Luke 17:15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God.
Who are you? How do you identify yourself? If you were to ask me that question, I could give you a couple of answers. I am an American. I am a man. I am a Tennessean. I am a Denver Broncos fan. I love horses, hiking, and skiing. I’m a preacher. I’m responsible for a camp, Bill Rice Ranch. So, there are a number of ways we can identify ourselves, and if we are not careful, these can become the primary identifiers of who we are and what we do. How do you identify yourself?
In Luke 17 we have the story of ten lepers who were right on the border of Samaria and Galilee. The Samaritans were racially and religiously different from the people in Galilee who were Jewish. There were ten lepers, and they asked Jesus for mercy. They cried out with a loud voice. They recognized their need and His place, calling Him “Master.” They said, “Have mercy on us!” They did this from afar as lepers often did. Leprosy was catchy, and they were social distancing.
Jesus healed them, and Luke says, “And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God… giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.” Jesus use of the word “stranger” means that the man was not Jewish. He was a Gentile, a Samaritan in particular.
Who was this man? Why is he even in the Bible? You don’t even know his name. We know he was a Samaritan by nationality. Being a Samaritan was a circumstance over which he had no choice. He was born that way. Under normal circumstance he would not have been with these other nine men. They were Jewish; he was Samaritan. They would not have been together. But, he was also a leper, and all of a sudden, that was the thing that mattered. Both Jewish and Samaritan lepers were ostracized from their own. Now, these Jewish lepers and this Samaritan had something in common. They were all under the same calamity. Now, if you asked this Samaritan who he was, he may have replied, “I am a leper.”
Why is he in this book and this story? It was not because he was a Samaritan or a leper but because of his relationship with Jesus Christ. He had faith and gratitude. Even when these ten did not have nationality in common, only their calamity and faith in common, this man had something that made him singular. That was his gratitude. Gratitude is faith; it is just at the other end. Sometimes we know we need Jesus; we know we need God. We trust Him, but once we get an answer, we forget about it and Him. We tend to be much closer to God when our circumstances are not what we would wish.
Who was this man? He a Samaritan and a leper; he had faith and gratitude. We learn from him that your lot in life is not nearly as important as the decisions you make. Who am I? I am needy, a beggar. I need to come to Christ, and I need to live a life of gratitude after He has given what I need.
So, who are you? Perhaps many of the things that you would give as an answer are not things that you would have chosen. You do not choose where you were born or the calamities you have endured. The point is that there are things you don’t choose, and they may identify you. But what identifies you most are the things you choose, your faith in Christ and your gratitude toward Him.