Thanksgiving
Eve
Lk
17:11-19
11/27/24
As
soon as we can after the service tonight, Timothy, Matthew, and I will get on
the road. It’s a ritual that we’ve been
doing for eighteen years now. Our family
leaves right after the service and drives three and a half hours to
Bloomington, IN where my parents live.
There we celebrate Thanksgiving with the family and enjoy the break before
returning on Sunday afternoon.
The
trip has changed over the years. It used
to be that the whole family would leave after the service. The kids would make the trip in their pj’s,
ready to be put into bed when we arrived.
However, over the years, some of the Surburg family got soft. The drive meant we often wouldn’t arrive
until 12:30 a.m. – which was 1:30 a.m. Indiana time. The late night driving and
arrival became less and less appealing, and so now, some members of the family
drive over during the day and enjoy having supper in Bloomington on Wednesday
night.
Of
course, the Surburg family is not the only one making a trip at this time of
year. The Tuesday and Wednesday before
Thanksgiving, and the Sunday after Thanksgiving are usually the busiest travel
days of the year.
In
our text for Thanksgiving Eve, we find that Jesus is also making a trip. Our text begins by saying, “On the way to
Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee.” Like many Jewish pilgrims, Jesus was making
his way from Galilee in the north to Jerusalem in the south to celebrate the
Passover.
In
order to make this trip, it was necessary to pass through an area where Samaria
and Galilee bordered each other. As you are certainly aware, there was great
tension between the Samaritans and the Jews.
Samaritans were very similar to Jews in many ways. But it was the differences that prompted such
antagonism. The Samaritans had their own
version of the Pentateuch – the first five books of the Old Testament. They had their own temple on Mt Gerizim –
that is until the Jews came and destroyed it.
The two groups jockeyed to one up each other as they interacted with the
Romans.
We
learn that as Jesus entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a
distance. This is exactly where would
expect lepers to be. Because of their
skin condition they were ritually unclean.
They were not able to live amongst other people and instead existed on
the fringes of inhabited areas. Their
family and friends could provide for them, and they could also beg for help.
These
lepers were asking for assistance. But
because Jesus was passing by, the nature of the help for which they hoped was
different. They lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on
us.” This was the cry of faith. They
addressed Jesus as “Master” – and in Luke’s Gospel the only other people who do
this are Jesus’ disciples. And they
said, “Have mercy on us.” This was the plea for Jesus to help them.
Jesus
did help, but probably not in the way we would expect. We are told, “When he saw them he said to
them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’” Jesus didn’t touch them and heal their
leprosy. He didn’t speak a powerful word
and heal them. Instead, he told these
men who were still lepers to go and show themselves to the priests – the
people who could certify that a person was no longer a leper.
Jesus
spoke these words to men who still had leprosy. Then we learn, “And as they went they were
cleansed.” The lepers received Jesus’
words and believed in him – they trusted in him. When nothing had yet happened
they set out to show themselves to the priest.
And as they went they were cleansed – they were healed by Jesus.
We
learn that one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned
back, praising God with a loud voice.
He fell on his face at Jesus’ feet giving thanks. The surprising fact
was that this man was a Samaritan. Jesus
called attention to this as he said, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the
nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except
this foreigner?” Then Jesus said to him, “Rise and go your way; your
faith has made you well.”
It’s
not very hard to figure out why this Gospel text was chosen for
Thanksgiving. We have a miracle
performed by Jesus as he heals ten lepers.
Then we have the contrast between the nine lepers who did not give
thanks, and the one leper who returned in order to do so.
Thanksgiving
is the yearly occasion when we make a point of giving thanks. Of course, in order to do so, we also find it
necessary to make a sumptuous meal of turkey, stuffing, pie and all kinds of
other good food. In some ways, it does seem
like a self-serving holiday. We give thanks by eating one of the best meals of
the year.
Thanksgiving
should lead us to ponder all of the blessings that God has given to us. God is the One who gives us daily bread –
everything that has to with the support and needs of body. The Small Catechism
gives us a list of these blessings when it refers to “food, drink, clothing,
shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife,
devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government,
good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends,
faithful neighbors, and the like.”
There
are many blessings in this list that we take for granted. We forget that God is
the One who has provided us with things like this. And he often does so in an abundance that
makes us the envy of much of the world.
God has not only given us material
blessings that support body and life. He
has given spiritual blessings that lead to eternal life. God has given us his
Word to be read and studied. He has
given us Holy Absolution, Holy Baptism, and the Sacrament of the Altar by which
he delivers forgiveness to us. He has
given you a pastor to preach and teach God’s word to you; to administer the
Means of Grace; and to provide spiritual care. These too are things that we
often fail to recognize as gifts from God for which we should give thanks.
In our text we find Jesus journeying
to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.
We learn from John’s Gospel that Jesus made this trip on a number of
occasions. However, the trip narrated by
Luke is different. The evangelist tells us, “When the days drew near
for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.”
Jesus journeys to Jerusalem with a
purpose. Near the end of the journey account our Lord left no uncertainty about
what would happen. He told the apostles, “See, we
are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of
Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to
the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon.
And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will
rise.”
As he celebrated that final Passover
meal with the disciples, Jesus said, “For I tell you that this
Scripture must be fulfilled in me: ‘And he was numbered with the
transgressors.’ For what is written about me has its fulfillment.” Jesus was numbered with the transgressors as
he died on the cross for our sins.
This is what he had said would
happen. And then in fulfillment of his passion prediction, God raised him from
the dead. On Easter the risen Lord appeared in the room where the disciples
were gathered and told them: “Thus it is written, that the Christ
should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and
that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his
name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”
Because of Jesus’ death and
resurrection we have forgiveness for the ways we have been unthankful. We receive this forgiveness through the faith
that Christ’s Spirit has worked. In baptism
we have received the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Spirit, and so we
are a new creation in Christ.
So led by the Spirit, pause and take
note of the blessings God gives to you.
Recognize all the ways that God provides you with daily bread – the
things needed to support your life.
Consider how those blessings outstrip your basic needs and provide an
abundance that can be shared with others.
Ponder the blessings of the Means of
Grace by which God created faith, and continues to sustain it. Recognize them as God’s greatest blessings
for they deliver not merely life – but eternal life in fellowship with God.
And then, give thanks. Give thanks to our triune God – Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit – who blesses us so richly.
Praise and glorify God for his goodness toward us.
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