Luke 17:11-19 - Living Our Thanksgiving

Introduction

So here we are in the great run-up to Christmas Day, 2019. As soon as the clock struck 12:01 on the day after Halloween, all of the retailers immediately started re-tooling all of their displays; discounting the Halloween candy, clearing out the fall seasonal items to make way for all of the Christmas merchandise. Hollywood is advertising its Christmas movies, the TV commercials have already re-tooled with tinsel and sleighbells, and everything is generally falling right into the glidepath for December 25th.

But there are a few people who are feeling kind of bewildered about all of this—they have a dim recollection that there used to be another holiday sandwiched in there somewhere… right? Something about turkeys and people wearing hats with buckles on them, and Indians coming to a picnic or something?

It’s really only slightly exaggerated to say that our culture has a kind of amnesia when it comes to Thanksgiving Day. Aside from the obligatory turkey recipe on a morning network news show, the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, there will probably not be much time spent on the subject. And as unfortunate as that is, it’s not really unexpected in our society here in the closing weeks of 2019, is it? And as we look at our cultural and spiritual climate these days, there are a few reasons why Thanksgiving is a forgotten holiday.

First, it’s unpopular because it’s a story about Europeans and Native Americans getting along with each other—the Social Justice Warriors in our country want to talk about the European settlement of the New World in terms of exploitation, subjugation, bigotry and religious fanaticism. In fact, last year someone on Twitter noticed in the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special that Franklin (the little black kid) was sitting all by himself across the table from Charlie Brown and his white friends (!), and so all the SJW’s lit their hair on fire and ran around in tight little circles screaming about “raaaaaaacism!!” in a 45-year-old kids’ cartoon. So we don’t live in the healthiest atmosphere for celebrating Thanksgiving.

Also, Thanksgiving has always been a holiday traditionally celebrated with family—the classic Norman Rockwell painting of Grandma setting down an enormous turkey on a table surrounded by three generations of loving family members. But there are so many people today whose families are so torn and broken and messed-up that the thought of Thanksgiving is too painful for them to deal with. And so on that score Thanksgiving gets pushed off to the side.

But perhaps the greatest reason of all that Thanksgiving is a forgotten holiday is because it is, by definition, a day to be thankful. And specifically, it is a day to be thankful to God for what He has given us as a nation. The world around us is not at all keen on acknowledging even the existence of God (though Romans 1 tells us that it knows He exists)—let alone acknowledging that we as a people owe Him any kind of thanks:

Romans 1:21 ESV

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

So the world around us isn’t exactly eager to set aside a day to thank God for anything.

But for you and I, as Christians, thanksgiving is not just a day for us to celebrate this Thursday, is it? Thanksgiving should characterize every day of our lives! We are told in 1 Thessalonians 5:

1 Thessalonians 5:18 ESV

give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

So the question before us this morning is, how can we be a people who live out our thankfulness to God every day in an ungrateful world? How can we not only say we are thankful to God, but demonstrate that thankfulness in “all circumstances”?

So here is what I aim to demonstrate from these verses we read a few moments ago:

In this ungrateful age, our thanksgiving comes from what Jesus has done for us.

This passage in Luke comes to mind this morning because it tells the story of how one man expressed his thanksgiving to Jesus for what He had done for him. And as we move through these verses together, we will see three strong reasons that this man had—three powerful inducements for him to express his thanks to Jesus. The first strong reason this man had to thank Jesus was that

I. Jesus saw them when no one else did (Luke 17:11-12)

Let’s take just a moment to set the stage. Verse 11 says that Jesus was “on His way to Jerusalem”, and passing between the border of Samaria and Galilee. We know from reading John’s Gospel account that this story here in Luke happens just after Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead—John 11:53-54 tells us that the religious leaders were so angered and frightened over Jesus’ power and authority that they began plotting to put Him to death, and so

John 11:54 ESV

Jesus therefore no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there to the region near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, and there he stayed with the disciples.

That town of Ephraim was near the southern border of Samaria, and so that’s why Jesus was walking near this village when this story opens in Luke 17.

Now, when Jesus was walking into the town, it says that “He was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance” (v. 12). They stood at a distance because The Law of Moses required that anyone with leprosy had to stay outside of town, away from human contact:

Leviticus 13:46 ESV

He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp.

