10 Percent
Luke 17:11-19
Rev. Frank Schaefer

Allow me to recap this familiar story: Jesus is moved with compassion at the fate of 10 lepers, and sends them off to show themselves to the priest, which was the first step toward rehabilitation into society. On the way to the priest, they all realize that they’re actually healed. But it occurred only to one of them to go back and thank Jesus. Jesus, naturally, is disappointed, but he commends the one who did come back to say thank you. And the one was not even an Israelite, he is a foreigner.

First of all, I love how, once again, Jesus makes a point of praising the faith of an immigrant. You don’t always hear positive statements about immigrants publicly. I think it’s pretty clear on which side of the immigrant debate Jesus would stand today.

Secondly, I love the fact that this one man returns to Jesus. He really teaches us all a lesson on what true thanksgiving and true loyalty looks like.

For saying thanks to somebody for something they have done is not just a matter of etiquette. It’s not just doing what is polite and expected. A genuine show of gratitude for something another person has done for us out of their compassion and generosity demands loyalty.

As you all know, I love history and, when it comes to the age of chivalry, I am a romantic. While I decry the injustice with which women were often treated as well as people of “lower” classes, I do like certain values that were important to people of that age, among others the concept of loyalty. If someone saved your life, you felt a loyalty to this person for the rest of your life. And one of the greatest joys would be if you could return the favor and save the life of that person.

Jesus expected some form of loyalty from these lepers, but only one of them returned. That’s 10 percent. Perhaps I have become a cynic, but perhaps that’s about what we can expect from human beings in terms of loyalty today: 10 percent.

What about us? I think it is pretty safe to say that we were all lepers at one point; people without purpose, people without hope, people without salvation, without God. We all were living a life of sin and destruction, without Godly values and dignity. We were living egotistical lives, not caring for our neighbor and we removed ourselves from God and from the communion with God's people.

We were sick people, sick unto death. We were in that leper colony--isolated from the community because of our own bad choices. And God could have said, "o well, if these people chose to be away from me and if they don't want to be healed, then there is nothing I can do. But God is a God of love, not just any love, but unconditional love.

God could have left us alone in the leper community, but instead decided to cross over into the "quarantined" sinner’s colony. God chose to reach out to us, to accept us, even when we were pushing God away.

God has done it all for us, in Christ God has healed us. We have been born again, from above, into a new spiritual life. And if that's the only thing God had done for us--that's more than enough, because that is the greatest gift of all, it's the thing that matters most.

And even if life around us is falling apart, we should be thanking Jesus every minute of our lives for the gift of grace, unconditional love and forgiveness. When we wake up in the morning, the first thought should be a prayer of thanks, we should call upon our awesome God and say: "Thank you for a new day.” We should be thankful in all that we do, and receive out of God's hands with thankfulness even the tough things in life.

And what does reality look like? Well, it looks more like in our Scripture text this morning. Only one out of ten comes back to Jesus. Only one shows his thankfulness. Only one shows loyalty and an attitude of gratitude.

And sadly, this is true for the church today as well. We soon forget about that great divine gift we’ve been given. We think that we are entitled to have the best in life, to enjoy a good standing and have material possessions. And even in church we think, we are entitled to be heard, to get the recognition we think we deserve; we tend to think that we are entitled to a certain way of worship, that we are entitled to our traditional seat in the pew, or even control over matters.

Today Jesus is calling us to a life of simple thankfulness and loyalty. Am I going to be one that takes things for granted; one who insists that he is entitled to certain privileges? Or am I like the one that returns to Jesus? Am I going to be the one that lives a life of thankfulness? Am I going to be the one that is loyal to Jesus for saving me, forgiving me, and giving me the ultimate gift of life?

I want to be the one, I want to belong to the 10% that are loyal to him, that always and everywhere thank God for the undeserved gift of salvation. I want to be loyal to my Lord who did so much for me. I cannot stand the thought of Jesus asking in my absence: "and where is Frank, didn't I save him too?” Why isn't he here?"

Do you want to be the one too? Do you want to belong to the 10% of loyal disciples? Please pray with me . . .