COGWA Members App
Feast App
ROKU AppWhich One of the 10? (Christ’s Teaching on Thanksgiving)
Written by Gary Black
Jesus healed 10 lepers. How do their responses teach us the difference between appreciation and heartfelt thanksgiving?
Lepers were unclean outcasts! No one wanted to be around them for fear that they would get the dreadful skin disease. As Jesus passed through a village, 10 lepers stood afar off and pleaded, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” (Luke 17:13). Undoubtedly they had heard of His miracles and believed Jesus could heal them.
Christ said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests,” which was what the law of God required (Leviticus 13:2). As they went, they were healed! Imagine how they must have felt. They could now rejoin their loved ones and be accepted into society again.
Only one took time to go back
Now we come to the main point of the story. Of the 10, only one came back to offer thanks. This is where I sometimes think how astonishing it is that some people can be so ungrateful. After all, can any of us imagine being healed of a horrible, disfiguring disease and not be at least somewhat appreciative?
But notice, it doesn’t say the nine were unappreciative. We are not told how they felt. If someone were to ask, they probably would have said they felt pleased and appreciative. All 10 were likely appreciative to some degree. But of the 10, only one demonstrated and expressed his heartfelt thanksgiving.
Only one glorified God
We are told that of the 10, one “returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks” (verses 15-16). He didn’t just feel appreciative, he expressed his thanksgiving generously. That heartfelt expression of gratitude is what set him apart.
How many recipients of God’s blessings really express gratitude to Him? The fact that nine didn’t come back indicates that the overwhelming majority might not offer proper thanksgiving.
The one was a foreigner
Now Jesus makes the point that of the 10, the one who came back to offer thanks was a Samaritan, a “foreigner” (verse 18). The idea that the foreigner came back to offer thanks is remarkable. Yet history shows that the Israelites often neglected to count their blessings and give thanks to God. Rather, they often frustrated God by complaining.
It is possible that we Christians could also be particularly susceptible to the sin of ingratitude? How could this ingratitude manifest itself?
Even Christians can neglect heartfelt thanksgiving
How could we fall into ingratitude? We could consider ourselves entitled to God’s blessings and therefore not express thanksgiving. We could be very busy and believe God understands that we don’t always have time to give Him thanks. We could believe that God knows we are thankful in our hearts, and that that’s all that matters. We could sometimes simply forget to offer our thanksgiving. Or perhaps one could be a genuinely ungrateful person.
In any case, if we find ourselves neglecting thanksgiving, it’s time to repent, consider our blessings and begin giving heartfelt thanks to God.
God knows we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Upon true repentance, God forgives our sin and helps us learn and do what’s right (Acts 26:20; Philippians 2:13).
Christians are not immune to ingratitude. In fact, we may sometimes be more susceptible to it. So we should make sure that we come before our God daily to express our gratitude for His blessings and mercy. We can and should be “giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20).
Of the 10
Remember, of the 10, only one took the time to come back to Jesus. Of the 10, only one expressed heartfelt thanksgiving. And of the 10, the thankful one was the foreigner.
This Thanksgiving season let’s ask ourselves, “Which one of the 10 am I?”
Gary Black serves as pastor of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association, congregations in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
For more about thankfulness and Thanksgiving, see:
