Ten lepers healed, one made well

Coming at the end of the harvest season today’s gospel reading (Luke 17:11-19) seems particularly appropriate. We have thought in our harvest celebrations of the need to give thanks to God for all of the blessings we have in our lives, and today we have heard the account of the ten lepers who were healed. Nine were healed and not seen again, whilst one came back and thanked Jesus – in a twist to the story, the one who comes back is the Samaritan, the one the listeners would expect to come back least of all.

It is said that on his retreat from Greece after his great military expedition there, King Xerxes boarded a Phoenician ship along with a number of his Persian troops. But a terrible storm came up, and the captain told Xerxes there was no hope unless the ship's load was substantially lightened. The king turned to his fellow Persians on deck and said, "It is on you that my safety depends. Now let some of you show your regard for your king." A number of the men bowed to Xerxes and threw themselves overboard !

Lightened of its load, the ship made it safely to harbour. Xerxes immediately ordered that a golden crown be given to the pilot for preserving the king's life -- then he ordered that the man be executed for causing the loss of so many Persian lives! Gratitude can be a rather strange thing !

So what about the lepers ? We are told that they met Jesus as he went through the region between Samaria and Galilee – it was a bit of a no-man’s land which perhaps summed up the lives that the lepers were living, isolated from normal human contact. As they approached Jesus for healing, he didn’t touch them, but sent them away to show themselves to the Priests – it was the priests who were able to declare a person free from disease.

And so he called them to just go with faith – to go to the priests knowing that Jesus had healed them, and we are told that on their journey they were made well. Already we have the lessons from the story of the way Jesus transforms lives caught in the middle of nowhere and of how we sometimes need to just journey with faith, knowing that God journeys with us.

But then we come to perhaps the most obvious bit of the story – the failure of nine of the lepers who were healed to come back and say thank you. It was only the Samaritan that returned – and the words of Jesus are interesting at this point. He asks ‘were not ten madeclean ? Where are the other nine ?’

After receiving the thanks he sends the grateful man away assuring him that his faith has made him well. In other words all ten were healed but it was only the one man who was really ‘made well’.

Being thankful is an enormous part of our Christian journey. It is as Jesus is suggesting, an essential part of living a life as ‘well’ people.There’s a story of a shopkeeper whose son approached him one day – his son wondered how the business had kept going so long. Accounts were kept on scruffy bits of paper, there were ‘I owe you’ notes, extra things given to loyal customers free of charge – how could the shopkeeper possibly know anything about his profit.

And the shopkeeper explained that when he started the shop he owned very little but the clothes he was wearing – he explained that now he owned the shop, had a lovely wife, and three children all of whom had made a success of their lives – he explained to his son that what he regarded as his profit was not any money he may have but all of the love by which he was surrounded. Those were the things he was truly thankful for. Those things were his true profit.

As people who are thankful there will be a difference in our lives. In Paul’s 2nd letter to Timothy (2:8-15), he reminds his readers of Jesus – the good news for whom he is willing to suffer hardship in order to share the possibility of salvation for all.

And so we are challenged to ask ourselves what difference our gratitude to God for the blessings he gives us really makes in our lives. For Paul it was a willingness to suffer hardships in order to share the gospel, for us it must be in our devotion to God in prayer and praise and study of his word, but it must also be in our treatment of others – of seeking to make life a little better for everyone that we can.

It may be in great acts of kindness or service, or it may be in the everyday things we do, perhaps even a little smile or a cheery wave. Living as thankful people will not only transform us but will offer the possibility of transforming the lives of others around us.

For many people life is not easy but it’s strangely true that it is in many of those who seem to be suffering most that we find the strongest desire to look for the good things in life, to recognise the blessings rather than the trials. Many people live out the gospel message of our own weaknesses being made perfect with God’s strength. It is a reliance on him and a recognition of his strength, power, goodness and love that will transform us into ‘thankful people’.  

Living as thankful people we will not always have the answers to our own problems or to the problems of others we encounter, but perhaps sometimes we try too hard to find words when words may never really be enough anyway – I heard of a lady who had written what she believed to be the shortest morning and evening prayer services. As you may know clergy are obliged to say what are called the daily offices, that is morning and evening prayer daily, so anything that makes it nice and short can be really handy !

Her morning prayer was limited to just one word, ‘Whatever !’  Her evening prayer was twice as long – the two words being, ‘Ah well !’These may be simple words but they actually offer a wonderful expression of faith.

At the beginning of each day we should all approach God, safe in the knowledge of his care for us. We have seen what he has done for us already and we know that he cares deeply for us and is passionately concerned about our present and our future. And so it is a huge leap of faith, but one we can take confidently , as we just say ‘whatever’, in other words ‘your will be done’.

And at the end of the day how about just reflecting on that day not with regret, not with bitterness or disappointment, not with anger or sadness, not with worry about what may happen in the future, but again, simply trusting our lives to God, and offering those words whether it’s been a good day or a bad day, or just somewhere in the middle, ‘Ah well !’

The leper who came back to say thank you fell at Jesus’ feet – he knew the gift he had received. He wasn’t just healed – he was made well – his whole life was completely changed. The nine others went away presumably with their lives changed too by the healing, but they missed the opportunity to say thank you – they missed the chance to recognise from where their healing came.

In all we do may we look out for the signs of God’s glory and blessing all around us and within us. May we make a choice to live as thankful people, responding to God’s gifts and above all his gift of love, by offering our lives as a dedication to him – thanking him, praising him and sharing his love with all those we meet.

Paul ends the part of his letter to Timothy that we heard this morning with the words, ‘Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved by him…’ It’s a wonderful sentence assuring us that God loves us, God values us, God enjoys our fellowship, he loves our praise…. He has given everything for us – what can we give him ? AMEN