Lepers were isolated from everyone

For us, the disease of leprosy seems like a myth out of the ancient past; not something that we have any experience with in the 21st Century. In reality, leprosy (today called Hansen’s Disease) still afflicts as many as a quarter million people worldwide. If left untreated, leprosy affects the nerves, skin and eyes, causing lesions and numbness in hands and feet, eventually leading to paralysis and blindness. Because victims can’t feel pain, any wounds they suffer go unnoticed, allowing infections and gangrene to spread. In its later stages, a leprosy victim will literally rot away, eventually unable to see or hear or even move, helplessly trapped in a living death. It is a slow, painful and horrifying way to die.

These men were rotting away in a living death, and they knew that they would die alone. They weren’t allowed into the village, they couldn’t hold their kids or embrace their wives, they couldn’t even have the most basic human contact with anyone. Their lives were reduced to living in the wilderness, depending on whatever scraps of food or coins people would throw at them. And they were not just isolated, but

Lepers were ignored by everyone

They would shout and cry out for attention, but most people would just walk by them as if they were invisible. No one wanted to have to look on a leprosy victim slowly rotting away in a living death—nobody wanted to be downwind of that stench, no one wanted to get anywhere near them, for fear that they would catch the disease and be dragged down into the grave with them.

And this helps us understand what is so wonderful that Jesus saw them when no one else would! He didn’t ignore them, He didn’t walk quickly by when they called out to Him—He didn’t see them as carriers of a horrifying disease, He didn’t see them as “nobodies” who were worthless to society—He saw them as precious souls with dignity and worth!

Now as I said a moment ago, you and I have no real contact with the disease of leprosy today—we don’t have this horrible physical condition. But the Bible uses the graphic imagery of leprosy to describe an even more desperate condition that you and I share—the living death of our sin before a holy God!

In Psalm 38, King David describes his sin before God in a way that sounds exactly like leprosy:

Psalm 38:3–8 ESV

There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness, I am utterly bowed down and prostrate; all the day I go about mourning. For my sides are filled with burning, and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart.

Psalm 38:11 ESV

My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague, and my nearest kin stand far off.

You may not be suffering from Hansen’s disease this morning, but the Bible says that every last one of us in this room has been afflicted with spiritual leprosy, because

Romans 3:23 ESV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Some of you know in a very personal way what it is like to be isolated by the consequences of your sin, don’t you? To be ignored by your friends and family because of the way you have hurt them in your sin (or the way they have hurt you in their sin). The loneliness and isolation of having burned so many bridges that no one wants to deal with your crap anymore.

But when you were at your lowest point, when you were isolated and ignored by everyone else because of your sin, Jesus saw you when no one else did! He saw you in your pain and isolation, He saw everything that had happened to you (and everything you had done)! But no matter how ugly your spiritual leprosy had made you, Jesus didn’t look away in disgust, He looked on you with compassion! And this is a powerful inducement for your thanksgiving—that Jesus saw you when no one else did!

And not only did Jesus see those lepers when no one else did. And in verses 13-14 we see that

II. Jesus rescued them when no one else could (Luke 17:13-14)

Luke 17:13–14 ESV

and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed.

These men were living a slow, agonizing death sentence, because—even today as it was then—

Leprosy is incurable

There was no way to be healed from leprosy—the only hope that you had when you discovered it was that maybe it wasn’t leprosy after all! The Law of Moses (Lev. 13) provided extensive diagnostic instructions to the priest to determine what was and wasn’t leprosy—if the lesion or spot went away, or had certain characteristics, then the priest could pronounce the sufferer clean and allow him back into town. Otherwise, if it was really leprosy, there was nothing they—or anyone—could do; it was only a matter of time, because

Leprosy is fatal

These men knew that there was no cure—there was no point in going to see the priest, there was no reason to believe that their future held anything but a slow, agonizing descent into blindness, paralysis and agony as their bodies rotted out from under them. So when they saw Jesus walking past them into town, they cried out in desperation that He would “have mercy on them” . They knew exactly how miserable their condition was—they were under no illusions that they would get better, or that there was anything they could possibly do to get away from their living death sentence. So they cried out to Jesus as “Master”: They were saying, “Jesus! Don’t you have the authority to declare us clean? Can’t you do something to deliver us? Please, Jesus—you’re our only hope!”

