2016-10-26 [Month of Mission 2016] Not all were grateful (but did they need to be?)

Not all were grateful (but did they need to be?)

Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus travelled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" 14 When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed. 15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him--and he was a Samaritan. 17 Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" 19 Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well.      (Luke17:11-19 )

When I was in primary school I got into trouble with my British schoolteacher for not saying "thank you" when she handed me a book. She said I had no manners. But if my mother were present she would have been proud of me. The reason is that in my culture a child may say thank you, not with words, but with the action of clapping hands and curtsying before taking a gift. These two gestures communicate both the gratitude and humility of the receiver. Unfortunately for me, my teacher did not know this.

Of the ten lepers that Jesus healed, only one came back to show gratitude. My mind is shocked at the audacity of the nine who didn't come back to give thanks! They didn't have the cultural excuse that I had in primary school. In fact, they had no excuse at all after being healed of the most incurable, stigmatizing and ostracizing disease of their time!
God sends us to go and minister to the world around us in some meaningful ways.
But -

• Not all whom you serve are grateful.
• Not all in your own family or community say the simple words thank you.
• Not all in your congregation recognize you for what you do.
• Not all your fellow workers ever acknowledge the gifts you share with them.

But do they need to be grateful? One most shocking aspect of the story of the lepers is that Jesus had compassion on them all and healed them, including the nine 'non-thankful ones'! The leper who returned to show gratitude to God was a foreigner. Surely the nine were the right people deserving the healing and therefore didn't need to be grateful? In any case, they had not been commanded to show gratitude to Jesus, but to show themselves to the priest according to the law, which they did.

Like the people we serve and minister to, we have to remember in humility that –

• Like us, many are too wounded to recognize real love when it comes their way.
• Like us, many are too poor and oppressed in spirit to show gratitude.
• Like us, many are too proud to recognize our ministry to them.
• Like us, many are simply too distracted to appreciate what has been done for them.

It would be so nice if the people we served were grateful. But their gratitude is not a necessity, or a prerequisite, for our doing ministry. Gratitude wasn't a prerequisite for Jesus to die for us and give us liberty.
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Lydia (her grandma's name) Cynthia (her mum's name) Neshangwe (her surname from her husband, Paul) is a product of the hands of many; she is a minister in the Presbytery of Zimbabwe.

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