James Nisbet Commentary - Luke 17:17 - 17:17

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James Nisbet Commentary - Luke 17:17 - 17:17


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

INGRATITUDE

‘Where are the nine?’

Luk_17:17 (The Gospel)

There are few things that we feel more than ingratitude. This was a very bad case, an extreme case, because the disease that these men suffered from was the very worst. And then, not only was the disease such an extreme case, but the cure was absolutely complete. At a word they were made whole. When the Lord Jesus Christ cures, He cures indeed. Yet out of the ten who were cleansed only one returned to thank Him. ‘Where are the nine?’

I. Nine to one!—Do you think that is a good proportion? Do you think that is the proportion that would stand if we were to count up the present congregation in church to-day? You got up this morning in health; you are well, and have come to church. Let us just ask ourselves how many of us have thanked God. Do you think nine out of ten? How many of us, as we are to-day, kneel down and thank God for creation, for preservation, for the blessings of to-day?

II. Nine prayed, but only one praised.—They were all most earnest about their prayers. When you have wanted something, when you were in great trouble, you have knelt in your room and asked God to help you. We were very earnest in our prayer when we were in trouble, but we never went into His House and gave Him thanks for recovery, or lifted up our voices to praise God. The ten prayed very earnestly, and only one of them said, ‘Thank God.’

III. The only one who redeemed the occasion was a Samaritan!—Does not that correct something within our souls? Deep down beyond all our religious distinctions there is humanity—the touch of nature which makes all men kin.

IV. A few aspects of the thanksgiving.

(a) He returned and gave thanks himself in person. If you are to thank God, do it personally. Say to yourself, God has been good to me; I must thank Him.

(b) It must come right out of the heart. You know what this man did. He turned back and threw himself down at Jesus’ feet worshipping. Thanksgiving to God is the need of a soul that knows God has blessed him.

(c) He did it at once, then and there, without a pause. I hope that some of you feel some qualms within yourselves if you have not thanked God as you ought. Do it now; now is the opportunity. Do not wait. Do not say, ‘I will thank God to-morrow.’ Now, in church—now is your opportunity.

Rev. A. H. Stanton.

Illustration

‘This Samaritan is not praised for returning to give thanks to his earthly benefactor. “There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.” This Samaritan alone had faith to discern that it was at the feet of Jesus his vows to God could best be offered. He saw that there was One greater than the Temple, One higher than the sons of Aaron, even that Great High Priest, through Whom alone our petitions and our thanksgivings can be offered with acceptance to the Father. So we think a higher blessing was conveyed to him than to the nine.’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

A DEFECT IN CHRISTIAN CHARACTER

Who of us can read the story without a sense of self-reproach? ‘Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits,’ says the Psalmist; but how prone we are to forget! How eagerly, how selfishly, do we appropriate the blessing! How little we think of the love that bestows it! There are three main reasons for this serious defect in our character as Christians.

I. Are we not apt to receive the gifts of God too much as a matter of course, if not a matter of right?—We are wanting in that spirit of humility which recognises and realises an utter absence of merit. In the story of the ten lepers, which has led us into this train of thought, it was a stranger who returned to give thanks. The Jew was apt to take everything that came to him as a matter of right, and wonder that he did not get more, as being one of God’s peculiar people.

II. In regard to daily mercies their very commonness dulls our sense of gratitude.—Familiarity breeds forgetfulness. If a man has a hair’s-breadth escape from drowning, or comes safe out of a disastrous railway accident, he kneels down and thanks God for such a signal mercy; or if some long-desired but long-denied thing comes into his life, he will say to himself, ‘What a cause for thankfulness!’ But the daily bread that nourishes him, the daily health that makes life a joy to him, the friendships that cheer him, the love of wife and children that fills his home with brightness and comfort, are, or become, so much a matter of course, that it hardly occurs to him that they should ‘be received with thanksgiving.’

III. We may find another cause of this ingratitude in the fact that even sincere Christians walk too much by sight, too little by faith.—‘Out of sight, out of mind,’ is a familiar saying; how sad that it should have any application to the relations that exist between God and His children! We touch, we taste, we see, we handle; the things we enjoy day by day present themselves to our senses, but the Giver of all is an object of faith. ‘No man hath seen God at any time,’ so He is forgotten; shares the fate of the machinery that produces our food and raiment; we forget Him for the same reason that we forget the mill that grinds our corn and the loom that produces our cloth; ‘out of sight, out of mind.’

Rev. G. S. Streatfeild.

Illustration

‘There is more prayer than praise in the world. It ought to be the reverse. There should be more praise than prayer. For what we have received is much more than what we want. Our mercies accumulate much faster than our necessities.’