When Jesus walked upon the earth, multitudes of people were touched by His life and ministry. His Name became a household word because of the reputation of His miraculous deeds. Everyone was clamoring to be in His meetings because miracles and healings were happening everywhere He went.
In Luke 17, we find the remarkable record of the healing of ten lepers. Like everyone else they had heard the stories about Jesus. They had heard of the miracles that followed Him everywhere He went, and they had heard about other lepers that had been cleansed by His touch. They had no other hope for a cure as there was no medicine that could help their terrible plight. They knew if they had any chance at all of having a future it would only come through an encounter with Jesus.
Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem and was passing through a village in the regions of Samaria and Galilee. The ten lepers had heard that He was coming. What pressure they must have felt! Here was a potential source of healing, but could it happen for them? Or would it happen for them? Was this going to be a great testimony of victory and healing, or would their hopes be dashed in cruel disappointment?
Because of the uncleanness of their disease, they were forced to stand at a distance from all the others who were following Jesus. But these ten men began to yell out to Jesus, desperately crying “Jesus! Master! Have mercy on us!” When Jesus heard their cries and saw their desperate condition, He called out to them and told them, “Go show yourselves to the priests” as required in the Old Testament law. They believed and obeyed. The Bible says, “And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed” (Luke 17:14).
Can you imagine what that must have been like for these men when suddenly they had begun to feel the power of God surging through their bodies and had seen new tissue and skin beginning to cover the horrible leprous sores that had covered them? They had watched in amazement as their bodies began to be healed and had seen the bodies of their nine friends be healed as well! Their lives were being saved. Their families and futures were being restored. Their death sentences from the horrible disease of leprosy were being reversed. Everything in their lives had now changed because of the miracle Jesus had just given them! Or had it?
In verse 15, the Bible says that when one of them, a Samaritan, had seen that he had been healed, he returned back to Jesus and “with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His [Jesus] feet, GIVING HIM THANKS.”
Only one of the ten that had received a life-saving miracle returned to give thanksgiving to the One Who had just saved his life!
Jesus received the praise and gratitude of this man but then asked the questions, ‘“Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?’ And He said to him, ‘Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well”’ (Luke 17:17-19).
This was a remarkable miracle, but it is also a story that unfortunately reveals a very common characteristic found in human nature. It is the lack of gratitude for the blessings of God. Many people may be passionate in their desire to reach out to Jesus in order to receive a miracle when they are in some kind of trouble. They will make all kinds of petitions and offer God all kinds of deals if He will agree to give them what they want. Yet the content of their hearts is much like the attitude that Jesus found in these lepers. They might cry out for mercy in their appeal for God’s help, even as the lepers referred to Jesus as “Master.” But once the kindness of God has been demonstrated and their need has been met, they simply go on their way as though they owe nothing back to Him in return. This is exactly what happened in the hearts of nine of the ten lepers.
But one of the men was different. He was a Samaritan. When he had realized that the leprous sores that had covered his body and were taking his life were disappearing before his eyes, he had returned back to Jesus and, “with a LOUD voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, GIVING HIM THANKS” (Luke 17:15-16).
He had called Him “Master” before he had received his miracle, but he had returned to worship and glorify Jesus with thanksgiving as his “Master” after he had received it as well. Many people will call Jesus “Master” when they need something, but how many will continue to treat Him as “Master” by their worship and thanksgiving and surrender after they get what they need?
There were ten lepers who were touched by the power of God and saw their leprosy healed. But I believe that only one leper was really changed! This was the Samaritan who had returned to give thanks by glorifying God in surrender to Jesus as his true “Master.” Of this man Jesus said, “Your faith has made you well.”
Thanksgiving in our hearts is as powerful a transforming force as the touch of God that heals leprosy. A transformed heart that has truly been changed because of the touch of God is a greater miracle than a healed body.
There were many people in Jesus’ day that saw and experienced for themselves the power of His miraculous touch yet their hearts were never changed! We can see this truth again and again throughout the Gospels. The greatest meetings Jesus ever had were in the cities of Bethsaida, Capernaum, and Chorazin (Matthew 11).
These three cities had come out to the wilderness where Jesus had gone to rest because they were hungry for His power and touch. Jesus was moved with compassion saying that they were like sheep without a shepherd. He had taught them, healed them of all their diseases, and supernaturally fed them with a boy’s lunch of two fish and five loaves. Thousands had eaten until they could eat no more.
Yet, it was those same people that are referenced in Matthew 11:20 where we read, “Then He began to rebuke the cities in which MOST of His mighty works had been done, because they did not REPENT.”
