Thanksgiving 2019
Luke 17:11-19
November 28, 2019
Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID
Maybe his name was John. He lived in a village in Galilee near the border with Samaria in the northern part of present-day Israel. Everything was fine in his life – good family, good job, good friends. Until the day he spotted those strange spots on his skin. Very soon they did not hide anymore - and he did not want to hide them. Too big was the danger that he would also infect his wife and children with it. What that meant was clear: he had to leave his family, his village, live as a leper outside the village in a small colony with the other lepers. Alive, but almost considered dead, separate from everything giving happiness and joy to one in life.
But one day he hears with his nine leprosy buddies that Jesus came to the village where he once lived. Now, they couldn’t approach Him. But from a distance, he and the others could call out Jesus, for they had already heard that he had helped others. Maybe Jesus could help them too. "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!"
And Jesus hears the cries of John, hear the cries of the other nine as well. Unusually, He does not say compassionate words, He does not pull off a healing show, but He responds to the calls of the ten with a very sober command: Go and show you the priests! Go to the hospital and they’ll confirm that you are no longer infectious!
That in itself would have been pretty unusual. Ten lepers are expected to march to the priests without any proof and to explain to them: A miracle has happened that God alone can accomplish. After all, the healing of a leper in Israel was just as difficult, even humanly impossible, as the raising of a dead person. But obviously, they take the word of Jesus seriously, marching off – and on the way they are healed!
So John goes to the priest to be sanctified, to be declared clean again, and he gives the right peace offering in the temple, shows how grateful he is to God for his healing. And then he goes home, goes to his wife and to his children, celebrate with them this incredible healing and thanks God for the new life which has now been given to him.
A nice, touching story with happy ending? Not exactly. Because not too far away from the village stands Jesus and asks a simple question: Where’s John? Why did not he come back to me? Yes, John has recovered - but he is not saved by it. Only one Samaritan from the circle of ten, turned to give thanks to Jesus, to give thanks to God in the flesh. That's what faith looks like, says Jesus, faith that saves.
Let's call her Mary. Mary has also gone through a lot in her life. As a child, she had experienced some bad abuse, she escaped, but still went through many hard years. But after everything, life turned out pretty good. She had her education, later a family, children and grandchildren, a good retirement. “Yes, I am grateful and thankful for my life,” she likes to say especially on Thanksgiving around the big meal. Only to whom she should actually be grateful, she can’t exactly say. Yeah, kind of the man upstairs, she means. But she has not had much contact with Him in her life, at least not since her confirmation. Yes, she goes on Christmas Eve she meets Him again every year, and sometimes on Easter; but otherwise her family responsibilities won’t give her much time. After all, one thing she knows is that she was actually a good person throughout her life. That should be enough. Happy ending? Not really…
Let's call him Joe. He was born into a Mormon family. They were really more Jack Mormons. He didn’t have a bad childhood, but it wasn’t great either. One day, shortly after he had graduated high school, he was approached by a friend who was a Christian. Now, for some time he had not really believed in God, especially after hearing his whole life of how good he was supposed to be and never being able to live up to the impossible standard. But he went with this friend to a church, and he liked it. It was nice, people didn’t seem judgmental, and what he heard was more positive than anything he had heard in his experience of “church.” For the first time, he heard a different message. He heard the Gospel, about the Jesus of the Bible. And so he started asking questions, and met with the pastor. Shortly after, he was baptized in the name of the Triune God, quite deliberately. And then everything went well. He was very enthusiastic for a while. He met a nice girl, he started going to college with some good prospects of a job. He felt he could finally make the future that he had always wanted. Little by little, he had no time for the church, of course. Things were different now. But, of course, he assured himself again and again, that he was grateful for how he had been helped there, he would never forget it. And of course, he would always think of Jesus and how grateful that God had helped him through a rough patch in his life.
Another happy ending? Not quite, and really, not at all. Even a Joe can behave just like a John and a Mary. He can forget who he actually ought to be thankful to, to whom he owes everything, what he now so thoughtlessly enjoys. And there Jesus stands and asks, “Where is John? Where’s Mary? Where’s Joe? Where are all the others I have turned to, who owe me their health, their lives, their future? Where are they? I bring healing for all, and don’t want any to be lost. So why do they receive My gifts and then just wander away? Yes, they may feel really good in their lives - but they are not saved. Only those who fall at my feet, who recognize God in me and thank God in me, will be saved.”
To the one Samaritan who returns, Jesus says, "Your faith has made you well.” But that’s not the best translation. It really says, "Your faith has saved you," that is how it is word for word. Faith is not a general feeling of gratitude to a higher being, or warm and fuzzies toward Jesus, but faith means quite concretely: to fall at Jesus’ feet, that He is God in the flesh, the One to whom thanks is given. To recognize and believe This faith that saves returns one to where Christ is to be found, and confesses that Jesus is God in the flesh, that we owe everything we have and are to Christ alone and continue to receive from His nailed pierced hands.
A Samaritan expresses this belief in Jesus Christ, not John, not Mary, not Joe. That should give us something to think about. It wasn’t the one who we would have expected to return and recognize Jesus, yet there he was. But it is God's way to build his kingdom in quite unexpected ways, with people we would not even count on. Likewise, we experience it today in our midst, as Jesus experienced it then.
You have all returned to Jesus here in worship today, not content with staying at home and dealing with all sorts of other things. You all fall before His feet, your Lord, soon to kneel at the feast of thanksgiving, the Eucharist, when He, your Savior, comes to you with His body and blood. Yes, there you receive healing from the leprosy of sin, a healing that saves for eternity. your salvation, your life - God be praised!
But when you go home, do not forget the story of that one grateful Samaritan. Let him remind you: It is no use to you if you are healthy, if you have a good job, if you have a family, if you are also a little bit religious and think of God from time to time. You will be saved only if you come to Jesus Christ and stay with Him, if you do not just think of Him, but find yourself where He is, where He waits for you, here at His altar-where the Word of God is proclaimed and He gives His body and blood for you. Remember: Jesus also asks for you. Where are you? Don’t you need Me anymore? Yes, yes we do. So today we give thanks to God, to Christ, for His healing and we come again to receive His mercy and His grace.
This sermon is modified and inspired by one written by Pr. Gottfried Marten on Trinity 14, September 6, 2015 at Evangelical Lutheran Trinity-Community Berlin-Steglitz