Seek Jesus, Only Jesus

I think the gospel reading that we’ve just heard (Luke 17:11-19) is a wonderful example of human nature, and God’s goodness. In it Jesus was walking to Jerusalem through the region between Samaria and Galilee, and as he entered a village he saw 10 lepers. Leprosy was the AIDS of the time, the disease considered by so many to be the untouchable disease, the disease that led to its sufferers being classed as outcasts from society.

But when they called to Jesus he didn’t walk by. Instead, he saw their condition and had compassion on them. He told them to go to the Priest and show themselves, as it was part of Jewish law to have to show yourselves to be clean before a Priest before you could re-enter society. And as the 10 went towards the Priest they noticed they were made clean, and one, only one of them, turned back to thank Jesus.

Hopefully each one of us have been in a situation at times when we’re so grateful for something that words almost escape us, but we have enough about us to at least say thank you and show our thanks. If we have then it’s easy to understand why this person came back to Jesus… But what about the other 9 ?

Well a suggestion has been made that of the other 9,

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 got well anyway.

One gave the glory to the priests at the Temple.

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."

It really is incredible how many things people can find to use as excuses for forgetting to Praise and Thank God, but I wonder if we haven’t all done it at times. Which one of us have not turned to God in a difficult time, asked for his help, and when it’s given just put it down as a coincidence or forgotten that we even asked God to help in the first place.

I think it was Bill Shankly the former Liverpool manager who said, when his team were described as lucky, that it was an incredible coincidence that luck always came when you worked really hard… He knew there was no coincidence. And while we’re on the subject of Bill Shankly, it was also he who was asked if he would watch Everton play, and said that if Everton were playing in his back garden, he would close the curtains.

He didn’t want to settle for anything less than the best, and yet we so often look to other people and other things to satisfy ourselves when true satisfaction is found only from God….

One of the great dilemmas of faith is to try and understand why God doesn’t always seem to positively answer prayer – and there isn’t time this morning to even think about some reasons for that, but one of the things that must be recognised is that true healing, true wholeness, for a person isn’t automatically found when something is cured… It is found more often when the person recognises the cure, recognises those who’ve helped to bring it about, and says thank you.

True healing and wholeness is found in recognising that in whatever situation we find ourselves God is still there wrapping his arms around us, guiding us, supporting us, loving us…

Some research suggests that some of the hardest and meanest criminals of all are people who find it difficult to say thank you – and that’s usually because they believe, rightly or wrongly, that they have little to be thankful for… Saying thank you is simply a recognition of how blessed we really are, but it is an essential recognition.

The one leper who came back ignored Jesus’ instructions to go straight to the Priest – maybe it was because he was a Samaritan and not a Jew, and felt no obligation to the Priest, but more likely it was because he saw through the rituals of legalism and religious laws, and recognised what was really important… He turned back to Jesus to seek a relationship with him – and it was then that Jesus said that his faith had made him well.

The other 9 may have been physically cured of leprosy, but they had not really been made well by Jesus – their physical ailments were only a part of the issue. They had accepted their physical healing and moved on, but they had not accepted Jesus, and from that moment on there would still be a huge part missing in their lives.

Somebody once said that religion is about ritual, and faith is about a relationship, and that was what this one leper understood so well. And he’s not alone in needing to understand that – we do all kinds of things for all kinds of reasons in our Churches, but there is nothing more important that we can ever do than stop and recognise Jesus, live with him, thank him for the gifts he has given us, for the love which surrounds us, and for the strength to face life assured of ultimate victory and eternal life through him. AMEN