Today we are going to look at an encounter with Jesus that shows us how adding just one practice into our lives can draw us closer to Jesus and bring us added blessing. Found in Luke 17:11-19, it is an encounter Jesus had with ten lepers.
Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”
When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.
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.
Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”
This encounter takes place as Jesus is headed to Jerusalem. Jesus isn’t going to the city for a vacation or social visit, He is going to lay down His life by taking up a cross. Jesus knows when He gets to Jerusalem He will be betrayed by Judas, arrested by the religious leaders, abandoned by His disciples, and die on a cross. As much as Jesus is focused on all of this, He is not so preoccupied and self-absorbed that He doesn’t see the needs of the people who cry out to Him. If we look at these 10 lepers as the crowd, then what we see is that once again Jesus loves the crowds. Jesus always made time for people and here Jesus makes time for 10 lepers.
When the lepers approached Jesus they kept their distance and this would have been required of them because of their disease. Leprosy was a general term used for all kinds of skin diseases and since most of them spread quickly, anyone who was determined to have leprosy was forced to live in isolation. They were forced out of their communities and away from their families and they were required to live with other lepers. Among all these people with contagious diseases, there was no real hope of healing or new life.
Lepers not only suffered emotionally from this social isolation but they experienced a lot of physical pain as well. Many forms of leprosy were quite severe and people would often lose fingers, toes and the edges of the ears. It was a horrible existence and at times painful existence and there was very little hope for healing. These 10 men were desperate, but they believed Jesus could help them. They cried out to Jesus because they had faith He could actually do something to change their situation.
Jesus heard their cry and did do something. He told them to go and show themselves to the priest. To us this might seem strange, but it was the priest who determined whether or not someone had leprosy. For these men to be declared clean and healed, they had to go to the priest. But people would have gone to the priest AFTER they were healed.
It would have been after a leper no longer had any signs of the disease, after their skin had been restored, that they would have shown themselves to the priest, but here Jesus asked them to go BEFORE they are healed. They don’t question Jesus. They don’t ask for the healing first, or even wait for the healing to start, while they are still covered with sores they go, and as they went, they were healed. What faith and trust they must have had to turn and go to the priest before they saw any sign of healing. It takes a lot of faith to move forward with God without any evidence that God is with us or helping us.
This is the faith talked about in Hebrews 11:1. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things unseen. These 10 lepers had faith. The healing they hoped for was not yet seen, but they moved ahead knowing it would come. They were convinced their skin would be restored so they went to the priest and it was along the way that they experienced healing. All 10 lepers have amazing faith. They all trusted Jesus.
When it came to taking a step of faith - all 10 lepers passed. But when it came to taking a step of gratitude - only 1 passed. Only 1 leper returned to thank Jesus for what He had done and it is from this encounter with Jesus that we learn two important lessons about gratitude. The first is that gratitude draws us closer to God. Look where the leper was when he returned to Jesus. He was at His feet. The first time he encountered Jesus it was from a distance, now he is at His feet. Gratitude drew him closer to Jesus.
Gratitude can draw us closer to God as well. Gratitude deepens our relationship with God. When we give thanks to God we are making ourselves vulnerable because we are acknowledging that what God has done in our lives is something that we have not, or cannot, do on our own. Gratitude humbles us, and it is that humility that draws us deeper into the presence of God.
1 Peter 5:6, Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.
When we humble ourselves under God’s hand, God reaches out and lifts us up. That is exactly what Jesus did. The man drew near to Jesus in humility and thanksgiving and Jesus said, get up, your faith has made you well. Now the leper had already been healed. All 10 lepers had been healed. So when Jesus says, your faith has made you well, He must be talking about something different, something more.
We don’t know what the added blessing was that the man received, we don’t know how his life was different from the other nine, but there was something more he received from Jesus. Gratitude gave him an added blessing and that is the second thing we learn from this encounter. Gratitude always comes with a blessing.
One spiritual blessing that comes with gratitude is that because we are closer to God we have a better understanding of who God is and how God is at work in our lives. This is the blessing of a deeper relationship with God where we have a more powerful sense of God’s presence and work in our lives. Other added blessings of gratitude are physical and emotional.
Studies continue to show that the simple practice of giving thanks can lower your blood pressure and improve the condition of your heart. Giving thanks can help decrease anxiety, stress, and depression. Physical and emotional wellness can come with the practice of gratitude. Maybe that is why Jesus said to this man, you faith has made you well. He had already been healed, now he was being made well emotionally and spiritually.
This encounter with Jesus shows us that the simple practice of giving thanks has the ability to draw us closer to God and improve our lives with added blessings. So how can we develop a heart of gratitude? How can we practice giving thanks on a regular basis? Let me share a few attitudes and actions that can help increase our gratitude.
The first thing we can do to change our thinking and acknowledge that all we have belongs to God. When we look at our homes, our bank accounts, and all our belongings, do we see it all as belonging to us or God? Our jobs, our families, our time and energy, do we see it all ours or all God’s? If it is all ours, then we tend to think about the hard work we put into getting it and how we can manage and use it. If we see it all as belonging to God, then it is all a gift that we didn’t earn or deserve, which moves us to give thanks. Last week we saw that we can become more generous when we see everything we have as belonging to God, but this change in perspective can also help us become more grateful.