And then Jesus rescued them when no one else could! He told them (v. 14) to “Go, show yourselves to the priests!” And there’s a wonderful little truth tucked into the end of the verse—that they were healed as soon as they obeyed Him! “…As they went they were cleansed!” There wasn’t anything they could do to save themselves, but the moment they obeyed Jesus’ words they were saved!

Have you been there? Have you come face-to-face with the fact that there is no way to escape the destructive consequences of your sin before God? That you were rotting away spiritually—that “your wounds stink and fester because of your foolishness” of rebelling against God? It didn’t matter what you tried to do, how you tried to clean yourself up, the spiritual leprosy of your sin was consuming you, deadening your feelings, rotting away your heart, destroying you from the inside out? And you knew it was only a matter of time before all of that darkness and wickedness would finally kill you?

But Jesus rescued you when no one else could! There was no way that you could have healed yourself from your spiritual leprosy—there was nothing good in you, nothing sound enough to even try. But

Romans 5:6–8 ESV

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

He took on the fatal disease of sin for you, so that you would be rescued—He called out to you, and when you heard Him, He cleansed you from your spiritual leprosy and set you free from it! This is your second powerful inducement for thanksgiving this morning, Christian—that Jesus rescued you when no one else could!

Jesus saw those lepers when no one else did, He rescued them when no one else could, and in verses 15-18 we see that

III. Jesus received them when no one else would (Luke 17:15-18)

Luke 17:15–18 ESV

Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”

Now, sometimes you’ll hear commentary on this passage that suggests that only this one man was thankful for his healing—that the other nine men weren’t grateful. Now, as tempting as that interpretation might be (what with us talking about Thanksgiving being a forgotten holiday and all), I think there’s far more to the story than just “remember to say thank you”.

Think about this for a moment with me—those other nine men weren’t running off with ungrateful hearts to do their own thing, were they? They were going to the priest in obedience to Jesus’ command! And they were so excited about being rescued from death by Jesus’ word that they couldn’t wait to go to the priest and be declared clean—they could go back to their homes, back to their families, back to their lives!

So what was different about this man? We read at the end of verse 16 that “this man was a Samaritan”. So evidently the other nine lepers were Jewish, and this one man was a Samaritan. And if you understand the culture of first-century Israel, you know that

The Samaritan was despised

by the Jews. The Samaritans were considered “half-breeds”, Gentile descendants of the Canaanites that occupied the Land centuries before. A good Jew would never even want to be in the same room as a Samaritan, wouldn’t let them anywhere near the Temple in Jerusalem, they wouldn’t eat with them, wouldn’t speak to them if it could be avoided.

So you can understand why this particular man wouldn’t be eager to go to the priest to have his cleansing certified—the priest wouldn’t declare a Samaritan clean in any circumstance! They were permanently unclean according to the Jews!

As long as all ten of the men had leprosy together, they were all unclean together—so it didn’t matter if the Jewish lepers associated with a Samaritan leper. But as soon as the uncleanness of their leprosy was lifted, they may very well have decided that they shouldn’t keep company with a Samaritan anymore! As soon as they were considered “clean” again,

The Samaritan was abandoned

He was no longer isolated and ignored by his leprosy—but he was still despised and abandoned because of who he was! The people who he thought were his friends when they were all living in their affliction together don’t want anything to do with him now that he has been made clean!

This same sort of abandonment can happen to us today, can’t it? When you come to saving faith in Jesus Christ, when He heals you of that spiritual leprosy and makes you clean and pure before Him, sometimes that means that the people in your former life don’t accept you anymore.

Rosaria Butterfield, a former tenured professor of English and Women’s Studies at Syracuse University and lesbian activist who became a Christian in 1999, called her coming to Christ “a trainwreck”—it destroyed her relationship with her partner, ruined her career as a professor, and cost her almost every last friend she ever had. In her book, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert, she says of her conversion that she “lost everything but the dog”.

Maybe you know a little something about that experience? That the people who you used to associate with (and in fact, still love!) don’t want anything to do with you anymore? The friends that you had when you all were living together in the darkness of your sin don’t want anything to do with you anymore now that you’ve “got religion”. As long as you were all sinners together, everything was fine—but now that you have a new heart and a new life and freedom from the penalty and power of sin, those friends have all turned their back on you.

