Womanist theologian Dr. Yolanda Pierce considers the gratitude of the ten lepers Jesus heals in Luke 17:11–18:
Ten people broken and ostracized. Ten people crying out for deliverance. Ten people cleansed by the power of the Great Physician. Ten people able to return to their homes and families. And only one returns to say thank you….
But this passage is not about the thank-you as much as it is about the returning and the remembering. In the story, only one of those healed returns to Jesus. He does not just say thank you; he throws himself at the feet of Jesus and cries out in a loud voice. This is not polite gratitude for a favor done. This is the cry of someone who has been restored to a healthy condition, a condition he thought unattainable.
Gratitude, real thankfulness, is a mental return to the moment of need—a physical, spiritual or emotional need…. Gratitude requires returning to that moment of need even after the need has been met.
Pierce reflects on how she has been in the position of each character in the story:
I have been the broken one in need of healing, who fails to return to my moment of need and to remember after I have been healed. Full of energy and new life, I have forgotten to acknowledge the source of my strength and say thank you….
I have also been the one who has returned, throwing myself at the feet of those who have so richly blessed me. I have at times heeded my grandmother’s advice to “give others their flowers while they are still living.” Whether with real flowers or words of praise, I have at times remembered to return in gratitude to those teachers or neighbors or colleagues who have blessed my life even if they did not know it.
But nothing has humbled me more than to be on the receiving end of someone’s gratitude. After a long season of pouring out pieces of my heart and soul, thinking no one understands or appreciates my efforts, I may receive a card or note or a visit with a word of thanks. Tears flood my eyes when this happens, because at that moment I truly understand the power of gratitude. The recipient has been blessed, and their expression of gratitude humbles and blesses the gift giver.
It is in this space of mutuality—giving and receiving, thanking and being thanked, returning and remembering—that we can truly appreciate the story of the one man with leprosy who returns with words of thanks. He is not only cleansed; in his expression of gratitude, we can locate his complete healing. The cleansing from the disease takes place after only a few words from the Healer. But the full healing of his mind and body happens when he acknowledges his need, gratitude, and love for the Divine One. Ten are cleansed, but only one, through remembrance and return, is made completely whole.
Reference:
Yolanda Pierce, In My Grandmother’s House: Black Women, Faith, and the Stories We Inherit (Broadleaf Books, 2023), 143–144, 145.
Image credit and inspiration: Debby Hudson, untitled (detail), 2018, photo, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. The silhouette of the person with hands open to the sky visually embodies gratitude as a recognition of life’s gift, showing how grace flows inward and outward, connecting self, community, and the divine.
Story from Our Community:
I’m 63 but feel like a school kid as I read and absorb the wisdom in the CAC’s Daily Meditations. I am especially drawn to the spiritual beauty and truth of paradox, in particular, the message that I need to die to my small self in order to live into this next stage of life in full freedom and in pursuit of the Self that seeks to know and do the will of God. Thank you for filling my inbox and heart with a daily message I need. I hear God speaking to me through your works.
—Bud B.
