Luke 17:11-19
I did my residency in internal medicine at Saint Louis University. During that time I took a rotation on the neurology service where the chief of neurology was carrying out a trial of a new drug for Parkinson’s disease. Unfortunately it seemed to work at the same dose that made you nauseated, and had to be given by mouth every three hours. Fortunately we’ve come up with much better drugs since then. “But one day we were making rounds on the neurology floor and our professor was talking about how wonderful the new drug was. I asked him how the drug could be so wonderful with all those side effects, especially the nausea that made it very hard to take the required doses? Without a word he brought us into a patient’s room. The man was curled up in a ball just like the pictures in the medical books -- end-stage Parkinson’s disease. Nowadays you almost never see this. Our professor asked the man, who was one of the subjects of the study, what he thought about the drug. The patient gasped out the words, “it’s great! I can turn over in bed now”.
Jesus told the lepers to show themselves to the priests. The priests were like public health officials; they knew what to look for, and were the only ones who could certify that the leprosy was gone and the person could be readmitted to normal life. And of course the Samaritan probably had no use for Jewish priests anyway. So maybe it’s not surprising that the Samaritan returned to give thanks and the others didn’t.
But why didn’t they? Maybe one of them was frightened by what had just happened - that’s not an unusual reaction when God breaks into our world. That’s why heavenly visitors like the angel Gabriel start out by saying, “Don’t be afraid!”
Maybe another saw that he was cured but couldn’t believe that Jesus did this. There are people who confront the mystery of creation or the wonder of evolution and immediately rule out the possibility that God had a hand in it.
Maybe one was offended by what happened. Naaman the Syrian almost didn’t get his miracle because he couldn’t see why he had to bathe seven times in the Jordan river; but when he did, he was cured. There are people who are suspicious of anything that is free.
And I wonder if there was one who discovered he really didn’t want to be cured; his disease had become a crutch, and without it he didn’t know what to do with himself.
Maybe one was so overjoyed by what had happened that he simply forgot to say “thank you”. It could happen.
And maybe one realized that the Kingdom of God was at hand and dashed off to spread the news.
Some of us would see the message of this parable is that we should be like the Samaritan leper and be grateful for what we receive from God, and maybe that’s part of it. But maybe we should also wonder why the nine didn’t return.
Gratitude is a wonderful thing. It’s been shown that people who spontaneously express gratitude have lower blood pressure, less depression, and are happier than those who don’t. And even people who train themselves to do this, because for some of us it isn’t natural, find physical and mental health benefits. But wait, it gets better. When you express gratitude the person who receives it has physical and emotional health benefits. I remember a cartoon many years ago, I think it was in Bloom County, when Otis the penguin said “I could snack on a thank you for the whole day”. Jesus himself in the gospels frequently expresses gratitude to his Father. And when Mary visits Elizabeth, she says that wonderful prayer we called the magnificat -- a song of thanksgiving.
The patient I mentioned was full of gratitude for something you and I take for granted -- the ability to move his body, even a little bit. And I think that’s one of the burdens of being well-off, having a nice home, having enough to eat and drink, and being free of pain. We aren’t grateful, and yet every good thing comes from God.
So today let us realize that sometimes we are probably among the nine who did not return to give thanks to God. And let us resolve to work on the practice of gratitude by expressing our thanks to God and to those who do good things for us, however small. After all, that’s the meaning of the Greek word “eucharist” and a major reason we get together every week.
