Samaritan Leper

김정호목사 

Dr. Jung-Ho Kim, Pastor   

¹¹ 예수께서 예루살렘으로 가실 때에 사마리아와 갈릴리 사이로 지나가시다가 ¹² 한 촌에 들어가시니 문둥병자 열 명이 예수를 만나 멀리 서서 ¹³ 소리를 높여 가로되 예수 선생님이여 우리를 긍휼히 여기소서 하거늘 ¹⁴ 보시고 가라사대 가서 제사장들에게 너희 몸을 보이라 하셨더니 저희가 가다가 깨끗함을 받은지라 ¹⁵ 그 중에 하나가 자기의 나은 것을 보고 큰 소리로 하나님께 영광을 돌리며 돌아와 ¹⁶ 예수의 발아래 엎드리어 사례하니 저는 사마리아인이라 ¹⁷ 예수께서 대답하여 가라사대 열 사람이 다 깨끗함을 받지 아니하였느냐 그 아홉은 어디 있느냐 ¹⁸ 이 이방인 외에는 하나님께 영광을 돌리러 돌아온 자가 없느냐 하시고 ¹⁹ 그에게 이르시되 일어나 가라 네 믿음이 너를 구원하였느니라 하시더라. ¹¹ On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. ¹² And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance ¹³ and lifted up their voices, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." ¹⁴ When he saw them he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went they were cleansed. ¹⁵ Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; ¹⁶ and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. ¹⁷ Then Jesus answered, "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? ¹⁸ Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" ¹⁹ And he said to him, "Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well." (Lk. 17:11-19)

FCF: We are likely to forget our duty of giving thanks to God for all that He has done for us in Christ.

주제: 감사는 하나님을 영화롭게 하기에  우리는 하나님을 영광을 위하여 감사를 실천해야 한다.  

Theme: Because gratitude glorifies God, we must practice gratitude for the glory of God.

Introduction: I’ve been told that I have some seriou health issues. The doctors recommend that I should receive proper treatments and take exericise every day. Honestly speaking, I didn’t take exercise though I knew I had to for my health. But this time, I took it seriously. Since I was that recommendation, I have been doing it in the YMCA located in Cleveland St. Greenville. At least I do workout twice or three times a week. My goal is to do it four times a week. Since I started doing exericse, I have felt better. One of the best parts in my workout program is to take showers and spend time in the steam sauna room. I repeat the cycle of taking a cold shower and sweating in the sauna room. I love sweating profusely in the steam sauna. I can sit quietly and meditate on things. The room is so hot that you can begin sweat instantly. It is small. It quiet. Mist rises myteriously, veiling us with its spiritual atmosphere. I love this kind of atmosphere in which I can enjoy privacy of my mind. I often pray for you guys. There are only two or three men enjoying sauna at the same time. When I feel like enough sweating, I go and take a shower, which makes me feel renewed and cleansed. The reason I like steam sauna is that I feel as if I sweated all my impurities out of my body and showered them off.

By the time I get out of the YMCA building, I feel as if I were reborn and given opportunity to start my life again. Though it is a simple exercise, I love every bit of it. However, I often hear what some men complain about sauna. One of the things I have a hard time understanding is that some men cuss, employing the holy name of God or Christ in vain, because they say it is too hot. They blurt out cussing words to express their complaint or uncomfortable feelings as they get out of the steam room. I thought they didn’t like steam sauna. But soon they come back and sit again there in the room. Then, as they leave the room, they say bad words again for the heat they endured. Then, they come back to enjoy sauna again and again. I wonder why they complain about the heat even when they enjoy it. They may have tried to express their contentment ironically. I felt they said of their complaints unconsciously or habitually even for something they enjoyed. However, as I said, I love my exericise for which I am thankful, knowing I am getting slowly healthier. Furthermore, I love steam sauna for which I am thankful, knowing I feel as if I became a new person. I see myself forming a new habit of grateful attitude by enjoying steam sauna in the YMCA. I have realized that as complaint is a habit, so is gratitude. Also, I have realized that true gratitude is so rare today that people often forget or refuse to say, “Thank you” casually, for little things they have received. News outlets pour out all kinds of complaints into our minds everyday. We take things for granted. We are so disgruntled that we fail to thank for the gift of life that God has given each of us by grace.   

The Lord Jesus also expressed His surprise when He found only one leper came back to thank Him for divine healing. He lamented, "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? ¹⁸ Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" (v. 17). Jesus still says, “Where are people who are supposed to give thanks to God?” Are you the one stranger who came back to thank Jesus for healing? We have to see whether we are habitual complainers or thankers. This narrative is still relevant to us, asking us to examine to which group we belong, a thankful few or a ungrateful majority. As we all know, we are celebrating Thankgiving today. Today, we are reminded of our solemn duty of gratitude partly because we have failed to practice gratitude in our hectic schedules, taking God, life, family, home, friends, salvation, or all His graces for granted. We need to take a pause so that we can imbibe our hearts with waves of gratefulness. The text today teaches us about gratitude. One central truth we learn from it is that gratitude glorifies God. This is what the psalmist says: 감사로 제사를 드리는 자가 나를 영화롭게 하나니 그 행위를 옳게 하는 자에게 내가 하나님의 구원을 보이리라. The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!" (Ps. 50:23). This truth demands us to seek to practice gratitude for the glory of God. As I said earlier, true gratitude is rare today, though people offer perfunctorily a lipservice of thanksgiving. In such a culture, let’s be people of gratitude. Someone says, “In some ways, ingratitude is the worst of all sins. For it is selfishness sinning against the light of unselfishness.” let us examine what gratitude is all about. First, gratitude is…    

I. 감사는 하나님의 은혜에 대한 믿음의 반응이다.

 Gratitude is a response of faith to God's grace.

