Luke 17:11-19 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
Christian Character Series Week 1 Sunday, October 6, 2019 “The Believer Gives Thanks to God”
“Remember to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you,’” the father reminds his son as the son heads over to a friend’s house for a sleepover. Like most places the son goes, there will be ample opportunities in this situation to put the advice dad has given him into action. When you ask for something, say “please.” When someone helps you, say “thank you.” That father knows that part of his job and his wife’s job in raising children is to shape and to mold their character. What parent wouldn’t want their child to grow up to be kind and helpful, courteous and thoughtful? Sure, saying “please” and “thank you” is only a small part of this instruction, but it goes a long way. And lest we think that such a reminder is only for children, couldn’t we adults sometimes use a reminder to say “please” and “thank you”? In much the same way that parents try to raise their children and train them in character, so also God molds and develops his children as to their Christian character. Believers who wish to honor God need reminders and encouragement. They grow in the way that they exhibit Christian character in the world. Often, we need repeated reminders of what Christian character really means. Our church year actually reflects this truth. The Christian church year neatly divides into two parts. The first half reviews the events in the life of Jesus, his birth, his death, his resurrection, his ascension into heaven. The second half, then, focuses more on the life and behavior of the Christian. Now, there is definite overlap between these things. Learning about the life of Jesus will certainly give Christians reminders about their lives of faith, and the preaching and teaching about the life of a Christian needs to stay connected to the life of the Savior for it to have any value at all. With that understanding, today we begin a brief series on Christian character. The readings that we are using are directly from our lectionary for this timeframe in the church year. They come from the seventeenth and eighteenth chapters of Luke’s Gospel. In these accounts, we find Jesus interacting with others in ways that remind and teach us important lessons in Christian character. It is certainly true that we won’t be able to cover every aspect of Christian character in this brief time, but we will be encouraged to grow in several ways. Today’s account, along with the other lessons in our service, is all about giving thanks to God. Luke records what happened as Jesus was making a journey toward Jerusalem. He was near the border that separated Samaria and Galilee when he encountered ten men with leprosy. Leprosy was a skin disease that forced these men and others like them to be cast out of society. They couldn’t live and interact in a regular way even with their own friends and relatives. They couldn’t even come close. And so, these men stood at a distance from Jesus as they begged him for mercy. Jesus did have mercy on the men. He sent them to go to show themselves to the priests. That may seem a little strange, but Jesus knew that the men could return to their regular lives and families only after the priest had signed off on it, only after he was convinced that they no longer had leprosy. And Jesus knew that as they went that way, the men would be freed from their leprosy by his almighty power. But the key part of what took place happened after that. In addition to Jesus, the “star” of this story is one of the previously leprous men. Like the others, he noticed on the way that he had been healed. And he reacted. He went back to Jesus immediately, directly. He fell down at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. Finally, Jesus had something to say. He remarked how none of the other men had returned, only a Samaritan, someone who would normally not associate with a Jew like Jesus. And Jesus said to the Samaritan man, “Get up and go your way. Your faith has saved you.” As we have already mentioned, today we see that thankfulness, thanksgiving, is a trait of Christian character. We see it in the one leper who returned to Jesus, but let’s take a closer look at a few lessons that we learn about thankfulness from what happened on this occasion.
The first thing for us to take to heart is that thankfulness is not natural. Parents have to train their children to say “thank you,” but they don’t need to work hard to get them to say, “I want it.” That is another example of the truth that is reflected in our account: the fact that our natural inclination is only toward our own self-interest. There were indeed ten lepers who were cured from that disease. There were ten who witnessed a miracle from Jesus, who were suddenly released from this diseased-based prison sentence that they had been serving. But nine of them did nothing to express their thankfulness. We might assume that they continued on their way, that they showed themselves to the priests, and that they returned to their families and friends. But they did not have the strength of character to return to offer their thanks to the one from whom they had begged for mercy. Only one did. It may not seem like much to note that one man returned to give thanks, but the others did not. But this is significant and instructive. It is a stark reminder of what sin means in our lives. Our own sinful natures tempt us to serve ourselves and not others, to live selfishly rather than thankfully. It wasn’t even as though half of the men had come back to offer thanks. It was only one. That’s how extreme the situation was, and it shows us how extreme sin is. We dare not underestimate it. We need to acknowledge that sin in our own lives. We may well want to be thankful people, but we still have a sinful nature that does not. That’s a part of us that serves only our personal interests and desires. We still have to admit that compared to the perfection that God demands, instead of the life that he would have us live, our lives are full of the leprosy of sin. Our sin leaves us no option available to us to even try to help or save ourselves. It allows us no recourse other than to stand at a distance and to beg for God’s mercy. And do we ever have something to be thankful for! In his great mercy, God did rescue us. He sent Jesus to die for us. He washed us clean of our sins in the blood of Christ poured out for us on the cross. He has called us to be his own forgiven children through faith. And that leads to thanksgiving. Our thankfulness is motivated by faith in what God has done for us. That is why the Samaritan leper did what he did and heard the praise of Jesus. He had returned to give thanks because of his faith in the Savior. We who have been healed from our sin, who have been rescued from death itself, have every reason to be thankful for this great blessing and for every other blessing that God allows to us. And that thankfulness shows itself. It goes into action. The leper put off his visit to the priest, presumably he postponed his reunion with friends and family, he put on hold everything else that he could have done at that moment, and immediately he went to say thank you to Jesus. He fell on his face at the feet of the one who had helped him and saved him. That’s what Christian character looks like as it shows itself in thanksgiving. So what does it look like for us? How do we fall at Jesus’ feet? How do we put thankfulness into action? Well, it certainly involves saying it. We can regularly thank God for the blessings he gives us in our prayers. But that is far from the only way we offer our thanks. We give God thanks as we gather in worship and as we sing and confess. We give God thanks when we give our offerings. We give God thanks when we listen to his Word and share it with others. We give God thanks when we serve the people he has placed into our lives. We even thank God when we thank others, the people through whom God blesses us. Thankful living overcomes our natural fixation on ourselves. Motivated by faith, it acts in ways that demonstrate thanks to God and to others. We may at times need reminders to say “please” and “thank you.” Let us be reminded also to say, give, and offer our thanks to God.
The Text: Luke 17:11-19 (EHV) On another occasion, as Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, he was passing along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 When he entered a certain village, ten men with leprosy met him. Standing at a distance, 13 they called out loudly, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14 When
he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” As they went away they were cleansed. 15 One
of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice. 16 He fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, thanking him. And he was a Samaritan. 17 Jesus responded, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Get up and go your way. Your faith has saved you.”