St. Aidan’s Sermons
Winnipeg, Manitoba
The Rev. Canon Dr. Brett Cane, October 10, 2010
Harvest Thanksgiving; 8:30 & 10:00 a.m., Holy Communion
“Is Your Gratitude More Than Skin Deep?”
Luke 17: 11-19; (Deuteronomy 26: 1-11; Psalm 100; 2 Corinthians 9:6-15)
Opening Prayer:
Heavenly Father, it is so easy to have a gratitude that is only skin deep; teach us now, by your Holy Spirit, to be truly thankful for all the blessings you have given us, and so enter fully into relationship with you through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Introduction
My favourite plants are trees. I haven’t thought deeply about why this is so – perhaps it is their subtle grace and nuances of colour, their noble stance as they sway in the wind. One of the attractive features of River Heights is our shapely elms and every morning, as I drive up Cordova, I marvel at the beauty of their spreading branches which create a vault above me as majestic as any gothic cathedral. They lead me to give thanks to the One who created the natural world with all its variation and beauty – the One who created humanity with an ability to shape nature and draw benefit from it. It is good to be reminded of God’s grace to us in providing a wonderful creation for us to enjoy.
This is the purpose of celebrating Harvest and National Thanksgiving – to remind us of the Ultimate Source of our blessings and to cause us to be thankful. However, as we come before God in thanksgiving today, I want to ask the question, how thankful are we? Are we grateful out of mere duty or is thankfulness deep within our hearts? Is your gratitude more than skin deep?
To help us answer the question, we are going to look at today’s Gospel story of the healing of the ten lepers. We will first look at the details of the story and then at some of the questions it raises. Then we will look at the challenges we receive from the main message of the story which is how gratitude lies at the heart of our relationship with God.
Details of the Story
Let us look at the details of the story to discover what was going on. We are told that “On his way to Jerusalem, Jesus travelled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him” (Luke 17:11-12). Lepers were those with a variety of skin diseases, including the one we now refer to as “leprosy” which is a dreadful disease of the nervous system which causes body parts to become numb and/or diseased (but not to fall off, as is commonly supposed.) Old Testament Law required lepers to live outside the community in isolated colonies (“As long as they have the disease they remain unclean. They must live alone; they must live outside the camp” – Leviticus 13:46) and when anyone ventured too close they had to cry out in humiliation, “Unclean! Unclean!” (Leviticus 13:45). They had to keep their distance from “healthy” people – “at least one authority laid it down that, when he was to windward of a healthy person, the leper should stand at least fifty yards away.”[1] So we are told here that “They stood at a distance” (Luke 17:12). “They were shut off from their family, friends and even God, in the sense that they could no longer enter the temple to worship but more so in the sense that they were made to feel that they were suffering because of their sin and were thus isolated from God. They were thought to be unclean, and incapable of having a right relationship with him.”[2] These ten were outcasts in society. We also learn that one is a Samaritan (a religious half-breed scorned by pure Jews) and we presume the other nine were Jewish. Today’s equivalent for us could be ten AIDS-sufferers hanging around on downtown Winnipeg streets – one aboriginal native spiritualist and nine white Christians. The lepers stand at a distance and cry out to Jesus for mercy – “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” (Luke 17:13).
Jesus tells them to go and show themselves to the priests – the health regulations of the day required that they be certified by the priests (who served as public health officials) as clean before they could re-enter society.[3] While they are on their way, they are healed. Then we read, “One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him – and he was a Samaritan” (Luke 17:15-16). The Samaritan returns to give profuse thanks to Jesus while the nine Jews carry on in obedience to fulfil their duty to society. We assume the latter are grateful, but their gratitude does not seem to be expressed too deeply. Jesus then asks questions, “Were not all ten cleansed? Was no-one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he says to the Samaritan, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well” (Luke 17:17-19).
Questions Raised
This raises two questions for us: First, “Why did the nine Jews not return to give thanks?” and second, “What did Jesus mean when he said ‘Your faith has made you well’”?
In response to the first question, “Why did the nine Jews not return to give thanks?”, here are nine suggested answers:[4]
- 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.”
- These are somewhat facetious, obviously!
The real reason why the nine did not return to give thanks is what lies at the heart of the story and why it is told at this point in the Gospel. The nine did not return to give thanks because their faith ended with obedience and did not go on to relationship. We need not question the sincerity of the nine – after all, they recognize who Jesus is and know he can heal them – “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” (verse 13). Plus, they act in obedience – they do as he says before they are actually healed – “And as they went they were cleansed” (verse 14). They had faith – but it was not saving faith. They received physical healing but not spiritual healing. They received the cleansing of their skins but not the cleansing of their souls.
