Gratitude and Faith: The Leper's Transformative Return

"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 and they lifted up their voices and they said, 'Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.' 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." [00:18:50]

"Jesus went against that convention and decided to go directly through Samaria. We read in verse 12, as He entered a certain village, He met ten men who were lepers who stood afar off. Now we know, of course, that once you had been diagnosed with leprosy in ancient Israel, you suffered the worst of all possible kinds of quarantines; not a quarantine that would last a week or were two weeks, but it would be a quarantine that would last for the rest of your life." [00:03:27]

"Unless by some marvelous means, you were cured of that leprosy, you were sentenced to a solitary life removed from the community, removed from your family, removed from the religious institutions of your day. You were a social pariah and the only fellowship that you could have with other human beings would be with other lepers and so there were reasons why lepers gathered together in groups such as this group of ten, because that was the only companionship that they could possibly enjoy." [00:04:08]

"Now the response of Jesus here is quite unusual. On the other occasions where we see people who are afflicted and suffering coming up to Him, Jesus will reach over and touch them and heal them, lay His hands upon them or even in the moment, just say, 'Be clean!' and instantly they were healed, but that's not how He did it this time. It said when He saw them, He said to them, 'Go show yourselves to the priests.'" [00:08:16]

"Well, obviously, they hadn't been cleansed yet, but they obeyed, and they started to go to visit the priest in obedience to the command of Jesus. And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. Again, not when they just first saw Jesus, but after they started on their journey to see the priest, while they were walking along the road, all of a sudden, their fingers are becoming whole. Their toes are being healed and the horrible sores on their body were vanished." [00:09:39]

"But one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned. Imagine ten lepers in a group, watching each other suddenly being made whole. They can't wait to get to the priests because they know if they go to the priests and the priests pronounce them clean, then in that moment, they can go home again. They can see their wives again. They can embrace their children again. They can go to church again, so they're saying 'Let's go! Hurry up!' and one says 'Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait.'" [00:10:54]

"See, beloved, it's one thing to be grateful. It's something altogether to show it, to manifest it, to do gratitude. Feeling and doing are not the same thing. But this man was steadfast, and he said 'Fellows, we may never meet again. We spent all this time together in misery. I've enjoyed your company in misery, but you guys go ahead. I'm going back.' So Luke tells us, he returned and again, with a loud voice; not quietly, not subtly, not embarrassingly, not with a whisper; again, his voice is raised for what? To glorify God." [00:12:29]

"The reason why they are ungodly and unrighteous is they suppress the truth of God that He reveals to every man, leaving them without an excuse and then he goes on to say knowing God, they did not honor Him as God, neither were they grateful. Now the two sins, the primary sins, the most basic of all sins, the root of every other sin, those two sins for which every human being in his natural, unconverted state is guilty of, are refusal to honor God as God and ingratitude toward God." [00:14:18]

"If a person is truly grateful, he shows it and he shows it in worship and in service to God. That's the part of this passage that I said is so precious: The response of the man who was healed. With a loud voice, he glorifies God and he fell down on his face at the feet of Jesus, giving Him thanks and then by the way, it says he was a Samaritan. A leper, strike one. A Samaritan, strike two. A social outcast, strike three, who fell at the feet of Jesus to thank Him." [00:15:49]

"Now there's nobody in this room this morning who at sometime in his or her life has not suffered from spiritual leprosy. We are by nature lepers and the God of all mercy and grace, through His beloved Son has made us clean, if it be that we are in Christ Jesus, so we shouldn't need to eat Pringles in order to shout our thanksgiving to Him or to fall at His feet in honor, adoration and worship. This is why we're here. We've been made clean, and we come to give praise and we come to give thanks." [00:17:04]

"So Jesus answered and said, 'Am I having a problem with my math? Did I not just heal ten? Where are they? Where are the other nine?' 'Well, sir, they're on their way to the priest like you told them.' 'Yes, but you came back to say thank you. You came back to give honor. You came back to praise God. Where are the rest? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?' He's speaking to the man and the man's still on the ground and now Jesus said to him, 'Arise. Go your way. Your faith has made you well.'" [00:18:04]

"Now this poor leper was really clean. Now he was really free to go. Now he could go on his way. He could see the priest, he could see his wife, he could see his kids, he could see his friends, he could see his rabbi because the Lord Jesus Christ cleansed him. You see it? It's your story. It's my story and it's God's story. How do you show your thanks to Christ? How do you give glory and honor to your Redeemer? That's what we're about, saying thank you." [00:19:24]