Is There Only One Thankful Man Among Us?

Every Thanksgiving I am reminded of the account of the one leper who, after he was healed, returned to give thanks to Jesus (Luke 17:11-19):

11 Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. 12 Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. 13 And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14 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. 15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, 16 and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. 17 So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? 18 Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”

There are so many striking details in this passage. First, notice the way that all ten lepers acknowledged Jesus as ‘Master.’ They knew that He was more than just a man. This is further demonstrated in the way that they cry out for mercy. In the same manner as Blind Bartimaeus, these men understand something of their need, physically and spiritually. They are acknowledging their helplessness and perhaps even their sinfulness. Their cry was enough to move the Lord to heal them. Immediately He tells them to ‘Go, and show themselves to the priests.’ The Lord would make these men physically and ceremonially clean. Luke notes that “as they went, they were cleansed.” These ten men obeyed Jesus. We are not told that they hesitated, even for one minute. These men obeyed Jesus–at His command, they went. But then things change.

Luke draws our attention to the one man who, when he realized he was healed, returned, and “with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face giving Him thanks.” This is heartfelt thanksgiving. Each year we may give lip service to the idea of thanksgiving. We may recognize some of the things that the Lord has done for us throughout the year–and it is good for us to be reminded of these things. But heartfelt thanksgiving is spontaneous. It recognizes what great things the Lord has done for us, and it causes us to fall on our face before God and give thanks to Christ for healing us. Only those who have been the recipients of God’s mercy in Christ can truly be thankful. There is a danger, however, for those of us who have received so much from the Lord and who are part of the covenant people of God.

Luke proceeds to mention that this thankful leper was a Samaritan. He had no right to the covenant promises. He was despised by the Jewish nation. He was essentially a pagan, outcast leper. And yet, he was the one who showed heartfelt thanksgiving to Jesus. Let us not forget that we, who have been given the greatest covenant privileges, are also the ones who may be in danger of not recognizing the undeserved mercy of God in Christ. Notice Jesus’ response.

Our Lord did not pass up the opportunity to use this man as an example for the Christian church. “Were there not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?,” He asks, “Where there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” Jesus shows His dismay at the lack of thankfulness, especially among the covenant people of God. This is a warning to all of us who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ–who have experienced the lavish mercy of God in Christ. We are always in danger of being like the nine Jewish lepers who did not come back to Christ with heartfelt thanksgiving. May God grant us today, and every day of our lives, the thanksgiving that this one Samaritan leper gave to Jesus for His healing mercy.