05.12. Returning to Give Thanks- Unnamed Leper

Returning to Give Thanks- An Unnamed Leper

Luke 17:11-19

It’s time for our annual celebration of Thanksgiving. Have you noticed how it is referred too? Thanksgiving is often called turkey day. To some it is football day (you know Dallas always has a football game on this day) while to others it is a day off from work, or a day to spend with the family. This day was designed for a national holiday to keep us focused on the fact that we are a blessed nation, under God. By the way some want to take that out of our pledge. I guess it is that we now are blessed by ourselves.

Two men were walking through a field one day when they spotted an enraged bull. Instantly they darted toward the nearest fence. The storming bull followed in hot pursuit, and it was soon apparent they wouldn’t make it. Terrified, the one shouted to the other, "Put up a prayer, John. We’re in for it!" John answered, "I can’t. I’ve never made a public prayer in my life." "But you must!" implored his companion. "The bull is catching up to us." "All right," panted John, "I’ll say the only prayer I know, the one my father used to repeat at the table: ’O Lord, for what we are about to receive, make us truly thankful.’"

I- A Lesson of Thanks:

    Luke 17:11-19 And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. ¹²And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: ¹³And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. ¹⁴And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. ¹⁵And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, ¹⁶And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. ¹⁷And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? ¹⁸There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. ¹⁹And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.

This story unfold with a total of 10 men who had the horrible disease of leprosy. These men are healed by Jesus after they depart in route to showing themselves to the priest. This was the way they could be accepted back into society, if they were declared healed by the priest. Of the 10 only one returns to give thanks to Jesus for the healing. This man I submit is someone we all can learn a lesson from, a lesson of thanks. Sadly we can learn a negative lesson, or perhaps see a reflection, from the other nine. In Budapest, a man goes to the rabbi and complains, "Life is unbearable. There are nine of us living in one room. What can I do?" The rabbi answers, "Take your goat into the room with you." The man in incredulous, but the rabbi insists. "Do as I say and come back in a week." A week later the man comes back looking more distraught than before. "We cannot stand it," he tells the rabbi. "The goat is filthy." The rabbi then tells him, "Go home and let the goat out. And come back in a week." A radiant man returns to the rabbi a week later, exclaiming, "Life is beautiful. We enjoy every minute of it now that there’s no goat—only the nine of us."

George Mikes, How to be Decadent, Andre’ Deutsch, London II- Blessing for All:

    Did you notice that they were all healed. All 10, it reminds me of the verse in Matthew 5:45 "That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."

There is no one on this earth that is not blessed by God in some way. We often think we are not blessed. I read a story of a little boy named David that certainly brings how bless I am into perspective. A 12 year old boy named David was born without an immune system. He underwent a bone marrow transplant in order to correct the deficiency. Up to that point he had spent his entire life in a plastic bubble in order to prevent exposure to common germs, bacteria, and viruses that could kill him. He lived without ever knowing human contact. When asked what he’d like to do if and when released from his protective bubble, he replied, "I want to walk barefoot on grass, and touch my mother’s hand."

    Many times we take the small blessing that are all around us for granted. Look at someone and say "I praise God that I can see how good looking you are." Touch someone and say I am glad that I can feel the touch of another. The next time you taste your food thank God for the taste buds that are active on your tongue. The next time you feel a breeze brush against your skin thank God for His refreshing. The next time you breath thank God for the breath of life, the next heartbeat thank God for life.

III- Many Never Stop to Give Thanks:

¹⁷ ..."Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?"

    Why is there a danger for us as Christians to not return to give thanks for the blessing on our life?

    I have felt for a long time that one of the particular temptations of the maturing Christian is the danger of getting accustomed to his blessings. Like the world traveler who has been everywhere and seen everything, the maturing Christian is in danger of taking his blessings for granted and getting so accustomed to them that they fail to excite him as they once did.

Emerson said that if the stars came out only once a year, everybody would stay up all night to behold them. We have seen the stars so often that we don’t bother to look at them anymore. We have grown accustomed to our blessings.

The Israelites in the wilderness got accustomed to their blessings, and God had to chasten the people (see Num. 11). God had fed the nation with heavenly manna each morning, and yet the people were getting tired of it. "But now our whole being is dried up," they said, "there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!" (v. 6). Nothing but manna! They were experiencing a miracle of God’s provision every morning; yet they were no longer excited about it. Nothing but manna! One of the evidences that we have grown accustomed to our blessings is this spirit of criticism and complaining. Instead of thanking God for what we have, we complain about it and tell him we wish we had something else. You can be sure that if God did give us what we asked for, we would eventually complain about that. The person who has gotten accustomed to his blessing can never be satisfied. Another evidence of this malady is the idea that others have a better situation than we do. The Israelites remembered their diet in Egypt and longed to return to the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. They were saying, "The people in Egypt are so much better off than we are!" Obviously, they had forgotten the slavery they had endured in Egypt and the terrible bondage from which God had delivered them. Slavery is a high price to pay for a change in diet. Warren Wiersbe, God Isn’t In a Hurry, (Baker Books; Grand Rapids, MI, 1994), pp. 77-78

    Sometime we focus on what is to come tomorrow and forget the past. We forget that we have been blessed in the past. These men did not return to give thanks. Perhaps they were to anxious to get on with life. One might wonder, and hope, that in days ahead perhaps, as they saw another leper, that their hearts were moved to thanks.

