October 10, 2010 Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7 Luke 17:11-19

“Those Ungrateful Lepers!”

Dr. Ted H. Sandberg

We begin this morning with a story about our sermon text by Martin Bell from his book The Way of
the Wolf.1 “How about a word or two on behalf of the nine lepers who did not return to give thanks?
The gospel reads something like this: there were ten lepers cleansed and one of them – just one of
them – when he saw that he was healed, turned back and in a loud voice glorified God and fell down
on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks.
And Jesus answering said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?” Ten lepers were
cleansed and one of them returned to give thanks. That must be a nice thing to be able to do.
What about the others? It’s simple, really. One of them was frightened – that’s all. He didn’t
understand what had happened, and it frightened him. So he looked for some place to hide. Jesus
scared him.
A second was offended because he hadn’t been required to do something difficult before he could be
healed. It was all too easy. He’d expected months, maybe years, of fasting and prayer and washing
and righteous living to be the requirement. But he’d done none of this. He hadn’t earned his reward.
His motto was “you get what you pay for.” And so Jesus offended him.
The third had realized too late that he hadn’t really wanted to be cleansed. That he didn’t know what
to do or how to live or even who he was without his leprosy. Although it had been his fervent plea to
be healed, he now began to see how much he had needed his leprosy and consequently how necessary
it had been in defining him as a person. Jesus had taken away his identity.
It is difficult to explain the reason why the fourth leper didn’t return to give thanks. Perhaps because
it’s such a simple reason – and perhaps because we very nearly tread on holy ground even to talk
about it. In a word, the fourth leper didn’t return because in his delirium of joy, he forgot. He forgot.
That’s all. He was so happy that he forgot.
The fifth leper was unable to say thank you any more to anybody. There’s something that happens to
a man who must beg and who’s shunned by his fellows, and who’s grudgingly thrown a few coins and
who’s always – in the midst of such an existence and in the face of such treatment (perhaps even
because of such treatment, for instance, the few coins) – expected to say thank you. He just doesn’t
say thank you any more to anybody – not even to Jesus.
The sixth leper was a woman – a mother who’d been separated from her family for eleven years
because of the leprosy. She was now free to rejoin her husband and children. She didn’t return to
give thanks because she was hurrying home. Like a wild animal released from captivity, she’d been
freed by Jesus. And like the animal, she simply went straight home.
The seventh just didn’t believe that Jesus had anything to do with the cleansing. He knew that healing
had taken place, but why and how were the questions. Certainly he didn’t believe in hocus pocus,
magic, miracles – any of that. There was a perfectly intelligible explanation of what had happened,
but it didn’t have anything to do with Jesus. He didn’t return to give thanks because Jesus had had
nothing to do with the healing event.
1 1. Bell, Martin, The Way of the Wolf, Ballantine Books, New York, 1968, pp. 39-
44.
1
The eighth leper didn’t return precisely because he did believe that Jesus had healed him – that the
Kingdom of God was here and the Messiah had arrived. To return to give thanks when the Kingdom
of God was so close at hand – unheard of! And so he ran to publish the news.
What shall I say about the ninth leper? What was his experience? Why didn’t he return? I don’t
know the answer to either of these questions. All I know is that he showed himself to the priest and
immediately was cleansed. He then stood still for a moment and smiled. The priest reports that the
ninth leper gave two utterances. First he said, “So!” And then, “Ah, yes!” Without another word he
walked away. His eyes blazed fire but his shoulders sagged as if under a great burden. The air around
him was silent. Then without warning he turned his head suddenly and fixed his eyes upon a rock by
the side of the road. “Hah!” he screamed. And you can make of this what you will, but the priest says
that the rock actually jumped a foot off the ground. The ninth leper then said, “So!” and “Ah, yes!”
and disappeared from sight. It’s impossible to say precisely why he didn’t return to give thanks.”
Martin Bell suggests very plausible reasons why the 9 lepers may not have returned to give thanks to
Jesus, reasons we can relate to very easily. Of course, it’s possible that Bell isn’t even close when he
gives these reasons. There could be hundreds of similar, somewhat legitimate excuses for why the 9
lepers didn’t return, and maybe even more illegitimate excuses. Maybe the 9 were just too selfish to
thank Jesus. Maybe they forgot. It could be that they’d never been taught gratitude, and didn’t know
enough to say “Thanks” to Jesus or anyone else. It’s hard to imagine though, even the most hardened
individual not being thankful they were healed. I’d think that even the worst criminal would say
“thank you” to a doctor that had saved his or her life.
Why didn’t the other 9 return then? Some have suggested that they didn’t return to give thanks to
Jesus, because they were doing what Jesus told them to do – going to the priests to have the priests
certify that they’d been healed as required by Jewish law. Many are puzzled why Jesus wants to know
were they are in the first place, because he’s just sent them off to the priests. “Why,” they ask,
“should Jesus question the 9 when he was the one who gave them their directions?” “Surely,” one of
the 9 lepers could’ve said, “we didn’t come back because we had to be certified by the priests that we
were healed. Remember, we didn’t know we’d been healed until we were half way to the Temple. I
thought we showed a lot of faith heading off for the priests when we still looked leprous! We took
Jesus at his word that we’d be healed by the time we got to the Temple.
“We didn’t know where that Samaritan went. We all thought maybe the Samaritan law against lepers
wasn’t as strong as the Jewish law – that his law didn’t require him to show himself to some religious
authority. We were all very thankful, though. We went back to find Jesus after we’d been to see the
priests, but he’d already gone. We were all thankful. We just had to take care of business first.”
Perhaps this is the reason Luke includes this teaching of the 10 lepers in his gospel. It’s too simple to
say this story or passage is only about giving thanks. We know we’re to give thanks. Any of us
who’d been healed of the cancer of Jesus’ day, which leprosy was, would’ve been overjoyed if we’d
been healed, no matter how hard-hearted we were. As I’ve already suggested, all of us would say
“thank you,” at the very least, if we’d been healed. So too the lepers would’ve eventually wanted to
give thanks. The death sentence of leprosy was removed from them. They were dead, but now they
were alive. Naturally, they’d rejoice and give thanks, wouldn’t they?
Luke tells us that no, they didn’t give thanks, at least not immediately. Instead they took care of
business. They obeyed the command of Jesus to go to the priests to have their healing confirmed, but
in carrying out their duty, they failed to praise Jesus Christ.

