A Very Rare Virtue.  (Luke 17: 11-19)

According to the New Testament, believers are instructed to cultivate virtues in their lives. There are numerous lists of virtues in the New Testament, but one of the most well-known is found in Galatians chapter 5. Remember that list:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

(Galatians 5 22-23a)

Each of these qualities is a virtue that we, as believers in Jesus Christ, are encouraged to embody.

Well today I want to focus on a virtue and attitude that is not mentioned in this famous list but appears frequently in Jesus own parables and teaching.

One that is particularly rare, yet essential. And in today’s passage Luke will told a story to illustrate it, and it's this story I'd like us to examine. 

So, may I invite your attention to Luke chapter 17, where I'll begin reading from verse 11.

11: Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus travelled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12: As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy[b] met him. They stood at a distance 13: and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

14: When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

15: One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16: He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.

17: Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

(Luke 17: 11-19)

The story is rather simple, consisting of three parts. First, we're introduced to the ten lepers. Then Luke zooms in on just one of them. Finally, in the third and final phase of the passage, attention shifts to the other nine.

If you've been journeying with me through the book of Luke, you'll recall that on several occasions prior to this, we're told that Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem (beginning in Chapter 9, verse 51). 

From that point to this, Jesus is still on his way to Jerusalem. He left Galilee, which is in the northern part of Palestine, and he's making his way to Jerusalem. Along the way, various events occur, all of which Luke records for us.

What's interesting is that he mentions Jesus passing along the border of Samaria and Galilee. 

This becomes significant for the rest of the passage and Luke states it in verse 11 emphasising this up front. 

Then Jesus entered a certain village, and there he met ten men who were lepers, but they stood afar off. 

So, he comes to this village, probably in Samaria, and is greeted by ten lepers who apparently are all together. It's possible they had heard Jesus was coming. Maybe they heard about his healing miracles, and contacted each other.

Alternatively, they may have lived together. If so, it's significant because perhaps some were Jews, and one was a Samaritan. 

For non-Jews and a Samaritan to live or work together would have been highly unusual, but they were all rejects from society, so maybe they only had each other. 

The text says they stood afar off because they had leprosy and wouldn’t have been welcomed by the crowd. Perhaps they didn't want to contaminate others.

Anyway, verse 13 says, " and called out in a loud voice." No doubt, they had heard about Jesus's healing ministry and knew he was coming to town, so they made sure to be in his presence, at least from a distance. In unison, they cried out, saying, "Jesus, have mercy on us." 

Luke records that when Jesus saw them, he said to them, "Go, show yourselves to the priest." Notice he didn't touch them as he had done in other cases; he didn't heal them on the spot. 

Instead, he gave them this rather interesting command. "Go, show yourselves to the priest." Why? 

Well, between the time he spoke this command and the time they reached Jerusalem to meet the priest, they would have been healed, based on what he told them.

You see they had to accept this by faith and then obey the command.

But why send them to Jerusalem? Why send them to the priest? 

The answer is that it was the responsibility of the priest to certify a genuine cure had taken place. This certification was their ticket, so to speak, for re-entry into society. 

So, it was crucial for them to go to the priest and demonstrate they had been healed of leprosy.

Now, the focus is on these ten on their way to Jerusalem. But then Verse 15 says, " One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice..." 

As I suggested earlier, they weren't healed in the presence of Jesus. He just said, "Go." And as they left his presence and were on their way to the priest, one of them happened to notice he had been healed. Then it says he returned and, with a loud voice, glorified God.

The use of the term, ‘loud voice’, indicates that he did this publicly. You can only imagine the joy of being healed from such a dreadful disease as leprosy. 

He comes back and glorifies God, praising God at the top of his lungs because he has been healed. Then verse 16 says he falls on his face at Jesus' feet and gave him thanks.

Remember he was a Samaritan, which would have surprised the Jewish audience. Luke emphasizes this point by adding, that fact to the narrative.

Now, we've looked at these ten lepers, and we've seen this one out of the ten come back. Ten were unclean, and ten were healed. 

One came back and glorified God and thanked Jesus Christ for what he had done for him.

That is the rare kind of gratitude, the kind we all need, but so often it's missing in our lives—to simply say thanks from a grateful heart. So, few people really do that.

I say, it’s still rare today, it’s unusual for somebody to come back and say thank you. 

Alright, we've seen the ten unclean men, and the one unusual man. Now, Jesus picks up the story and wants to talk about the other nine ungrateful men. 

17: Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?”

(Luke 17: 17-18)

 Again, Luke made an issue out of the fact that he was a Samaritan, and Jesus does the same thing. He was the foreigner, as far as the Jews were concerned; he was the Samaritan. 

So, Jesus is simply asking, "Where are the other nine?" Highlighting the point that most are not grateful.

He says, "Where are the nine that were healed? The other man, why didn't they come back and give glory to God?" 

So here, the most unlikely person, the foreigner, the Samaritan, did it, and the others didn't. 

