By: Rev. Arnel Tan
“Jesus asked, “Didn’t I heal ten men? Where are the other nine? Does this foreigner return to give glory to God?” Luke 17:17-18 NLT
The question of Christ asking for the whereabouts of the other nine former lepers does not only reveal the heart of Christ about thanksgiving, it also reveals something about the one who returned. So far what we have about the leper that returned is that he is a Samaritan, or what they call half breed. It is also recorded that he expressed his faith in Christ as he openly shouted his praise and how he fell face on the ground as he worshiped Christ. I am sure there are more remarkable things we can see about this encounter with Christ, what is striking to me is the leper did not offer any answer to Jesus’ question “where are the other nine?
The Samaritan lepers silence indicates of an awakening of grace in his heart. His kind of thanksgiving is awakened by grace! His silence over what could be a chance of building his image over the obvious thankless lepers speaks of something only the grace of God can do, and that is to awaken a heart to grace. Though he was not intimidated by his “scandalous” kind of thanksgiving, he exercised restraint in making a comment about other lepers. Perhaps he was too focused on Christ that the weaknesses of others were set aside. Or maybe he was too overwhelmed by grace that he has no time to comment on others.
A grace awakened gratitude is truly attractive because it is expressed in faith. It is this kind of faith that comes from a broken heart is most acceptable to God. Remember Jesus did not say “your faith made you well” to the other lepers, he only said it to this foreigner. Though not explicit in the text I see these signs of grace from the heart of a thankful leper. A grace awakened heart does not compare, it is also aware that he is not in the contest of who is most thankful. Absolutely no signs of competition in him, it was all done for the glory of God. Observe further that a heart who is grace filled is not condemning or controlling. The high light of this kind of thanksgiving is that it is grace based and it was express in faith.
The ultimate question I think is not whether we give thanks or not rather is our thanksgiving God honoring? The final verdict is from Christ, and from what we read in the story it was faith not loudness of voice nor posture that Christ honored. Is our thanksgiving today expressed in faith? Are the signs of grace seen by the way we express our thanks to God. What a great pressure is released when we become people who by the grace of God refuse to unfairly compare with others and deliberately restrain ourselves from competing with other former lepers. Our response to God’s grace is thanksgiving, it is His job to give the verdict.
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