Sermon

November 27, 2003
Thanksgiving
Luke 17:11-19
Pastor Robert Raasch

Give Thanks to Jesus

1. He Pities the Afflicted
2. He Heals the Trusting
3. He Praises the Thankful

Today (tomorrow) is Thanksgiving Day. A day when the people of our nation will take time to count their blessings. People will give thanks for the turkey and the stuffing and grandma's apple pie. They'll give thanks for family and friends, good health and good weather. And maybe by Thursday afternoon they'll even thank God that the Packers didn't lose to the Lions. I mean, isn't that what Thanksgiving is all about? It's about being thankful. And yet, I wonder how many people these days are struggling to feel thankful. People who have lost their job or have been forced to relocate their family. People who have loved ones in the military they haven't seen for months or even years. People with failing health, empty cupboards, empty homes. Maybe they're thinking, "Man, what do I have to be thankful for?" In fact, maybe you've caught yourself thinking some of these same things. Maybe you're struggling to be thankful. You feel like this whole holiday is kind of a "going through the motions." You know, you do the turkey, try and stay awake for the game, and then get ready to fight the crowds out at the mall. And you wonder if it's worth all the trouble. You wonder if there's all that much to be thankful for.

My friends, if our hearts are not just overflowing with thankfulness this time of year, could it be that we've lost sight of who it is that we are thankful to, and exactly what it is that we are most thankful for? Even though Thanksgiving Day is a national secular holiday, even though there are going to be atheists celebrating Thanksgiving, the fact is, there is no one who is in a better position to be truly thankful than you and me, Christian men, women and children. And as Lutheran Christians, we can direct our thanks to more than just a generic god, some kind of divine providence. No, we can get much more specific than that. Today as we count our temporal and more importantly, our eternal blessings, let us together:

Give Thanks to Jesus

And to deepen our appreciation for what Jesus means for our lives today, let's go back in time a bit. Let's put ourselves into the sandals of a group of men who crossed Jesus' path some 20 centuries ago. As we study how Jesus dealt with these men, we'll see that he deals with us the same way. Today we look to Luke chapter 17 and see that:

1. He Pities the Afflicted
2. He Heals the Trusting
3. He Praises the Thankful

First, Jesus pities the afflicted. Certainly these men in our text were afflicted. They had all contracted the dreaded disease called leprosy. Actually, the Greek word there refers to a number of skin diseases including leprosy. Leprosy came in a number of different forms. One kind of leprosy caused the fingers and toes to go numb and lose their sensitivity. People with this form of the disease might burn their fingers without realizing it. Other forms of leprosy would create open sores and ultimately, loss of the extremities. Most forms of leprosy were highly contagious. And what's worse, all of them required the person with leprosy to be isolated from family and friends. The Old Testament Law spoke very clearly. Leviticus 13:45 reads, "The person with such an infectious disease must wear torn clothes, let his hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of his face and cry out, 'Unclean! Unclean!' He must live alone; he must live outside the camp." (Lev. 13:45-46)

Tell me, do you see any parallels between what leprosy did to those ten men and what sin does to you and me today? Scripture says that sin separates us from God. It leaves us feeling like an outcast. It also separates us from one another. When we break our promises to each other, when we refuse to admit that we are wrong, when we refuse to admit that we hurt one another, when we refuse to forgive the sins of others-all these things are like a disease that separates us from God and from each other. By our impure thoughts and self-centered actions, we prove again and again that we are "unclean, unclean." Just like those lepers, our disease has separated us from God and we feel hopeless and helpless to do anything about it.

But then, who steps into the picture? In the case of the lepers, Jesus does! As Jesus is passing by on his way to Jerusalem, these ten lepers catch sight of him. Immediately they cry out, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" Really, that's all they could do, isn't it? They couldn't heal themselves. They couldn't demand a cure. All they could do was throw themselves on God's mercy. And you know, that's exactly what Jesus shows them. Jesus does not ignore them. He doesn't brush them off. Rather he listens to them. His heart goes out to them. But rather than healing them immediately. You now, snapping his fingers and sending them on their way, what does Jesus do? He says, "Go, show yourselves to the priests."

