Grace and Peace to you from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and may our Lord and Savior sanctify you in
the truth; for His word is truth. Amen
The Twentieth
Sunday after Pentecost (2010)
Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart
Luke 17:11-19 (ESV)
On the way
to
In closing his explanation
for the First Article of the Apostles’ Creed, Martin Luther said, “For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve
and obey Him.” Having given complete consideration for all the blessings of
which he has received, the Great Reformer cannot help but turn his thoughts to
the generosity of God and give all praise and glory to Him.
Somewhere among these ten lepers you and I will find
our counterpart. Perhaps we’re not afflicted with anything as horrible as the
dreaded disease of leprosy, which is like a living death, but none-the-less, we
all suffer from the leprosy of sin. Afflicted as we are, we still cannot deny
that God, in His merciful goodness, has poured out upon us His blessings and
mercy without limitation and without consideration for what we really merit.
Moreover, for all these bountiful blessings from our heavenly Father we owe Him
a great debt of gratitude and thanks. In fact, when one sits and truly gives
pause to all the blessings you have received in this life from God, you are then
compelled to Give Thanks with a Grateful
Heart.
Gratitude to God is God’s
just due from all men. This means you and me, for God is no respecter of
persons. The psalmist verifies this truth regarding God when he writes, “You
open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing” (Psalm 145:16
ESV), and again, “For 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 ESV). In
the Gospel Reading for today we see a hated Samaritan, a spiritual outcast, receiving
the same blessing as nine Jews. The Samaritans portion was just as great as
that of the other nine lepers who were from among the Chosen People of God. Is
this not true today? Does not our God bless unbelievers with the same physical
blessings that believers receive? Does not God work miracles among unbelievers
as He does among believers? Yes, our God is God of the entire universe, He is
the God of all things living and dead, existing and yet to exist. For our God
is the Creator of all things and He grants His blessings to all. However, the
praise and thanksgiving He receives from the cream of His creation, man, is
mostly a mute response to His generosity.
Sadly, we often have faith
enough for prayer, but seldom enough for praise. Ingratitude is a mark of the
age. It has been said that, “We open our mouths wide, till God opens His hand,
but afterward, as if the filling of our mouths were the stopping of our
throats, we are so speechless and heartless.” We manifest our ingratitude by
silent lips, disobedience, and a disinclination to serve God. We are like the
nine who were healed but failed to Give
Thanks with a Grateful Heart.
What reason can there be for
this rude attitude? Is it because we forget the Source from where these
blessings flow? How often do you pause to look up and reflect that all these
gracious gifts of life are really from one benevolent, unending Source, the
unlimited beneficence of God who grants you these blessings solely out of His
Fatherly love?
Possibly we fail to give
thanks for all our blessings because we want the credit ourselves for obtaining
worldly rewards. Oh, to be certain, we pride ourselves on our skills,
ingenuity, and earning power! We glory in our achievements. We are so quick to
gloat over what is “ours”! Possibly, we might have some small right to do so
when comparing ourselves to others; however, we never have this right when we
comparing ourselves to God.
We must ask ourselves are we
ungrateful because we’ve come to “expect” these blessings from God? If so, then
we must ask do we have any right at all to expect “blessings from God?” Are we
not disobedient and because of our many sins haven’t we become totally unworthy
of any of His blessings?
Could it be that our
ingratitude is so prevalent because we’re insensitive to God’s love, so
insensitive that we cannot feel His blessing hand? In the case of the ten
lepers, Christ never laid a hand on them or spoke words of healing over them.
He merely said, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” Then
This then begs the question,
“Are we ungrateful because we feel ourselves left out?” Yet, we know that God
in His love for us sent His Son into the world to heal us of that which leads
to death: sin. When our Lord Jesus died on the Cross of Calvary, God, in one
grand swoop, showered His blessing of justification upon all mankind. Not one
of the ten lepers was left out of our Lord’s healing. Therefore, not one among
the ten could say, “I was not blessed; I have no reason to be grateful.” Nor
were we left out when our Lord Jesus won justification for us on
Perhaps we do not show our
gratitude because we’re too busy. This is a strange phenomenon because we
usually have plenty of time to petition God for blessings. When we need help or
favors our prayers are loud, long, frequent, and fervent. Yet, when those
prayers are answered, there never seems to be time to remember to thank God for
answering our petitions. How often have you prayed before starting a trip of
some distance for God to protect you on your journey, only to fail to thank Him
when your trip ends in success? It’s easy to pray when we are in great need,
but it’s difficult to Give Thanks with a
Grateful Heart when our need has been met and we are no longer in want.