    By remembering the past we can return again and again to give thanks.

Eddie Rickenbacker and the Sea Gulls

It is gratitude that prompted an old man to visit an old broken pier on the eastern seacoast of Florida. Every Friday night, until his death in 1973, he would return, walking slowly and slightly stooped with a large bucket of shrimp. The sea gulls would flock to this old man, and he would feed them from his bucket. Many years before, in October, 1942, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker was on a mission in a B-17 to deliver an important message to General Douglas MacArthur in New Guinea. But there was an unexpected detour which would hurl Captain Eddie into the most harrowing adventure of his life. Somewhere over the South Pacific the Flying Fortress became lost beyond the reach of radio. Fuel ran dangerously low, so the men ditched their plane in the ocean. for nearly a month Captain Eddie and his companions would fight the water, and the weather, and the scorching sun. They spent many sleepless nights recoiling as giant sharks rammed their rafts. The largest raft was nine by five. The biggest shark...ten feet long. But of all their enemies at sea, one proved most formidable: starvation. Eight days out, their rations were long gone or destroyed by the salt water. It would take a miracle to sustain them. And a miracle occurred. In Captain Eddie’s own words, "Cherry," that was the B-17 pilot, Captain William Cherry, "read the service that afternoon, and we finished with a prayer for deliverance and a hymn of praise. There was some talk, but it tapered off in the oppressive heat. With my hat pulled down over my eyes to keep out some of the glare, I dozed off." Now this is still Captain Rickenbacker talking..."Something landed on my head. I knew that it was a sea gull. I don’t know how I knew, I just knew. Everyone else knew too. No one said a word, but peering out from under my hat brim without moving my head, I could see the expression on their faces. They were staring at that gull. The gull meant food...if I could catch it." And the rest, as they say, is history. Captain Eddie caught the gull. Its flesh was eaten. Its intestines were used for bait to catch fish. The survivors were sustained and their hopes renewed because a lone sea gull, uncharacteristically hundreds of miles from land, offered itself as a sacrifice. You know that Captain Eddie made it. And now you also know...that he never forgot. Because every Friday evening, about sunset...on a lonely stretch along the eastern Florida seacoast...you could see an old man walking...white-haired, bushy-eyebrowed, slightly bent. His bucket filled with shrimp was to feed the gulls...to remember that one which, on a day long past, gave itself without a struggle...like manna in the wilderness.

    "The Old Man and the Gulls" from Paul Harvey’s The Rest of the Story by Paul Aurandt, 1977, quoted in Heaven Bound Living, Knofel Stanton, Standard, 1989, pp. 79-80

    Another reason we might neglect to give thanks is many times we forget that we prayed and God answered. We forget the prayers we laid before the throne days, weeks, months and perhaps even years ahead. May we learn to remember answered prayers.

The first American Thanksgiving didn’t occur in 1621 when a group of Pilgrims shared a feast with a group of friendly Indians. The first recorded thanksgiving took place in Virginia more than 11 years earlier, and it wasn’t a feast. The winter of 1610 at Jamestown had reduced a group of 409 settlers to 60. The survivors prayed for help, without knowing when or how it might come. When help arrived, in the form of a ship filled with food and supplies from England, a prayer meeting was held to give thanks to God. Today in the Word, July, 1990, p. 22 IV- Like the One- Not the Nine ¹⁸There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.

Why did only one cleansed leper return to thank Jesus? The following are nine suggested reasons why the nine did not return:

One waited to see if the cure was real.

One waited to see if it would last.

One said he would see Jesus later.

One decided that he had never had leprosy.

One said he would have gotten well anyway.

One gave the glory to the priests.

One said, "O, well, Jesus didn’t really do anything."

One said, "Any rabbi could have done it."

One said, "I was already much improved."

Charles L. Brown, Content The Newsletter Newsletter, June, 1990, p. 3 The burning question is are we like the one or like the nine?

Forgive Me When I Whine Today upon a bus, I saw a lovely maid with golden hair;

I envied her—she seemed so gay, and how, I wished I were so fair; When suddenly she rose to leave, I saw her hobble down the aisle;

She had one foot and wore a crutch, but as she passed, a smile.

Oh God, forgive me when I whine, I have two feet—the world is mine. And when I stopped to buy some sweets, the lad who served me had such charm;

He seemed to radiate good cheer, his manner was so kind and warm;

I said, "It’s nice to deal with you, such courtesy I seldom find";

He turned and said, "Oh, thank you sir." And then I saw that he was blind.

Oh, God, forgive me when I whine, I have two eyes, the world is mine.

Then, when walking down the street, I saw a child with eyes of blue;

He stood and watched the others play, it seemed he knew not what to do;

I stopped a moment, then I said, "Why don’t you join the others, dear?"

He looked ahead without a word, and then I knew he could not hear.

Oh God, forgive me when I whine, I have two ears, the world is mine. With feet to take me where I’d go; with eyes to see the sunsets glow, With ears to hear what I would know. I am blessed indeed. The world is mine; oh, God, forgive me when I whine.

    Lord we are returning to give thanks. Turn to someone now and say I thank God for His blessings.