When people does us good, we normally give thanks to them for their good. In a sense, gratitude presupposes something good done to us. Likewise, biblical gratitude is a response of faith to what God has done for us in Christ. It is a natural, spontaneous response of faith to God’s manifold grace. Here in the narrative, we see this point is still applicable. Let’s examine how Christ granted them grace which they didn’t deserve. First, Jesus chose to visit these ten lepers. He took a journey to Jerusalem. It seems that Jesus encoutered these ten pitiable men by chance. But there was nothing Jesus did by chance. His travel was no accident. He deliberately chose the path to meet with these men. We remember Jesus once met with a woman whose heart was completely broken after mulitple marriages. He chose to go through Samaria. He didn’t meet with her by chance. The whole purpose He chose her way to a Samaritan town called Sychar was to meet with the woman who was regarded “an epitome of immorality” according to public consensus. Likewise, the whole purpose Jesus chose the path to a small village in the border between Samaria and Galilee was to meet with the ten lepers, not others, on purpose. He had them in mind when he walked down toward Jerusalm with His disciples. In other words, Jesus thought of these poor men beforehand and deliberately chose His path to meet with them in order to deliver them from the pain of leprosy. His whole travel plan was part of His grace for these ten lepers.

Not only so, but also Jesus had mercy on them. He saw their plights with compassion. In fact, lepers were social outcasts. These lepers had no membership in any society. Jesus went through a border town where social outcasts flocked together to live. In a way, these ten lepers belonged neither to Samaria nor to Galilee, both of which were considered second-class citizens or lowly in status, or religiously unclean. People drove them out of their communities. They stigmatized them with God’s damned ones. Even though these ten lepers didn’t do anything against them, they still refused to have fellowship with them. Also, they condemned them. They hated being around them. They believed they might be unclean through their uncleanness. The label “unclean” always followed them. They acknowledged the fact they were unclean. They should cry out, “Unclean, Unclean!” when people came near them. They should alert them by revealing them they were unclean. They lived in a sequestered, quarantined part of a village. They had no hope in life. They were separated from their beloved ones. They had no meaning or purpose in life except they simply existed without no meaningful contact with people. There were lonely. They lamented their gloomy existence. On the top of a low view of their public status, they were called "untouchable" because they were objects of God's judgment. They were not allowed to live in the midst of people. They were cast out to a desolate terrain of a border town. This implies they were religiously, socially discriminated, marginalized, and shunned. 

When no one gave them attention, Jesus gave them undivided attention. When no one incline their ears to hear them, Jesus incline His ear to hear their petition, “Have mercy on us.” He cared about both their spiritual and physical well-being. These lepers lived in their old den where they were totoally isolated from the world, including their family members. Though they longed to see their sons and daughters or their parents or their beloved spouses, they had to be isolated from them because they were too unclean to meet people’s social, religious expectations. They were living only in their memeories of their old good days with their beloved ones. They had nostalgia to go back to their homes, families, and friends. But, they knew well they wouldn’t be accepted into their communities. So, they must have suffered despair, loneliness, helplessness, and meaninglessness. They could not but to hate themselves when they saw their own disfigured faces. When they smelled stenchy odor of their decaying sores and scars, they thought lowly of themselves. There was no way they could be healed of their heaven-condemned pestilence. They were simply living because they had no courage to end their existence with dignity. They were hopelessly waiting for the end of their earthly existence, having no hope for heaven. Hope had no space in their souls. Hope of restoration was not in their minds.  

All of a sudden, however, hope came back to them as an long-awaited old friend. Hope came alive in their hearts when they heard about a miracle worker in Galilee. It began to well up out of their wearied souls when their heard about Jesus Christ the Great Healer who healed all kinds of diseases. They had been waiting for a day in which they could meet with that compassionate Healer, expecting they could have a new life with healing. So, as soon as they met with Jesus, they recognized who the man was, shouting at the top of their voices, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” Though they didn’t have saving faith in Jesus the Christ, they acknowledged Jesus was a figure of authority who could transform their current status from condemnation to restoration. At the same time, they appealed to the heart of Jesus, asking for mercy, calling His heart to their miserable conditions. Their petition didn’t go unanswered. It was immediately answered. But the Lord didn’t immediately heal them of leprosy on the spot. Instead, He ordered them to go and show themselves to the priests. Without any second thoughts, they immediately carried it out. As they went, they experienced a divine healing. Their leprosy was gone. They were made whole. Their hope came true by Christ. They experienced the Lord’s gracious deliverance.

