One Grateful Guy

Lepers.
 
Human outcasts.
 
Excommunicated from the community. Isolated from loved ones for a lifetime.  Cursed with a loathsome disease that required them to declare “Unclean, unclean.” whenever they appeared in public. Such was the sad, pitiful life of a person afflicted with leprosy.
 
One day ten lepers cried out with loud voices to the Son of God as He passed by. “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” Read the entire scenario in Luke 17:11-21. Hearing their heartfelt cries and seeing their pitiful condition, Jesus, full of compassion, instructed them to go and show themselves to the priests.
 
Why go to the priests? The Levitical law required that when a leper was healed he had to be declared clean by the priests.
 

• Something wonderful was about to happen.

 
The Word says the lepers obeyed Jesus’ command to go. And “as they were going, they were cleansed.”  As they went, they were healed. The Lord showered mercy upon the lepers as they obeyed His command to go. Leprosy was cleansed. They would be declared clean.
 
Imagine the astonishment and joy of the ten lepers as they touched their once rotten flesh that is now The Lord restored them to physical, emotional, and social wholeness with His Word.. Jesus miraculously healed them!
 

• It was now time for the former lepers to shout the praises of God for His great mercy.

 
A funny thing happened after the healed lepers left the temple. Our primary verse for the week reports that only one of the men thanked Jesus for healing him. Just one.
 
“Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan.”  Luke 17:15-16
 

• One out of ten turned back. Imagine: only one came back to give Jesus thanks for healing him.

 
With a loud voice, the one grateful man glorified God and fell on his face before the Lord in humility and gratitude.
 
One grateful man.  The Son of God was shocked. Verses 17-18 state “And Jesus answered and said,” Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine—where are they? Was no one found who turned back to give glory to God, except this foreigner?”
 

• Can you feel the disappointment and pain in the Lord’s question?

 
It blew Him away that nine out of ten never even returned to say thanks. Ten were healed. Nine were ungrateful. Utterly amazing. Hard to comprehend.
 
In verse 19, the Lord told the single thankful man to rise up and enter back into life. His faith had made him whole. The one grateful guy, once a looked down upon, segregated foreigner to boot, was declared whole not only by the priests but by the Great Physician Himself! Wow!
 

• Imagine the wonderful new life that began that moment for the thankful former leper!

 
 It is worthy of noting that no further mention is made of the thankless nine except that of leaving a legacy of ungratefulness for what God did in their lives. Shame on them.
 
Seven Simple Truths About Gratitude.
 
1.     God deserves our thanks for His goodness to us.
2.     Gratitude is an attitude of the heart.
3.     God works in us when we go and do what He tells us to do.
4.     Giving God the glory is the mark of healthy, heartfelt faith.
5.     Crying out to God for help should be followed by shouting His praises when we are helped.
6.     We choose to be the thankful one or the unthankful nine.
7.     God’s blessing comes to those who are grateful.
 
            *** ONE GRATEFUL GUY. 
 

• If only one in ten does indeed give God thanks, will that one be you?

 
“Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His loving-kindness is everlasting. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.”                                                              Psalm 107:1-2a 
 
A Word For Your Week: Be grateful because God has done great things for you.