Today was the first Sunday celebration service in this new lunar year. Bobby would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very blessed year ahead. The scripture quoted this morning in church was from Luke 17: 11 – 19. It was about the healings of ten men suffered from leprosy with only one men came back to thank Jesus, the healer. Most church goers were no strangers to this scripture and needless to say, it was about being grateful or thankful.
While Bobby was going through the verses, Bobby noticed two very distinct recordings that had direct implications to believers like you and me on this subject of being grateful. When these suffering men called out, “Jesus! Master! Take pity on us!”, Jesus simply said, “Go and let the priests examine you.” (verse 14). These men with leprosy indeed were men of great faith. Jesus did not physically acted out any healings. Jesus simply instructed them to be examined by the priests.
Back in those days, only a priest could determine whether a leprosy sufferer was fully healed and to conduct a ritual of purification so as to enable the sufferer to be accepted back into the community and could go back to their family. The ten men were not healed when they were told to go and let the priests examined them. They could have doubted Jesus or at least could have asked Jesus to heal them first before they went to the priests to be examined. How could they let the priests examined them when they were still suffering from leprosy?
These ten men, whom were full of faith, got up and went. The second part of verse 14 stated that, “On the way they were made clean”. Wow, wasn’t this exceptional? Their obedience in acting out their faith by believing in Jesus brought forth healings to all of them. This was the first recording that had captured Bobby’s attention. All these ten leprosy suffering men had faith.
The second recording that caught Bobby’s attention was in verse 17 and 18. Jesus said, “There were ten men who were healed; where are the other nine? Why is this foreigner the only one who came back to give thanks to God?” These verses showed us that out of ten faithful men, only one was grateful and the grateful one was a foreigner, a Samaritan to be precise.
We all could be any one of the ten men, full of faith, called out to Jesus in our moment of distress and then experienced God’s deliverance. We were healed, we were blessed, we were delivered and we all enjoyed God’s faithfulness. We knew that with faith, when we called out to our Saviour, he will always be there. He promised us that he will not leave us nor forsake us and he will be back to take us to our heavenly home one day. We knew we could count on Jesus for anything and everything, every time!
Yet how grateful were we to our Lord and Saviour? How often did we thank Him for all the goodness we have had from Him? And how often have we noticed a foreigner being more thankful and grateful than us, the believers? Having faith and being faithful is one thing but as a believer, being redeemed by the blood of Christ, shouldn’t we be ever more thankful and grateful to our Lord and Saviour, not only for the salvation but also for the endless grace and goodness we continued to receive every single day of our life?
Indeed being grateful is one of the often forgotten virtue among believers. Let us then, together as a family of believers, exhibit gratefulness to our Lord and Saviour ever more and therefore may this new lunar year brings more joy and gratefulness to all believers as well as to our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. God bless you.
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