Luke 17:11-19
Preached by Barry Unwin @ Hanley Swan 9/10/16
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 met him. They stood at a distance 13and 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 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”
About 200 years after St Luke wrote those words a Roman lawyer named Cyprian, who lived in Carthage – modern day Tunisia – announced to the world that he’d converted to Christianity. Remarkably we still have the letter he wrote to his friend Donatus,Here’s what he says:
It is a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world. But I have discovered in the midst of it a company of quiet and holy people who have learned a great secret. They have found a joy which is a thousand times better than any of the pleasures of our sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not: they are masters of their souls. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are the Christians, —and I am one of them
Did you hear what he said about Christians there?
We have found a joy a thousand times better than any of the pleasures of our sinful life.
I want to talk a bit about joy and gratitude today, because let’s face it, We’re British, And we aren’t very good at joy are we?
If that leper in our reading, Who came back to Jesus to say thank-you, Had been British, Do you think he’d have come back
praising God in a loud voice
or
Throwing himself at Jesus’ feet thanking him
I mean we Brits tend not to behave like that, do we?
Not like the Americans. They know how to do joy and exuberance don’t they? Or the Africans.
No if our leper had been British, well, He might well have come back to Jesus, But instead of praising God in a loud voice, He might have mumbled a quiet thank-you, Don’t want to disturb the neighbours!
And that’s a shame because often with all this reserve, We’re missing out on something. We’re missing out on a joy 1000 times better than any of the pleasures of our sinful life.
So let’s take a closer look at our bible passage, You might want to read the story off the sheet you’ve got
In this part of Luke’s gospel, Jesus is slowly winding his way towards Jerusalem. For the final time. And he takes a little detour along the border between Galilee and Samaria. It’s one of those regions where oddballs and outcasts hang out. And lepers. In Jesus day, when you got leprosy – you were shunned, driven out of town. Nobody wants to be around you. That’s why v12 the 10 lepers – stand at a distance from Jesus. They’re used to being abused and threatened if they get near anyone. They’ve got an incurable disease, and everyone hates them for it.
Now by this time in his ministry, Jesus had healed a lot of lepers so maybe word had got round – and so the lepers shout to him,
Jesus, Master, have pity on us!
And Jesus heals them.
Imagine what that must have been like. You’ve got a fatal disease, so not only are you gonna’ die, but in the meantime, you’ve lost your home, your wife, your kids, your business, your friends, your parents, your village, your social status, all gone because of the disease. It’s almost a fate worse than death. You lose everything but are still alive to know it.
And then in the middle of all that, Jesus heals you. And suddenly you’re not only healthy, but you’re going home. Imagine how they must have felt! Joyful. And yet it isn’t quite as straight-forward as that.
Let’s pick up the story in v15,
One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him–and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God?
So Jesus heals ten lepers, and nine disappear, and one comes back to say thank-you . And he’s not even Jewish!
You know, people sometimes say
If only Jesus came to meet me today and showed me a miracle, then I’d believe.
Well in Jesus day – there were 10 lepers who experienced a miracle first hand. Jesus came and met them and healed them miraculously and nine of them walk away without believing. Only one says thank-you. And he’s the reason Luke tells us this story.
You see he understood something that the other lepers didn’t – he understood just how lost he was without Jesus – and when Jesus rescued him – he just wells up in joy and thankfulness.
You know we Christians, we’ve got an incredible story of salvation and thankfulness to tell about Jesus Christ. Like the leper – we were once outcasts – cut off from God. Destined for destruction. Lost and hopeless. But then through his death on the cross, Jesus cleanses us. And he brings us home to the Father. It’s an incredible gift. And the challenge of this leper is, How do we feel about what God has done for us? Are we Jaded, or joyful? When it comes to what God has done for us, are we more like the nine lepers- or the one?
There’s an old American evangelist called Billy Sunday, He was known for being a preacher you didn’t need a dictionary to understand and here’s what he had to say about joy:
If you have no joy, there’s a leak in your Christianity somewhere.
So I wonder if we’ve got a leak?
Before I go any further – let me say – there are some legitimate reasons Christians might not be joyful. If you’re suffering from an illness like depression, or if you’ve just suffered a bereavement – of course joy is going to seem distant. Remember – Jesus wept at the grave of his friend Lazarus.
But if that’s not the case – where is your joy? Have you got a leak?
Now its possible some of you’re here today, wouldn’t already call yourself Christian – Maybe your just exploring or agnostic. If that’s you, you can’t plug the leak until you choose to trust in Jesus as your Saviour. That’s where the joy starts. I’d be delighted to talk more with you about that later.
Or maybe you would already call yourself a Christian – But your joy and thankfulness isn’t what it could be – You have a joy leak.
So what’s to be done? What can you do to rekindle the joy? Well there’s two things you can do. I want to encourage you to START SOMETHING and STOP SOMETHING. Okay? Start and Stop!
What do I want you to START?
I want you to start consciously thinking about the good things in your life. Start with your own salvation story. Think about your lostness and how Jesus rescued you. Think about how it felt at the time – perhaps how sadness and shame was replaced by joy. Then think about the love Jesus showed you on the cross, and the promises he has made to us and how that’s all guaranteed by his death and resurrection.
Then, take some time to count your blessings, The good things in your life: a home, job, children, grandchildren, And take time to thank-God for all of the good things. We have so much more than we give God credit for. That’s what you need to start.
Now here’s what you need to stop.
Stop letting things kill your joy.
Here are the two biggest joy killers I find among Christians. Let’s see if you suffer from them.
First of all – people. People are one of the great joy killers. I’ve had that this week Three people who have discouraged me. Sapped my joy. I’ll not name names. But people do that to you don’t they? They get at you, criticise, niggle, put you down, make you feel inadequate They make you feel like those lepers – outcasts.
Well if that’s you – And you find people killing your joy, it’s probably because you worry too much about what people think of you.
Justin WElby the Archbishop of Canterbury has been in town this weekend. Do you remember earlier this year it was revealed that his dad wasn’t who he thought he was? The thing I remember about that is Welby’s response. He said,
There is no existential crisis, and no resentment against anyone. My identity is founded in who I am in Christ
Who you are is not what people think of you. Who you are is all to do with Jesus. The one who walked up to those lepers and outcasts, and embraced them. He loves and values you – even when no one else does.
Don’t let people kill your joy.
The second joy-killer is Religion. And when I say religion – I mean the idea that there are things we can do – rules – rituals etc that can make God love us more than he already does. Nothing will kill your joy faster than that.
Because God doesn’t work that way.
Love that you have to earn is not love at all.
Think back to those lepers. Did they do anything to make themselves acceptable to Jesus? Did they earn their healings? No. There’s nothing they could do. And there’s nothing we can do. No ritual or rules or good works or anything to earn God’s love
The Bible tells us time and again that God loves us, and that he gives us his love as a gift. It’s what the Bible calls GRACE. We can’t earn that. But we can choose to enjoy it. Which is where the joy comes from.
So look if you’re trying to earn God’s love by rules and ritual and religion, let me encourage you to stop, and just accept that he loves you, and if you want proof of that, look at the lepers. In fact, Picture yourself as one of them, with nothing to offer God. But he loves you and wants to know you anyway. And once you understand that that is true about you, it will stop your joy leaking.
The greatest joy any of us can know in life, is the joy of knowing God, our maker, through his Son Jesus Christ. It is a thousand times better than any of the pleasures of our sinful life.
Let’s pray.