Ten Percent of Christians Actually Give Thanks

Ten Percent of Christians Actually Give Thanks?
By: Dr. Danny Purvis

As we get closer to Thanksgiving Day, I stop to think about the peculiarity of this particular US holiday. It doesn’t seem to matter whether people are actually religious or not, there seems to be a general consensus that we should be thankful for the things we have…the family we share…and the nation in which we live. As I said…especially in the current climate…it is a bit of an odd holiday. For nonbelievers who celebrate Thanksgiving I have often wondered who or want exactly they are thanking. But I digress.

Every year the one event in Scripture that keeps coming to my mind is found in Luke 17:11-19. It is an interesting event to say the least. As Jesus was traveling to Jerusalem, He came across ten people who were suffering from leprosy. As He passed these ten people cried out to Jesus saying: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” And they desperately needed mercy. Leprosy was one of the worst afflictions that could befall a person in that day. Today, generally speaking, when people suffer from horrible afflictions we want to help them. Provide medical assistance to them. Have sympathy for them. However, in Jesus’ day leprosy did not engender pity as much as it did scorn. People of that time knew how contagious it was, so they pushed the sufferers into isolation. Religiously they were considered “unclean”. Spiritually they were scorned as sinners who had been punished by God for their sin. So they’re condition was physical, cultural, and religious. They were complete outcasts.

So, it certainly makes sense that they would cry out to Jesus for mercy. They had obviously heard the stories of Jesus’ miraculous power and logically concluded that He could do something for them. He did. He told them to go to the priests (the only people who could legally declare them to be healed and cleansed) and as they were on their way to the priest…they were completely healed. But that’s not the end of the story. After being completely ridded of this dreaded disease, of the ten who were healed, only one came back and thanked Jesus for healing him. And to top it all off…it was a Samaritan. We do not have time to go into the way the Jewish people of that tie felt about Samaritans but let’s just say this: The Samaritan (in the eyes of the Jews) would have been the last one of the ten they would have expected to come back and thank Jesus. But what are we to make of this story?

Jesus Himself made note of the fact that not only did just one person return to give thanks…but also made known that he was not Jewish. “Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Meaning that the other nine must have been Jewish. People who knew God. I assume worshiped Him. Certainly knew of God’s goodness and majesty. Yet the “Godly” people did not come back and thank Jesus nor give praise to God. I think about this passage often. If the simple moral of the story is that some people thank God for things and some people don’t…then this story works in that way. But there were ten…and only one came back. Was God here making a statement about the vast majority of His people? Is He actually giving us a ratio? There were “His” people. And they never even said thank you. Is God telling us here that only about 10% of people actually give thanks to God for all of the blessings He has bestowed upon us?

-Dr. Danny Purvis