Julius: The Holy Gospel, according to Luke chapter 17, beginning at verse eleven, and this will serve as the sermon text this morning. On another occasion, as Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, he was passing along the border between Samaria and Galilee. When he entered a certain village, ten men with leprosy met him. Standing at a distance, they called out loudly, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. When he saw them, he said, Go show yourselves to the priests. As they went away, They were cleansed. One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice. He fell on his face at Jesus' feet, thanking him, and he was a Samaritan. Jesus responded, Were not ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give glory to God except this foreigner? Then he said to him, Get up and go your way. Your faith has saved you. The Gospel of the Lord. Praise be to you, O Christ. There's a show Nicole's family watches every Christmas called Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas. And that show has three little stories in it. And the third one features three little animated ducks, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. And it's one of those stories where they repeat the same day over and over and over again. They're repeating Christmas, and the implication of the show is they're gonna repeat Christmas Day until they get it right. And you can tell right away that they're getting it wrong because they're so spoiled. They run down the stairs in the morning, first thing they don't wait for anybody else. They rip open their presents, they play with their toys, they run to the closet, they find the surprise gift, they throw the card on the ground from Uncle Donald, grab the sleds, and try to avoid the relatives so they can go outside and play. They're spoiled. And because they're spoiled, they actually eventually spoil their gifts and even spoil Christmas. Because they live the day over and over and over again. And eventually, they're hardly even playing with the toys. And they don't even care about the sleds. They spoiled the gifts. They spoiled Christmas. Three out of three ducks were able to spoil these gifts. And that ratio is pretty close to what we see in our gospel reading, where nine out of ten lepers. Are able to spoil the gift that Jesus gives them. Nine out of ten. Which ratio would we have in here today or in the world today? Three out of three, nine out of ten, either way, it's very easy to spoil gifts that God has given. And we'll see that in the account of the lepers. But first of all, we actually see them give us an example of something you can do to avoid spoiling God's gifts. If you don't want to spoil God's gifts, then remember that they are gifts. That's what the lepers realized at first. In Luke chapter 17, you probably know the story pretty well, but we'll take note of the context a little bit. Where exactly is this happening? Luke chapter 17, verse 11 says On another occasion, as Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, he was passing along the border between Samaria and And Galilee. Passing along the border between Samaria and Galilee. There's a natural division here. If they had spray paint back then, they would have spray painted a big bright red line. Galilee on this side, Samaria on this side. Because for the Old Testament Israelites, and still in Jesus' day, the Samaritans were like mutts. They were a mixed breed of the true religion, but also of paganism. And so people on the other side of the boundary, the Galileans, the Jews, the true Israelites, they wanted nothing to do with those people. And so if this is the setting and Jesus is walking on that border, you might expect him to run into two different groups. All right, there's the Samaritans, there's the Galileans, what's gonna happen? But instead, as he comes to this border, it's one big group. A bunch of people who could have been divided are united. So what brought bet what brought them together? Their need. Their need brought them together. And you can see their need in their distance and in their disease. Verses twelve and thirteen say, When he entered a certain village, ten men with leprosy met him. Standing at a distance, they called out loudly, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. This mixed group of people. Is united by their need. It says there was a group of ten people who had leprosy. And so they had to stand at a distance from Jesus and shout, Please have mercy on us. Why are they at a distance? Well, you do this when someone comes up to shake your hand when you have a cold and you go, Ooh, sorry, I have a cold. I don't want to give you germs. You naturally pull back, you separate yourself a little bit because of the disease. And it was required of people who had leprosy. It was a yucky, contagious, debilitating skin disease that could be contagious. And so by law, you had to be separated from everybody else, separated from your lives and your livelihood. They were united by their distance from everybody else and by their disease as they cry out to God, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And the Lord here has put all of them in a position. To