Thanksgiving 2025
“The One Thankful Leper”
Luke 17:11-19 “11 Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. 12 Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. 13 And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14 So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. 15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, 16 and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. 17 So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? 18 Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”
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In Bible times leprosy was the most feared disease in the world….It was deadly and incurable.
So much did the ancients fear it that anyone suspected of having the disease was banished from society.
In the ancient writings we find remedies for various diseases, but nothing is listed for leprosy….
The rabbis said that curing leprosy was like raising the dead.
This is how Leviticus 13:45-46 puts it:
“The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ’Unclean, unclean.’ He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp.”
So to get leprosy was really the end of your life.
And death by leprosy was a long, torturous, and lonely departure.
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Now…..Verses 12-13 provide an eyewitness account of Jesus being approached by 10 lepers.
“As he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”
So here we have a colony of ten lepers bound by their common misfortune and misery.
As Jesus enters the village, these men stand afar off crying out to him for mercy.
No doubt they had heard the rumors floating across the barren countryside—”This man can heal lepers.”
One commentator writes, “There they stand, the most ragged choir in Israel, ten lepers crying out to Jesus for mercy. No more pitiful sound ever came to our Lord’s ears. “Have mercy. Have Mercy” came the cry from lips that had seen too little mercy and too much condemnation.”
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Jesus responded by saying something that might have at first looked like he was shuffling them off and didn’t intend to help them.
He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests” (14).
But in reality, Jesus fully intended to heal them and (this is critical) he intended to do it in keeping with the requirements of the Law of Moses.
Leviticus 14 clearly states that the priest must authenticate any “cure” from leprosy.
If Jesus hadn’t sent the lepers to the priest, no one would have believed the miracle had really taken place!
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The Bible says that the lepers turned away and started in the direction of where the priest could be found.
And the last part of verse 14 says that “as they went they were cleansed.”
They were healed as they went–Not before, Not after.
That means that when they first left to go to the priest, they still had leprosy!
There was likely a moment where they were extremely disappointed.
Because when they stepped away from Jesus, they still had leprosy!
Their journey to the priest was a walk of obedience to the Lord’s command, period!
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And sometimes we, too, don’t see immediate results to our prayers.
But it is as we obey that the answer comes!
Picture it….
They take one step … and they are still lepers.
Two steps … and no change.
They take a third step … and the leprosy yet clings to their limbs.
But as they kept walking, a great miracle took place!
Instantly.
Miraculously.
All ten at once…skin like a baby appeared where leprosy had been!
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This teaches us something really important about answered prayer…
Our faith moves mountains when our faith moves us!
It was as they were going, no matter how they felt, or how foolish it looked, that they were healed!
Listen: Trusting God is not a passive posture.
Real faith almost always requires an act of obedience, even if its just putting one foot in front of another!
If you pray for a job, then put feet to your faith and go out expecting to find one!
If you pray, “Lord, give me a spouse,” but then just sit at home eating Blue Bell and watching Netflix, don’t expect prince charming to come knocking on your front door.
“As they went…they were healed.”
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But here’s the true kicker to the story.
We read that ten were healed but only one came back to give thanks!
Ten men were healed of a terminal, torturous disease, yet it occurred to only one of them to return and give thanks!
Luke says this one thankful man “fell on his face before the Lord.”
Think about it:
For too long he was a leper, separated from his family, forgotten by his friends, cut off from his own people.
And at Jesus’s instruction the disease had vanished, and with it the shame, loneliness, hopelessness, and torturous physical deterioration.
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But listen to Jesus’s searching question:
“Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this Samaritan?’
Jesus was amazed at the unthankful heart of mankind.
This story reveals a sad fact of fallen mankind:
Most people take God’s blessings for granted and simply don’t think to thank.
Paul the Apostle knew this well and wrote in Romans 1 that an unthankful heart is a feature of mankind’s spiraling down into spiritual darkness and gross sin.
Ro 1:21 “…although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”
But here the story takes a wonderful turn!
This one thankful man received another blessing even more valuable than his healing!
“And Jesus said to him, ‘Rise and go your way; your faith has saved you'”
The word “saved” is sozo and it refers to the salvation of a soul.
By returning to Jesus to give thanks, this man placed faith in him as not only his healer, but his savior!
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I close with two thoughts for us all this Thanksgiving…
One, may we resolve to never be added to the company of the nine–to receive God’s blessings and then walk away with the attitude, “I got what I wanted from Jesus, but I’m not interested in thanking or following Him.”
Second, never forget that if we thank Him as a way of life, we will become the recipients of blessings the nine will never come to know.
You can’t thank God too much!