Now, why do you think Jesus would say that? Two reasons. First, because it was the priests who were given the responsibility of deciding that a leper was ceremonially clean or not. They would have to get the "all clear" from the priests before they could return to society. But wait a minute, if you were one of those lepers and Jesus says, "Go, show yourselves to the priests," wouldn't you be tempted to say, "Why should I do that? That makes no sense. I can see that I still have leprosy. It would be a total waste of time to get checked by the priest." But what was Jesus doing? He was asking these men to put their faith in him and his word. I mean, implied in that command, "go show yourselves to the priests" is a promise, namely, you will be healed. And by God's grace, these men believed that promise. They trusted that if they went to the priests, somehow they would be healed. And that's exactly what happened. Luke tells us that "As they went, they were healed." Jesus asked them to put their faith in him, and they were not disappointed. Jesus once again proved to them and us, that he is the Lord of soul and body.

Again, do you see any parallels between those lepers and you and me? Here Jesus proves that: II. He Heals Those Who Trust in Him. Isn't that what he's done for us? You and I once stood before God like helpless lepers. We were thoroughly infected with sin, covered in our guilt and shame. We realized that we could not heal ourselves. So what did Jesus do? He took our sickness on himself. Scripture says that Jesus was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities, and by his wounds we are healed. In other words, Jesus says to you and me, "I have already healed you. What you were powerless to do I have done. I've bought you back from the power of the devil. I've made you whole and I have even more in store for you. Just trust me. And that's what it takes, isn't it? We need to set aside our reason and say, "Lord I don't understand why you would do it all for me, but I'll take you at your word. I'll trust you."

That's what the ten lepers did here in our text. They trusted Jesus. Unfortunately, not all of them took the next step. They failed to return to thank Jesus. One, however, did return-and Jesus commends him for it. In fact, you might say that III. Jesus Praises the Thankful.

When this one leper returned to Jesus, Jesus first asked about the ones who didn't come back. "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?" Apparently these others had trusted Jesus to heal them. But once healed they forgot about Jesus. They took their good health and good fortune and ran. You know, I wonder if there aren't times when we are tempted to do the same thing. We're happy to trust in God-trust that he'll forgive us, that he will take care of us, take us to heaven someday, but then we've got a plane to catch, we've got jobs to do, people to see and places to go. And we forget to come back and say thank you to Jesus.

But not today. Not on thanksgiving day. Today we are here to do what those nine lepers didn't do. We're here to offer to Jesus our heartfelt thanks and praise. I mean, isn't that why you're here? I trust that you're not here purely by force of habit or merely because it's a tradition in your house, or because, you know, "the turkey just wouldn't taste right if you didn't go to church first." No, I trust that you are here because you know that Jesus Christ has cleansed you from the leprosy of sin. He's made you right in God's eyes. He's welcomed you back into his family where we have fellowship with God and with our fellow believers.

My friends, just as surely as Jesus was delighted to have that one leper come back to thank him, so surely is he delighted to see you here today. Your presence here in God's house is a fruit of your faith. It's how you show whom you are thankful to and what you are truly thankful for.

And yet, I think you realize that that kind of thankfulness to God applies to more than just one day out of the year. It applies to every day of our lives. Or as someone one said, The Christian life is not about thanksgiving. It's about thanks-living. It's about putting our thanks into action in our everyday lives. Through the positive attitude we maintain, with the tone of voice we use, through our acts of generosity to those in need, we show that we are truly thankful for all that God has given to us. But even more important than the material gifts he's showered upon us, are the gifts of his mercy and love. We were all once poor, miserable lepers. But God had pity on us. He cleansed us and made us whole again. And now he's given us the opportunity to return to him with our thanks and praise. God grant that everything we say and do today, tomorrow and forever, be an expression of our thanks to Jesus. Amen.

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