However, only one of them came back to thank Him for healing. In other words, the Samaritan man, a religious heretic, realized he was cured and made his way back to Christ to give thanks to Him. Here, we find gratitude is a natural, spontaneous response to God’s gracious act of salvation. His return to thank Christ was quite expected. We believe he did right in thanking the Lord for healing. We believe those nine who didn’t return to thank Him were ingrates. Nine didn’t come back to thank Christ, even after they experienced a great salvation from the source of their misery and despair. Remember they were social outcasts no one cared about and were living in darkness. Now, they were healed, which means they could go back to their families and their normal life. How joyful they must have been! Then, how grateful they should have been to the Lord.

However, they forgot to thank Him. Technically speaking, it was not a matter of their forgetfulness or amnesia, but a matter of their hearts. They may have rationalized or explained away Jesus’ healing miracle they just experienced. They may have thought they were cured by chance. At any rate, their failure to thank Christ was attributable to their sinful heart. We simply wonder why they could forget to give thanks to Him, how they could fail to return gratitude to Him for His wonderful act of grace. They even failed to carry out something, which is common sense. How rare gratitude is among people! We often fail to be grateful for food, clothing, housing, schooling, families, friendship, etc. Also, we forget to say “Thank you” to those who have helped us or given us gifts or treated us kindly. Especially, we often take for granted favors given by our close friends so that they don’t need to say “Thank you” or write a thank note. If we don’t practice gratitude for little things done for us, would we give thanks for great things? Not necessarily!

Thankfulness seems to be a lost art today. Many years ago, a boat was wrecked in a storm on Lake Michigan at Evanston, Illinois. Students from Northwestern University formed themselves into rescue teams. One student, Edward Spencer, saved seventeen people from the sinking ship. When he was carried exhausted to his room, he asked, “Did I do my best? Do you think I did my best?” Years later, R. A. Torrey was talking about this incident at a meeting in Los Angeles, and a man in the audience called out that Edward Spencer was present. Dr. Torrey invited Spencer to the platform. An old man with white hair slowly climbed the steps as the applause rang. Dr. Torrey asked him if anything in particular stood out in his memory. “Only this, sir,” he replied, “of the seventeen people I saved, not one of them thanked me.”

Where were those 17 who were saved by this great man? Where were those 9 men who were delivered from the scourge of heaven? Apparently, God is still asking, “Where were you when you should have come back to thank Him for His great salvation? While accusing these ungrateful nine for their pathetic negligence, we ironically find in this narrative our common tendency to take things for granted and our ungrateful attitude to offend others if we are honest enough. This narrative instructs us to come back to Christ and by faith thank Him for all that He had done for us. We would like to follow what the Samaritan stranger did unto the Lord. This unknown man acted speedily to bring homage and thanks to Christ. As far as he was concerned, gratitude was his way of glorifying God by faith. It was so natural and spontaneous that he couldn’t suppress his gratefulness. So, he made efforts to come back to thank Him as he ought to. For that, the Lord commended the Samaritan man wholeheartedly.

Bible commentator Matthew Henry, after being robbed, wrote in his diary the following: “Let me be thankful. First, because I was never robbed before. Second, because although they took my wallet, they did not take my life. Third, because although they took my all, it was not much. Fourth, because it was I who was robbed, not I who robbed.” It was truly possible for Matthew Henry to take the trial by faith in that way. Another story illustrates that believers can be truly thankful to God for all things by faith. Corrie ten Boom in The Hiding Place relates an incident that taught her always to be thankful. She and her sister, Betsy, had just been transferred to the worst German prison camp they had seen yet, Ravensbruck. On entering the barracks, they found them extremely overcrowded and flea-infested. That morning, their Scripture reading in 1 Thessalonians had reminded them to rejoice always, pray constantly, and give thanks in all circumstances. Betsy told Corrie to stop and thank the Lord for every detail of their new living quarters. Corrie at first flatly refused to give thanks for the fleas, but Betsy persisted, and Corrie finally succumbed to her pleadings. During the months spent at that camp, they were surprised to find how openly they could hold Bible study and prayer meetings without guard interference. It was not until several months later that they learned the reason the guards would not enter the barracks was because of the fleas.

Not only is gratitude a response of faith and obedience to God’s grace, but also it is…

II. 감사는 바른 생각이 낳은 선택이다.

 Gratitude is a choice of the right mind.

Let’s deal with the question in depth why the nine lepers didn’t come back to thank the Lord for such a wonderful act of grace. Though we may be mistaken, let’s try to think some likely reasons why these nine men were different from the Samaritan man. Charles L. Brown suggested his intelligent guesses as follows: Why did only one cleansed leper return to thank Jesus?  The following are nine suggested reasons why the nine did not return: One waited to see if the cure was real. One waited to see if it would last. One said he would see Jesus later. One decided that he had never had leprosy. One said he would have gotten well anyway. One gave the glory to the priests. One said, "O, well, Jesus didn't really do anything." One said, "Any rabbi could have done it." One said, "I was already much improved." I would add some other probable reasons as follows, “One decided to see his family first to tell he has become normal. One simply rationalized he was healed not by Jesus’ simple word, but by his great faith. One was too lazy to take a trip back to Jesus to say “Thank you.” One just wanted to hide his shameful past of leprosy from others and start a new life. One concluded he got what he duly deserved and didn’t need to thank anybody.”

