Be Thankful That You Are Thankful :: Luke 17:11-19
Of all the diseases you could be afflicted with during the first century, I’m not sure there could have been one worse than leprosy. Not only was Hansen’s disease, as we call it today, disabling ... disfiguring. It slowly destroys your skin, the nerves, the eyes. It cripples your hands and feet. It destroys the cartilage in your nose. It left you completely isolated and ostracized from your community, your church, your family, your spouse, your children. Ultimately, paralysis and blindness set in, and finally death.
In the first century ... save for a miracle of Jesus ... there was no cure.
Now ask yourselves, just how thankful was the one man ... a Samaritan, no less ... who not only realized that he had been cleansed of this hideous disease, but that Jesus had healed him ... that Jesus brought him back into unity with God and neighbor, making him whole ... saving him.
Just how thankful will you be when you realize that Jesus has done the same for you?
1. Our Gospel reading tells us about two miracles that warrant our thanks and praise.
The first is a change in the bodies of ten men who had leprosy. The second is the change in the heart of the one man who learned to worship Jesus in thanksgiving, recognizing God with us.
In our reading today, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to suffer and die for the sins of the world, and to rise on the third day into eternal life. And Luke writes, As he entered into a certain village, he was met by ten leprous men, who stood far off, and they lifted their voice, saying, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. When he saw them, he said, ‘When you go, show yourselves to the priests.’ And it happened as they went, they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned with a great voice, glorifying God, and he fell upon his face before the feet of Jesus, giving thanks to him, and he was a Samaritan. In response, Jesus then said, ‘Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found returning to give praise to God except this foreigner? (vv 11-19)
God always takes the initiative with us. Even when we don't know what to pray for, he always intercedes for us. He continually comes to us, serving us. In his service, he gives us faith.
Is that not reason enough to be thankful? That he saves us in this way.
Jesus revealed his abundant mercy to ten lepers, from afar.
Jesus always hears the prayers of those who have faith.
In the same way today, having heard your cries for mercy, God will do the same for you. In many and various ways, he draws near, delivering his mercy, which is the forgiveness of sins, and his grace, which is eternal life. He does it for the grateful and the ungrateful alike. As Paul says in our epistle, He desires all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth of who he is and why he has come (1 Tm 2:4). Faith in Jesus saves. He calls us and enlightens us that he is the one who serves, cleanses, heals, feeds, unites, and gives faith that saves.
2. And does the same for you.
Look at where you are on a Wednesday night before all of our families celebrate a Day of Thanksgiving. You have all returned to Jesus, the author and perfecter of the faith. We call from afar, and he draws near.
We should therefore not take for granted that we might be healthy ... that our family might be intact ... that we might have jobs ... that we might not be physically or mentally impaired. We should not take for granted the major miracles in our lives. Jesus is coming in Word and sacrament to save us. He comes to announce forgiveness, to bring us back into baptism, to feed us his manna which the Israelites in the wilderness did not know (Dt 8:3). These are more than enough reasons to be thankful to God, glorifying him every chance we get with a great voice.
Consider now how often and how specifically God has answered our casual prayers ... That his kingdom always comes in Christ. ... That his Will is always done even without our prayer. ... That he’s always giving us today his daily bread. And that he always forgives our sins on his account ... guards us from temptation on his account ... and delivers us from the evil one.
3. For all this it is our duty to give him thanks and praise him ... to be thankful that we are thankful.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is good and pleasing in the sight of God our Savior (1 Tm 2:2). So don’t keep what God has done for you today to yourselves. Share what God does for you here every Lord’s day with others. Here, Jesus comes to you. Here, Jesus makes you whole.
Tell your brothers and sisters. Tell your neighbors. Bring them to church.
As Paul says, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people.
We do not deserve the gifts for which we are thankful. But God has blessed us with undeserved mercy and grace ... and that is more than enough reason to be thankful. Jesus has taken our crippling sin from us upon himself, suffering so that we won’t. He died for our sin. And on the third day, because he supplies every need (Pp 4:19) ... He is now risen. ... And because he lives, so too shall we (Jn 14:19).
Do we need more reason to be thankful?
He saves you through baptism, absolution, and the Lord’s Supper. His reiterates his promise to Israel in the wilderness, reminding you that this is just as valid and certain today. YHWH your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with rivers of water, of springs and the deep flowing out in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and figs and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey, in which you will eat bread without poverty, lacking nothing (Dt 8:7-9).
[Conclusion]
And now the Lord and Giver of Life is now calling us to rise and go our way, telling the world what Jesus has done being thankful that we are thankful.
Giving thanks to him is a blessing on top of a blessing. And when we, like the Samaritan, come here to thank God for his gifts, we again see his grace. Our ability to thank God starts at the cross and leads us to the world ... where we remember the goodness of God on the cross and out of the empty tomb ... in Jesus’ name.