Luke 17:11

Luke 17:11 says: “...as Jesus was going to Jerusalem, He passed between Samaria and Galilee, and as He entered a village, ten leprous men met Him. They stood at a distance and raised their voices, saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.’ When He saw them, He said to them, ‘Go, show yourselves to the priests,’ and it came to pass that as they went, they were cleansed. Then one of them, seeing that he had been healed, returned, glorifying God with a loud voice, and fell facedown at His feet, giving Him thanks; and he was a Samaritan. Jesus answered and said, ‘Were there not ten who were cleansed? And where are the nine? Was no one found who returned and gave glory to God except this foreigner?’ And He said to him, ‘Arise, go your way; your faith has saved you.’

Brothers and sisters, what a wonderful passage, reminding us of the importance of being thankful. I believe this passage is one of the most beautiful illustrations of why we should give thanks to the Lord. We can think of many different attributes and values. There are many of those values that we know the Bible calls us to have as Christians. For example, none of us has any trouble understanding that love is a distinguishing mark of the Christian life. We also know that mercy is another attribute of the believer, and we also know that holiness is an attribute of the Christian life. But what do you think about gratitude? That too is a value that Scripture often calls us to embrace, a value that we must also express in our lives. A disposition of gratitude should be one of the things that characterizes the Christian man and woman.

Let us look, for example, at Colossians chapter 3, and this is only one of many passages. This passage, Colossians 3:15, is only one of several passages that call us to thankfulness. It says there: “...and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which you likewise were called in one body; and be thankful.”

Here we have two interesting things. One is the connection between peace and thankfulness. I believe there is something very interesting there, brothers and sisters: there is a connection between an attitude of gratitude toward life and toward God, and having peace in your heart. You only have to consider the opposite: an ungrateful person, or one who does not recognize the blessings he has and looks only at the negative things in life—I do not believe that person will be able to have peace. Quite the contrary, he will have anguish and anxiety in his heart, as well as cynicism and skepticism toward life. That connection made by the Apostle is no coincidence. He then continues, saying: “...let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and exhorting one another in all wisdom, singing with grace.”

Actually, in the original Greek—and if you look up the English translation—it says with gratitude, with thankfulness, charitas, with grace in your hearts to the Lord, with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. There is a connection there between gratitude and worship, because when you express gratitude to the Lord, you are actually worshiping Him and thanking Him for what He has done in your life. And you put your face to the ground; it is not only an act of thanks for what You did, but also an act of acknowledgment, of worshiping the Lord for what it means. So it is very difficult to worship the Lord without being thankful, and a thankful heart will certainly always proceed toward worship. I might add, for example, that the association with Mary immediately comes to mind, when she broke the jar of perfume. Do you remember that passage? And she poured out her tears and the perfume upon the Lord’s head and worshiped Him in a tremendous way.... She had been delivered from a terrible way of life, and she felt so much love in her heart that she worshiped the Lord.

It is also interesting that the Lord said, “Mary, this woman has anointed Me for My burial.” Mary received a profound insight into Jesus that Simon the Pharisee did not have, because when you have gratitude in your heart toward the Lord, when you rejoice in worshiping the Lord, that gives you a much deeper understanding of Jesus than the theologian has, let me tell you, because worship and gratitude take you intravenously into the heart of God. That connection is very interesting.

And then it also says: “...and whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” Gratitude should be present in everything we do. If we worshiped the Lord and thanked Him in our work—when we are there washing the dishes, sisters, or when the men are working in the factory or wherever—and if we made everything we do an expression of gratitude to the Lord, the work would go much faster. Those dishes would fly by themselves, sisters, and those machines would sing and dance; and before you know it, it is five o’clock—wow! The day is already over, glory to God, and you go home happy as a clam, because that is what it does. We have to thank the Lord in all things, as this precious passage says here.

So, as we see, brothers and sisters, gratitude is very important in the Christian life. As we see, there is a command there: “...and be thankful.”

