Common Sense Reborn

Ungrateful

¹⁷Jesus asked, “Didn’t I heal ten men? Where are the other nine? ¹⁸Has no one returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” ¹⁹And Jesus said to the man, “Stand up and go. Your faith has healed you.” (Luke 17:17-19)

Good morning family! May this message find you in peace, joy, and gratefulness. Our new Division Chaplain gave a stirring sermon this morning on “Ungratefulness” and I wanted to share some of the principles taught and take it a few steps further. His sermon was based around the tale of the Ten Lepers, which comes from the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 17, verses 11-19. In this story, Jesus and His Disciples are traveling in the “border area” between Samaria and Galilee when ten lepers call out to Jesus for Him to heal them. Quick note on context, when a person caught leprosy in the day of Jesus and for hundreds of years before that, they were cast out of the cities as “unclean” and could not come back to the population until the disease subsided and the priest could declare them “clean”. This was done in an attempt to mitigate the spread of this highly infectious disease. But, I often wonder how many were actually able to recover. There was no medicine available in these outskirts. How many were just stuck in banishment from the Jewish society? Jesus gives them no medicine, does not even put His hands on them, rather He simply tells them to “go and show yourself to the priests”.

Now our Chaplain made a good point this morning that I had never considered before. When Jesus tells them to go, the men still have all the symptoms of leprosy. It took them having faith in the incredible miracle working power of Jesus that they started walking to their priests. None of them stopped and questioned Jesus at this point. None said, “Hey Rabbi, I still have this horrible skin disease. Do you not see the boils on my skin?” So for all ten, they displayed that mustard seed faith to take the command Jesus gave them and just go!

As they were walking away, they started healing. It is here that one of the men turns and runs back to Jesus. He throws himself at the feet of Jesus and praises God. This man was a Samaritan. Samaritans were families that had inter-married with the invading population of the Assyrian empire and had become outcast and despised by the pure-bred Jewish nation. We see many times that the Samaritans, those discriminated against by the Jewish nation, always display the characteristics Jesus is trying to teach God’s Chosen people, from the story of the “Good Samaritan” to this story. So out of the ten, only one returns to show his gratefulness to God. And notice that Jesus is not disappointed at the other nine for not coming back and praising HIM, Jesus makes sure to point all the glory back to God.

This is not to say that the other nine were not extremely thankful. Chaplain made a great illustration saying that if we were to chase down the other nine, and asked them if they were not grateful for what Jesus had done, surely they would have prostrated themselves in gratitude and then shame for their actions. They, most likely, had just gotten caught up in the excitement of the miracle they had been part of, excited to get back to their families and their lives, that they had not thought to thank the Healer. But often the absence of expressed gratitude suggests ingratitude. So today, I want you to take some time to think of what we have to be thankful for.

If you are reading this in the comforts of your home, holding your phone or when checking your email, you have hundreds of things to be thankful for. As Americans, we live in incredible safety and stability thanks to thousands who work day and night to keep our country safe, our states running, our power companies pulsing, our homes operating with all the comforts of a first-world society. After taking full account of all we have to be thankful for, who can you tell ‘thank you’ to today?

I want to thank God for the life He has gifted me with. Good health, amazing career paths, and my beautiful, wife who has been the greatest gift. She loves me unconditionally, has been my number one supporter from day one, is holding the homestead down all on her own while I am out here galavanting around in Poland, and she blessed us with three wonderful children. The gratitude I have for my children will never end. They have brought me the purest sense of joy, and I hope I can repay them for what they have taught me about life as they grow and thrive in this world. I thank Jesus for showing me the way to true peace and the path to eternal life, and for showing me mercy for the life of sin I reveled in for too many years. And I thank you all, for your continued support and for taking time out of your day to read these posts each time I put one together.

Here are just a handful of people I can easily praise and lift up in tremendous thanks for today. I could spend all day giving hundreds of more reasons I am appreciative of the examples above, plus dozens and dozens different people and ways my life has been blessed, but that would take your whole month to read through. So I will wrap this up by just challenging y’all to take time this weekend in thought of all you have to be grateful for and go out of your way to tell a handful how much you appreciate them. It’s the “Gospel Truth” my friends. Have a blessed day!