NOTES for Luk 17:12-19

In the story of the ten lepers, one detail is interesting: the Lord sends the lepers to fulfill what is written in the Law about leprosy and its healing, to go and show themselves to the priests. As Jews who honored the Law, nine of them, they would not have been able to return quickly and thank Jesus if they first fulfilled the legal commandment and only afterward gave free rein to their feelings. Why, then, is the Lord more pleased not with them, but with the tenth, the Samaritan, a half-pagan who did not dare come close to a Jewish Teacher? Perhaps what matters more to Him is not formal gratitude expressed in the temple sacrifice that the healed leper was supposed to offer, but a living gratitude that comes from the heart and overcomes all legalistic barriers...

We all know how important it is to thank God, but do we do it from an inner impulse, or do we piously go to bring Him yet another "thanksgiving" sacrifice?