Meditation: Thanksgiving Eve – 2023

22 Nov 2023

Text: Luke 17:11-19

Note: This meditation was by the Deacon 

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

In our Gospel reading, our Lord reminds us of the virtue of gratitude.  But it is really much more than a virtue.  It is an expression of faith.  It is to acknowledge a gift.  And when the gift comes from God, it is to confess Him as the source of the gift.  It is a confession of God’s mercy.

We see God’s mercy in the form of Jesus answering the prayers of these ten lepers: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us,” they cry out from a distance.  For the Law requires them to be far away to protect others from infection.  They cannot live with their families.  They are outcasts from their communities.  And there is no cure for their painful and deadly disease.  It will only get worse.

But these men have hope, because they have faith in Jesus.  They pray to Him for help.

When all ten are healed, nine of them are so focused on themselves that they do not come back to thank Jesus for healing them.  But one of them does just that.  He “turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell at Jesus’ feet, giving Him thanks.”  And, as St. Luke notes, “He was a Samaritan.”  So this man was a double outcast: a foreigner hated by the Jews, and a leper shunned by everyone.  In one encounter with Jesus, his life is saved, and everything changed from that point on.  His shame and separation are ended.  And he is grateful.

He worships Jesus physically, and he praises God with his voice.  Jesus is amazed.  Our Lord asks, “Were not ten cleansed?  Where are the nine?  Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”

And sometimes it takes our being shunned as a foreigner before we appreciate being included as God’s chosen people, the Church.  Sometimes we have to bear the cross of sickness or suffering before we appreciate the suffering of Jesus on the cross for us, as well as looking forward to that day, promised by Jesus, when sorrow and death will be no more. 

Sometimes we behave like the nine, being so consumed with ourselves, that we forget to thank God for His blessings to us.  But this passage from Holy Scripture – as well as this day set aside in our country as a day of gratitude – will hopefully remind us to stop, to turn back, to worship Jesus, to praise God, and to say: “Thank you, O Lord, for all of your blessings to me, though I am unworthy.  It is only by Your grace that I am healed of my sins and brought into your church as one of your baptized people.”

And by being mindful of our blessings – especially the blessing of our Lord’s Gospel, His saving Word, His reception of us in the new birth of Holy Baptism, and His body and blood which He shares with us in the greatest Thanksgiving meal of all – we can thank Him today and every day, hearing His blessing to the Tenth Leper spoken also to us by His Word: “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.