“Thank you” is a very small phrase and will probably not take more than a second for any of us to say it, yet it is so strange that we do not hear it often. William A Ward asks a very penetrating question for each of us to consider: God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used at least one to say “thank you”? One of my favorite things to do during bible studies is to study the questions God asked individuals in the Bible, like God’s question to Adam: “Adam, where are you?”(Gen 3:9), God’s question to Cain: “Where is your brother Abel? (Gen 4:9)…etc.” For our today’s question please turn your Bibles with me to Luke chapter 17: 11-18.
“….As he (Jesus) was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”…one of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praised God in a loud voice…Jesus asked, “were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Notice carefully that all the ten men cried out loudly for help, but only one of them came back to thank Jesus, and he was a foreigner (a non-Jew). Why did the other nine take this for granted while this one foreigner personally retuned to give thanks? I have no definite answers for this question but here are some possibilities.
God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used at least one to say “thank you”? – William A Ward
Many Jews of Jesus’ days took pride in their knowledge of God (law), and their position in God’s plan as the chosen people. Their obsession with the rituals and religious practices (many of which have lost their meaning and purpose) blinded them from personally relating to this Almighty God. May be some of them when they saw that they were cleansed decided to give a thanksgiving offering sometime in the future. Or maybe they were so excited with this miracle that they ran to their family members whom they have not seen for years, or maybe they forgot Jesus because they were so overwhelmed by the new life and opportunities ahead of them.
“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” – Epicurus
Whatever the reason, we know one thing for sure, they did not come back to thank Jesus for the miracle. Sounds very ungrateful, but maybe they had their own reasons for not coming back: reasons like being mad at God for leprosy, being angry with God for all the years they lost in life, and all the emotional pain they had to go through during these years. Or maybe some of them simply had other methods of making up with God, like giving a thank offering sometime later. I am not trying to justify their action, I am only trying to see how these nine men could have justified their actions, because that will help us understand why so many of us do not thank God as much as he deserves or as much as we desire.
Thankfulness involves more than saying a word, it is an overflowing of a grateful heart and it has more to do with our inner attitude than to do with our outer circumstances. I met some people who had very little in life, yet were very thankful; and I also saw many people who have a lot and yet often grumble that they still do not have all that they deserve or desire. The great ancient philosopher Epicurus says “Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” I am baffled when I hear people say “what should I be thankful for, look at my life, what a misery I am in….etc”. A wise man once said “If you have nothing to be thankful for, check your pulse.”
Ralph W. Emerson thanks God ““For each new morning with its light, For rest and shelter of the night, For health and food, for love and friends, For everything Thy goodness sends.” There are so many things and people in our lives that we can thank God for, yet we find ourselves blank when someone asks us “what are you thankful for?” I sometimes wonder if Jesus will ask us also the same question he asked the foreigner “Where are the other nine?” (In our case it will be where the other nine things you should be thankful for). As Christians we should be thankful for not only the blessings and the pleasant things in our lives, but also for everything that the Lord is taking us through. H.W. Westermayer reminds us that “The pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts … nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.” How about you?
The pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts … nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.” – H.W. Westermayer
– – Author: Rev. Francis Burgula – –