Let us turn to this passage for just a moment and quickly analyze the passage itself. One of the things that impresses me about this passage is the fact that only one out of ten came to express gratitude to the Lord. And it occurs to me, brothers and sisters, that ten percent is perhaps an accurate proportion of how many people feel that true gratitude toward the Lord and practice a life of gratitude. Sadly, brothers and sisters, I believe it is only ten percent even among God’s people, and I certainly believe that is true in the world at large. In the churches, brothers and sisters, I believe many people still do not understand the importance of praising the Lord and of gratitude, nor that when we come to the house of the Lord, we do not come merely to fulfill a religious obligation because it is Sunday, the alarm has already gone off, and I have to go to church and do this and do that. No. How many people come with that desire to pour out their spirit before God in gratitude and thankfulness? I want to belong to that grateful ten percent. And when we come to the house of the Lord, brothers and sisters, let us be thankful. Ten percent.

The other thing that surprises me is that the one who thanked the Lord was a Samaritan. Luke the Evangelist mentions very deliberately that this man was a Samaritan. And you know that there are occasions when, if the Samaritans do something good, it is pointed out somehow; it is underlined. Why? Because the Samaritans were outcasts. They were rejected by the Jewish people and were not regarded as good people or as deserving anything good. They were people who had become defiled centuries earlier, when the Syrians drove the Jews from their land. Some Hebrews remained and mingled with the pagan tribes from outside, creating a mixed religion; and when the Hebrews returned from exile, they regarded them as impure people, unworthy of belonging to Israel. That is why nothing good was expected from the Samaritans. They were an impure people; nothing noble would be expected from them.

Scripture loves to point out that sometimes very good things come from the least expected places. As we seek to understand this, I wonder why it was this Samaritan, rather than the nine whom we assume were Jews, who came to thank the Lord. I think, brothers and sisters, that it was because this man’s psychological posture was that of someone who did not consider himself worthy, who recognized his spiritual frailty. We see this also in the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee. When the tax collector approached the throne to worship, he said, “Have mercy on me, because I know that I am a sinner.” The Pharisee was very self-assured and said, “I thank You because of this, because I am this, because I am that, because I did this and did that.” No, he was very sure of himself. The tax collector knew that he was a sinner, and therefore there was gratitude in his heart and a frailty that made him want to please God in a different way. And the other Jews, well, felt more self-assured. There is something interesting there, brothers and sisters, and it is that I believe we are often not so thankful because we assume that we deserve the things we have, and we often do not realize that the only thing we deserve is hell, let me tell you; everything else is because of God’s mercy and grace.

How important it is, brothers and sisters, to be broken in spirit! There are so many people in the body of God who think more highly of themselves than they ought. That is why the Apostle Paul said: let no one think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but let him think of himself with sound judgment, because only when we see ourselves as God sees us can we understand deeper things. And if you want an illustration of this, let us return to the illustration of Simon the Pharisee and Mary Magdalene. Simon the Pharisee felt self-assured, and so he gave the Lord a courteous reception. Everything you receive, my brother, my sister—the blood flowing through your veins, the heart beating within you, those sparks firing in your brain as it processes thoughts, the feelings in your heart—the Lord in His mercy allows them to arise there each day. Without His grace and without His love, none of those things would be possible. That is why we must always thank the Lord for all things. In everything, giving thanks to the Lord. And that shows us something very important, brothers and sisters: those connections—gratitude is connected to other very profound truths of the Gospel.

Let us not underestimate the importance of gratitude. This is not speaking about a minor, secondary virtue, but about something very profound, very profound in the Christian life, and we have to cultivate gratitude in our lives. And let me say something more about gratitude; let me bring it down to the mundane level, to the ordinary, everyday level. I have said that gratitude is deep and lofty, but let me now bring it down to the level of daily life. You know what, brothers and sisters? It is important to be thankful to the other people around us. Sometimes we may take it for granted and assume that it is fine; there are people who continually bless us and whom we often do not thank. And young people, for example—and we do this too—how often do we neglect our parents and fail to express gratitude to them because we assume they owe it to us? “I didn’t ask them to bring me into the world.” We have to express gratitude to our parents. Young people, thank your parents for what they do each day; that is important. Doctors—you know that we are often ungrateful to doctors, even though doctors work themselves to death and put so many things at risk, and we say: “Well, that is their job. They are making a fortune, so they had better take good care of me, or else I’ll sue them.”