The Samaritan, however, returns to give thanks. “He came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him” (verses 15-16). He moves beyond obedience to gratitude. This gratitude moves him from merely benefiting from God’s goodness to entering into a relationship with him. This is why Jesus says, “Your faith has made you well” (verse 19). The other nine had faith but it was not a faith that drew them into a deeper and saving relationship with God. They had enough faith to be obedient – and it led to their physical healing – but, in the words of John Wesley, “It was the faith of a servant, and not the faith of a son (or daughter).”[5] The Samaritan, through his gratitude, enters into a relationship with God as a son. This is the answer to the second question “What did Jesus mean when he said ‘Your faith has made you well’”?
All this is confirmed by the context of the story. This story is the only miracle from the middle of chapter 14 to the middle of chapter 18. The rest of the material is teaching and parables – eight of the latter in all, including the stories of the lost sheep, coin and son and others – demonstrating true faith as opposed to mere outward obedience to law. In these chapters, Jesus has been challenging the Pharisees and disciples to see the nature of true faith – to move beyond proud obedience to humble relationship. Michael Wilcock comments, “Both groups have been given the immense privilege of hearing the word of salvation from the lips of the Saviour himself. The Pharisees, who, though privileged in this way, do not respond with acceptance and gratitude, represent the majority. But always there are some who, like the penitent sinners and tax collectors, do respond wholeheartedly.”[6] The Samaritan leper in this story is a perfect example of a person who responds with the faith of a son – his personal, heartfelt response to Jesus is evidence of a faith that has moved beyond dutiful obedience to joyful relationship.
Three Challenges
This story challenges us in three ways:
- Move from Servant to Child: the first is to ensure that you have moved from the faith of a servant to that of a son or daughter. Is your faith like that of the nine obedient Jews who did not return or like that of the demonstrative, grateful Samaritan? Many of us who would pride ourselves in being traditional or orthodox need to ensure that the core of our faith is not our tradition or our orthodoxy but a living, vital relationship with Jesus Christ. You may have all the badges of tradition such as baptism, confirmation, and Christian service or received many of God’s blessings such as healing and supernatural experiences – but if you are not enjoying a personal walk with God you have not moved beyond obedience to relationship. Decide this day to move from servant to child.
- 2. Be Thankful: How do we do this? Today’s story shows us how – we are to be thankful and we are to show it. The Samaritan not only gave thanks, he did it in a very free and spontaneous way. I know many of us are reserved and naturally undemonstrative – but we need to note what it says here: the Samaritan “praised God in a loud voice…he threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him” (verse 15-16). You have to work out how that is best expressed with your temperament, but don’t let yourself off the hook. In your own way, be excited about what God has done for you and express it appropriately. Praise – extol God for who he is; and give thanks – express gratitude for what he has done. If you need help – try the Psalms. Think back to Psalm 100 which we read earlier:
Shout for joy to the LORD…
Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs…
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name. (Psalm 100:1-2, 4)
When, like the Samaritan, you fall at God’s feet in gratitude and praise you are drawn into a deep personal relationship with the One who made you and loves you and died for you.
- 3. Be Generous: Finally, we are to be generous. In the story, Jesus tells the Samaritan to “Rise and go” (verse 19). The leper has been healed and entered into a right relationship with God – now he is sent to live out what God has put in. To see what this looks like we turn to our epistle reading from 2 Corinthians 9. There we read that: “You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God” (verse 11). As we are thankful and receive from God, so we are to bless others, which in turn will lead to their gratitude to God and generosity, which in turn will bless others, and so on. Receiving is to lead to giving. The natural outcome of gratitude is generosity.
Conclusion
Harvest Thanksgiving is a wonderful occasion to be reminded of all this. In the lesson from Deuteronomy 26, at harvest-time the Israelites are to remember God’s promises and what he has done for them. They are to remember that all the blessings they have – especially their existence as a people, their deliverance from slavery in Egypt and their gift of the Promised Land, must be traced back to their source. “Rejoice in all the good things the Lord has given to you” (verse 11).
As you remember God’s blessings to you today, move from a gratitude that is only skin deep to a heart-felt and joyful thankfulness to Him for all his gifts to you. Like the leper who returned to give thanks, open yourself to the One who has given us all things and who has given us his all – and pour out your heart to him in gratitude. Move from the faith of a Servant to the faith of a Son/Daughter; be thankful; be generous.
[1] William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Luke, Rev. Ed. (Edinburgh: The Saint Andrew Press, 1975), pg. 218.
[2] Taken from “The Miracles of Christ”, Pastor John Hamby, found on http://www.fbcvilonia.com/sermons/miracles/lepers.htm
[3] “The priest is to go outside the camp and examine them. If they have been healed of their defiling skin disease, the priest shall order that two live clean birds and some cedar wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop be brought for the person to be cleansed” (Leviticus 14:3-4).
[4] Charles L. Brown, “Content The Newsletter”, June, 1990, p. 3
[5] John Wesley, Sermon 110, “On the Discoveries of Faith” found on http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umhistory/wesley/sermons/110/
[6] Michael Wilcox, Saviour of the World: The Message of Luke’s Gospel. (Downers Grove IL: InterVarsity Press, 1979), pg. 166.
