Luke 17:11-19 chronicles the story of the ten lepers. Beginning at verse 11,
11 ¶ And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.
12 And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:
13 And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.
14 And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.
15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,
16 And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.
17 And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?
18 There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.
19 And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.
I once had the privilege of teaching a Primary class that was somewhere between 4 and 6 years old (I had the same class for parts of two years and moved up with them). One of the lessons dealt with this story and I thought a good way to teach the story would be to have the class act it out. Everything went roughly according the script until the part came when the lone Samaritan returned to offer thanks because, at that point, they decided that they all wanted to be grateful and they all returned to thank Jesus for cleansing them. I found this to be a curiously powerful lesson, because expressing gratitude is worth transgressing the script whether social or otherwise that we are given. Let’s all remember to express gratitude even when it is unexpected, or surprising, or even when (at the risk of appealing to questionable statistics) nine out of ten people fail to express gratitude (Luke 17:17-18).