In Luke 17:7-10, Jesus teaches “The Parable of the Worthless Slave,” in which a slave works for his master all day and then comes in from his labors and expects his master to prepare a meal for him.
Jesus indicates that such behavior is ridiculous, for the slave and master alike would expect the slave to prepare the meal for his master and then prepare his own meal. Jesus then says that His disciples should say to God, “We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done” (Luke 17:10).
Perhaps the teaching is not to assault our sense of self-worth and value, but an injunction to stop treating God as our slave.
The very next verses tell the story of Jesus instructing 10 lepers to go and show themselves to the priests, who had the power to judge people clean or unclean. These lepers had been unclean, which effectively prevented them from functioning in society. As they journeyed, they discovered that they had all been healed.
Jesus was amazed, however, that only one of them, a foreigner who was a Samaritan, bothered to return to Jesus and thank Him for his healing while prostrating himself before Him. The nine healed Jewish lepers apparently felt no need to return to Jesus and express their appreciation. After all, they were Jews, God’s chosen and righteous people, and God had only done for them what He was supposed to do.
The Samaritan man had no expectation that he would be healed by a Jew. It is easy to understand why the Samaritan was thankful and utterly astonished at his healing. What is harder to understand is why the nine Jews were not.
We often expect God to be our slave. If we are good, we expect everything to go our way. If we encounter good fortune, we think it is because we somehow deserve it. The good things that happen to us in life often don’t make us turn to God in gratitude, we just think we are getting what ought to come our way.
The nine Jewish lepers must have thought it was about time that God finally did His job. They were worthy. We are Americans, Christians, hardworking, good, and not like other people. Of course we are entitled to God’s blessings. We assume God ought to work everything in our favor.
In the story of the Pharisee and the publican in Luke 18:10-13, two men went to the temple to pray. The Pharisee prayed, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector ...” But the tax collector beat his breast and prayed, “God be merciful to be a sinner.” Jesus declared that it was the tax collector who left the temple forgiven and spiritually whole that day, while the Pharisee was not made right with God.
Coming back to the story about the 10 lepers, when the healed Samaritan returned to Jesus and expressed his gratitude, worship, and adoration, Jesus said to him, “... your faith has made you well” (Luke 17:19). The Greek word translated “well” also means “whole,” “saved,” and “complete.” The nine proud Jews only had their bodies healed, but the humble, grateful Samaritan was healed not only in his body, but also in his spirit. He was now rightly related to God because of His faith in the Messiah.
Even though they were encountering almost unlimited signs right before their eyes, many of the Jews of Jesus’ day failed to experience wholeness and healing in their spirits. Their pride kept them from recognizing Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God.
Today, we may fail to recognize that God deserves our gratitude and worship. We may assume we are worthy. We may expect God to love and bless us because we are good Americans, good church people, or just plain good, but the truth is none of us is deserving.
We all have spiritual leprosy and are corrupt and destined to die apart from fellowship with God. Yet, Christ freely offers us healing and His gift of eternal life. He is extravagantly generous, but His grace requires a response from us. We cannot just go on about our business and live our own lives apart from the interests of the Kingdom of God.
We cannot afford to be presumptive of grace, we must stand utterly amazed and respond with gratitude, worship, and service to the Master. Nine lepers felt they deserved grace, one realized the immensity of the gift that had been given to him. Are you among the nine ungrateful persons, or are you like the Samaritan who, finding yourself blessed, falls at Jesus’ feet and thanks Him?
Dr. Dan Darby is a retired United Methodist pastor.
