Imagine with me that we have kept a list of all the things that we have prayed about over this last year: healing for our loved ones when they were sick; protection on our journeys; material gifts necessary to support this body and life. If we kept a journal of all that we have asked the Lord for over this last year it would be a long list.
People who keep prayer journals also record all the times that God has answered their prayers and how—and this is something that I can really see the value in. Much too often we ask God for things and when he answers our prayers we have already moved on to something else and forgotten about what we asked for before.
Just imagine what a faith-strengthening exercise it would be if we kept track of all the times that God has answered our prayers—how a list of God’s answers would give us courage and confidence in our prayer life.
One category ought to be added to our prayer journal (besides our petitions and God’s answers) is a column to add up the times we have given thanks for God’s gracious answers to our prayers because not only does God want us to ask him for the things that we need-- and not only does he want us trust that he will answer our prayers—but he also wants us to thank him for those answers.
That’s what Thanksgiving Day is—an opportunity to thank God for all of his blessings and tender mercies—to show our gratitude for all of those times he has answered our prayers-- and to praise him for all of those times he has provided for us when we weren’t wise enough or faithful enough to even ask for what we need.
In the familiar story of the thankful Samaritan we have a beautiful picture of Jesus’ faithfulness in meeting our needs and answering our prayers. We have a mirror that we can hold up to ourselves and see our lack of gratitude that forgets to acknowledge and thank God for his provision. And we have a beautiful example for us to follow in the thankful Samaritan who made it a point to thank Jesus for the good things he had received. St. Luke writes that:
On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”
When we criticize the unthankful lepers for their lack of gratitude at being healed we have a tendency to forget everything that they got right.
They knew to come to Jesus in their need. They were confident of his power and his mercy. They understood their helplessness. And they acknowledged that he was their master.
There are all kinds of valuable spiritual lessons for us in their actions. If we didn’t know anything more about them we could still safely say that in all these things they are an example of what Jesus wants from all of us—to come to him in our need and ask for help.
One of the most humbling verses of the Bible is found in James where he says that we have not because we ask not. We have not because we ask not. How true that is! Our prayer life is not everything it ought to be.
We don’t come to Jesus in our need either because we think we can handle life by ourselves or because we see some challenges and situations as too great for the Lord to help. Sometimes we are afraid to pray “thy will be done” because we are afraid of what that will be. Sometimes we are just too proud to humble ourselves, admit that we are incapable of helping ourselves, and cast ourselves upon the Lord’s mercy.
But the lepers who came to Jesus that day suffered from none of these spiritual problems. They knew their great need. They knew they could not help themselves. They knew that Jesus could. And they came to him in faith expecting his mercy.
In all this—so far as it goes—they serve as a model for our own lives of prayer and they encourage us to pray boldly because they received that for which they prayed. St. Luke writes that: When Jesus saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed.
The faith of the lepers was not misplaced. Jesus answered their prayers and met their needs and they were healed. That is the great hope and promise of this story—that no one who comes to Jesus in their need goes away unfulfilled.
Now it may seem that way at times when our prayers are not really prayers asking for help according to God’s will-- but demands telling God what he has to do. But Jesus meets our needs by giving us what we ask for OR something that is even better. For example…
How many times over the course of our life have we asked for healing—either for our loved ones or for ourselves? And how many times has God said “yes, be healed.” Now there is going to come time for all of us (unless the Lord comes first) when we pray for healing and instead the Lord will say “Allan, I’ve got something better for you than that” and he will call me home where I never have to worry about getting sick again. He always answers our prayers!
Since Thanksgiving last year you and I have prayed hundreds, and probably thousands of prayers, and if we were presented with a list of our prayers and Jesus’ answers we would never worry again about whether Jesus has heard our prayer-- or has the power to answer our prayers—we would know it and believe it!
As valuable as that lesson is, there is still one more thing that we still need to learn and that is the blessing of gratitude. Just like with the lepers who were healed, thankfulness is one of the places in our life of faith where we could all do a better job. St. Luke writes that: One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan.
I want you to notice that the Lord did not make their healing contingent upon their thankfulness—he healed them because of who he was not because of how they would respond to his gift. But having said that, God does want us to acknowledge and be thankful for his gifts.
When little Lutherans cover this in confirmation classes, we learn that the gifts that God gives us are given out of ‘fatherly, diving goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me.” And then we go on to ask what we owe to God on account of his grace and we learn that “it is our duty to thank and praise, serve and obey him.”
These of course are not Luther’s ideas—they are the teaching of the Bible. God loves to bless his children and he gives these blessings because that is who he is. But he also wants us to be grateful for his gifts—to thank and praise him.
That is what we see so beautifully portrayed in these verses—the grateful heart of a person who has asked for God’s help and received God’s help and is filled with gratitude for God’s help. St. Luke writes that: Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”
Much too often our list of prayer petitions is much longer than our list of thanksgivings for the prayers Jesus has answered. Why are we so different from the thankful leper? At least part of the answer is found in the fact that the man who returned to give thanks was a Samaritan—in other words, he was the least likelyto expect anything from God.
But the very fact that he was the least likely made him especially aware that he didn’t really deserve anything from the Lord—that all he had received was by God’s grace alone.
It’s easy for us to fall into the attitude that when it comes to our life with God there is a “tit-for-tat” relationship: God does this for me and I do this for him—that our life with God is really a transaction.
But God gives his gifts without ANY merit or worthiness in me and when I acknowledge that—when I understand that I can demand nothing of God—that I have no right to expect any good thing from him and yet have received blessings without number—it totally changes my attitude towards him.
How can I not be thankful for all his blessings when they really are gifts? How can I grumble about what I have when he has graciously met my needs? How can I fail to rejoice in ALL circumstances when I understand that my very life is a gift from him?
This is where God wants to bring us all spiritually—to understand and rejoice in the Good News that our life with him is by grace alone. St. Luke writes that: Jesus said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”
The thankful Samaritan received healing just like the others. But he also received something more. His faith in Jesus changed him- not just on the outside- but on the inside. He understood what kind of gracious God he had in Jesus.
As we give thanks to God for his material gifts on this Thanksgiving day may the same be true of us—that we are truly thankful for the forgiveness and new life we have in Jesus. Amen.
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