Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?

 Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.  Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off.  And they lifted up their voices and said, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!"  So when He saw them, He said to them, "Go, show yourselves to the priests."  And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.  And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks.  And he was a Samaritan.  So Jesus answered and said, "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 17:11-19

Yesterday we read that Jesus said to the disciples, "It is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come!  It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.  Take heed to yourselves.  If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.  And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, 'I repent,' you shall forgive him."  And the apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith."  So the Lord said, "If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.  And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and sit down to eat'?  But will he not rather say to him, 'Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink'?  Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him?  I think not.  So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable servants.  We have done what was our duty to do.'"

 Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.  Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off.  And they lifted up their voices and said, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!"  So when He saw them, He said to them, "Go, show yourselves to the priests."  Leprosy was a dreaded disease of its time.  For the Jews, not only was it a disease of terrible physical suffering, but it also meant total ostracism from the society in both social and religious terms.  So tied with stories of the Bible, leprosy is also a symbol of our sin.  A priest would have to give a certificate that authorized a return to the society.  My study bible suggests that showing the priests would be tangible proof that Christ is greater than Moses.  Moses prayed for his sister Miriam to be healed, and she was healed after seven days (Numbers 12:10-15), but Christ's healing is immediate and done by His own authority. 

 And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.  And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks.  And he was a Samaritan.  So Jesus answered and said, "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."  Regarding His question, Where are the nine? my study bible tells us that Christ came to heal all of fallen humanity.  And yet, only a small portion receive Him in faith and thanksgiving to give glory to God.   And so we may understand that "many are called, but few chosen" (Matthew 20:16).  The lesson for us, says my study bible, is that worship is the number one priority.

What does it mean to be grateful?  It's significant for Jesus' early followers that the one who was grateful happened to be the foreigner, the hated Samaritan.  What it tells us is about how we see, how we perceive.  Perhaps those who come to Christ with "new" and open eyes are the ones who realize best what a gift they have.  Certainly it would seem to be the outsider, the Samaritan, who could appreciate what he had been excluded from before.  Perhaps it tells us about entitlement:  the notion that we come to take for granted gifts that we have already understood as given.  Perhaps, like the servant (see yesterday's reading) above, who feels they are doing something special when they're really doing their duty, so we also conversely take as our due that which is given as a gift or an inheritance.  But God asks us to see afresh the great gifts we are granted.  One of the points of worship and prayer is particularly this kind of mindfulness of what we are about, what gifts we have, what opportunities are present to us all the time.  A "foreigner" can see so much better than an insider can just what gifts and blessings the insider really has.  I truly believe that the relatively quick "success" of the gospel message has to do with a world that was hungry and grateful for what it found in Christ's message.  Christ opened up for the world what had been available to the Jewish people; His ministry "for the life of the world" gave blessings that, as He said Himself,  prophets and kings had hoped to see but did not (Luke 10:23-24).  In this understanding is also contained the meaning of Christ's parable of the Great Banquet (Luke 14:15-24), recently given, in which it is those outsiders from the highways and hedges who are welcomed to the banquet when the first invitees make excuses and say they are busy with their own affairs.  What we need to understand is that our own tendency to take for granted what we're given, to sense a feeling of entitlement, gets in the way of our own awareness of our lives and their potentials and meaning.  The true energies of God are those that are available to eyes that see and ears that hear, to reference a frequently used expression by Jesus.  God's mercy and love belong to those for whom the gift is known and understood with awareness, one that always fills us with joy.  Let us understand what life might be like without it.