"The Missing Majority"
Luke 17:11-19

In this scripture Luke records for us an event in the ministry of Jesus.

Again, remember that the Gospels aren't a diary or a journal of everything that Jesus did, but they are memories of what happened.

Unlike some of the first five books of the Old Testament which were written down many generations after they happened, the New Testament was written by eyewitnesses or by eyewitnesses who dictate to a writer.

Luke was not an eyewitness from inside Judaism, but he was an outsider, a non-Jew who was the associate of the apostles who did know and live the story.

Luke is intrigued with the fact that for Jesus there were not insiders and outsiders.

He chose to write down this account of ten lepers who came to Jesus. Jesus was outside the city. Lepers were never allowed near the general population for that horrible skin condition was highly contagious. Lepers were marked unclean, and if anyone approached a leper, the leper was obligated to shout "unclean, unclean" as a warning.

Luke tells us where Jesus was when he encountered these ten who were afflicted with one of the worst diseases of that day. Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. The Feast of the Passover was coming soon. He was between Galilee and Samaria on his way south to Judea. He came to a little village and there outside the city were ten lepers.

With their best voice usually reserved for, "Unclean, unclean" they shouted, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!"

They were going to use every ounce of their strength to connect to this one they had heard about, Jesus, the great healer of all needs.

They had tried all the cures, they had tried everything known to their scientific scholars and nothing worked. Their religion told them they were suffering this terrible disease because they were sinners big-time. God was angry with them and punishing them.

Friends how many times do we slip into that mode of thinking. "The reason I have this problem with my marriage, the reason I have this problem with my health, the reason I have trouble with my brothers and sisters, the reason I am failing at school, the reason I can't get a promotion at work, the reason I have such pesky neighbors is because God is upset with me."

I tell you this if God was interested in punishing us for our sins, none of us would have woken up this morning. While we may deserve serve punishment for breaking God's laws, God's goal is not to whip us into shape and demand perfection...

God's goal is to have a relationship with us. God knows no amount of trouble, no amount of sickness, or failure, or miserable marriages, even leprosy is going to keep us in line 100% of the time.

God knows the only way to have a relationship with us is to make up for what we can't accomplish in the way of goodness and righteousness. We are capable of making the right decisions, we are capable of holy living, but only to a point and then God steps in and accomplishes the rest with the amazing grace afforded to us by the payment Christ made on our behalf when he gave himself as the payment for our sins.

We can never pay for our own sins. We can never make up for what we have done wrong. Therefore God steps in and does it for us. Whatever our life lacks in the way of righteousness Christ bridges the gap between our best and God.

The lepers had the opportunity to meet the one who could fix what needed fixing.

Jesus knew the law had the upper hand, and these men would gain no acceptance in society again no matter how healthy they were unless they went to those who were in charge of the religion that condemned them.

Jesus said, "Go get yourselves off to the Temple and show the Priests what has happened to you."

I think that it is interesting that Luke is the only Gospel writer who goes into such detail. Ten lepers. One a Samaritan, considered a half-breed, always hated by Jews, is in the company of nine Jewish lepers. Their misery was their bond. Nothing mattered, not how the laws of God were kept, which city was the central place of worship, how they were related or not related to Abraham and how much of God's blessing they thought they had coming to them because of it. Nothing mattered, they were all bound together by a terrible disease and they were all on the outside of religion, any religion.

Luke himself was an outsider, not a Jew by birth. His description of the composition of this group of men was a familiar one. Because of their disease they were all outsiders. No society or family welcomed them.

Luke saw a picture of the human race. All of us are on the outside, bound together as Dietrich Bonheoffer said, "Bound together by our common sinfulness"

But then Jesus came along. He did not single out the Samaritan and refuse to help him as the Jewish religion had taught him, but included even a Samaritan and told all of them to get on their way to find a priest to get themselves pronounced clean.

While they were on their way, suddenly the nerves in their fingertips began to tingle, and they saw the gray dying flesh become pink and alive again. Toes that had dropped off because of the disease re-appeared, and dry cracked skin became new again.

They would re-enter society, go home to their families and friends, be able to go back to the Temple and re-enter their religion as the privileged male components of society. They were healed. God must have forgiven their sin. They were Jews, of course, they deserved healing!

Off they went to the Temple in Jerusalem... but wait a minute; a Samaritan was not a Jew. He was not required to go to any priest to be pronounced "clean". Where could he go? He went back to Jesus to say, "Thank you".

And Luke records this story for all of us and the reply of Jesus. He said, "Wait a minute. I thought I counted ten of them earlier, right? I see only one has returned to give thanks. What about the other nine? Did none of them want to return and give praise to God except this foreigner? Then he said to him, Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."

What is Luke saying? This is a Samaritan. He is not a Jew. He has not studied and practiced the laws of God as the Jews did. He has no background, no genealogy tracing back to Abraham. He is an outsider.
How can an outsider get in?

Jesus was saying, "Those outside by their personal faith, are invited into a more important circle than any religion, they are invited into the circle of God's family."

Jesus didn't say, "Your record of being a good person, your record of being a religious person, has made you well." He said, "Your faith has made you well."

And the outsider is recorded as the one who got inside because of his faith.

In our day we are a bit inclined to consider ourselves insiders. We are good people, so good we have gotten up on a rainy Sunday and gotten ourselves to church. We are law-abiding citizens. We try to do what is right. We are honest, upstanding, hardworking, frugal, and self-reliant; and after all we are Americans! Surely we are on the "inside".

But until we see our sinfulness, and our need for a Savior, we can never be the children of God. God's children behave as they do because Christ has touched their lives, not in hopes Christ will touch their lives.

The children of God live in gratitude as a response to what God has done.

Notice that the majority of those who thought themselves insiders did not say, "Thank you" to the One who made their life possible. Somehow their first order was to get back to the inside as quickly as possible. That could happen only when a priest pronounced them "clean".

The one who knew he was an outsider, and had no claim on any Jewish Rabbi teaching as he went down the road, returned in gratitude.

Thanksgiving is always the order of the day for those whose relationship to God has been healed by Christ. In fact they live thanking God.

There are some who claim to be the children of God, but they act as if they would like to bring neglect charges against God. They feel that they haven't had a fair break in life. Other children of God get more, have better health, have a bigger pay check, and more obedient and cooperative families. Someone else has what they think they deserve.

Others get a bigger inheritance from their grandparents, and live in a better house, have more athletic children who earn scholarships not only for their athletic abilities but for their brain, too. Someone else has a better marriage, and a more secure future. Why is God always picking on me?

The "outsider" returned to Jesus and thanked him. He knew he did not deserve to be healed but it was because Jesus' mercy that he was well. His gratitude attitude caught the attention of Jesus, was used as a lesson then, and recorded by Luke as a lesson to every person who has read it these 2000 years.

What kind of testimony does your gratitude to God speak to your children and grandchildren, to the other kids on the playground, and in the classroom, at the ball game, and just hanging out?

Friends the sad thing today, is the majority of even those who claim to know Christ often go about as if they have deserved it.

The way they act in traffic, the way they treat the person who waits on their table, the way they treat younger kids or weaker kids at school, the impatience with which they wait in line at a checkout, or at the Doctor's office, the way they treat their mom and dad, the way they demand to be first and have the best...

I hope you are determined to understand that only by God's grace are you not still an outsider. Let our attitude in life be one of gratitude for what God has done for us. Let's live in the minority.

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, then 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."
(From the New International Version of the Bible.)

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