In a world where even machines say ‘thank you’ in response to our actions, it is easy to lose our grip on the power of those two words. Genuine thankfulness is our acknowledgement that something was done by another person who had the choice to ignore or discount our needs in favour of their own comfort or preference. (See 2 Corinthians 8:9.)

Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. He knows what awaits him there. He is focused. Yet he stops to listen and respond to the most disposable people imaginable: people with leprosy on the Samaritan border. Twice.

The first time ten people are yelling. That would be hard to ignore, even at a distance. They have a need Jesus can and does meet. The second time only one person is yelling, but because of a very different need. The healed Samaritan is no longer at a distance (verse 16). He is driven by joy, not pain. He is drawn close to the source of his joy. He cannot be silent or self-focused.

His thanks do not change Jesus, but they certainly change him. His whole world has been reoriented with a new compass. The nine others were healed. He has been ‘made well’ (v 19).

Ingratitude can corrode us from within. Ask God to show if you’re focusing too much on what he has not yet done rather than on what he has already done.

The journey to Jerusalem, begun in Luke 9:51, resumes along the border with Samaria. Jesus has sent the seventy-two out ahead of him.¹ Not only are many travelling with him, but Jesus is now expected wherever he goes. A group of people with leprosy, banded together across racial tensions by their desperate plight, seize their opportunity. Standing at a distance – both because they fear making others unclean and because they fear being driven away because their condition provoked loathing – they shout out together as loudly as they can. They want to stop Jesus before he enters the village, from which they were barred. They name Jesus as their Master and implore him to share God’s mercy with them.

Halted by their shouts, conscious that they’re grasping for the presence of the kingdom, Jesus tells them to go and present themselves to the priests according to the Law. Such an examination was key: being certified as clean by a priest released them from isolation and restored them to community. Then, as they exercise faith in Jesus and obey his instruction, something amazing happens: they are cleansed. In going in faith to obey the Law, they receive the kingdom instead. They are all cleansed, but only one gives proper acknowledgement to Jesus. Feeling it seemingly in his body, he returns full of loud and ecstatic praise. His reverent response is close to worship, but Jesus doesn’t refuse it. He simply wonders aloud how the other nine have not been similarly moved. This foreigner, responding in joy, not just from obligation, has discerned the right response. Jesus sends him back to life and community as another whose faith in Jesus, who alone has the authority to heal, has made well.

Ask God to give you the hunger for God’s kingdom and a boldness in prayer, returning to your prayer agenda from New Year’s Day.

¹ See Luke 10:1