Monday, November 22

Luke 17:11-19
Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

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

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 except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go, your faith has made you well.”


“What do you say?” a mother says to her five year old son after passing him the ketchup. “Thank you,” the little boy says sheepishly, knowing that it’s the third time his mom has had to remind him to say “thank you” during supper.

How many times did a scene like that take place at your house when you were growing up? Our moms taught us, and we teach our children, to say “thank you” because it is the polite thing to do. But the story Luke tells us here teaches us that saying “thank you” is much more than good manners.

This week we will observe the cultural holiday that we call “Thanksgiving.” I have long believed that Thanksgiving is the most uncorrupted of all our holidays because it just seems to be difficult to commercialize the giving of thanks. The marketers simply seem to skip over Thanksgiving and move right on to the economic frenzy of Christmas – as evidenced by the popularity of shopping on “Black Friday.” Most of us will sit around tables heaped with our favorite foods and will be at least somewhat conscious of our many blessings – and that’s good.

But I wonder if we will be thankful in the true sense of the word. The truth is that most of us have come to simply assume the blessings we enjoy right down to the pumpkin pie. We simply take all we have for granted because, well, we have always had it. The danger, of course, is that we eventually think of ourselves as entitled to what we have instead of recipients of God’s goodness and grace.

As we think this week about this short story from Luke’s Gospel we will find ourselves asking several important questions. What did it mean to be a “leper” in Jesus’ day? What would it have meant to be made “clean?” Why did only 1 of the 10 men who were healed return to give thanks to the one who had healed him?

But for now – the one question I want each of us to carry into this week of Thanksgiving is; “Am I one of the nine – or am I the one?”

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” Colossians 2:6-7

Brian Coffey