It only takes one with a heart of gratitude

In Luke 17: 11-19, we have the story of the ten lepers. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem where He will be rejected by the ones He came to save. He will be crucified for the sins of the world. On His way to Jerusalem He meets ten men who have been affected by the disease called leprosy. They begin to cry out really loud, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" Those who were affected with this disease would normally call out, "unclean, unclean" to warn those that they were lepers. Instead they cry out for mercy. They knew who Jesus was, and that He had the power to heal them. All ten of them believed that Jesus could do this, and all ten enjoyed the blessing of His healing power. For as they obeyed the Words of Jesus to go and present themselves to the priest for inspection, they were healed. You can only imagine the joy of each of them as they realized that they were healed. They could speak clearer, and feel the senses in all of their toes and fingers, or see the new limbs that Jesus created. But as all ten went to the priest, one, that's right, just one wanted to share his heart of gratitude with Jesus. He comes to Jesus and with a loud voice begins to glorify God by giving thanks to Him who changed his life.
What's the lesson to be learned? There are a few. One lesson is obvious, and that is to not be like the other lepers who forgot, or for whatever reason never thanked Jesus. Instead we should as Christians be thankful people. We should not be ashamed of glorifying God publicly for blessing us.

We should also not be just takers like the nine lepers who took the healing but never wanted to give glory to God for it. They are like the countless of professing believers who take from church all that they can get but never give anything back.

The nine represent those who are comfortable with a religion that doesn't require the worship of Jesus. They are happy with doing religious things just as long no commitment is needed.

The one who came back to give glory to God for healing Him is like a those whom the Father is seeking. For He is seeking those who will worship him in spirit and in truth. The one leper who came back is that one who God takes notice of, for He says through Isaiah the prophet:
          “But on this one will I look:
          On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit,
          And who trembles at My word.

The greatest blessing that this former leper received was not just the healing of his body, but the healing of his soul. For Jesus sent him away a new man both body and soul, by forgiving him of his sin. Why did Jesus save him? Most likely it was because Jesus saw in his heart a humble and contrite man who was truly thankful for the physical healing he had received. For this is why Jesus came, He came to preach the gospel, to give sight to the blind, to heal the brokenhearted, and to set at liberty those who are oppressed.
Jesus deserves the kind of worship that He received from this leper from all of us. It only takes one with a heart of gratitude. Will you be the one?