© 2019, Dr. Tamilio
The comic Emo Phillips, who weighs about 100 pounds soaking wet, jokes about the time he was arrested for a traffic violation. While in his cell, he insulted a fellow inmate who was 300 pounds of pure muscle. The man grabbed Emo in a headlock and started to choke him. Emo quickly prayed, “Oh God, if you save me, I will do anything you say. I will give you every cent I have and will dedicate my life to serving you. Please, just save me!” Emo says, “Right then, the guard came to the door and said, ‘Emo, you’re free to go. You sister posted bail.’” He then looked at the ceiling and said, “Well, thanks anyway God.”
It’s funny ‘cause it’s true. How often do we fail to thank God when he intervenes in our lives to give us what we want or need? We either dismiss that it was God, or we quickly forget that it was. We see that in today’s Gospel Lesson.
Ten men suffer from leprosy. Jesus is walking through their village (which was probably a leper colony) and they cry out for healing. He complies. He tells them to go show themselves to the priests; they are healed on the way. You can image their excitement, their shouts of joy as they made their way to the temple. One of them, however, turns around to thank Jesus. Luke tells us that he was a Samaritan. We do not know if the other nine were Samaritans. We are told that the village was on the border of Samaria and Galilee. Samaritans and Jews were enemies, but, being a border leper colony, the ten were probably a mix Jews and Samaritans.
Maybe Luke points out that the man was a Samaritan, because he might resent Jesus (a Jew) even thought the Lord healed him. In any event, the point is that one man (only one) returned to express his gratitude. Bible scholar Walter Liefeld agrees, writing, “The stress [in this passage] is on the openly expressed gratitude of the Samaritan, who alone brought praise to God.”[1] The other nine went on their way.
You can probably guess where I’m going with this. How often are we like the nine who celebrate what God has done for them without ever returning to offer him a word of thanks? Shouldn’t we be more like the one Samaritan who returns to thank Jesus for what he has done on our behalf? These are rhetorical questions, of course. You already know the answer to them. Of course, we should always thank God for all that he has done (and continues to do) for us.
But there’s more to this story than that. Giving thanks is not just a response; it is not simply what we give in return for what someone gave us. Giving thanks is a way of life. It feeds us at the core of our being.
Notice something about this story: the lepers are cleansed as they are on their way to present themselves to the high priests. It isn’t that they are healed and then are instructed to go. They are healed on the way. They were probably sent to the priests as part of the ritual of purification, but maybe they were sent to give thanks to them and were therefore healed. Do you follow me? Maybe their act of going to the priests in gratitude is what healed them.
In a 2015 article in Psychology Today, Amy Morin details seven benefits of being a grateful person.[2] She argues that these benefits are scientifically proven. They are:
- Gratitude opens the doors to more relationships.
- Gratitude improves physical health.
- Gratitude improves psychological health.
- Gratitude enhances empathy and reduces aggression.
- Grateful people sleep better.
- Gratitude improves self-esteem.
- Gratitude increases mental strength.
Morin, a licensed clinical social worker and psychotherapist, concludes her articles stating, “We all have the ability and opportunity to cultivate gratitude. Rather than complain about the things you think you deserve, take a few moments to focus on all that you have. Developing an ‘attitude of gratitude’ is one of the simplest ways to improve your satisfaction with life.”[3]
However, Morin does not discuss the spiritual benefits of gratitude in her article. I am not just talking about making God happy by thanking him. What benefit does an attitude of gratitude have for the individual? Interestingly enough, Chara Donahue has an article on the seven spiritual benefits of being thankful.[4] Those benefits are:
- It helps us to love God back.
- It is a form of worship.
- It teaches us how to discipline our thoughts.
- It gives us a posture of humility.
- It reduces anxiety.
- It erodes envy.
- It reorients our hearts.
There’s a whole sermon series there — almost two months’ worth of material! I’m not going there, but I would like to unpack the first point and add to it a bit: being thankful helps us love God more. I would add that being thankful helps us to love one another more as well.
Being thankful changes one’s perspective. Thankful people tend to be good-natured and have a positive outlook when it comes to…everything! They are more likely to volunteer to improve their communities and help those in need. More than that, though, thankful people tend to have a demeanor that directly correlates with their spirituality (whether they realize it or not). In other words, a person of faith who is thankful tends to see God’s handiwork all around them: in nature, in their relationships, in their jobs, in their communities. They feel as if their entire lives are connected to the sacred; they don’t compartmentalize their faith to one hour on Sunday morning. Being thankful isn’t so much a feeling; it is a way of being.
It makes sense that someone who lives this way will have more love for God and other people. This is not about being Pollyanna, mind you. It’s not a charge to wear blinders and be overly optimistic about everything. You can get upset when faced with injustice, for example. You can be sad when you hear bad news. You can be in a bad mood after a rough day at work. All of those things are normal, and they have nothing to do with being a grateful person. Gratitude is not an either/or mindset. However, gratitude is a reorientation of how you respond to the blessings that fill your life: the ones that are extraordinary, as well as the simple ones.
Let gratitude fill your soul and saturate your entire being. The benefits are truly for you, and the greatest benefit will be a sense of the sacred enveloping you, the lens through which you view all of life. President John F. Kennedy might have said it best: “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” Amen.
[1] Walter L. Liefeld, “Luke” from The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984), 995.
[2] Amy Morin, “7 Scientifically Proven Benefits of Gratitude,” from Psychology Today (online), April 3, 2015.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Chara Donahue, “7 Powerful Spiritual Benefits of Thankfulness,” from iBelieve.com (online), 2019.