November 22, 1998
Luke 17:11-19
Returning
Besides a sign that might say, “No Returns” when we go shopping this Black Friday and “Tax Returns” next April, the thought of “returning and going back” solicits positive images in us.
Particularly during this holiday season of Thanksgiving and Christmas, returning home reminds us of nostalgia and sentimentalities. This Thanksgiving holiday weekend is the busiest travel time in the whole year. Many will spend many hours on the highways and in trains, busses, and planes to return home and reminisce around the hearth.
Thanksgiving Day for us is something like this. The family china will be cleaned and set. The turkey stuffed and ready to go in the oven. The sweet potatoes whipped with toasted mini-marshmallows on top will be pippin hot. As usual a can of Ocean Spray cranberry sauce straight out of the can with the lines and ridges on the side on the table to scoop up. And not too far from all the activity, would be my home-made apple pie filled with thick apple slices with some of the core left on to convince the guests that it is truly “home-made” will finish up the grand affair. Thanksgiving Day is a wonderful time to return home, to gather together and thank the Lord for all the blessings in life. Then it is to watch the “punt returns!”
Ten Lepers
In our Scriptures for this morning, we read what happened when Jesus healed the ten lepers. While they were going to see the priests so that the priests can declare them cleaned, they were being healed. Leprosy was not curable so lepers were cordoned off in colonies away from everyone else. And it was against the law for anyone to even touch a leper. Imagine having been abandoned by your family for dead you begin noticing that the white blotches on your skin that have no feeling in them began to have its healthy colors return!
One out of ten lepers turned around when he noticed he was being healed right before his eyes. He couldn’t just keep following the others to show the priests, he turned back to thank Jesus. Maybe he realized that he would have plenty of time to have the priests declared him healed. Or maybe he was like a well-trained Chinese American youth whose parents always taught him to say “Thank you.” This leper praised God in a loud voice. He prostrated himself in front of Jesus’ feet and thanked him. He was so happy that he can return to a normal lifestyle again.