Frustration and Faith

Luke 17:11-19 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled 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 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 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."

“Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?” Do you hear the frustration in Jesus’ voice? Even the Great Teacher experiences what all teachers experience: some students will do their duty while others will not. Some students listen attentively, take notes and hand in their homework on time. Then there are the other students who daydream, waste time and are often spending afternoons in Academic Recovery making up for late homework.

The Rabbi encounters what most teachers encounter. Jesus pours Himself into these ten pupils whom He encounters on the road to Jerusalem. But they take His gift for granted. They receive what they wanted from Him and then they go off and do their own thing.

Whether you are a teacher pouring yourself into your classroom, or a parent doing your best to provide for your children, or Christian trying to set aside extra money and groceries to help out the less fortunate, be prepared to earn ingratitude for all your faithfulness and service. People are too preoccupied with themselves to be grateful. They expect handouts. They count on your assistance. They assume that as a Christian you are expected to give, therefore they don’t have to be thankful for doing what you are supposed to be doing.

Anticipate this ingratitude in others … because Jesus, sadly, anticipates this ingratitude from us.

We are often too preoccupied with ourselves to be grateful. We expect God to give us handouts. We complain when our health falters or become bitter when we endure hard times. And when things are going well, we are too busy to appreciate that all these good gifts come from God in heaven above.

We see ourselves in the story of the ten lepers. We are sinners. We are lepers. We beg only for mercy. We plead for healing. We are worthy of nothing.

Because of their incurable, debilitating disease, the lepers could not approach anyone or come within a few feet of them. Because of our incurable, debilitating disease of sin and death that is in our bodies, we are not worthy to approach our holy God.

But thankfully there was One who could approach these lepers. God made flesh had walked into their little village. He called out to them. He told them to go show themselves to the priests, for the priests would be the ones who would declare them ceremonially clean and able to enter society once again. Thus they would be fulfilling the requirements of the ceremonial law given by God to Moses.

We don’t know how much these ten men knew about Jesus. We don’t know if they had once heard Jesus speak in person before they contracted their disease or if they only heard that this Jesus was a healer and a miracle worker. It would have been great if they could have recognized Jesus for who He was. For the One standing before them is greater than Moses. The cleansing of Christ is greater than all the cleansings in Jerusalem’s temple. His blood is greater than all the blood of the animals shed on Israel’s altars.

In the flesh of the Son of Mary, the old way was being made obsolete. The ceremonial law was being replaced and superseded as God stood upon the earth. As soon as Christ came, the true Temple where God dwelt on earth was no longer in Jerusalem … but it was now in the body of Christ.

Jesus told the ten lepers to go show themselves to the priests. He did not command them to kneel at His feet. He did not tell them to forget about the priests because the ultimate and final High Priest was in their presence. No, Christ respected them and their Jewish Old Testament laws that His heavenly Father had given them because this was how they would be able to reenter society.

Yet what should stop those lepers from returning to their Incarnate Lord after they had visited the temple? What should stop them from kneeling at the feet of the Son of God? If, in faith, they saw Jesus as more than a miracle worker, why should they delay in worshiping Him?

In faith, one of them did return to give thanks. The other nine did not.

Could you blame them? How long had they been away from their family? How long had it been since they had received a kiss from their wife or a hug from their daughter? How long had it been since they had been able to sit and joke and tell stories with their childhood friends? How long had it been since they had been allowed to worship in the temple? Now they had been granted the opportunity to return to life and acceptance in society! They were no longer outcasts! They could now talk to people face to face and not from a distance! What a wonderful thing Jesus had done for them!

And how easily this wonderful thing distracted the nine from returning to give thanks to Jesus!

Do you ever find yourself that way? Too busy to offer up a prayer of thanks? Too pre-occupied to spend a few minutes to read a Bible lesson to your children or go over your student’s confirmation homework? Too active to rest with the Lord in worship? So engrossed by all of God’s blessings of home, health and family that you forget to actually express your gratitude toward God for His many physical blessings? So absent-minded toward the spiritual blessings of forgiveness, new life and salvation in Christ that you abstain from making the effort to fall at Jesus’ feet to worship Him?

How easily all these things can distract and draw us away from the One who has cleansed us. How effortlessly we take all of God’s spiritual and physical blessings for granted that we refrain from announcing our appreciation.

But there was one leper who was so outcast that even when he was cleansed he still could not enter the temple. As a Samaritan, perhaps he had the advantage that he would not fall back upon the ceremonial law or rely on the priests. He returned to the true Source and Author of his healing. For this ex-leper, the entire law with all its requirements ended with Christ. There was nothing else for him but Christ and Christ alone.

Perhaps because we live in America with all of its resources, we don’t know what it’s like to really be an outcast and have absolutely nothing. Perhaps because we have been Christians our whole lives since our baptism, we don’t know what it’s like to really be an outcast and have absolutely no faith or forgiveness.

That’s why this Gospel lesson that we hear every Thanksgiving is so applicable. We are the outcast, the leper, the one begging for mercy. We cry out repeatedly in every worship service, in every morning or evening prayer, for Christ to hear us. And by the grace of God, our Healer has heard. For we have come to the Priest who declares us clean by the words of His mouth. He is the Rabbi who keeps teaching, even though we keep daydreaming. He is the Teacher who keeps sharing His Wisdom with us, even though we keep brushing Him off. He is the Master of all, who commands even diseases and sin and death to obey His all-powerful Word.

He uses this mighty Word for your benefit. You have once again come to the house of God where the eternal High Priest has proclaimed you clean before God. The leprosy of your sin must flee before the Lamb who shed His blood. He washes you clean in your baptismal waters. He makes you whole again through His words of absolution. He brings you into His family in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. He invites you to join with Christian friends, new and old, as you sing His praises.

He is the One who took all of your leprosy and made it His own on the cross. On Calvary’s cross, He died your death. He paid your bill. He settled your account. He reconciled you with God. He endured the serpent’s bite and crushed his head. On Golgotha’s hill he answered humanity’s plea, “Master, have pity on us!” He is our sacrificial Lamb who laid down His life for wandering sheep and straying lambs.

Remember this sacrificial Lamb this Thanksgiving. For tomorrow you will gather, no doubt, around the carcass of an animal slaughtered for your sustenance. Then recall the Lamb who was willingly slaughtered for your salvation.

We see Jesus’ frustration with those who do not return to give thanks. We see Jesus’ acceptance of those who do return to thank Him because of their faith. “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” With the faith of a healed leper, how could we ever willingly frustrate our Lord? With the faith of a healed leper, how can we not return to kneel at His feet here in His house of worship? With the faith of a healed leper, how can we not offer Jesus thanks and praise and honor and glory?

For us healed lepers, returning to give thanks is not a command, but the natural reaction of faith. Amen.

Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done. Amen. 1 Chronicles 16:8