The Tenth Leper

In the Gospel today from the 17th chapter of the Gospel of St Luke only the tenth leper was truly saved even though all ten of them were healed by our Lord.  The tenth leper was healed because he turned after his healing to give thanks and praise to God.  The others did not.  His relationship with God was restored, but the others only took away with them their healing, overjoyed no doubt, but thankless and, therefore, spiritually arid.

The use of “please” and “thank you” has been eroded in our western cultures.  The use of such words is even considered by some to be demeaning. To be thankful for something which is now in some places regarded to be your right, rather than an act of loving generosity on behalf of someone else, destroys the personal quality of our dependence upon each other and, indeed, upon God.  Entitlement has replaced thanksgiving.  Everything then becomes a matter of politics and law, necessary in their own spheres but definitely not the whole story.  This has had an adverse effect on both the quality of our relationships and our personal integrity. 

In my family and that of my wife, over time, we have had a strong tradition of writing thank you notes for gifts received … generally by all of us, but especially by our children.  We should all teach our youngsters to value what they have or have been given, rather than to expect to receive these things as a right—almost something to be expected or demanded.  If we do not teach our children to develop and practice a spirit of gratitude, then they may grow up to be mean-spirited, impolite and unable to value anything, especially in times of plenty.  Those who do not understand the importance of saying “please” and “thank you” will also never know true humility, the cherishing quality of relationships generally and, in particular, they will also miss the whole point of a quality relationship with God.  The tenth leper already knew the importance of these things before he was healed. 

Psalm [LXX] 29 (30) is a wonderful psalm in its opening verses for understanding the glorious condition of his heart toward God.  This is but one of many psalms that show how praising and thanking God for His many and gracious acts of healing and salvation transforms our lives for the better. Here are the first 5 verses: -

I will extol You, O LORD, for You have lifted me up,

And have not let my foes rejoice over me.

O LORD my God, I cried out to You,

And You healed me.

O LORD, You brought my soul up from the grave;

You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

Sing praise to the LORD, you saints of His,

And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.

For His anger is but for a moment,

His favour is for life.

Weeping may endure for a night,

But joy comes in the morning.

A spirit of gratitude should also permeate our communal as well as our personal prayers and worship.  After the rebuilding of the Temple, upon the return from Exile in Babylon, (by the gracious hand of King Cyrus of Persia), Ezra recorded the following act of worship after the repair of the foundations of the House of God.  It contains a little Hebrew word “hesed” which is enormously important for understanding God’s faithfulness, which is the wellspring of our thanksgiving and praise, personally and communally. This is the litany of thanksgiving that he records in [LXX:2] Ezra 3:11 for the laying of that foundation stone: -

And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the LORD:

“For He is good, for His mercy endures forever toward Israel.”

Then all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.

In the Old Testament this word “mercy” is often used to translate “hesed” - either from the Greek in the Septuagint or from the Hebrew in the Masoretic text.  However, no single word in English, Greek, or I daresay in any other language, can fully encompass the richness of meaning of the Hebrew word the “hesed” of God.  In English translations, different words have to be used in differing contexts in addition to mercy … steadfast love, kindness, loyalty, favour and devotion.  All of these together are the “hesed” of God.

Giving thanks then lies at the heart of our whole Christian lives ….

• In the morning we should give thanks for God’s good favour in giving us a new day to serve Him, our fellows and our neighbours.

• Throughout the day we should thank Him for all the manifold benefits and gifts of divine grace, as the Liturgy has it: “both seen and unseen” … as and when these happen.  All these thanksgivings need, of course, to be brought into our personal prayers.

• In the evening we should thank Him for sparing us times of trial, or if we have had to struggle, for His wisdom and strength to do so.

• Before we retire for bed, we should thank Him for his goodness and seek His forgiveness where we could have been loving and have not been.

• In the Holy Eucharist (which means “thanksgiving” in Greek) we thank Him together as a whole community for saving us in Christ and for providing us with the food of immortality, the Holy Mysteries.  In the messianic fulfilment of Ezra’s reference to the foundations of the Temple, our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ is now the Cornerstone of the Church, which is the Eucharistic gathering of the saints, you and I indeed, in our coming together by the gracious “hesed” of the Lord to give Him both thanks and praise, a freely offered sacrifice of thanksgiving as the Scriptures say (Leviticus 22:29).

Let us, then be like the tenth leper and not the other nine.  Let us with that wise tenth leper “give thanks to the Lord for He is good, His mercy (His hesed) endures for ever.”  Amen.