5 September 2021
Text: Luke 17:11-19
In the name of + Jesus. Amen.
Our Gospel reading is about one grateful man and nine ungrateful men.
Gratitude is a big part of the Christian life. We are grateful when someone has shown us a grace. In fact, the words “grateful” and “grace” are related. Grace is an undeserved kindness, a gift. And the proper response to receiving a gift is gratitude.
We are grateful because we recognize that someone has done something for us, something that was not obligatory, something that benefits us. Our Gospel involves ten men who received grace from Jesus in the form of a miraculous healing. For these ten men were “lepers” who sought our Jesus “from a distance.” They kept their distance because their disease, called “leprosy,” was not only disfiguring and fatal, it was contagious. And so lepers were shunned by society and forced to live as outcasts.
These ten lepers were not only gravely ill, they were probably poor beggars as well. They were feared by everyone. And leprosy had no medical treatment or cure. It was painful, progressive, and fatal.
So imagine these ten lepers praying to Jesus in desperation, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” Jesus not only cures them, he gives them instructions as to how to be rehabilitated and restored to society. “And as they went, they were cleansed.” Can you just imagine? This was a miracle, a new start in life given by nothing more than the Word of Jesus, which is, the Word of God. In the blink of an eye, their lives changed for the better. Not only were they cured, but they could go back home again, to be accepted and treated like everyone else.
Sadly, only one of the ten demonstrated gratitude, “when he saw that he was healed.” Instead of going on his way without so much as a “thank you, Jesus,” like the others, this man, who incidentally was a Samaritan, that is, a hated foreigner, actually “turned back, praising God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving Him thanks.”
“Giving Him thanks,” dear brothers and sisters. The others left, but this Samaritan man came to Jesus, fell before Him in worship, and gave thanks.
This is the Christian life, dear friends. Jesus also heals us – from the leprosy of sin and the death to which it leads. Sin disfigures us and makes us ugly. It causes us pain, and ultimately eats us up from the inside out. Sin kills us and drags us to hell. And so this is why we poor miserable sinners lift up our voices in the liturgy: “Lord, have mercy upon us. Christ, have mercy upon us. Lord, have mercy upon us.” And Jesus hears our prayer, and He cleanses us with the water of Holy Baptism, and with His blood shed on the cross and given to us with His very body to eat and to drink.
And so we are like the ten lepers made whole by the Word of Jesus, which is, the Word of God. But how often we take the Word of God for granted. We act like we are entitled. We don’t thank God for His mercy. Instead, we seek out other things rather than God’s Word. Instead of turning back to Jesus, we look to everything and everyone else to make us happy. It might be money, entertainment, comfort, status, drugs, sexuality, popularity, or a thousand forms of idolatry. We choose all sorts of things over the Word of God, not giving a thought to be grateful. In fact, we can fall so far from grace that we may go weeks or months without ever lifting up our voices, saying, “Lord, have mercy; Christ, have mercy; Lord, have mercy.” Too often, we live like the nine instead of the one.
We have come today to this holy house to offer the sacrifice of praise to the one who has healed us by His Word. For we have received grace: undeserved kindness from God Himself. We gather here as baptized children of God, bearing His promise. We come as people who have survived a horrific storm, and who are now faced with the challenges of the aftermath. We should have learned to be grateful for good weather, commerce, food, water, and shelter, community, friends, family, people who love us, volunteers, those who provide for us in our time of need. We should be grateful for electricity, air conditioning, telephones, and a host of other technologies that we take for granted every day.
We should be grateful that the Lord preserved our sanctuary from damage, and that he has provided people to come to our aid regarding the other parts of our property that were damaged. We should be grateful to our district president and to those who serve in various relief agencies, those who serve in vocations that protect us and bring relief where needed. We should be grateful for those who labor through the night to provide, restore, and maintain electrical power for us.
Indeed, we have much to be grateful for. And of course, most of all, we are grateful for our Lord’s suffering and death by which we are redeemed and healed of the leprosy of sin and death.
And one of the beautiful things about gratitude is that is takes our attention off of ourselves. For ingratitude is a function of self-absorption, of thinking the whole world revolves around us. Gratitude empowers us to serve others and not demand that others serve us. Gratitude opens the heart, mind, and soul to the blessings that God offers to us, and also to be a blessing to others through whom God works. Gratitude means recognizing the grace shown to us, acknowledging that it is unearned, and then receiving it with joy, giving thanks to Him for this mercy shown to us, mercy that we do not deserve.
We thank God by being here to sing praise to His name. We thank God by serving our neighbor. We thank God by giving back what He has first given us. We thank God by acknowledging our sins and forgiving the sins of others. We thank God by reading and hearing and meditating upon His Word.
We thank God by confessing this truth from the Word of God, that is, the words of Jesus, saying, “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.
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