We should thank the Lord for them, because God uses them to bless and save the lives of many. And what about our teachers? We should thank our teachers. I believe this is a generation that is ungrateful to teachers. I know teachers who live only for vacations because they cannot wait to get away from those kids and heal their wounds before returning to the classroom again, and they suffer greatly because children today are ungrateful. Parents, make sure that your children are thankful and respectful toward their teachers, and that they do not make life difficult for them. Brothers and sisters, we should express gratitude to people; thank people whenever you can. If someone gave you good service in a restaurant, affirm that person. There is nothing, brothers and sisters, like being affirming in life. Brothers and sisters, let us be people who bless and affirm others. Whenever you have an opportunity to thank someone, do it. That will bless you, and it will also bless the person who receives your thanks, because often the person you would least expect needs affirmation.

That brings me to the other point here, as I am coming to a close. It is wonderful when you think about Jesus’ reaction when this man came to thank Him. Let us enter once again into this man’s psychology. When the Lord told them, “Go and present yourselves before the priests so that your healing may be certified,” this man went. We do not know how far they had to go. They had to go downtown, and there they went up into the building and presented themselves, and their healing was certified. They were given their letter saying... “Okay, you can now return to ordinary society.” And this man—the other nine did not think to themselves: “Wow, what a great blessing! Let us go back and express our gratitude to this wonderful being who was the instrument of our healing.” They did not go through that process, and I do not really believe it was because they were ungrateful. Rather, I simply believe they thought: “Hey, He does not need our thanks. Let us go straight home and celebrate with our loved ones, and glory to God. He is a great man, but He does not need our gratitude.” This tenth man thought, “I have to go; I have to return and thank the Lord.”

Many times, brothers and sisters, we think, “That pastor does not need my thanks, because he seems so self-assured or so comfortable,” or whatever it may be. And sometimes you do not know the insecurities a person has—your boss, a university professor, or someone you see... a police officer whom you see looking confident and self-sufficient. All of those people need thanks, and they need gratitude.

To me, it is a mystery that God delights in our praise. The most powerful Being, entirely self-sufficient, who needs nothing because He dwells in His fullness and in His eternity—that God delights in our praise and in our gratitude. I was telling someone that recently: Look, God misses your presence; He misses you when you do not go to church. God misses you when you do not pray and when you do not thank Him. And the Lord loves your particular expression of gratitude. This man had a moment of very deep intimacy with Jesus Christ and received a word of blessing from the Lord. He said to him, “Your faith has saved you.” Two thousand years later, this Samaritan man is still blessing men and women, even right here on Northampton Street in Boston at this very moment. His action, like Mary’s when she poured out the jar of perfume, brought him a special moment of blessing in which the Lord pointed out something very important to him. He said, “Your faith has saved you.”

Brother, when you worship the Lord, when you express gratitude to Him, you have access to the heart of God as no one else can. That is why the Lord said to Mary Magdalene, “This woman does not know what she is doing; she is preparing Me for My burial.” What the Pharisee, with all his theology, could not understand about the ministry of Jesus that was to come, this woman was understanding prophetically. Because gratitude, brothers and sisters, brings blessing; it opens doors. Cultivate gratitude in your heart. Let us ask the Lord to give us an attitude of gratitude. That does not come naturally; it comes when we recognize its importance and cultivate it, when we ask the Lord for it, and when we set aside time in our prayers to thank God. When we see the glass as only half empty, let us look at it as half full and cultivate an attitude of gratitude. The psalmist says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and let all that is within me bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His blessings.” So, brothers and sisters, let us ask the Lord, “Give me a grateful heart.”

If someone has it over there and can come over here. Thank you, brothers and sisters. Let us bow our heads. Let us embrace the word of the Lord now, and let us offer the Lord our gratitude. Thank God for something He has done in your life. Thank God for your mind; thank God for your heart; thank God for your son, your daughter; thank God for your home; thank God for your health; thank God for that watch you are wearing, which many people do not have, and for a glass of cold water that you can drink from your refrigerator. Thank You for everything You do in our lives, Lord. We bless You and worship You, Lord. Thank You for Your goodness; thank You for Your mercy; thank You for Your love. Hallelujah! Thank You, Lord Jesus. In Jesus’ name, amen. Amen. Thank You, Lord. Amen. Brothers and sisters, may the grace of the Lord be with you, and His peace. I bless you in the name of Jesus.