Much too often we are ungrateful louts.
Now if anyone should feel
indignant because we stress the thought that much of our ingratitude is due to
the fact that often we’re too busy, too selfish, or we too glibly accept our
blessings from God, let’s turn our thoughts to the one who, “turned
back, praising God with a loud voice; and . . . . fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him
thanks” (vv. 15-16). This is the one with the Grateful Heart!
First of all we take note of
his humility. His gratitude is clothed in a spirit of meekness. Before any
thanks are offered he prostrates himself at the feet of our Lord Jesus.
Today, when most of us have
an abundance of leisure time made possible by the advance of science and
industry, it seems most appropriate that we would spend some of that time at
the feet of our Lord Jesus as evidence of our grateful hearts. We should devote
a portion of our time to His Word, abiding in His presence. Moreover, we should
be in His company; devoting a portion of our time to doing His work! Through
these and other means, we should show that we are truly grateful, Giving Thanks with a Grateful Heart for
His divine blessings. However, we are most likely to receive the Lord’s
blessings and then simply plunge back into the world with its business and
busyness, devoting ourselves to our personal interests.
In the Gospel Reading for
today, nine, as the law required, went showing themselves to the priests. This
was merely an obligatory performance of duty. As soon as they complied with the
law, they simply went their way, resuming their previous occupations. They were
the beneficiaries of a benevolent God, they’re prayers had been answered and
they were satisfied. Sadly, there had been faith enough for prayers but not
enough for praise. These nine, who are from the Chosen People of God, are much
the same as people who gorge themselves on a sumptuous feast and then rise from
the table without a murmur of thanksgiving. They are the same as people who
again and again accept all of God’s blessings yet, never think of giving Him praise
or of Giving Thanks with a Grateful
Heart.
The grateful heart will, as
it did in the case of the Samaritan, lead us to return to the Source of the
blessing and prostrate ourselves in thanksgiving. Knees that have been buckled
in hardship will readily bend in adoration. The grateful heart will permit no
pressing obligation to interfere or any interest to draw it aside until it has
given its expression of gratitude to the one true Source from which all
blessings flow; our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
The Gospel Reading for today
shows that faith opens the fountain of all blessings. The lone Samaritan, after
having been healed by Jesus, returns to give thanks, yet he receives even more
than a physical cleansing of his leprosy, he receives the spiritual cleansing
of his soul. After returning to the Lord, Jesus says to him, “Rise
and go your way; your faith has made you well” (v. 19). Rise and return
to your family, you leprosy is cured; both the leprosy of your flesh, which
brings temporal death and the sin leprosy of you soul, which brings eternal
death. Although the Samaritan was a foreigner to the Chosen People of God, his
faith has brought him salvation and made him a citizen of God’s kingdom of
grace.
Moreover, just like
the Samaritan, we often receive much when we least expect it. Think of how
often and how specifically God has answered your casual prayers: Give us today
our daily bread; Thy will be done; Forgive us our sins; Lead us not into
temptation; Deliver us from evil; Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest; Let thy holy
angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. We pray these
petitions because we know that God blesses all who believe in Him; showering them
with His love while responding to their needs of body and soul. This truth is
no more apparent than when our Savior died on the Altar of the Cross for the forgiveness
of our sins. Busy with living an earthly existence, man never dreamed that the
death of one man, an itinerant Jewish rabbi, would bring salvation to the
entire human race.
Just as He freely cleansed
and healed the ten lepers without their petition, He paid the price for the
cleansing of all mankind from sin without their petition. He obeyed His
heavenly Father and willingly gave His life in an agonizing death on the cross
so we could live in ecstasy for eternity. Therefore, I ask, are we like the
nine who receives this wonderful gift only to go our way without expressing our
joy, or are we like the one, the Samaritan, who prostrated himself at the feet
of our Lord Jesus giving thanks? I pray that you are all like the one, the
Samaritan, and you gratefully fall upon your knees at the feet of Jesus Giving Thanks with a Grateful Heart for
the gift of faith to believe that your sins are forgiveness because of His
atoning sacrifice. Amen.
May the Peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.