I wonder if the one leper who returned saw that his healing and new life was truly a gift. If it hadn’t been for Jesus, he would have had nothing. All he had was from God and his life now belonged to God, so he stopped to give thanks. When we take the time to look at what we have in life and see it all as a gift, and that it all belongs to God, it can help us stop all that we are doing and give thanks.
The second thing that can help shape a heart of gratitude is to avoid comparisons and complaining. Most of the time when we compare ourselves to others we are focused on what they have and we don’t. Other people have better jobs, nicer houses, more fashionable clothes, and they get to go on more exciting vacations. When we start comparing our lives to others, it can quickly lead to not only disappointment and envy, but complaining. We will complain to God and anyone who will listen that it’s just not fair that we don’t have what others have.
Maybe this is what happened to the 9 lepers who didn’t return to give thanks. As amazing as their healing was, maybe they started comparing their healing to the healing of the others. Was one person healed in more complete ways than another? Did one find pink skin emerging more quickly? Did someone have their hair restored while someone else didn’t? After they went to the priest and started talking about going home, did one have a better home to go to or more family? Did comparisons and complaining keep them from seeing all that Jesus had done for them?
Comparison and complaining are the enemies of gratitude, so how can we avoid comparisons and stop complaining? One place where we can easily get caught up in comparisons and negative thinking is on social media. Please hear me when I say that not all social media is bad, but it can be a place where comparisons and complaining can gain a foothold. While there are some wonderful aspects of being able to stay connected or share our lives with one another online, and social media can often be a tool of encouragement and even faith sharing, it can also quickly lead us to compare and complain.
When we see all the beautiful pictures of what other people have, it’s easy to start thinking that they have it better than we do. Instead of complaining when we are on social media and see all that others are posting, how about we celebrate with them what they have. We need to give thanks for what they have, and what we have, and not allow envy or bitterness to gain ground in our hearts.
The third thing we can do to grow in gratitude is give thanks often. 1 Thessalonians 5:18, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Paul also says in Colossians 2:7 that our lives should be overflowing with thanksgiving.
Giving thanks needs to be an ongoing part of our lives and if it’s not, we need to work to make it that way. Find a time or place each day to stop and give thanks. The simple act of praying before each meal, giving thanks for our food, can help begin to shape a heart of gratitude. It not only reminds us that our food is from God but that all we have is from God.
Every day try to identify one thing that you are truly thankful for and then actually stop and thank God for it. Keep a thanksgiving journal to help you identify and list all the gifts God has given you. Send a thank you note to at least one person every week or month. Set a timer on your phone and when it goes off stop and give thanks. There is a Sunday School class that is going to study gratitude in April and that could be a great way to give thanks more often. Finding ways to give thanks more often will lead to a heart and life that is overflowing with thanksgiving.
One final thing we can do to grow in gratitude is to reach out to help others. Nothing helps us see the gifts and blessings in our lives like reaching out to those in need. It doesn’t matter what the need is, every time we reach out to someone else, we grow in gratitude. Taking the time to listen to someone in need can help remind us of all the good things going on in our lives. Praying for someone who is struggling can remind us to thank God for the ways we might not be struggling, or to thank God for the struggles He has seen us through. Helping others gives us a perspective on life that is important to a heart of gratitude, and it can do more to increase our gratitude than maybe anything else.
Reaching out to help those in Ukraine, or those impacted by storms, or those who are hungry in our community, or those we can help with our toolbox ministry, reminds us of how blessed we are and how much God has truly given us.
What I love about gratitude is that there are very clear and practical steps we can take to develop it in our lives. Gratitude is not a feeling that we have no control over, it is an attitude of the heart and a practice of our lives that we can shape and grow in. We can all make ourselves into the one leper who returned to Jesus. His story can be our story if we will learn how to give thanks in all circumstances. Find one way you can grow in gratitude this week. Take the time to return to God and give thanks.
Next Steps
Encounters with Jesus - The 10 Lepers
Gratitude does two things:
1. It draws us closer to Jesus.
2. It blesses us in new ways
Read Luke 17:11-19
How does gratitude draw the one leper closer to Jesus?
What was the additional blessing he may have received?
How does gratitude draw us closer to Jesus? When have you experienced this in your life?
What physical, emotional, and spiritual blessings can come with gratitude? Have you experienced any of these? Do you need to experience this “added” blessing?
What one practical step can you take to grow in gratitude?
Acknowledge that all you have belongs to God
● Ask God to show you that all you have belongs to Him.
● Give thanks for the gifts you see around you at home.
Avoid comparisons and complaining
● If you tend to compare and complain on social media, limit your time online.
● Each time you start to compare yourself to someone else, celebrate their life and give thanks for them.
● Avoid negative and critical people who drag you down.
Give thanks often
● Set a gratitude alarm on your phone.
● Start a gratitude list or journal.
● Pray each morning or before each meal.
● Send a thank you note to one person this week.
● Join the new Sunday School study on gratitude.
Reach out to help others
● Identify one person who needs your help right now and bless them with your prayers, presence, or service.
