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. [New International Translation] [The King James translation of Luke 17:19 states “…thy faith hath made thee whole.]
GIVE THANKS
On November 22, 2018, people across the nation will be celebrating “Thanksgiving,” a day that President Abraham Lincoln declared a national holiday by proclamation in 1863. Prior to Lincoln’s proclamation, each colony or state scheduled and celebrated its own individual day of Thanksgiving. In an attempt to bring a nation together that was torn by the civil war, Lincoln declared the fourth Thursday in November a national day of Thanksgiving.
In Luke 17:11-19, we are given a lesson in “Giving Thanks.” According to Luke by giving thanks to GOD and praising HIM, we enter into right relationship with GOD and are blessed even more. The nine lepers were just physically healed. But, the Samaritan was made whole. Only the Samaritan “threw himself” totally in grateful submission and in total praise to GOD. And, in “giving thanks,” only the Samaritan was spiritually in right relationship with GOD, a relationship of sincere gratitude.
There were ten lepers the day that JESUS entered the lives of the village lepers. There are many who have been quick to label the other nine lepers the “ungrateful nine” for their failure to simply return and say “Thank you.” However, even if the other nine lepers had returned and given JESUS the courteous gesture of a “Thank you,” the Samaritan would have still stood out among the ten and would still have received the extra blessing of “wholeness” because “saying thanks” and “giving thanks” are not the same thing.
“Saying thanks” is what most parents teach their children to say when someone has been nice to them or after a child receives a gift, even if the gift is unwanted. Many a child has said a lukewarm holiday, obligatory “Thank you” to a distant aunt or uncle for a pair of socks or some other “uninteresting gift” at the prompting of a parent. Many people, similar to the recital of small children, also say “Thank you,” quickly forgetting about the gift and the giver, often distracted or looking for the next gift. They don’t “Give Thanks,” they just say “Thank You.”
However, the Samaritan did more than say “Thank You.” The Samaritan praised GOD. The Samaritan acknowledged GOD’s superiority over his life and submitted himself to GOD. In his moment of physical and spiritual healing and reconnection to GOD, the Samaritan experienced the GOODNESS, THE GREATNESS and MERCY of GOD as he prostrated himself and gave thanks.
The Samaritan’s praise was real and the Samaritan’s praise was pure. And because the Samaritan decided to “Give a Worshipping Thanks,” only the Samaritan was made whole.
THANKING A HEALING GOD FOR NATIONAL WHOLENESS
The F.B.I. recently reported that for the third consecutive year, there has been an increase in hate crimes reports in the United States. Hate crimes increased 17% from 2016. In 2017 F.B.I data reported that there were more than 6,100 reported incidents of hate crimes in 2016, up from more than 5,800 the year before. According to the data, the largest share of the victims---nearly 6 in 10 were targeted because of bias against the victim’s race or ethnicity. See, “Hate crimes in the United States increased last year, the FBI says” by Mark Berman, November 13, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/11/13/hate-crimes-in-the-united-states-increased-last-year-the-fbi-says/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.423cf80921d1.
In 2018, the FBI data showed that out of 7,100 hate crimes reported last year, nearly one out of five was motivated by race or ethnicity. Religion and sexuality were other motivators for hate crime incidents according to the report. The report noted that despite their increase, hate crimes are vastly underreported. See, “Hate Crimes Increase For Third Consecutive Year, F.B.I. Reports,” by John Eligon, November 13, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/13/us/hate-crimes-fbi-2017.html.
We remain a nation divided. We remain a nation in need of healing.
Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation that the nation come together on a day of Thanksgiving was to heal the nation so that individuals would turn to “our beneficent” GOD and give thanks. Lincoln recommended that the nation go to GOD “with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience.” Lincoln’s proclamation recommends we, as a nation:
[C]ommend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.
Lincoln’s proclamation was that Thanksgiving be a day for national reflection and spiritual healing and that as a nation, like the Samaritan; we give GOD humble thanks, worship HIM so we too can be made whole as a nation.
PRAY FOR THE NATION
Each of us is a “Samaritan” to someone else. As a divided nation, people see others as “outsiders,” “different” or “not my kind of people.” As a nation, we need GOD’s transformative healing to truly be ONE NATION UNDER GOD.
On Thursday, November 22, 2018, a national day of Thanksgiving to a HEALING, ALMIGHTY GOD, please remember to pray for our nation. Let’s remember to give GOD thanks for GOD’s ability to heal the wounds that divide us from each other and from HIM.
Let’s pray GOD remove the hate from hearts and minds and make us one.
GIVE THANKS, be whole and BE BLESSED.