The root cause of all these rationalizations is their failure to think properly. Their minds were not working correctly. They heard the word of Jesus, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And they obeyed it. While they were going, they were healed. Then, they should be able to connect their healing with the authority of Jesus’ divine word. Why did they follow Jesus’ command? If they had not believed Jesus could have healed them, they would not have obeyed Him. But they heard about Jesus’ divine power. They had some kind of faith in Jesus. At least, they considered Jesus as God-sent miracle worker or prophet. So, they were able to obey Him. At the same time, they understood why Jesus ordered them to go and show themselves to the priests. They knew the Law of Moses concerning leprosy. When lepers were healed, they were supposed to go to the priests to examine they were healed wholly. The priests, after examining them, announced they were healed, which meant they were permitted to come back to their communities. These lepers, well knowing these regulations, understood Jesus meant to heal them when He ordered them to show themselves to the priests. In other words, they were aware of Jesus’ good intention to cleanse them out of leprosy. For this reason, they obeyed Him.

Also, when they took off to show themselves to the priests, they were not healed. They still saw their disfigured hands and feet. If they had not believed in the healing authority of Jesus, they wouldn’t have taken pains to travel to show themselves to the priests. In a sense, they still desired to see a miracle for themselves while they were going to the priests. As they expected, they experienced God’s miracle while obeying Jesus’ Word. However, once they got what they wanted, they changed. Certainly, they must have rejoiced in seeing themselves made whole. They must have shouted, “We are made whole,” while hugging each other and jumping up and down like a colt coming out the barn. Most probably, they must have gone to see the priests and receive their examination and announcement of “being clean.” But they didn’t return to thank Jesus. What went wrong with them? Their hearts were filled with thrilling sensations. They were overjoyed. Probably overtaken by ecstatic celebration of their healing, however, they failed to give thoughts on who delivered them from the curse of leprosy, why He gave them healing, and what they were supposed to do to Him. It seems they were controlled by their feeling, but by their mind. If they had had the right mind, they would have come back to thank Jesus. All their rationalizations were ascribable to failure of their right thinking at the moment. Even when they were expected to return to thank Christ, they didn’t, which is explained by the fact that they failed to think first, think enough, or think appropriately about the Healer of their leprosy.

Unlike these nine men, the Samaritan was able to perceive what happened to him. Luke says, 그 중에 하나가 자기의 나은 것을 보고 큰 소리로 하나님께 영광을 돌리며 돌아와 ¹⁶ 예수의 발아래 엎드리어 사례하니 저는 사마리아인이라. ¹⁵ Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; ¹⁶ and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. He clearly found out his leprosy was gone. It took no time for him to turn back. He didn’t go to the priests because he could to them later. He thought of Jesus Christ the One who set him free from the disease. So, he immediately turned around. What made him turn back to Jesus? What caused his will to make a way back to Jesus? What made him determiend to return to thank Jesus? He had the right mind to think properly. Indeed, he thought of his former condition and compared it to the current condition of normalcy. He realized he had no disease. He realized he was free. He clearly noticed the evidence of divine healing for himself as he was his clean body. Once he saw he was cleansed, he couldn’t loiter around without doing nothing. He couldn’t stay around ther, wondering who healed him. He knew Jesus was his Healer. He began to see Him differently. He had to turn around to see Him again and thank Him with all his heart. He was not mindlessly wondering what to do at the moment. He knew what he was supposed to do for Christ. So, he turned around and ran back to Christ to say “Thank you!”

If we fail to think properly, we are not likely to practice gratitude. Pride hinders us from thinking appropriately because it blinds us to our faults. Pride makes us take things for granted. It causes us to regard others’ fovors as our rights. So, we tend to say rudely to those who give a favor to us or help us in love. If children receive meals at home as their rights, not as parents’ gifts of love, they tend not to be grateful for meals. They are likely to gripe at food. They don’t appreciate for what they have such as food, house, parental care, or school. Kids are likely to complain about schools or teachers. They may think of their teachers as their slave-drivers, not those who are here to help them grow in knowledge and character. If we think selfishly or arrogantly, we are unlikely to practice gratitude in relation to self, others, and God. So, gratitude is a matter of the right mind. We have to think hard, enough, and positively to be people of gratefulness. Gratitude is a matter of our perspective on life in general. With negative perspective, complaints are likely to come out of our hearts. But with positive perspective, gratitude are likely to be the fruit of our hearts.   

 Erma Bombeck, a late American bestselling author, shared the following story: An estimated 1.5 million people are living today after bouts with breast cancer. Every time I forget to feel grateful to be among them, I hear the voice of an eight-year-old named Christina, who had cancer of the nervous system. When asked what she wanted for her birthday, she thought long and hard and finally said, "I don't know. I have two sticker books and a Cabbage Patch doll. I have everything!" The kid is right. Her contentment, even in the mist of cancer battling, was a fruit of her hard thinking process. She was able to be content with little things and so able to be grateful for every little thing. He didn’t take anything for granted. To her, everything was so precious. She had such a frame of the mind through which she understood the world and was able to appreciate things. 