2
Can we be guilty of doing the same thing? Perhaps. I see two dangers here. First, we who’ve been
saved from the death sentence we deserve by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ can take that
miracle for granted and slowly, over the years, we can begin to take our new life in Jesus Christ for
granted. We can forget to praise God each and every Sunday, each and every day, each and every
hour for forgiving our sins, for giving us peace and hope, for giving us the assurance of eternal life.
We can take our salvation for granted and fail to give thanks that we, just like the lepers, have had our
own death sentences removed from us. That’s a very real danger for all of us. We can easily be like
the 9 lepers.
But there’s another danger, perhaps an even more subtle danger, although it’s a danger that goes hand
in hand with the first danger. The second is this: we can get so wrapped up in “taking care of
business,” even God’s business, that we don’t praise God, we don’t give thanks to God. Jesus told the
lepers to go to the priests and the 9 went to the priests. Only the Samaritan, the minority leper, only
the 1 went beyond duty and “when [he] saw that he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud
voice. He threw himself to the ground at Jesus’ feet and thanked him.” Maybe we, too, are like those
other 9 lepers. We take care of business. We do our duty. We’re so busy doing even the work that
Jesus tells us to do, that we don’t really “praise God” with all our hearts. The spontaneous joy that
comes from God may be missing from our lives.
We may, for example, give our money, but we may not do it with grateful hearts, mindful that our
cups overflow with blessings from God. We can help the poor or homeless, but do it to avoid feeling
guilty, rather than because we care for those in need. We may come to worship God in church on
Sunday, but perhaps we come because we feel a duty to come, rather than coming filled with the joy
of knowing that today we can lift our voices in thanksgiving to the God of all creation, to the Christ
who gave his life that we might have eternal life. We’re here, but are we joyful, thankful, filled with
thanksgiving?
Like the 9 lepers, we’re on our way to see the priests. We’re doing what Jesus tells us to do, at least
we’re trying. But are we giving thanks? Are we falling down before God and praising what God has
done for us, even given us life and life more abundantly? Are we so thankful that Jesus died for us
that we tell our friends and neighbors and even the strangers we meet on the street? Are we so
thankful that Jesus has saved us from eternal death that we can’t help but shout “Amen,” even if we do
so quietly in our hearts? Are we so excited about Jesus Christ that our excitement bubbles out and
overflows in all we say and do, just like the Samaritan who fell down in thanksgiving to Jesus? Or has
this miracle of healing become routine for us, just another day at the office or another evening in front
of the TV?
When we’re born into the life of Christ, we’re given new life just as surely as if we’d been healed
from leprosy or cancer. Doesn’t that make us want to shout for joy? Don’t we want to tell the world?
After all, our sins have been forgiven. Whatever we’ve done in the past, whatever we’ve done in the
past, God forgives us for that when we confess our sin before Jesus Christ and ask for help in our
lives, and ask for forgiveness.
If you haven’t experienced the forgiveness of Jesus in your life, today is the time to do so. Today is
the time to cry out, “Jesus! Master! Have pity on us!” And Jesus will heal you just as he healed those
lepers.
And if you’ve been lost on the way to the priest, if you’ve been doing your duty as a Christian but
aren’t giving thanks to God, aren’t rejoicing in the name of Jesus Christ, aren’t filled with enthusiasm

3
for God and reveling in all that God has done for us, then today is the day to put duty on hold while
you too fall on your knees before the Lord. Today is the day to pray that you and I will be renewed,
you and I will be filled with joy, you and I will be able to simply say, “Thank you, Jesus,” you have
saved my life.