Luke 17.11-19
The Healing of the Ten Lepers
“Go away! You are unclean!” people cry to them.“Away! Away! Don’t touch us!” When they flee and wander about, people among the nations say, “They can stay here no longer.” -Lamentations 4.15
Thanksgiving is upon us.
Harvest Dinner today. Thanksgiving a week from Thursday.
Biblical History of Giving Thanks
Noah
Feasts of Israel
Psalms of Thanksgiving
Jesus Feeding the 5,000
The Epistles
Always, In all circumstances
American History
The Pilgrims left Plymouth, England, on September 6, 1620. Their destination? The New World. Although filled with uncertainty and peril, it offered both civil and religious liberty.
For over two months, the 102 passengers of the Mayflower braved the harsh elements of a vast storm-tossed ocean. Finally, with firm purpose and a reliance on Divine Providence, the cry of “Land!” was heard.
Arriving in Massachusetts in late November, the Pilgrims sought a suitable landing place. On December 11, just before disembarking at Plymouth Rock, they signed the “Mayflower Compact”—America’s first document of civil government and the first to introduce self-government.
After a prayer service, the Pilgrims began building hasty shelters. However, unprepared for the starvation and sickness of a harsh New England winter, nearly half died before spring. Yet, persevering in prayer, and assisted by helpful Indians, they reaped a bountiful harvest the following summer.
The grateful Pilgrims then declared a three-day feast, starting on December 13, 1621, to thank God and to celebrate with their Indian friends. While this was not the first Thanksgiving in America (thanksgiving services were held in Virginia as early as 1607), it was America’s first Thanksgiving Festival.
William Bradford, governor of the Plymouth Colony, proclaimed the first day of Thanksgiving in 1623: To all ye Pilgrims: Inasmuch as the Great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, beans, squashes and garden vegetables and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as He has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our consciences; now, I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and little ones, do gather at the meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the daytime on Thursday, November ye 29th of the year of our LORD 1623 and third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Plymouth Rock, there to listen to ye pastor, and render thanksgiving to Almighty God for all His blessings."
1779- Three years after our independence was won, George Washington proclaimed Thanksgiving a National Holiday to be a day of public prayer and thanksgiving... for the favors of Almighty God, the Author of everything good.
October 3, 1863- 74 years later Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation: Observe this last Thursday of November as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father Who dwelleth in the Heavens.
Fast Forward 151 years to today and shopping for things we really don't need becomes the focus for many in this land of plenty on what has become known as Black Friday Weekend.
Where are the other nine?
There was a piercing question (Jesus always asked and still does in fact piercing questions). You might be surprised at the number of questions He asked. His questions have a depth to them. Since He knows all things His questions were for the benefit of those He was asking.
Luke 18:8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”
John 6:5 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?”
Matthew 6:28 “And why do you worry about clothes?
Matthew 12:48 He replied to him, "Who is My mother, and who are My brothers?"
Matthew 20.22 "Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?"
Matthew 16:26 What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
Matthew 7:3-4 Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?”
Matthew 8.26 O you of little faith, Why are you afraid?
John 7.23 Why are you angry with Me for healing the whole man on the Sabbath?
Matthew 26. 10 "Why are you bothering this woman?”
Matthew 16.13 Who do people say the Son of Man is?
Luke 24:38 He said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds?
Where are the other nine?
1. They did not come back to give thanks.
2.They went on their way. People who get healed do not necessarily follow Jesus. We think they will but many do not.
3. They were in a hurry to get back home.
In all fairness to them, they probably had not seeng their families in years. It had been a long time since they hugged their children. They had been isolated from family, home, friends, jobs.
Personally I know just a week away from my kids and grandkids and I cannot wait to see them! When I came back from Haiti in September I didn't unpack or anything. I went right to my daughter's house where they all were for my grandson's birthday and got hugged and gave hugs.
However, with these lepers, who were healed, the whole reason they were able to go back was because of Jesus and the healing He worked in their lives.
4. They quickly forgot the miracle God had done in their lives.
God help us!
There are a number of lessons here:
1. Jesus was showing those who would follow Him that there would be widespread ingratitude with people they helped, particularly in the area of healing. One of the challenges of the ministry is to see God answer prayer and bless people and watch them have so little time for Him in their lives, We are getting a little peek on how deeply this effects the LORD in this passage, yet He continues to work.
It is important that we do not rejoice too much in a healing or in authority over demons. It is more important- much more that we rejoice that our names are written down in heaven. That will not change. People who are healed seldom react appropriately. Extremes- desire to praise the instrument to indifference and forgetting.
2.This should cause some self examination in all of us.
After God blesses us are we quick to take His gifts and run, go on with our lives?
Are there things He has done for us that we fail to give Him thanks for?
Are there answers to prayer and blessings I am enjoying today that I need to step up and thank God for? Do I have an attitude of gratitude?
There were actually three questions in this set that Jesus asked.
Were not all ten cleansed?
Where are the other nine?
Has no one returned to give thanks to God except this foreigner?
Dealing with prejudice and future ministry. Two of them would go to the home area of this man after the Day of Pentecost and lay hands on the believers there.
Acts 8:14-15 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit...
Where are the other nine? Let's imitate this Samaritan:
Living of Life of Thanksgiving to God:
1. Refuse to fall into the all to easy habit of complaining. It is a rut.
2.Give Thanks immediately and don't worry about repeating yourself.
These other nine should have returned like the Samaritan, immediately.
3. Thanksgiving must be sincere, from the heart, to touch God's heart.
Luke 17:15-16 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.
Sometimes we need to throw ourselves down at Jesus' feet.
Humility and thanksgiving go hand in hand. Show me a proud person and you will not see him thanking God for his blessings. Like Nebuchadnezzar, "Is this not the great Babylon I have built?!" Show me thankful person and you will see humility, an awareness that every good and perfect gift has come down from the Father in Heaven.
He praised God in a loud voice. Sing your lungs out!
4. When God grants you an answer to a fervent prayer be just as fervent in your response! Even more! So often in times of bitter need we pray with intensity then the answer comes and we go on soon forgetting what God has done for us.
Luke 17:12-13 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!”
called= elevate continually
have (pity) mercy= help us, give aid to us- we are afflicted
5. Ask the LORD to make us sensitive and open our eyes to what He is doing in our lives. the gifts He has given and how blessed we are.
It is Thanksgiving time. It is a time to give thanks as a nation for our blessings.
As George Washington said, a day of public prayer and thanksgiving... for the favors of Almighty God. the Author of everything good.
As Abraham Lincoln said, Observe this last Thursday of November as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father Who dwelleth in the Heavens.
Family Gatherings a week from Thursday
Psalm 103.2
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