AN ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE
LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE: LEVITICUS 13 AND LUKE 17
KEY VERSE
Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice. (Luke 17:15)
INTRODUCTION
“Thank You” is something that you expect people to say when you have done them a great favour. This is an expression of Gratitude or Appreciation and this everybody recognizes this as a good thing and a virtue. Children are taught to say “Thank You” from the time that they can understand and speak and so it is very natural to express gratitude for favours done to you or benefits that you experience.
Saying ”Thank You” to God for giving us life and for the many great things that He has done for us is most important in the spiritual sphere of life. Over and over again in ancient Israel they reacted to God’s blessings with Thanksgiving and so there was joy, praise and gratitude recorded for us in many books in the Psalms. In Scripture we see people worshiping God and rejoicing and giving thanks and we remembered the very popular Psalm 118: 1, “O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: because his mercy endures forever”.
We know the importance of giving thanks when we read this story of Jesus healing some lepers. Leprosy is a very bad disease. Nowadays there are treatments for leprosy but in ancient Israel there was nothing to help you if you had leprosy. It was so bad and damaging to people that it was regarded as a picture of sin.
Lepers were shunned by everybody and they could not live with their families, go to church, or go to any function. They could not get married. They have to stay by themselves and live outside of the village. The disease made them have a bad smell. It affected their nerves and their fingers and hands became useless and even dropped off. Because their nerves were damaged people would get burned easily and step on sharp things that cut them all because they couldn’t feel pain or any sensation. It affected their vocal cords so that they would hardly speak except in a horse voice. After 9 to 15 years of sickness lepers usually died because of the disease. It was terrible for lepers.
One day Jesus was going to Jerusalem and He passed through this area where TEN lepers lived. Nine of them were Jews but one of them was a Samaritan. Samaritans were people from a different religious community. Jews and Samaritans hated each other bitterly but because these men were in such bad shape and nobody wanted them around, they seemed to have lived together peacefully. Almost everyone in Israel knew that Jesus could heal people of all kinds of diseases and so the families of these lepers probably told the lepers that Jesus was nearby.
The book of Leviticus had outlined a lot of rules which governed how lepers should live and these rules meant that they were ostracized by everybody. They would have a hard time finding food or even finding someplace to live.
Since they could not come near Jesus they shouted out calling Him “Master”, a title showing that they knew Jesus had great authority. Jesus had pity on them and so He told them to go to the priests and tell the priests to examine them to show that they were cleansed of leprosy. This of course meant that they had to have great faith in Jesus’ ability to heal lepers. Jesus did not have to tell them that they were healed but once He told them that they should go to the priests and get examined they knew that Jesus had healed them. They did have faith and so they went straight to the priests to get the declaration that they were healed. They believed Jesus had this great power. It was amazing because nobody with leprosy had been healed for 1500 years before this.
All the lepers were glad to be healed and we are sure that they would run home and tell their families what had happened to them and begin enjoying life in their village. But one of them this Samaritan didn’t behave like the other nine lepers. Once he knew he was healed he turned back to where Jesus was fell down on his face and worshiped Jesus because of what Jesus had done for him. This Samaritan knew that gratitude was a great virtue that should be shown when someone did such a great and helpful for you.
Jesus was amazed that this man who was a foreigner and did not worship in the Temple in Jerusalem like the Jews had that kind of gratitude and thankfulness for what Jesus had done for him. The Jews who worshiped in the Temple did not think much of the Samaritans but now it was clear that they were wrong about the Samaritans. The Samaritans knew how to love (remember the Parable of the good Samaritan) and knew how to worship God properly. They knew that Jesus was God..Jesus asked him where the other nine lepers that had been healed were. It did not look like they understood what thankfulness meant and they did not have an attitude of gratitude. Of course the man did not know where they were. But he was happy to come back and tell Jesus “Thank You”.
Jesus was so happy that this man showed his gratitude that Jesus told the man that he would get a special blessing for his gratitude and so he was made whole. This meant that not only was the man healed physically but he was healed spiritually and he was now specially blessed by God.
So the lesson for us is we should be very thankful for what God has done for us. No one else apart from God can do the great things for you that God has done for you. So we should show God your Attitude of Gratitude. We should remember that we should be grateful when people do good things for us and we should be especially grateful because of the many blessings God has given us. Remember that God keeps us alive, He looks after us, He makes sure that we have food, and He had given us families and church brethren to be able to look after us. So remember you must have an attitude of gratitude. God loves you specially when you have that Attitude of Gratitude.
Remember too you must not look down on other people and think that they are inferior to you. The Jews thought that the Samaritans were inferior but it turned out that this person had a great appreciation and gratitude to God than the nine Jews had. So be careful what you judge people. So know how to behave properly. So encourage people to have an Attitude of Gratitude to God, their Creator and their Saviour.