25; Mark 9:5; John 4:31). Modern translations render the above terms as teacher or rabbi. Luke often uses epistates (manager, chief) where Matthew and Mark have teacher (didaskalos), rabbi, or Lord (e.g., Luke 5:5; 8:24, 45; 9:33, 49; 17:13). So, here it suggests submission rather than intimate relationship.

It was their plea for mercy that made him decree their healing. “Go and show yourselves to the priests” was his instructions, and Luke informs us that as they were going, they were cleansed. What an awesome blessing…all ten cried, all ten begged, all ten were sent, and all ten were healed on the way; but the text says: “Now One of them”.

Chad Brand et al., eds., “Master,” Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003), 1089.

INGRATITUDE

Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations 6589 Pastor’s Conclusion

Pastor’s Conclusion

A clergyman included in his annual parochial report the item “Nine persons lost at sea.” When the congregation expressed shock and amazement, he said, “Well, eleven persons requested prayers for those going to sea, and only two asked me to give thanks for a safe return, so I assume that the other nine were lost at sea.”

—Selected

Brothers and Sister, this text is tailored to teach us three things today. First, One common cause of ingratitude is thoughtlessness. Second, Another cause of ingratitude is found in pride. Third, Faithlessness can produce ingratitude.

THOUGHTLESSNESS

1. One common cause of ingratitude is thoughtlessness. Those nine who did not come back were simply average and ordinary people in this matter: they did not think. They did not impress upon their own minds that they henceforth owed everything to Christ; that, whatever other people might do or say with regard to Christ, their course was clear. Or perhaps something of this kind happened in their case, certainly the like of it does happen. They had the feeling, of course, that they had been most wonderfully restored, that they had reason to be thankful to God, that Providence had been kind to them. But gradually Jesus slipped out of their thought, even in connexion with their cure, until, long afterwards, if any one of those nine had been asked to recall the circumstances under which he had been healed, he would have said, “Ah! it was very wonderful; we were going along the way when we all suddenly felt that we were clean. No doubt just before that we had spoken to a stranger, who told us to go to the high-priest.” “And did that stranger do nothing that contributed to your recovery?” “Oh dear no! It all simply happened; no one touched us.” Thus they might tell the story afterwards—as an instance of their own good fortune, or perhaps as an example of the general goodness of God working in human lives, but not as an illustration of what, because it happened to themselves, may happen to others who come to a standstill in the journey of their lives, and who out of some despair lift up their broken hearts to Jesus Christ.

¶ Familiarity breeds forgetfulness. If a man has a hair’s-breadth escape from drowning, or comes safe out of a disastrous railway accident, he kneels down and thanks God for such a signal mercy; or if some long-desired but long-denied thing comes into his life, he will say to himself, “What a cause for thankfulness!” But the daily bread that nourishes him, the daily health that makes life a joy to him, the friendships that cheer him, the love of wife and children that fills his home with brightness and comfort, are, or become, so much a matter of course that it hardly occurs to him that they should “be received with thanksgiving.” You see the same kind of spirit in the earthly home; and in this, as in so much else, the child is father of the man. If the father brings home some pretty toy to his child, he is overwhelmed with thanks and caresses; but that same child eats its daily bread and enjoys its daily blessings provided by a father’s toil without a thought of gratitude. This is perfectly natural and blameless in a little child, but surely inexcusable as between a man and his Maker. Should not every mercy remind us of the overshadowing love of God, and help to keep our hearts tender and responsive to our Father in heaven?1

PRIDE

1. One common cause of ingratitude is thoughtlessness. Those nine who did not come back were simply average and ordinary people in this matter: they did not think. They did not impress upon their own minds that they henceforth owed everything to Christ; that, whatever other people might do or say with regard to Christ, their course was clear. Or perhaps something of this kind happened in their case, certainly the like of it does happen. They had the feeling, of course, that they had been most wonderfully restored, that they had reason to be thankful to God, that Providence had been kind to them. But gradually Jesus slipped out of their thought, even in connexion with their cure, until, long afterwards, if any one of those nine had been asked to recall the circumstances under which he had been healed, he would have said, “Ah! it was very wonderful; we were going along the way when we all suddenly felt that we were clean. No doubt just before that we had spoken to a stranger, who told us to go to the high-priest.” “And did that stranger do nothing that contributed to your recovery?” “Oh dear no! It all simply happened; no one touched us.” Thus they might tell the story afterwards—as an instance of their own good fortune, or perhaps as an example of the general goodness of God working in human lives, but not as an illustration of what, because it happened to themselves, may happen to others who come to a standstill in the journey of their lives, and who out of some despair lift up their broken hearts to Jesus Christ.

¶ Familiarity breeds forgetfulness. If a man has a hair’s-breadth escape from drowning, or comes safe out of a disastrous railway accident, he kneels down and thanks God for such a signal mercy; or if some long-desired but long-denied thing comes into his life, he will say to himself, “What a cause for thankfulness!” But the daily bread that nourishes him, the daily health that makes life a joy to him, the friendships that cheer him, the love of wife and children that fills his home with brightness and comfort, are, or become, so much a matter of course that it hardly occurs to him that they should “be received with thanksgiving.” You see the same kind of spirit in the earthly home; and in this, as in so much else, the child is father of the man. If the father brings home some pretty toy to his child, he is overwhelmed with thanks and caresses; but that same child eats its daily bread and enjoys its daily blessings provided by a father’s toil without a thought of gratitude. This is perfectly natural and blameless in a little child, but surely inexcusable as between a man and his Maker. Should not every mercy remind us of the overshadowing love of God, and help to keep our hearts tender and responsive to our Father in heaven?1

FAITHLESSNESS

The Great Texts of the Bible: St. Luke II. The Causes of Ingratitude

3. Men are apt to be thankless, when they do not see their benefactor. When this miracle was wrought upon the lepers, the Worker was out of sight. He had walked towards the village, and they, avoiding the village, were pursuing their way towards Jerusalem. At that moment of awe and blessing they did not see Him. No shadowy form hovered about them to remind them that He was present in power to heal them. No word like the “I will, be thou clean,” which had healed the leper at Capernaum two years before, now fell upon their ears; no hand was raised in benediction; and yet, minute by minute, the foul disease was disappearing, when or how they could not exactly tell: and at last they saw that they were healed. But the Healer Himself they did not see; as now in His Church, so then, He was out of sight, even when His action was most felt and energetic. His words still lingered on their ears, but it was not impossible, amid the distractions of a new scene, to forget their import: and thus, out of the ten men, nine did forget it.

¶ A strong man says in the pride of achievement, “Never since I was a boy have I been under obligation to any human being.” Nonsense! You are under obligation to a hundred unknown, lowly workers, and under obligation, too, to the greatest of mankind. You are debtor to the policeman on his beat, the deep sea fishermen off the banks, the stoker in the furnace-room of the ocean liner, the driver on the swift express or electric car, and the man who drops the fenders between the ferry-boat and the landing-stage! Many years ago, Rudyard Kipling administered a rebuke to the swash-bucklers of Empire who, in time of disturbance, fawn upon the private soldier as though he were one of the immortal gods descended from Olympus, and then, when the war-drum has ceased for a time its feverish throbbing, treat the same man as though he were the offscouring of humanity. You remember:

Makin’ mock at uniforms that guard you while you sleep Is cheaper than them uniforms, and they’re starvation cheap!1

James Hastings, ed., The Great Texts of the Bible: St. Luke (New York; Edinburgh: Charles Scribner’s Sons; T&T Clark, 1913), 328.