Sermon Text: Luke 17:11-19 The 21^st Sunday after Pentecost 4-18-10

Sermon Theme: Give thanks to your gracious God A. Meyer

As a relatively young man who has spent four years at Martin Luther College in New Ulm, Minnesota and a year at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in Mequon, I think I can safely say that paying for post-high school education has not been cheap. I’ve often looked at an average school bill stating how many thousands of dollars of tuition I still owe and I think to myself, “How will I ever get all this tuition completely paid off?” But fortunately, I can also safely say that as the costs of education continue to rise, so does the generosity of God’s people. I and my fellow classmates have been blessed to receive generous financial donations over the years from people who were willing to sacrifice their time and hard-earned money to contribute towards our education. Every time I was given a financial donation from someone, no matter how large or small it was, I was always urged to write a letter of thanks to that person or group. When we think about it, these are the people who make education at such places like MLC and WLS possible for so many students. On top of that, these are also real people who really appreciate the fact that their contributions do not go unnoticed and that they are acknowledged for it. On a much larger scale, it is of the utmost importance that we always give thanks to our gracious God, not only because 1) he has done so much for us, but also because 2) our thanks IS important to him.

Remembering to thank our gracious God is not always the easiest thing to do. After all, there are many times in our life when life seems so great and we can so easily forget about our God who blessed our lives that way. Then, there’s the opposite end of the spectrum, where nothing seems to be going right and we suffer one disappointment after another. It can be so easy to forget about our God when it doesn’t seem like he’s there at all. However, it is especially in such desperate times that we need to remember him the most!

Take the ten lepers in our reading for today. I can’t think of too many other physical ailments to befall a person in that time period that were as bad as leprosy. Leprosy was more than just a fatal disease back then. Leprosy was a disease that separated one from his entire community and from society at large. In Old Testament times, a person with a skin infection like leprosy was declared “unclean” and was forced to live outside of the Israelite camp. Even worse, the only contact he would ever have with the outside world was when he saw someone approaching, he would have to warn them that he had leprosy by yelling “Unclean! Unclean!”, lest that approaching person be infected with the disease as well. What a heartbreak that must have been for someone with leprosy to watch people avoid him at all costs! Finally, as if this emotional pain and heartbreak of no outside human contact wasn’t enough torture, there was the physical pain that a leper would have to endure. He would have to watch helplessly as his skin, nerves, limbs, vocal cords, and even eyes were slowly eaten away at, until he would finally succumb to the disease and die. It was not exactly a pleasant way to enjoy the last few years of one’s life!

But these ten lepers weren’t about to call it quits on life just yet. Somehow, word must have reached these men about Jesus. Perhaps they overheard some people talking about Jesus who they were forced to drive away with their painful cries of “Unclean!” Perhaps they heard about him from other lepers. Whatever the case, they came to realize that Jesus was their only hope of ever escaping their dreadful fate. After all, when we think about it, what did they really have left to lose? They came to realize that the only hope left for their present, as well as their future, would come from Jesus.

So as they recognize him heading into a village near where they were, they approach him and cry out to him. Again, leprosy slowly destroyed one’s vocal cords, so I imagine that this cry to Jesus must have been a collective effort if it was going to be loud enough to reach his ears. “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” A desperate cry for help, but one that was based on faith. Since they had no one else to turn to, these men put their faith in Jesus that he could help them out. He answers them, but not in a way that they might have been expecting.

We’ve seen other accounts where Jesus healed people instantly, including the healing of another leper earlier on in his ministry. But this time, instead of healing them right then and there, he instead has them go and show themselves to the priests, according to the Old Testament law regarding cleansings of skin infections so they could re-enter society. This might have come across to some as disappointing. These men might have been tempted to be upset with Jesus because he didn’t heal them right away. However, even though there was no evidence of a healing right there and then, their trust in Jesus moved them to take him at his word. As the lepers depart at his word, we see their faith is rewarded and they are all cleansed from their deadly disease. What a beautiful sight that must have been for these men! Not only were their bodies completely restored and cured from all their physical symptoms, but they were now free to re-enter society once more. No more did they have to be outcasts! No more would people have to run away from them in terror!

