I wonder what the man's name was, the one in ten who came back.  He was a nameless leper, bearing the most dreaded disease of his day.  Leprosy was a living death.  It meant certain physical death as your body decayed.  It also meant social death as you were cut off from the rest of the community and forced to live in isolation.  It meant economic death, for who would accept work from the hand of leper?  You're forced to leave home and family, to go away from your friends and neighborhood.  It was death of your dignity as you huddled together with others of your own kind, forgetting your prejudices and watching others like yourself live and die in misery and loneliness.  And for most it also meant spiritual death as you gave up hope, not just hope of being healed, but especially any hope that God cared about you in the least.

          Put yourself in his shoes a moment.  One day you hear of Jesus of Nazareth.  Perhaps you heard He raised a dead child or healed a sick woman, or helped a lame man walk, or made a blind woman see.  You hear He has performed miracles and your heart tells you, "Maybe He can help me.  Maybe there's hope for me, too."  You who need help and have run out of hope, you now feel a spark of flickering faith and hope in your heart.  Just hearing what He's done makes your day a little better.  All you need is to find Him and see if He's willing to help you.

          So you get a few other lepers to go with you.  Alone the other people would stone you in a second, but in a group they'll run in terror.  So together you go looking, and you finally find Him and you all cry out, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!"  And incredibly He stops to talk with you.  And with words -- just a few mere words -- He heals you all.  What a miracle!  Your body is free from a living death.  What a life-changer!  What an astounding thing that has happened!  What will you do first?

          All ten of you are cured!  You're jubilant - suddenly you're jumping and running and dancing.  And healthy people nearby cringe in disbelief because they recognize what you were.  Ten are cleansed, and while nine go their way, you only stop and go back to say thanks, the one in ten who returns.  And Jesus asks you, "Where not ten cleansed?  Where are the other nine?"  And you can't think what to say, only "Thanks."

          Some of you are probably thinking this is a grisly thing to talk about.  It's not often - fortunately it's very rare - that we hear about leprosy on Thanksgiving Day.  I'm sure it's not our topic of choice given that soon we'll sit down at our tables of plenty and feast with our loved ones.  Right now Thanksgiving is on our minds, and by tomorrow morning it will probably be on our hips.  Talk of leprosy is a difficult topic for Thanksgiving Day.

          It may be equally difficult to put ourselves in the shoes of one those lepers.  Few of us know the terrible stigma of such a disease, the horror and loneliness of hearing we have the most dreaded of diseases -- few except those who are told they have AIDS or ALS or liver cancer or alzheimer's.  But even those diseases today wouldn't have the impact of hearing you had leprosy back then.  Today we have hope, but then there was none.

          I hope you and I don't have to imagine very hard to see the parallel between the hopelessness of leprosy and the hopelessness of Sin.  The Bible says Sin is spiritual death because it separates us from God.  Sin is also physical death because God tells us "The wages of sin is death." (Romans 6:23)   And sin is social death because it separates us from each other.  Thus, by Sin we all are doomed and hopeless, and we all need cleansing by Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God.

          An important fact here is not so much that the lepers came to Jesus but that He decided to come to them.  They did not have to cross oceans or rivers or borders to find Jesus.  They just crossed the road, but He came to their town.  Like the Good Shepherd, He came seeking and saving the lost, and these guys were really lost - at least until He found them.

          You and I are also lost unless Jesus comes to find us, and touch us and heal us from our personal leprosy.  And we don't have to cross oceans or rivers or borders to find Him, not even across the road.  He's right here with us, beside us, as close as a breath and a prayer, yet as far away as prideful stubbornness keeps us.  He wants us to reach out to Him now, today, to receive His touch of cleansing and blessing.  He said, "Whoever comes to me I will not cast out." (John 6:37)   Whoever comes to Him in faith will always find His loving hand ready to heal.

          "Where not ten cleansed?  Where are the other nine?"  There's a lot of sadness in those words!  He had just given ten men back their life and nine didn't even take the time to come back and say thanks!  Only one in ten did....

          An attitude of gratitude is not a natural thing.  It doesn't come automatically with baptism, and it surely doesn't come with Sunday School or Confirmation or even our adult years.  Thankfulness must be taught.  Gratitude doesn't happen by accident.  We parents need to be constant in teaching our children to be thankful.  Why do you kids think Mom is always trying to get you to say the magic words:  "Please and thank you!"  And you teens -- why do you think Mom is always asking if you've written that thank you note to Grandma or Aunt Mary or Uncle George?  We must all be taught thankfulness, every day, by word and by example.  There is a great necessity in expressing a simple word of "thanks" to others when they deserve it.

          And I do hope, Mom and Dad, that you are doing that.  The best teacher we have is our example, but the second best is our encouragement.  I don't care if we use telephone, E-mail or voice messaging.  If we don't, from time to time, use them to tell someone "thank you", they're all a waste of effort.  Even with such electronic gadgets, a handwritten note still seems the best way.  Some of you write me a card of thanks during the year.  Those have meant a lot and I often keep them on my desk for months.  Are we the one in ten, or one of the nine?

          "Where not ten cleansed?  Where are the other nine?"  It almost sounds as if Jesus is asking for a show of hands here this morning as he asks us:  "Did I not die for all of you?  Have I not cleansed each of you?  Have I not loved you all as a Father loves His children?  So where are the other nine?"

          I still wonder what the man's name was, the one in ten who came back.  He met Jesus a nameless leper, and walked away a whole and complete man, but still nameless.  He probably went back to family and home, to job and new life and some years later died of a heart attack.  But for those few short moments, he was the thankful Samaritan, no longer a leper, but one who would be remembered through the ages, even without giving us his name.

          To the billions who have read of this miracle in the Bible, he is the thankful one, the one in ten who is our example, our inspiration us to be thankful, on this National Day of Thanksgiving and every day, because Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, has healed us of the dreaded killer disease called Sin.  So go ahead and thank Him -- don't be bashful.  Go ahead and jump and run and laugh at being healed.  But first take time to come back and fall at His feet and give Him thanks.

          We've taken a few moments today to do that, to give thanks for what the Lord has done for us.  But don't be bashful about it!  "Give thanks with a grateful heart, give thanks to the Holy One, give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ your lord."  Be that one in ten who came back.  Amen

Copyright © 2002 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.