A Story of Thankfulness

With Thanksgiving coming up in a couple of days, I want to give a shout out to my favorite thankful person. To me, he is the perfect example of thankfulness, and his story is worth retelling. 

He's a leper. Well, not anymore. But that's how his story begins.

Shunned from society, having only nine fellow lepers as companions, feeling sick and ugly all the time, this man lived in an untouchable, unapproachable, unlovable state. His skin was probably grotesque. His face may have been disfigured. He might have even been missing fingers and toes, eaten away by the numbness of the disease. He likely stunk. He definitely felt terrible, from the shallowest sensation of his skin to the depths of his heart. Until he met Jesus. 

As he walked down the street yelling "unclean!" with his nine sick leper buddies, people backed away. Some may have even run away. But none wanted to be anywhere close to a leper, none the less a group of lepers. Except one man. When everyone else scattered, one man was left standing face to face with the lepers. 

"Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." They pleaded. 

And then Jesus did something slightly uncharacteristic and strange. He sent them away. "Go show yourselves to the priests," he said. 

He could have reached out and touched them. He could have spoken a word to heal them. But instead he sent them elsewhere. 

It would be like going to a specialized physician for medical help related to your specific disease, only to have this renowned doctor who is the best in his field turn you away and refer you back to your primary care physician.  

I wonder how the lepers felt. I wonder how that one leper felt. Was he disappointed? We're his hopes crushed? Did he roll his eyes at Jesus? Had he already been to see the priests a million times before? Did he have a tear in his eye when he walked away from Jesus, whom he even called master?

But then! "As they went they were cleansed," Luke 17:14 says. How it happened, I don't know. But I bet our one leper friend started to feel something different. As he drug his feet down the road, he could slowly begin to feel again. The numbness started to wear off with tingling in his fingers and toes. His skin became smooth, soft, and tan. He felt fresh breath in his lungs and a new rhythm in his heartbeat. He was healed! 

"How could this happen?" He asked himself. It wasn't medicine. It wasn't the priests. It wasn't a cleansing dip in the river. It wasn't Jesus...

Then he stopped in his tracks and looked around. Jesus wasn't there. He looked behind him, up the road where he had just walked. Jesus was no where in sight. He was left in the dust of their sandals when they walked away. 

At that point, this one leper could have turned back around and joined the other nine in their joyful dancing, saying, "Oh well, who cares how it happened. At least I am well!" But he didn't. He turned around and ran. He ran back to Jesus. 

I can almost hear him when he finds Jesus, "It was you! It was you, wasn't it? You healed me!" Even though it seemed like Jesus blew him off and turned him away, even though Jesus wasn't present when the physical healing occurred, this one leper recognized something that the others failed to see. 

Jesus is the healer. 

And so he "fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks." (Luke 17:16) 

The best and most appropriate response to what Jesus has done for us is to fall flat on our faces at his feet, giving him thanks. All good things come from him. All healing comes from him. Only salvation comes from him. Even when it doesn't seem like he is present, he is. Even when it doesn't seem like he is working, he is. Even when it doesn't seem like he is listening, he is. Even when it seems like he doesn't care, he does. He is love. He is the healer. And those who stop to ponder it will see it, and they will turn around and run back to Jesus. 

This thanksgiving, when images flash through your mind of pilgrims and Indians, cornucopias, fall harvests, and family gathered around the dining room table, let one more picture come into your mind. Let it be of a dusty man with smooth skin fallen face-first at the feet of Jesus.