recognize that anything they have in life has to come as a gift. They realize it because they're stripped of everything. They're away from everything they know and love. They have nothing. And so if they are going to receive any bit of life back, the only way it can come is from the Lord, the Master, the Creator of heaven and earth. And so all of them are crying out, Have mercy on us. Give us a gift. We know we don't deserve it. We know we can't come close to get it. Please have mercy on us. Still today we can divide anybody in the world through all sorts of different categories. You can divide people by different political viewpoints, you can divide people by background, which side of this border they're on. I think maybe after yesterday you can divide people by people who thought Michigan won fair and square and people who think they cheated. Maybe you could divide people by that. There's all sorts of ways to divide people. But the Lord is showing us here today that all of us are united by this one thing. By our need. All of us need mercy from the Lord. None of us deserves it. And so all of us get to cry out again and again and again for everything we have and everything we need in life. Lord have mercy. If you didn't take pity on me, if you didn't graciously give me these things, I would have nothing. And we know it's very easy to take that for granted. Like Huey, Dewey, and Louie, the longer you have something, the more you take it for granted. It's much easier to wake up in the morning, forget the Lord, and walk through life as if I'm entitled to all of the things I have. And the one time I do pray to God is when one little blessing gets taken away, and I panic about that instead of thanking him for all these other countless blessings he's given me. And yet the Lord still blesses us. I think of the guy who got struck by lightning this last week. Did any of you watch that video? This guy's just walking, minding his own business. It's so idyllic, it's by a white picket fence, and then bam, he gets struck by lightning and falls down. But what's impressive is that he immediately gets back up and he walks into the house and he says, Hey, help. And they call the ambulance and he goes and they check him out, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with him. Not even a burn, not even a hair singed. And you know what the guy said? He said, It's not luck that I'm here. I am blessed. I'm only here by grace. He realized it because he'd been struck by lightning. That's like being healed by healed from leprosy. I'm alive. Easy for us to forget that. Because it's just as much a miracle. It's not luck. It's a blessing when we open our eyes on any given morning. I have life and breath and eyes and ears and a mind and all my abilities. I have Clothing and shoes and food and drink and house and home and family and friends and sun, moon, and stars, and work and leisure. I have all of these things. This is not by luck. It's grace. Easy to forget. And so what is the Lord telling us today? If you don't remember to say thank you, I'm gonna take away your gifts and give you leprosy. No. What does the Lord show us here? Jesus knows that nine out of ten lepers aren't going to say thank you. And yet, how many people does Jesus heal? All ten. All ten. He just can't help himself. Because when there's a huge group of people united by need in front of him, that's all of us, Jesus is the kind of God who is good and gracious and can't help but give good and gracious gifts to those in need. So if you don't want to spoil the gifts that God gives, remember this first of all. Every single thing that you have in life is a gift. And if it's a gift, that implies a giver, doesn't it? And that's what one of the lepers realized. We read in verse fifteen One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice. He fell on his face at Jesus' feet, thanking him, and he was a Samaritan. Jesus responded, Were not ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give glory to God except this foreigner? Then he said to him, Get up and go your way, your faith has saved you. One returns. His eyes are opened, he sees he's healed, and he runs back, glorifying the giver, glorifying God, falling at Jesus' feet. And that is glorious. And Jesus is so happy for him. But Jesus also sounds disappointed for a second here. He sounds so sad. You hear that? He says, We're not ten cleansed. Where are the other nine? Now why is Jesus disappointed? It's not because God is up there giving us good gifts, and every time someone doesn't say thank you, he throws himself a little pity party and gets grumpy. He's God. He gives billions of gifts every day with no one saying thank you, and he is still perfectly content in bliss and glory. He's a gracious God, that's what he does. So why is Jesus disappointed if it's not for himself? It's for them. We're not ten cleansed. Where are the other nine? Jesus is disappointed for them because they missed the point of the gift. We saw this in a vivid way. Just this last week. Nicole and I, we've got an acquaintance who's sending email updates about the health of her father. He's in his 90s, he's dying, and this is a quite the saga. He's been getting worse