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 was now 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 and others 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)
We are all guilty of this, I certainly am. How many times throughout life do wonderful things happen and we don't even acknowledge and thank God for them. Think of all the simple things we take for granted each and every day. I have made it a primary goal to thank God for the little things. I strive to offer prayers of thanks every day. Even upon daily review I still overlook many things that I have taken for granted. It also helps to thank God for what we have when we are frustrated, such as having the technological opportunity to listen options in Swahili ;0)
ReplyDeleteThank YOU for your comments.
ReplyDeleteGod bless you.
Mark
Charlie:
ReplyDeleteWorking on this set of readings for the past several months has taught me a lot. Most of all, it's shown me how difficult I find it to be a servant.
When life is going well, as suddenly it was for those ten lepers, we get caught up in our own agendas, leaving little room for concern about doing for God or others. The one leper who returned militated against both his inborn selfishness and the norms of society. To acknowledge our debt to God (and to others) is an essential step on the road to servanthood.
To your final point: Every human convention, no matter how good, is also infected with human sin. That includes our notion of "rights." Valuable and important though this notion is, liberty without a sense of community or mutual accountability is dangerous and destructive, something we see in our culture every day.
Thanks for reading the blog, Charlie, and for your thoughful comments.
Blessings to you, my friend!
Mark
I LOVE this blog! I want to tell you that I have been concerned with right behavior all my life , and the first forty-five years of it I spent as an aetheist (brought up in an agnostic home). I am just as concerned with behavior but now with God in my life, I find things a bit easier to understand or do. Strangely enough, great happiness is what brought me to God ( I say this because it seems in my limited experience that so many people come to God from misery), or maybe God gave me the happiness as the path, I don't know. But I love the servant aspect and believe in it. The one thing I don't understand is that people don't seem to talk about behavior - the behavior that should be faith made visible - very often.
ReplyDeleteThank you, and I'll be following your blog.
Cluny Grey
CG:
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your comments. At one time, I was an atheist, too; so, I was especially interested in what you wrote. I hope that you'll return and comment again in the future.
Blessings!
Mark