I still remember my former roommate from Wisconsin. He and I went to the Dining Common every morning to eat breakfast together. I normally asked him to say “grace” for breakfast. He said, “Dear heavenly Father, we thank you for the meal you have provided for us this morning. We receive it from your hand with gratitude. You bless this food to the nourishment of our bodies. And give us a great day today. In Jesus’ name, we pray!” This was his typical prayer. As soon as he opened his eyes, he said something negative about food on the table: “Oh, I hate this gravy.” “This is junk food.” “I don’t like this southern breakfast.” “This is not real food.” I remember this vividly because he repeatedly complained about food. At first, I didn’t care about what he said about food. But later on, I was bothered by his continual complaints. So, I confronted him about it: “Didn’t you say a minute ago, “Thank you, God, for the food you have provided for us? Now, you say something in contradiction to your prayer. Please, be thankful for food you are about to eat.” Then, he was not taken aback, still trying to contradict me, “Jung, you can eat anything. But I want some real food for breakfast.” I said, “No, this is real food God has given us this morning. Please, take it with gratitude. It will be good for you.” Many work hard to provide meals for us. We should take them for granted. Many are without food. We should be sorry for them, while thanking for food. If we are proud, failing to think properly, then we are likely to forget to practice gratitude.

Again, our perspective controls whether we would be grateful or griping. Let me share this story again with you. Some of you still remember it. Let’s learn from the story. In Budapest, a man goes to the rabbi and complains, "Life is unbearable. There are nine of us living in one room. What can I do?" The rabbi answers, "Take your goat into the room with you."  The man is incredulous, but the rabbi insists. "Do as I say and come back in a week." A week later the man comes back looking more distraught than before. "We cannot stand it," he tells the rabbi. "The goat is filthy." The rabbi then tells him, "Go home and let the goat out. And come back in a week." A radiant man returns to the rabbi a week later, exclaiming, "Life is beautiful. We enjoy every minute of it now that there's no goat -- only the nine of us." Today, it seems that thanksgiving is a forgotten art even among Christians. It depends on how we look at things. To be thankful under all circumstances, we must change the way we look at things. Positive perspective makes life pleasant and thankful. And it depends on how we process our thinking. Gratitude is a fruit of the right mind. Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on things we often take for granted. It is a time to think on God, salvation, family, health, etc. It is a holiday in which we take a pause to think enough to fill our hearts and minds with gratitude.

I often ask others and myself the question of what to be thankful for. When I asked others this question, most people were not ready to say things for which they were thankful. But there were those who were always ready to say of things for which they were grateful because they had always been thinking about them. When I gave people time to think, they normally found things for which they were grateful. We can practice gratitude by means of a thoughtful reflection on life in general. Instead of mulling over things we have lost, suffered, or lacked, we had better think on little things we are left with, for which we can be thankful, so that we can be filled with gratitude. I didn’t give thanks for one of my toenails until I lost one by accident. I realized how good it was for me to have that nail in place. I didn’t realize how I ought to have been grateful for that toenail. I didn’t give God enough thanks for my preaching ministry because I thought of it only as a heavy burden. I was trying to be relieved of that heavy responsibility as soon as possible. I often complained there was no fruit of my preaching ministry no matter how hard I tried. But, I am so thankful now for my preaching ministry because I realized God has been using it for His glory. Until the time I realized my ministry was an opportunity to serve others, I had been failing to thank God properly. Now, I am so thankful to God for sending me those who listen to my message. As I reflect on this more and more, I am more grateful to God and my listeners for the fact that I can serve them. I suggest to you that on this Thanksgiving you should reflect on as many things as possible so that you can really be thankful to God for every little thing given to you. Please, think properly and positively, so that you can find things, which you often take for granted, for which you find every reason to be thankful for.     

The content of gratitude is all that God has given us in Christ. We are to respond to God’s grace with gratitude. Also, we are to stop to think and decide whether to thank God for five things we already have or complain about five things we lack in our lives. If we think hard enough, we will always find things for which we can be thankful. So, gratitude is a habit of our positive thinking or perspective. Finally, gratitude is…

III. 감사는 하나님을 영화롭게 하는 예배의 행위이다.

 Gratitude is an act of worship to glorify God.

Look at how the Samaritan man responded to God as soon as he realized he was healed. He turned around from his way to the priests and praised God with loud voice. This means he glorified God. It means he sang praises to God. Simply, he worshiped God at the moment he saw he was cured. He fell on his face at the feet of Jesus. This bodily posture was seen in worshipers of God. When they worshiped God, they fell prostrate in presence of God. The fact he fell on his face at His feet was an indication of his grateful adoration for Jesus. It was an acknowledgement that Jesus was his new Lord to whom he expressed gratitude and respect. This means he worshiped the One who delivered him from the judgment of God. He realized he was forgiven, redeemed, and accepted into the household of God. When he saw he was cleansed, he was overwhelmed with gratefulness. When he fell at Jesus’ feet, he was overwhelmed by His divine presence.

