How do you receive your gifts? Sometimes, we receive gifts with disappointment. It’s not what we wanted. It’s not what we needed. It’s not the right gift. It’s not big enough or good enough.
So, what’s it like when it comes to receiving the gifts of God? Our Gospel reading for today shows us how to receive what God has to give, which will help move us to be thankful gift-receivers.
In our text, we see ten gift-receivers. And what a gift they received–Jesus had healed them of their leprosy! In those days, leprosy was a living death. It was like your body beginning to decay while you were still alive. You were segregated to live in a colony with other lepers, removed from normal society. If anyone approached, you had to cry out, “Unclean! Unclean!” so they wouldn’t come near you. You had to live among the living dead until you died.
But what a gift those ten lepers received! Jesus had healed them of their leprosy. Clearly, they had heard about Jesus and the miracles He had done, and so they believed He had the power to heal them. That was why they approached Him and cried out from a distance, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”
And Jesus did have mercy on them. “Go and show yourselves to the priests,” He said. That’s how they would be declared healed, and could return to society. And while they were making their way to the priests, they saw that they no longer had leprosy. So nine of them went on to be declared healed by the priests, and their story ended with their healing. That’s all they received from Jesus.
But one, when he saw that he was healed, took a detour. He returned, praising God, falling on his face at Jesus’ feet, and giving Him thanks. He was a Samaritan.
Jesus comments on how the ten reacted: “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?” Then He said to the one: “Rise and go. Your faith has made you well.” It sounds as if there’s some exasperation in Jesus’ comments, doesn’t it? After all, He wasn’t through giving–but only one returned to receive all that Jesus had to give!
Like these ten lepers, we also have faith in Jesus’ miraculous power. We know that God can heal us. He can heal us miraculously. Or He can heal us as He usually does–through doctors and nurses and the immune response that He has placed in our bodies. The Old-Testament Apocrypha book of Sirach tells us, “Honor the doctor according to your need of him.” It even goes on to say, “The Lord created medicines from the earth and a sensible man will not ignore them” (Sirach 38:1, 4).
We know that Jesus can heal us. We ask Him to do it. And when He does it, we are thankful.
But what if He doesn’t? What if His help comes slower than we would like? Then our gratitude begins to falter. We get impatient, perhaps even angry at God. “What did I do to deserve this,” we ask ourselves. And we answer, “Nothing!”
We think, “I’m a Christian. I’m a church member. I’ve done a lot for God.” We may not be so arrogant to say it out loud, but we might think it. We think, “God owes me! I’ve done my part, and now it’s time for Him to do His part.” By now thanksgiving and gratitude are dead and gone. That is our sin.
But let’s delve deeper into this problem of our sin–and the leper who returned to praise God and give thanks will help us do that. No doubt, he saw his leprosy as something more than his leprous body. His cry, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on me,” was also a cry for an answer to a deeper need. Jesus saw that deeper need and healed it. “Your faith has made you well.” A better translation would be, “Your faith has saved you.”
Grab onto that word “saved.” That leper received all that Jesus had to give. And as he realized a need deeper than just physical healing, so also should we. Let’s call it the leprosy of the soul, the spirit, the inner self. It’s the leprosy of sin. Just like physical leprosy, it disfigures life.
How do we see this in our lives? We see the lack of love and selfishness splinter marriages and family life. Healthy competition at work or in school becomes a dog-eat-dog scramble over the backs of others to be first. Our tongues become razor sharp as they cut down others with gossip. We speak loveless criticisms, half-truths, or even outright lies–if that would benefit us. And that’s just a brief glimpse of what spiritual leprosy looks like on the outside.
Now, take a look inside. You find lust, hatred, envy, greed, pride, and self-righteousness. Even as Christians we see some of this somewhere in our lives. That’s the leprosy of sin.
Like the leper colony of Jesus’ day, this leprosy isolates us, separates us from others. Sin builds walls between people, breaks relationships in marriage, family, among neighbors, and among friends. Worst of all, it keeps us from having an intimate communion with God, especially in eternity. That’s the worst leprosy of sin–to have your sins stuck to you forever and enduring an eternity based on what you deserve, not on what God wants to give you.
I have Jesus’ life-giving words for you. It’s in those words of Jesus, “Your faith has saved you.” Let’s unpack that word, “saved.” Jesus is in that word, “saved.” His cross is in that word, “saved.” What happened on His cross of death is in that word, “saved.” Healing for our sin-leprosy is in that word, “saved.”
Isaiah tells us how, “He [Jesus] was pierced because of our rebellious deeds and crushed because of our sins. He endured the punishment that made us whole, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).
Here are Jesus’ life-giving words in another word from God, “Get up, be baptized and wash away your sins” (Acts 22:16). Here’s another, “The blood of Jesus … cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). It’s like coming in after a hot, sweaty, sticky, dirty summer day and taking a refreshing shower. It’s wonderful to feel fresh and clean.
God makes you fresh and clean deep down inside. God’s forgiveness washes you, cleanses you, and makes you clean from all your sin. How clean are you? A prayer that King David prayed tells us: “Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:7). That healing, cleansing, and forgiveness is the source of your thanksgiving.
Now you have what God has to give you, for to see your need is even a gift from God. To trust that He has the power to help you is a gift. To be clean from sin is the supreme gift. And God enables true thanksgiving to rise from a heart full of His gifts.
Yes, sometimes it seems like some of God’s gifts are missing. Sometimes, He doesn’t take a problem from us. The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Romans, talked about some distresses in life that God didn’t always take away or heal. He mentioned affliction and anguish, persecution and famine, and nakedness, danger and sword (Romans 8:35).
You could add to that list some problems that are up close and personal in your life. Will problems like that kill your thanksgiving? It will–if deliverance from those problems is all you’re looking for from God. Will problems like that kill your thanksgiving? It won’t–if you receive all that God has to give, for the Apostle Paul goes on to say that none of that can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:39).
Unwrap God’s love and you find, not only a Father who cares for His children in all their cares and burdens, but you will also find forgiveness, peace with God, and a joy-filled eternity. Those are God’s crowning gifts. When you have them, then you know that everything else you need will be there, exactly where, when, and how God knows you need them.
So give thanks for family, health, money, pleasure, and all the other good happenings in your life. Give thanks even when life isn’t going so well. Why? It’s because you know that God is with you. You know that He will keep you going where He is leading you. And that direction is never wrong, especially from an eternal perspective!
Give thanks most of all because your heart is clean and pure in God’s forgiveness. That’s the best God has to give, and you have it! A Christian’s true thanksgiving always centers itself in Christ.
Let’s again hear some words from the Apostle Paul:
I consider everything worthless compared with the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost everything. I consider them filth to gain Christ and be found in him. In him, I have a righteousness that is not my own, which comes from the law. Instead, I have that righteousness through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God based on Christ’s faithfulness [Philippians 3:8-9].
The leper’s thanksgiving flowed from that same source, and ours does, too!
How do you receive your gifts? You receive them thankfully when you come with empty hands, when you come with the plea, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on me.” It’s then that you come ready to receive all that God has to give. And into our emptiness, God pours the fullness of His gifts. Amen.