and worse and worse. And last week the options were presented: you can do this, this, or this. And either option is he's gonna die. And so they chose this, and they took him off life support, and he survived. And they took him off this medication. And he got stronger. And they took him off this and that and that and he was healed. Last week they were saying, How is he gonna die? This week they're saying, What day is he going home? And she wrote in the email, This is a miracle. But nowhere in the email does it say who did it. Nowhere in the email does it give glory to God, let alone the true God, for restoring her father's health and giving him a little more time here on earth. She missed the point of the gift. At the same time, this past week, a friend of mine, friend of a lot of people, former district president of Texas, Pastor Patterson, he posted something online. He said this. Twenty years ago yesterday, the Lord spared me from a major heart attack. It was the Widowmaker. I am grateful for more time on earth to serve him and my family, my church and friends, and even my enemies. It really is all about him and his grand rescue plan for humanity. God bless Dr. Todd Gage and his team who gave up their family time that Labor Day to save my life. He recognizes the gift. Wow, what a gift I survived. What a gift. These people took care of me. What a gift. I have more time to spend with family and friends. But most of all, he understands the giver behind it. What did he say? It's really all about him and his grand rescue plan for humanity. That's what one leper realized. That's why Jesus was so happy for him. Because ten people were healed in this account, but only one was saved. Jesus said to that leper, Get up and go your way. Your faith has saved you. Your faith has saved you. By God's grace, he realized that there was a giver behind the gift and that the gift was pointing him to something greater. In this way, every gift God gives us in life is kind of like a wedding ring. In our new hymnal, when you exchange rings at a wedding, you say this: receive this ring as a symbol of my love and faithfulness. Receive this ring as a symbol of my love and faithfulness. Is the ring important, the physical ring? I mean, yeah. If the ring bearer forgets them, it's gonna be a big deal. But is it the most important thing? No. Even if it's a really, really expensive one. What's so important about this little gift, this physical gift? It's that it's a symbol of the love and faithfulness of the one who gives it. What's the most important thing about all the things that God gives us? It's a symbol of His love and faithfulness. Saying, I'm your Savior. Yes, I give you the physical things, but the most important thing I give you is God's love and God's faithfulness, which will bless you not just on earth, but will bless you forever. The leper recognizes the giver. And so do you. Why does Jesus keep blessing us with all these physical things, even though we don't say thank you enough, even though we don't deserve it? Because he wants to show us what a good and gracious Savior He is. When we have body and soul, eyes and ears, Jesus is showing us that he was willing to be deprived of body and soul on the cross so we could have those things. When we have house and home and family and friends, Jesus is reminding us that he was homeless, that he had nothing, that his friends abandoned him on the cross, and he willingly gave that all up so that you could be blessed with those things forever. Jesus gives you everything by his grace, including and especially his love and faithfulness and forgiveness. So if you don't want to spoil his gifts, when you receive them, receive them with that faith. This gift comes from a giver, comes from a saviour whose love and faithfulness will be with me not just now, but forever. Huey Dewey and Louie got close to realizing that, as close as a Disney show can get to the true meaning of Christmas and things like that. What happens after all those days of ruining Christmas? Finally, they realize, it's not all about us, and they decide to make it all about other people. And so they make breakfast for Uncle Donald, and they read the card, and they sing the songs, and they make it all about everybody else and the spirit of Christmas. And lo and behold, it's the best Christmas they ever had. They're close. But of course, the gifts that God gives us are not just about some vague sense of love and joy and the spirit of Christmas. The gifts God gives us points to the actual Christ of Christmas. The Lord who gave up everything so that we could be blessed forever. The Lord who took on flesh and lived in this world. To come and heal us not just physically but spiritually forever. It's all about him and his grandmaster plan to bless and save all of humanity and yes, to bless and save us. And so with the lepers today, we cry out, Lord, have mercy. Every day we cry that out as we open our eyes and give glory to God, Lord, have mercy, but we don't do it from a distance. We do it up close and personal, kneeling at the feet of our Savior, glorifying Him, and not just in this life, because of what He's done for us, we glorify and thank Him forever. Amen.