Amy C Walters

Jesus Cleanses Ten Lepers | Luke 17:11-19

The story of Jesus healing the ten lepers in Luke 17:11-19 clearly teaches about gratitude. This post dives into what we learn about gratitude from the nine people who didn’t say thank you and one surprising person who did.

Clearly one of the main points of this story is the importance of thankfulness. And so today we’re going to look at what this story specifically teaches us about gratitude. 

The men in this story are in a desperate situation. They had been shunned from their families, kicked out of their homes and their towns. Their lives were on hold as they were waiting to be healed from their skin diseases. 

So they seek out Jesus and ask for his help, and he tells them to go and see a priest. Now, Jesus doesn’t tell them directly that he’s going to heal them. And he doesn’t heal them right away. It says that “And as they went, they were cleansed.” 

This does seem like a strange way to heal someone. It’s at a distance and it doesn’t happen until a little bit later as they’re going the other direction. 

I wonder if those men had some intense conversations among themselves when Jesus tells them to go see a priest. I could imagine them saying to each other, “Wait, what did he say? ‘Go to a priest’? Does that mean he’s going to heal us? What happens if we get there and we’re not healed? Why doesn’t he just do it right now?”

If any of them could pick the way that Jesus healed them, I don’t think they would have chosen this. If I had been one of those lepers, I would have wanted to be healed clearly right then and there.

But, the lepers head on their way. At some point on that trip, somewhere between Jesus and the priest, they discover that they’re healed. Now, they had two options. They could have continued on their way to see that priest, or they could turn back to thank Jesus.

Turning back certainly would have cost them something. They would have to go out of their way to return to him. They might even have to look around a little bit to find him. And it would have delayed them seeing the priest and being reintegrated into society. It would have delayed them getting to see their families again. So these men have to do some mental math and weigh their options. 

Let’s consider the magnitude of what Jesus has done for them. He’s done what no one else could, healed them of this disease. The rest of society said, “We have no solution for you but to kick you out, send you outside on this prolonged camping trip until you get better.” But Jesus was able to heal them when nobody else could. He gave them their lives back. They could return to their families, their friends, their homes, their jobs, everything. 

So this miracle that Jesus has done for them is no small thing. This changes the trajectory of their lives. 

If you were hearing this story for the first time, how many of those 10 men would you think would return? And if you knew this was a mixed group, Jewish and Samaritan, which ones of them do you think would return? I would expect maybe 50% to come back and thank Jesus? And certainly the Jewish people would be grateful. Instead, it’s 10%. 

When only one out of ten comes back, Jesus comments on it. He asks, “Were not all ten healed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except for this foreigner?” 

This was not a knock on the Samaritan man, but on the Jewish people who should be praising and worshiping God as a result. And Jesus really lays into it with these three questions: were not all ten, where are the other nine, was no one found? It shows us that a lack of gratitude is no small thing. 

For the nine who did not return, what do you think this shows us about their attitudes and hearts? Maybe they were entitled. As God’s chosen people, maybe they thought that they deserved it, that this is what they should get, because they are Jewish people.

Maybe they were distracted. They’re already on their way to see the priest. They’re maybe already thinking about all the people that they’re going to see and the things that they’re going to do. 

Maybe they thought it was just too high of a cost to have to turn around and go back the other direction, to have to find Jesus, to delay the pursuit of the rest of their lives. Maybe they thought it wasn’t worth it.

Maybe they were grumpy that Jesus didn’t do the healing in the way that they would have wanted him to. They didn’t truly value the gift or the giver. 

Now, we give these guys a hard time. But the reality is that ungratefulness is the default mode of the human heart. Without God, we are naturally ungrateful people. So let’s look briefly at the Samaritan man, the one in ten who did come back and praise God. 

Notice that he goes out of his way to do it. He is heading in the other direction, on the way to the priest. When he sees he is healed, he turns around and comes back. 

Luke also tells us that he was “praising God with a loud voice.” This guy is not timid in his worship! He is unashamed and throws himself at Jesus’ feet. Every part of him is involved in grateful worship–heart, voice, and body. No one can mistake what he has come there to do. 

This is the right response in light of all that Jesus had done for him. In fact, that is our key truth for today: gratitude is the right response for all that God has done for us. 

We live in a time where we have more wealth than ever before. We have more stuff, we have more comfort. But has this all led to more gratitude? Honestly, it feels like the opposite. It feels like now it has become an expectation that we have all these things, that we deserve all of this, and so anything less than what we have right now deserves complaining, is unfair, is wrong.

I’ve been reading lately in the Book of Hosea, and frequently it says that as Israel’s stuff increased, so did their idol worship. The more stuff they got, the more altars they built to worship other gods. And in the same way, we have come to worship the gifts rather than the giver.

So let’s become people who are marked by gratitude. Let’s push beyond just taking one special day of the year to thank God. 

Let’s push beyond the typical things that are at the top of our list, like family and friends and food. Let’s go deeper than that and recognize the depth of the grace of God and how much he has given us. 

Let’s go out of our way like the Samaritan man to worship God and to do it demonstrably. Let’s get all of us involved in our gratitude.