40-Days to Servanthood: Day 11

Servanthood is the response of a grateful person.

On entering a village between Samaria and His home country of Judea one day, Jesus was met by ten lepers, all begging for Jesus’ pity. In those days, leprosy was seen as a curse. The leprous person was “unclean.” Because of that, the leper couldn’t participate in religious or community life, couldn’t be with family members, couldn’t be touched by anyone, and couldn’t hold a job.

Jesus had pity on the lepers and instructed them to go to the priests in Jerusalem. Levticus 13 and 14 in the Old Testament said that if a priest certified that someone once afflicted with leprosy had become clean, they could resume their former life. The moment the men set out for Jerusalem, they were cleansed. But only one of the men, a citizen of the hated Samaritan nation, came back to Jesus. “He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him,” the Gospel of Luke says. Next, we’re told, “Jesus asked, ’Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’ Then he said to him, Rise and go; your faith has made you well’" (Luke 17:11-19).

Notice two things. First, all ten lepers were healed. But Jesus declared that only one of them was made “well”: the person who was thankful. When we gratefully acknowledge what God has done for us through Christ--giving us forgiveness and new life--we are well, no matter what afflicts us. Second, gratitude freed this man from slavery to self. He understood that the world consisted of more than himself; it included the God Who made him, as well as other people as much in need of God’s blessings as he was.

The apostle Paul once marveled at how Christians in Macedonia, in spite of being poor and troubled themselves, “begged...and pleaded for the privilege of having a part in helping God’s people in Judea” (2 Corinthians 8:4). Grateful for Jesus’ death and resurrection that gave them life, they gave of themselves to others. Servanthood is the response of a grateful person.

Bible Passage to Ponder: “They begged us and pleaded for the privilege of having a part in helping God’s people in Judea” (2 Corinthians 8:4)