So, the Samaritan, the foreigner, did two things: he glorified God, and he thanked Jesus.

Verse 18 says that he wanted them to simply glorify God.

The story ends when he says, "Go your way; your faith has made you well." (v19)

As I suggested earlier, it took faith for this fellow, and for that matter, the others, to go to the priest in the first place. 

Remember back in verse 14, Jesus said, "Go, show yourselves to the priest." And the very fact that they were on their way to do that indicates that all ten had some degree of faith

I would remind you that, “salvation is by faith”. The Bible says, “We are we saved through faith and that not of ourselves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast”.

You see, we not only are saved by faith, but after that, the Lord wants us to live by faith. 

The Bible says in Galatians chapter two.

"I have been crucified with Christ; nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

(Galatians 2: 20)

So, you see, we need to trust Christ to save us, and then we need to live our lives by trusting him to give us the strength to do all the commands that he gives us.

Well, that's the end of the story. It's very short, very to the point. 

The simple point is, of all the people God blessed, the vast majority are not grateful; only a few are. 

Now, that's the story, but I want us to talk about the point of the story for a bit. And I'd like to make a couple of just very simple observations.

The first is this: gratitude is one of the most important virtues that a believer in Jesus Christ can have. 

Let me say that again: gratitude is rare, but it is one of the most important virtues that we can possibly have. 

I say that because of several passages of Scripture where God underscores and highlights just how important it is. For example, turn with me in your Bibles to Romans chapter one.

I'm going to begin reading at verse 18: 

“What may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse."

(Romans 1: 19b-20)

Now, what Paul is teaching in this passage is that people are sinful, and God has given a witness of himself in creation. But they don't get it; they don't see the Creator behind the creation. 

Yet, God says they are without excuse. Then he explains that because, although they knew God was manifest towards them they did not glorify him as God, neither were they thankful.

Wow. This is talking talking about the fact that people, unsaved people, choose not to recognize God, although he is there, all around them.

 Paul says, "And neither were they thankful." As if that is really the critical issue: they didn't acknowledge God; they weren't thankful for the fact that he created the world and, for that matter, created them. 

And neither are they thankful.

Cicero, an ancient author, said, "A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue but the parent of all virtues." 

Maybe the other side of the heart coin is the fact that an unthankful heart becomes the fertile soil of all kinds of sins to grow.

Maybe that's why gratitude is considered important by God because if you don't have it, then perhaps other sins can sneak in when it is missing. 

At any rate, and I think that passage in Romans 1 highlights the fact that this is an important virtue. Even unbelievers ought to have this.

But let me show you a second passage that I think highlights just how important gratitude is. Turn with me to Colossians chapter 3. Now, if we were to take the time, we could look at the fact that Colossians just makes one statement after another about all the blessings that we have in Christ. 

After going over a number of those blessings that we have in Christ—being united to Christ, buried with him in baptism, raised with him to walk a new kind of life—in chapter 3 of Colossians, Paul gives us some things we ought to do because of what God has done for us. 

The things we ought to put off and the things we ought to put on. Then he says this in verse 14: 

"But above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body. And be thankful."

Notice, he seems to rank things that we are to put on, the climax of which, above everything, is love. And then, after he talks about love, he says, "And then he wants to talk about the peace of God." And after those great virtues, he says, "And be thankful." 

In verse 16, he said,

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

Again, Paul reaches the epitome of all the virtues we should have love and peace, the word of God dwelling in our hearts. And he says, "And be thankful. Be thankful in everything that you do." 

I suggest that this passage underscores and highlights the fact that believers should be grateful. It's one of the most important virtues we can possess. And yet, unfortunately, it's rare.

We who are the objects of God's grace ought to make him the object of our gratitude. 

So, the first point I want to make is that gratitude is one of the most important virtues. 

The second point I'd like to suggest is that gratitude is a matter of the heart. We're taught to say thank you; our mothers taught us that.

But that's not all there is to being thankful.

You can be thankful like that and still harbour in your heart all kinds of criticism and fault finding.

Isn't the implied contrast between the simple heart that pulses with a deep feeling of gratitude and one that is overcome with Pharisaic pride and ingratitude?

Ingratitude is a form of selfishness. Maybe these men with leprosy were so absorbed with their new happiness that they could not spare the thought of its source. 

They enjoyed the gift and forgot the giver. 

You see, ingratitude is a part of the hearts attitude to life. Somebody once said, "It is not what you have in your pocket that makes you thankful; it's what you have in your heart."

That's the way we should look at life. 

That this is an incredibly important attribute, and it is an attitude of the hearts. If you're not thankful, if you're not grateful, if you're ungrateful, the issue is of the heart, not the tongue. 

It's a matter of the heart. It's a way of looking at life. That's the point. It's a way of just looking at life.

Gratitude is a way that you look at and have in life. We should appreciate everything we have especially our friends and family and all the things that God has blessed us with and not worry about the things that we don't have.

And this therefore is just a Godly way of looking at life.