Again, how could he suppress joy of salvation? He had been osracized by the mainstream society. He was disdained by Jews. He knew what it meant to live as a social outcast or religious heretic. He suffered people’s mocking. People called him “unclean.” William Barclay described what a leper looks like: “The whole appearance of the face is changed, till the man loses his human appearance and looks, as the ancients said, ‘like a lion or a satyr.’ The nodules grow larger and larger. They ulcerate. From them there comes a foul discharge. The eyebrows fall out, the eyes become staring. The voice becomes hoarse and the victim wheezes because of the ulceration of the vocal chords. The hands and feet always ulcerate. Slowly the sufferer becomes a mass of ulcerated growths. The average course of the disease is nine years, and it ends in mental decay, coma, and ultimately death. The sufferer becomes utterly repulsive—both to himself and to others.”

No doubt, this Samaritan leper had to suffer physical, psychological, or relational pain all the time. He was brainwashed by people’s words, “You are abandoned by God.” Now, He praised God with his loud voice. This implies he changed his thoughts on his self. He thought God had cursed him. But now, he glorified God, not as a social outcast, but as God’s beloved child. That’s why he was worshiping God and falling his face at Jesus’ feet, thanking him for great deliverance. Now, he was free. He was healed. He became normal. He thought of the physical change done to him. Then, he thought of the current freedom he had. He thought of why he was healed. He got from God what he didn’t deserve. He realized that God had mercy on Him. So, he was filled with joy of God. All that he should do was to praise God with his loud voice. For him, giving thanks was an act of worship. That’s what he did for Jesus.

In contrast, the nine Jewish men, who used to follow orthodox Judaism and had pride in their Jewish status, didn’t worship God with gratitude. Surely, they heard the Samaritan man sing praises and thanks to God. According to Jesus, all those ten were healed. It was not only the Samaritan, but also the nine Jewish men, who experience the same divine healing. Yet, the only one man, the Samaritan stranger, came back to thank and worship God. Why did the nine men fail to worship God? We don’t know what they were doing when they realized they were healed. Probably they were swallowed up by their own joyfulness, failing to think of God or Jesus who healed them. They may have danced together for an opportunity to live a new life. But none of them made praises and thanks to God or Jesus. This fact reveals their minds were not properly working. They were gripped not by God, but by something else. By the fact that Jesus mentioned of their failure to come back to thank Him indicate they failed to do what was expected by God, which is worship. They were to receive rebuke from the Lord if they would see Him again. Listen to His words about them: 열 사람이 다 깨끗함을 받지 아니하였느냐 그 아홉은 어디 있느냐 "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Jesus had been waiting for them to return to thank Him. He was looking for them. But they didn’t come back to worship Him with gratitude. For this, they deserved a word of rebuke.

However, the Samaritan man received Jesus’ commendation for his faith and assurance of salvation. Listen to what Jesus said of this man: 이 이방인 외에는 하나님께 영광을 돌리러 돌아온 자가 없느냐. ¹⁸ Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner? Jesus was calling him as a foreigner not to discrimate him before others but to praise him. In comparison to the nine Israelites, he was a foreigner. He was a minority. His foreign status was regarded “less than normal or orthodox.” But inspite of his Gentile upbringing and faith, he was exemplary in responding to Christ by gratitude. His grateful worship distinguished him from the ungrateful majority. His foreign background intensified the weight of his gratitdue before others. Furthermore, Jesus commended him for his faith. He approved of his faith and announced that he was a member of the household of God. Listen to His words of this man: 일어나 가라 네 믿음이 너를 구원하였느니라. "Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well" (v. 19). He delivered him out of the bondage of sin and eternal condemnation. He received the highest commendation for his saving faith. He served as a witness to the veracity of his saving faith.

This fact tells that the Samaritan came to have true saving faith in Jesus the Messiah. His spiritual salvation was much more greater than his physical salvation. The nine Isralites, though they experienced a physical healing, may not have received eternal salvation in Christ. They may not have come back to Jesus, which means they didn’t recognize Jesus as the Lord and Savior of the world. Unlike these ungrateful men, the Samaritan found eternal life in Christ. He came to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ from the fact that Jesus had divine authority over leprosy. He came to believe that Jesus saved him from the condemnation of God. He was able to think through from the fact that he was healed of the scourge of God. So, his response to God for healing was praise. His response to God’s act of salvation was gratefulness. He turned all the glory to God for His merciful love. Though he was only a Samaritan out of the ten who was condemned by religious orthodox Jews, he ironically was the only one who truly recognized Jesus as God-sent Savior, giving thanks to Him. He truly recognized Jesus was more than a prophet. He showed his highest respect, admiration, and gratefulness to Jesus. Through his healing experience, this man thought of Jesus properly and responded to Him accordingly, which brought him Jesus’ approval and commendation.   

