Everyone knows about the Good Samaritan. He is one of the best-known characters in history. We know he belonged to a despised people--Samaritans--people who did not keep the laws in the prescribed way and who had intermarried with foreigners. We know he was the surprise hero in Jesus' parable that bears his name. We know he was a generous and compassionate man who paid an innkeeper out of his own pocket for the upkeep of a stranger who had been stripped, robbed, beaten and left for dead beside the road to Jericho.

Everybody knows about the Good Samaritan. But let's not forget the story of the Grateful Samaritan. For there is nobility in his character as well.

This Samaritan was a member of a group of ten lepers who asked Jesus for mercy.

Have you ever asked Jesus for mercy? Have you eve…