How awesome that Jesus would take time out of his travels to listen to the plea of these men and to heal them from their deadly condition! We see a small sample of God’s grace, his undeserved love, in this section. But the full extent of that grace would be revealed later on. Think about where Jesus’ travels would eventually bring him. At the time of this text, Jesus is in the midst of his final journey to Jerusalem. It is in Jerusalem that he would complete the work of our salvation, to save us from a condition far worse that any temporary problem we could possibly experience here on earth. The prophet Isaiah describes our lost condition in this way “But your iniquities have separated you from your God.” As if that weren’t terrible enough, the Apostle Paul further describes this condition with some pretty grim language in his letter to the Ephesians “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.” Just as how leprosy cut off those ten men from society, so our sins not only cut us off from our God. But unlike those lepers, who could still call out to Jesus to save them, there is nothing we can do about our condition! Since we are dead in our sins, it was impossible for us to bridge the gap between us and God in any way. We would have had no choice but to experience not only death in this life, but eternal death in Hell. How horrible the situation that we faced because of our sins!

But dear friends, be thankful that this is not how the story ends. We have been blessed with the knowledge of our Savior from sin. We know that he indeed made it to Jerusalem and with his perfect life, innocent death on the cross at Calvary, and triumphant resurrection on Easter Sunday, he made atonement for each and every one of our sins. Our sins no longer separate us from our God. Moreover, we now have the hope of a life that will never end. How amazing that we are shown such mercy, especially since we never deserved it in the first place!

But how much more amazing that even after guaranteeing us the hope of eternal life with him in Heaven, God decides to bless us all the more in this life! I’m pretty sure that most of us, if not all of us have been blessed with loving families, friends, food to nourish our bodies every day, a roof over our heads to protect us from the elements, and countless opportunities to learn more about the Word of God and about his creation. I’m sure you could probably come up with your own list of blessings other than what has been mentioned here, but the point is clear. God has blessed us in so many ways beyond our counting. When we really stop and think about everything that our God has so graciously given us, we really do have to ask ourselves, “How can we not give thanks to our gracious God?”

However, one might be tempted to think, “Well, being thankful is all well and good. But does God really care whether or not we give thanks to him? I mean, he’s the almighty God who made and maintains the Heavens and the earth! Doesn’t he have more important things to worry about than whether or not I give thanks to him? It’s not really that big a deal, is it?”

Is it a big deal? Perhaps we should take a closer look at one of those ten lepers who Jesus graciously healed. For him, it was a big deal! This man fully realized what Jesus had done for him and that he owed everything to him. He turns around to give thanks to Jesus, who was truly the omnipotent God himself. This man not only comes back to give thanks to God, but he does it in a way that is as vocal and public as possible. Note how our text describes it, “One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice (something he couldn’t have done in his leprous state!). He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him-and he was a Samaritan.” This man holds nothing back in expressing his thankfulness. His acts of thankfulness were not only just that, thankfulness, but a wonderful act of public worship to the True God himself.

Is it a big deal? Perhaps we should also hear the words of Jesus once more when he says “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” It would seem that Jesus, God himself, does care about being thanked. He not only expresses his disappointment over the fact that nine of the ten men never come back to thank him, but he also acknowledges the one man who did come back to thank him. He even mentions the fact that this guy was a foreigner, something that might have come across as shocking to Jesus’ Jewish followers. He then further acknowledges the man by giving him a public commendation for his faithfulness with these words, Rise and go; your faith has made you well.

Is it a big deal? I think at this point we can confidently answer that question. Our thankfulness does indeed matter to our God. But how often do we still forget to give thanks to our gracious God? How often do we see going to church or going to Bible class as more of a ritualistic drudgery rather than an opportunity to hear the sweet message of the Gospel? How humbling it can be sometimes when a recent convert shows more thankfulness to God than those of us who have been Christians all our lives! Dear friends, pray that we never lose our desire to thank our gracious God. What a great comfort to our hearts that he does hear our thanks! Even in the times when we do forget to thank him, his ears are still open to our repentance and our subsequent thanks for his forgiveness! Not only that, but just as that one leper made his thanks as active and public as he could, pray that we also show our thanks to our God not only in our worship on Sundays, but also to show our thanks to him with our thoughts, words, and actions to one another here and in the world. The fact that even one person who gives thanks to God is a wonderful thing indeed. But how much more wonderful it can be when numerous believers join together to express their thanks to God in their worship and in their sanctified living!

It is still true that as people who are constantly battling a sinful nature it is not always easy to thank our God, whether because of good times when we forget him as the source of our blessings or in bad times when it seems like he’s forgotten us. But even in the best or worst of times, pray that we never, ever lose our zeal to worship our God by giving proper thanks to him for all that he has done for us, especially for his gift of eternal life in Heaven that he has so graciously given to all of us. Since he has also reassured us that he does hear our thanks, pray that the words of Psalm 118 always be on our hearts as well on our lips when we say, “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever.” Give thanks, dear friends. He is listening for it. Amen