This narrative not only stresses the importance of gratitude but also the truth of the universal availability of God’s salvation. The Samaritans, Gentiles are not excluded from the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Those who come to worship God with gratitude after they realize they are sinful and turn to Christ for forgiveness of sin are certainly God’s children in the household of faith. Such people are found in all kinds of class of people. This narrative teaches not only gratitude is an act of worship but also gratitude arises from a sense of total depravity to all sufficiency of Christ. None of us here are lepers like the men in the narrative. But the Bible often describes the nature of sin as leprosy. In a sense, sinners are spiritual lepers who suffer isolation from God and one another as a result of their sin. We suffer pain of our sinfulness in our families, workplaces, or communities. Though we long for peaceful fellowship with one another, we feel like not being accepted by others. Others push us away out of their groups. We cry out for help, healing, and reconciliation. Christ answers us, saying, “You are forgiven by my blood.” As soon as we are healed of our sin, we praise God with all gratitude. Our worship is filled with our grateful praises of God. It is spontaneous. It is rejuvenating. We receive God’s approval. We are reaffirmed of assurance of salvation. More than anything, we are thankful to God for giving up His Son to crucifixion for the remission of our sin. Christ took upon our leprous sin and gave us His clean righteousness. Now, we are free to worship God with gratefulness.  The author of Hebrews says, ¹⁵ 이러므로 우리가 예수로 말미암아 항상 찬미의 제사를 하나님께 드리자 이는 그 이름을 증거하는 입술의 열매니라. ¹⁵ Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name (Heb. 13:15).

Since this past may, I have been recording my person diary about my daily walk with Jesus. Sometimes, I forgot to write my diary. But I have been trying to record anything that happens to me, both good and bad. In this diary, I am always asked to write three things for which I am thankful to God. To do this, I have to think hard. What should I be thankful for? Each time I try to answer these questions, I first think about the day, God, or myself to see anything I can be grateful for. As I have been doing this part, I realize the habit of gratitude has been formed deeply in my character. I have been thanking God for good things or bad things, great things or little things, and desirable things or undesirable things. I have been able to thank God for all. Afterwards, I go to bed. When I cover myself with bedclothes, I feel so happy and content as a little infant in the mother’s bosom. I don’t know how to describe it adequately. After a long day, I feel so good to have a night sleep in a safe place. Then, I thank God again and ask for a good night sleep. We should be thankful for God’s great salvation.

Also, we are to be thankful to God for little things. Little things are not given by chance. They are a gift of God. I would like to introduce a man named “Park Jin-Sik” to you. This man suffers a rare disease called “Cuticle calcification increased by parathyroid hyperactivity.” Calcium accumulates excessively in his body.  It causes extreme pain and stiffness. He was diagnosed with this at eight. He has fought it thus far. Doctors predicted that he wouldn’t survive his early twenties. But he is still alive. Even in such an extreme condition, he learned English and Chinese by himself. He wrote a book titled “Despair is another name for Hope” in order to give hope to the hopeless. While struggling with this rare sickness, he came to believe in Jesus Christ. He has learned from Job about God and faith. In the preface, he says that he has learned two most important things, vision and gratitude, undergoing the long tunnel of his painful suffering. He exhorts his readers to never give up hoping. The most value lesson he has learned after receiving faith from God was thankfulness, he says at the end of his book. Here is what he says: Through suffering, I have learned to be grateful. When I had a hard time swallowing food, I felt thankful for being able to swallow food. When I had a hard time breathing, I felt thankful for being able to breathe. When I became severely handicapped, I felt thankful for being able to move one finger, one hand. When my whole body was like a stone, I felt heartily thankful for being able to budge my head or my torso. In addition, when I got my balance system impaired, I deeply realized things usually taken for granted were so precious and to be thanked.” He concludes his book with these following words: “Finally, I am grateful for the fact that I am still alive.”     부갑상선 기능 항진에 의한 각피 석회화증이란 긴 이름의 희귀병에 걸린 박진식이라는 청년이 있었습니다. 칼슘이 몸 안에서 과다 생성되어 축적됨으로 온몸이 석회처럼 굳어 버리는 병이라고 합니다. 여덟 살에 다리를 절기 시작한 그는 초등학교를 졸업하자마자 자리에서 누어 버려 22년에 걸쳐 죽어가는 육신과의 싸움을 시작하게 됩니다. 그러나 그는 절망을 거부하기로 결심했습니다. 그와 그의 사랑하는 어머니는 자기와 비슷한 처지에 있는 이들에게 희망을 전하는 도구가 되는 작가가 되기로 결심합니다. 어쩌면 그것은 불가능한 꿈이었습니다. 하지만 그는 누워있는 채로 독학으로 영어와 한문을 배우고 한 손에는 볼펜을 잡고, 또 한 손으로는 컴퓨터 키보드를 두드리면서 한 권의 베스트셀러를 탄생시킵니다. 30개월여 만에 원고 800장의 고통의 이야기를 탈고합니다. 그런데 SBS휴먼 드라마에도 소개된 그의 이야기의 책제목은 뜻밖에도 [절망은 희망의 다른 이름이다]였습니다. 박진식씨의 인생은 그대로 감동의 휴먼 드라마였습니다. 그러나 더 자세히 그의 인생을 들여다보면 이것은 그가 하나님을 신뢰하였기에 가능할 수 있었던 믿음의 드라마였던 것입니다. 그는 처음부터 신앙인은 아니었지만 이 지독한 고통과 대결하면서 마침내 욥의 믿음을 갖게 되었고 예수님을 구주로 영접하게 되었습니다. [절망은 희망의 다른 이름이다]의 저자 박진식 형제가 그 고통의 긴 터널을 거쳐오면서 배울 수 있었던 가장 중요한 두 가지 교훈은 다른 것이 아닌 비전과 감사였습니다. 그는 이 책의 서문에서 이 책을 읽는 독자들에게 이렇게 말합니다.-"지금 이 순간 세상 살아가기가 힘들다고 하여 절망하신 분이 있다면 제 이야기를 읽고 부디 힘을 내시기 바랍니다. 저는 꿈꿀 수만 있어도 행복한 인생이라고 생각합니다. 아무리 참담한 현실에 처해 있을지라도 살아있는 한 꿈을 버리진 마십시오. 그리고 여러분, 울지 마십시오." 그리고 이 책의 끝머리 부분 마침내 맞이한 내 안의 신앙이란 장에 보면 그가 참된 신앙을 갖고 깨닫게 된 가장 소중한 것은 감사였다고 말합니다. "내가 아픔으로 깨달은 것은 감사였다. 밥을 삼키기 힘겨워졌을 때 단지 음식물을 삼킬 수 있음에 감사가 우러나오고, 숨쉬기가 힘겨워졌을 때 단지 고른 숨을 쉴 수 있음에 감사가 우러나오고, 중장애인이 되었을 때 단지 한 손가락, 한 손이라도 움직일 수 있음에 감사가 우러나오고, 온몸이 중증의 돌 인간이 되었을 때 단지 머리와 몸통만 정상이어도 감사하다는 것을 뼈에 새겼다. 하나 덧붙이자면, 평형기관 마저 손상되었을 때 나는 어느 생명체에게나 당연하게 여겨지는 것들이 얼마나 소중하고 고마운 것인지 절절히 깨달았다"고 고백합니다. 그리고 이 책의 마지막 줄은 이런 고백으로 마무리고 있습니다. "끝으로 제가 아직도 살아 있다는 사실에 감사드립니다."