Jesus went on to give a stinging indictment of them all saying that if Sodom and Gomorrah had experienced what these people had experienced, they would have repented and judgment would have been withheld! In reality, as difficult as it may seem, many, if not most of the people who were the recipients of Jesus’ greatest miracles may very well be in hell today! How could such a thing be? It’s simple.
A miracle of healing will produce a physical change that will last ONLY for a lifetime. The miracle of a changed heart that lives a lifestyle of gratitude and thanksgiving to God for what He has done is a miracle that will last FOREVER in eternity!
Ten lepers were touched and blessed, but apparently only one was transformed by the great power of thanksgiving that was in his heart.
And now what is the Lord’s message for us today?
“In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”
(1 Thessalonians 5:18).
In everything.. Yes.. The word of God commands us to give thanks in everything and for everything..
Nine out of ten did not thank the Lord for what He did for them.. How about us?
Moreover, the only one who came back and thanked the Lord was a foreigner as the Lord called him.. How about the people of the house?
Are they thankful?
Often we meet people who didn’t experience the Lord’s salvation, yet, they thank the Lord for the small and the big, and they thank Him while going through difficult circumstances and while facing tribulations and sicknesses..
As for us, most of the time, during moments of rest and fullness we don’t give thanks, in the real meaning of the word thanks.. rather most of our discussions and words are full of murmuring, and the word of God warned us against murmuring and its consequences when it said:
“Nor murmur as some of them also murmured and were destroyed by the destroyer. And all these things happened to them as examples; and it is written for our warning on whom the ends of the world have come.” (1 Corinthians 10:10-11).
Beloved: How many miracles and good things did the Lord do for each one of us or our children or families or people we were praying for.. try now, while reading this meditation, to remember some of them not to say all.. remember how anxious you were to get each one of them, and how you even asked for some of them with tears.. also, you made promises and vows to the Lord to walk before Him in complete obedience and faithfulness, and to always make Him the only Lord over your life..
Then ask yourself today, are you grateful and are you thanking the Lord continuously for everything He has done for you? Do you worship Him as He deserves, and live wholly for Him? Is He the first one in your life? Is He the real Lord of your life? Or, after receiving what you wanted, you go your way and forget, just as the nine lepers did? And you don’t live a life of continuous thanksgiving to the Lord, and don’t live according to the Lord’s heart and according to what the word of God specifically commanded us?
We have to give Him thanks in everything and for everything..
And you may ask me: Do I have to thank the Lord for the hardships and sicknesses I’m going through?
Of course not.. do not thank the Lord for the hardships and sicknesses.. rather thank the Lord Who will bring you out of the hardships and will heal your diseases.. thank Him because He will lift your faith and train you while you are passing through hardships and sicknesses.. and thank the Lord if He has allowed you to go through a certain hardship or sickness, to discipline you for something you cannot give up in another way than this, thank Him because He has done that to protect you from something more dangerous..
Yes, like this we can give thanks to the Lord in everything and for everything.
In this season we call Thanksgiving, may the power of God flow through us all in a new and fresh way that will produce a holy gratitude in our hearts that will bring forth a transformation in our lives! May we live in a state of continual thanksgiving to Jesus for all that He has done in our lives. May we never just seek His touch in our time of need and then go merrily on our way without taking the time to return and love and worship Him and give Him our best in return! When we come to Jesus like the leper, to thank Him and worship Him and to give back to Him out of the gratitude of our hearts, it is then that we will discover the true treasures of the Kingdom of God in our lives. Thanksgiving lived out everyday truly makes Jesus the Master in our lives.
Finally, I will close with this expressive story, and may each one of us give the chance to the Holy Spirit to speak to him through it:
On New Year’s Eve, this great author sat at his desk, holding his pen, and wrote:
“During last year, I had a surgery to remove my gallbladder and I had to stay in bed for several months, I also reached the age of sixty so I left my important job in this big publishing house where I worked for thirty years, my father died, and my son failed to pass the bachelor degree of the faculty of medicine because he stopped going to class for several months because he was injured in a car accident.” And at the end of the page he wrote: “What a bad year!”
His wife entered his office, and noticed his distraction, so she got close to him, peaked above his shoulder and read what he had written; she then left the room silently. After a few minutes she came back holding another paper in her hand, and silently put it beside the paper that her husband had previously written.
The husband took his wife’s paper and read:
“During last year, you were healed from the pain caused by your gallbladder and that you endured for so many years. You reached the age of sixty while being in an excellent health and you will be free to write and compose after you signed contracts for the publication of more than one important book. Your father lived till the age of eighty five without causing any problems to anyone and died silently without going through pain. And your son escaped death from that car accident, and was healed without any handicap or complications”.
And the wife ended her letter saying: What a year where good was victorious over evil..
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.
To the Lord be all the glory and thanks!!!