But here is your strong inducement to thankfulness this morning, Christian—Jesus receives you when no one else will! In Mark’s gospel, the apostle Peter asked Jesus what would happen to them, since they had left their whole lives behind in order to follow Him:

Mark 10:29–30 ESV

Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.

Christian—even if the whole world turns its back on you—Jesus receives you when no one else will! If your brother or sister won’t speak to you because of Jesus, He gives you a whole room full of brothers and sisters here in His church! If your relationship with your children is strained because of the Gospel, He promises to give you a hundred times over the love and affection and joy of seeing spiritual children coming to faith in Christ because of your labor for Him. If your father won’t answer the phone when you call because you “got religion”, your Heavenly Father will never ignore you when you call out to Him—He will never leave you or forsake you, He will always rest His covenant love on you!

So praise God this morning, Christian—thank Him with grateful praise that He saw you when no one else did, He rescued you when no one else could, and He received you when no one else would! And for you, this thanksgiving is not just something that takes place on the fourth Thursday of November—this is to be your whole life!

So

IV. Live out your thanksgiving

, Christian—live in such a way that you do for others what Jesus did for you!

Show compassion like Jesus did

See the people around you that no one else sees! See the person behind the pain, the individual created in the image of God that suffers under that isolation of sin, and let the compassion that comes from that seeing drive you to act for them! Jesus saw you when no one else did, so you see others that way, and love them that way!

Jesus showed mercy to you when no one else could—He rescued you out of that spiritual leprosy! So

Show mercy like Jesus did

—be there to bind up the wounds, to wipe away the tears, to listen to the cries of people who are weighed down by their hopelessness and shame, and point them to Jesus Christ! Jesus told the lepers to run to the priest who would certify their cleansing—you tell them to fly to Jesus Christ for their cleansing! Look for opportunities to open blind eyes, turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are being sanctified by faith in Jesus Christ! (Acts 26:18)!

Jesus received you when no one else would—so live out that same grace to others!

Show grace like Jesus did

No matter where they’ve come from, no matter what scars of their former life they bear, no matter how different they look, no matter how unlike you they may be—be an example of the grace of God in Jesus Christ! When people walk through these doors, afraid of being judged or looked down on, make it your aim, Christian, to blow them away with the grace of God working through Jesus Christ living in you!

And finally, this morning—if you are here apart from a relationship with Jesus Christ, if you are still far off from Him in the spiritual leprosy of your sin this morning, here is the Good News for you: Jesus sees you. He sees what you’ve been through; He sees your struggles and your pain, He sees every tear you have shed—the Bible says He has saved your every tear in a bottle, because your tears a precious to Him. He knows what you have been through at the hands of other peoples’ sin—and He knows the sin you are guilty of.

He has seen it all, He knows every last detail of your rebellion against Him. You can’t hide it from Him, you can’t clean yourself up before Him. But if you cry out to Him, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on me!”—He has promised to save you! He has promised that

Romans 10:13 ESV

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Right after the service there we will be down front of the sanctuary to pray with you, to help you call on the Name of the Lord this morning so that you can repent of your sin and be healed of that spiritual leprosy and know that you have eternal life with Christ.

And know that when you come, Jesus will receive you! It doesn’t matter where you’ve been or what you’ve done, it doesn’t matter who you are or what your circumstance, He has promised to receive you—even if the entire world turns its back on you, He never will! He sees you, He has mercy for you, and He will receive you! So come—and welcome!—to Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Romans 16:25–27 ESV

Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

How is the working of sin in our lives like leprosy? How can sin destroy our relationships with each other? With God? How does knowing that Jesus sees you even in the depths of your sin give you reason to be thankful?

Where have you struggled in your life to overcome a particular sin? What does this passage teach you about the nature of sin, and how to escape its deadly effects? How does Jesus’ rescuing you from the penalty and power of your sin give you reason for thanksgiving?

How can you “live your thanksgiving” this week in the lives of people that you meet? Can you “see” people who are isolated in their sin and have compassion on them? Is there someone who needs to be pointed to Jesus so that He will cleanse them from their sin? Pray that God will give you an opportunity this week to show the same unconditional grace to someone that He has shown you in Jesus!