Conclusion: Elder Yong-GI Kim, the founder of the Canaan Agricultural School, was asked “Elder Kim, are you happy?” Elder Kim was thoughtfully looking over the levee of a rice paddy. Then, he answered, “No, I am grateful.” He knew gratitude is more important than happiness. He knew gratitude is a way to happiness. As long as we pursue happiness as the supreme goal of life, we are likely to be captured by unhappiness. However, if we realize life is a gift of God or accept it as God’s gift, then we can live a life with gratefulness. Of course, we do have cloudy, rainy days. We also have clear days. We have joyful days and sad days as well. We can be assured of God’s providential goodness in the follow promise of God: 우리가 알거니와 하나님을 사랑하는 자 곧 그 뜻대로 부르심을 입은 자들에게는 모든 것이 합력하여 선을 이루느니라. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose (Rom. 8:28). Knowing the blessings of this promise, Paul urge us as follows: ¹⁵ 그리스도의 평강이 너희 마음을 주장하게 하라 평강을 위하여 너희가 한 몸으로 부르심을 받았나니 또한 너희는 감사하는 자가 되라 ¹⁶ 그리스도의 말씀이 너희 속에 풍성히 거하여 모든 지혜로 피차 가르치며 권면하고 시와 찬미와 신령한 노래를 부르며 마음에 감사함으로 하나님을 찬양하고 ¹⁷ 또 무엇을 하든지 말에나 일에나 다 주 예수의 이름으로 하고 그를 힘입어 하나님 아버지께 감사하라. ¹⁵ And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. ¹⁷ And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him (Col 3:15-17).

Rev. William Secker, “A grateful mind is a great mind.” Let’s make every effort to be grateful for all by faith. Let’s be willing to take all from the hands of God. An evergreen is always green despite the changes in weather around it. It is green in the heat of summer as well as the cold of winter. So also our lives are to be characterized by an enduring thankfulness that is unaffected by the changes around us. When the heat of a pressured week or the deadly cold of pain strikes us, we should stand “ever green,” always thankful, regardless of that which surrounds us. As mentioned above, gratitude is a response of to God's grace under all circumstances. It arises from the realization of God's mercy and love. Gratitude is a choice of the will. Gratitude is a choice of the mind. Gratitude is an act of praise. It pleases and glorifies God. Gratitude is what God expects of us. Gratitude brings us God's recognition. Because God expects gratefulness of us, we must glorify God through our gratefulness. To do so, we must seek the Lord’s enabling grace whereby we can be truly thankful to God for all things. Let’s bring ourselves before the fount of Christ’s grace. Let’s drink the living water out of it as much as we can, so that we can continue on in life with gratitude. Gratitude is the way to glorify God. Let’s bring glory and honor to God through our gratitude. If we practice it, then God will bring us His peace, contentment, and many other blessings. Let’s make this Thanksgiving meaningful through our much gratefulness.

Benediction: 능히 너희를 보호하사 거침이 없게 하시고 너희로 그 영광 앞에 흠이 없이 즐거움으로 서게 하실 자, 곧 우리 구주 홀로 하나이신 하나님께 우리 주 예수 그리스도로 말미암아 영광과 위엄과 권력과 권세가 만고 전부터 이제와 세세에 있을찌어다 아멘. To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy--to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen (Jud 1:24-25).