National Day of Thanksgiving + Luke 17:11-19 + November 21, 2018

In the Name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Today we hear again of the ten lepers whom Jesus healed. We hear this gospel lesson every year on the fourteenth Sunday after Trinity. But it is good for us to hear it again on this National Day of Thanksgiving. The connection is obvious. Ten men with leprosy, a living death in which their flesh decays a bit more each day, cry out to Christ, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” Christ shows them that He is gracious and compassionate to those who humbly seek mercy from Him. He says only, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” He tells them this because according to the Law of Moses, Leviticus specifically, the priest’s duties included examining sores on the children of Israel to see whether or not they were leprous. If the priest found the sore to be leprous he declared the man unclean. But if a leper was healed by the grace of God, the priest would examine him once again to publically testify that the man was now cleansed. Jesus sends the ten men to the priests. The men believe Jesus and “so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.” Their faith had saved them. They trusted the word Jesus gave them and did at He commanded.

While the ten were on their way to the closest priest they could find, one of them realizes that he’s already healed. He stops dead in his tracked. He returns to Christ and with the loud voice glorifies God. He falls down on his face at Jesus’ feet and gives Him thanks. This, of course, is the proper response. He begged for mercy and Christ answered His prayer. He did not deserve mercy. Jesus didn’t owe it to him. Christ healed all ten men out of sheer grace because that’s the kind of God He is. The former leper knew this and this knowledge brought him to Jesus feet in humble worship and thanksgiving for this gift. St. Luke adds, “And he was a Samaritan,” which means the other nine were Jews, God’s people. It’s ironic that God’s people, who had so many times experienced God’s gracious deliverance and mercy, would take God’s mercy for granted. The nine got what they wanted and went their way. Perhaps they gave God a thankful thought later on. I’m sure they felt a feeling of general thankfulness. Who wouldn’t? But they didn’t come back to the Giver of the gift to give Him thanks and praise for His undeserved compassion and mercy.

Jesus asks ironically, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?  Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” Of course He knows that all ten were cleansed. His question teaches us about ourselves. Nine out of ten lepers are unthankful. Ninety percent of those who receive that for which they ask God don’t thank Him. Nine out of ten sinners go their own way, back to their own life, enjoying what God gives them without thanksgiving to Christ. You feel the sting, don’t you? You feel it because it’s true. More often than you care to admit, you’re among the nine. You pray for something. You pray day and night. You pray fiercely and tenaciously. Then one day God gives you what you need. You rejoice. You exult. You enjoy the gift given. But you do not return and give thanks. You’re not alone. This is what sinful human nature does. It takes what God gives it and runs with it, hardly ever looking back to Christ who gave it. Sure there are many who say a hasty “thank you” to God. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day. How many people will give thanks for all sorts of things they have but will only do so generically? They won’t give thanks to Christ. They’ll simply “give thanks.” They will say, “I’m thankful for this or that.” But they won’t finish the sentence and say to whom they are thankful. Some won’t thanks God because they don’t believe in Him, others out of forgetfulness.

Recently I saw a post on Facebook which read: “What if God only gave you tomorrow what you thanked Him for today?” You see the point. If God only gave you tomorrow those things which you thanked Him for today, we’d be in a bad way. It was meant to get people to think about what God has given to them and give thanks. While it may very well accomplish its goal in some and make them more thankful, it goes about it in the wrong way. What if God only gave you tomorrow what you thanked Him for today? “It invites people to imagine what it would be like if God was a stingy and childish as we often are. I’ve been your pastor long enough that you probably have a pretty good idea of my initial, unfiltered response was to the question. “What if God only gave you tomorrow what you thanked Him for today?” You wouldn’t have the Christian God.

The Christian God, the true God, doesn’t threaten punishment if you don’t give thanks to Him. Jesus says of His heavenly Father, “He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). Dr. Luther explains the Fourth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread” by saying, “God gives daily bread, even without our prayer, to all wicked men; but we pray in this petition that He would lead us to know it, and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.” Tomorrow, countless unbelievers will sit around a table and give thanks for the blessings God gives them in this life without acknowledging that it is God who has graciously given them these things. They’ll simply “give thanks” or say “I’m thankful for this or for that.” And they deserve none of it because of their sin and unbelief. But God doesn’t withhold their daily bread because of their sin and unbelief, just as He doesn’t withhold the sun and rain from the evil and unrighteous masses.

The Christian God, the true God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, is merciful, gracious, and compassionate to His creatures. The heathen refuse to believe this. But this is not the case with you. You know the true God. You know His mercy. You know His promises. He promised to provide daily bread and you know from Luther’s Small Catechism that daily bread is “everything that belongs to the support and wants of the body.” More than that, you know the promise of the Gospel: That God sent His only-begotten Son into the world to atone for our sins and earn a perfect righteousness, so that all who flee to Christ for mercy will find it in Him. You know that all who believe in Christ are justified by that faith, so that your sins are forgiven not by working the works of the Law each day perfectly but simply by trusting God’s promise of forgiveness. You are blessed to know that even the faith to believe the Gospel isn’t your own doing, but that too is the gift of God which He creates in your hearts through the Word, Holy Baptism, Absolution, and Holy Communion. You know that this promise is for all men, not some, because God says He “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4). You know it will always be true because “His compassions fail not. They are new every morning” (Lam. 3:22-23). You can’t coerce thanksgiving out of someone. You can’t command gratitude. When threat of punishment produces thanksgiving it’s not real thanksgiving that’s produced. Thanksgiving, like that of the Samaritan, is only produced when we take time to contemplate what and how much God the Holy Trinity has given to us, and that that He’s gives it to us each day not because we deserve any of it, but of our sheer grace and mercy for Christ’s sake. Consider this each day then return to Christ and with a loud voice glorify God and give thanks.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.