Gratitude

In case you have never heard the story of the ten lepers from the bible let me give you a cliff notes version. Ahem, there were ten lepers who came to Jesus and asked him to heal them. He said go show yourselves to the priests. As they were following his instructions they were healed. One of the 10 turned back immediately and thanked Jesus. Jesus then asks about what happened to the other 9.

Then the Sunday school class talks about how terrible it is that 9 of them never even turned around to say thank you. What terrible people they must have been not even being thankful. We all need to say thank you is the lesson that we get, right?

As I have listened to, read and thought about this story the lesson that I get is not quite the same.

Let's put our selves in the lepers place. You are suffering from a terrible disease in which your body very literally is falling apart. Perhaps you are nose-less at this point with gaping wounds in your flesh, a complete outcast from society. You hear of a man who can perform miracles. You believe he really can. You come to him with such faith. He has compassion on you and gives you the directions to heal yourself.

Now, when Jesus gives you instructions what do you do? I would like to believe I would follow them. That is exactly what these 10 do. They head on down the road to complete the task they have been assigned.

One looks at himself and realises what is going on and IMMEDIATELY turns around. This is good. We should admire him.

I doubt however that the other 9 are running down the street laughing about what a sucker Jesus is for healing them. Though I can hardly prove it,I sincerely believe that at least several more, if not all would most likely return to him after they had completed their task. After all, it was Christ who sent them on this mission. They are doing exactly what they have been asked to do.

The lesson that I get from this story is that we need to not only feel gratitude we need to express it IMMEDIATELY. Who knows if you will have a chance later.


Please don't condemn the leper who was following directions.