“In Everything –Give Thanks”

Luke 17:11-19

Rev. Landon Schkade

Tomorrow we will celebrate “Thanksgiving” —a national holiday rooted in the “Three-day Thank–offering Celebration” of the Pilgrims in early 1620’s. The Pilgrims, who settled not far from here, though they had intended to land in Virginia, invited 90 Native American friends to gather with them in the feast to praise the God of creation for a bountiful harvest. The Lord had used the Native Americans to teach the Pilgrims how to plant corn, which helped them survive their first, very harsh winter in “New England”

Reflecting on the reasons for that first Thanksgiving and the Thanksgivings of my youth, I’ve been saddened over the last weeks as I heard primarily about the opportunities this holiday provides to gather with one’s family, watch great football, and find bargains on “Black Friday” for the coming Christmas season. Sadly I heard almost nothing about thanking God for his goodness to us as a nation or as individuals!

If you were in God’s place, how would you feel about all this? Well, to give us some perspective let me ask you a couple of questions: Have you ever experienced a lack of gratitude from someone? Perhaps you purchased just the right gift or card to share your joy over a special occasion in someone’s life and received absolutely no acknowledgment or thanks. Or perhaps you took valuable, limited time that could have been spent with your family to help a friend who afterwards seemed to take your help for granted. What did it feel like when your heart–felt effort was ignored? Didn’t it hurt?

On the other hand, if you’ve experienced a person thanking you profusely for some small thing you did, even though you didn’t consider it a big deal, didn’t you feel blessed by their effusive expression of appreciation!

Let me read a text from Luke 17 (ESV) that deals directly with the question of such thankfulness to God. ¹¹ On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. ¹²And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance ¹³and lifted up their voices, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." ¹⁴When he saw them he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went they were cleansed. ¹⁵Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; ¹⁶ and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. ¹⁷Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? ¹⁸Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" ¹⁹And he said to him, "Rise and go your way; your faith has made you whole."

This text tells that there were 10 lepers healed by Jesus. By showing mercy to them, Jesus completely turned their lives around, for formerly they were social and religious outcasts who could not come any closer than 25 meters [ 81.25’] upwind of a well person; this due to the infectious nature of their disease. Their lives were literally transformed due to Jesus’ miracle, which enabled them to return to their homes, spend time with their families, go to Temple, work / trade in close proximity to their neighbors; in other words, carry on a “normal” life. Yet despite this tremendous gift of healing, only one of the ten returned to express his gratitude to Jesus, and he was a Samaritan –a foreigner to God’s Covenant with Israel.

And interestingly, this man didn’t just say, “THANK YOU!” NO!, the text says he returned to Jesus praising God in a loud voice . (This man’s shame had been removed and he wanted everyone to know of it!) And then “He fell on his face at Jesus’ feet and thanked Him.” [Vv15-16] To “fall on his face at Jesus’ feet” is a euphemism for rendering worship to Jesus! Now all Ten had shared a similar blessing—being healed from the dreaded leprosy, for which there was no cure; however, only one honored God with his praise, only one worshiped and thanked Jesus for interceding in his life and being healed. And then Jesus pronounced a blessing: "Rise and go your way; your faith has made you whole." The Aramaic equivalent of whole is SHALOM, meaning “WHOLENESS IN BODY AND SOUL!”

How about you and me? Are we like the 9, or like the 1?

● How many times has God rescued you / me from tragedy, suffering or

shame, and yet we did not honor His name as we should have? We took Him for granted.

● When God blesses you / me, are we satisfied or do we ask for more? Perhaps we respond like many who have a short memory and by word or action we imply, “What have You done for me lately, God?”

● How often do you / I fall at Jesus’ feet in prayer to thank Him for rescuing us from the flames of hell, or for answering our prayers in times of need?

Friends, God created us for relationship; how it must grieve Him when we run to Him only in times of trouble and need! We beg and plead for His help, but then when

help arrives we fail to thank Him adequately, if we remember to do so at all.

EXAMPLE: I remember very clearly a young woman who pleaded over and over with God for her husband’s life—he was suffering from what the doctors believed was terminal cancer. The young husband and father of two almost died, and yet after God worked a miracle and restored the young man’s health, the wife began to go about her life as if nothing miraculous had happened; she didn’t really thank and praise the Lord as she should have for His great mercy. She didn’t humble herself and thank Him as that One Leper did. She didn’t start going to church as she had promised in the midst of the crisis. How fickle we humans are!!!!!

You see, instead of focusing on our needs, God desires that we focus on Him. HE WANTS US TO TRUST HIM AND HE DESIRES THAT OUR THANKFULNESS AND GRATITUDE ARE SINCERE. He wants to see as much commitment and fervor in our thanks and praise as He saw when we were in desperate need! God is glorified by thankful hearts. And He blesses the one who praises and thanks him, as we saw in the case of the Samaritan Leper, who Jesus sent away with the further blessing of forgiveness.

Friends, even though we may not be dealing with something as grave as leprosy, gratitude for the Father’s love and compassion should motivate us to be thankful to Him in all we do, for He promises in Malachi 3:

Those who fear the LORD… They will be mine…in the day when I make up my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him. [Malachi 3:16a, 17]

In light of that same truth, St Paul stresses in Col 3: ¹⁷And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

There are others recorded in the Gospels who openly expressed trust and sought Jesus’ mercy. The Thief on the Cross comes to mind: He pleaded for Jesus to remember him when He came into His kingdom; can anyone doubt that he did anything less than praise God for the forgiveness and the promise of life that were extended to him in that terrible hour of his death? For Jesus had said: “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” [Luke 23:43]

Now a personal question: When was the last time you were excited to thank God for all the blessings He provides in your daily life? I urge you to pray for God’s help in developing a grateful heart and a lifestyle of thanksgiving. Begin praising and thanking Him in all circumstances and your life will be changed… for better!!!