Our Gospel lesson on Sunday (Lk. 17:11-19) is a beautiful example of the importance of thankfulness in the Christian life. We know it is important to be thankful, but perhaps we don’t know how important it really is…
In Luke 17, Jesus cleansed 10 lepers. The Greek verb is specific—they were freed from leprosy through a cleansing that occurred in their bodies.
One leper returned to thank Jesus, and Jesus asked, “Where are the others?” He then looked at the one, and pronounced, “Your faith has saved you. It has made you well, body and soul.” Again, the Greek verb is specific. 10 were cleansed; only 1 was saved and made whole. Why was that one saved? His faith. What did his faith look like, in action?
Thanksgiving.
We think thanksgiving is important in the same sense that we think manners are important, but thanksgiving is more than good manners—it is faith, at its root. The lack of faith in our lives shows up as ungrateful covetousness (we need something else to be happy), and faith shows up as patient thanksgiving (we are simply grateful for what God has already done).
Distrust—the lack of faith—is impatient, dissatisfied, always wanting something we don’t yet have. Faith is content, grateful for what we have been given, willing to wait for whatever else God would do. The lack of faith assumes God can’t be trusted; it assumes we know better. Faith assumes that God is good; it assumes he will do what we need, when we need it.
In Romans 1, Paul describes the refusal to “honor God or give thanks to him” as the moment when humanity descends into idolatry and then all other evil. In other words, ingratitude is the first sin, the one that all others flow from, the first step of “no faith in God.”
Thankfulness is the primal posture of the one who has faith; ingratitude and its accompanying covetousness is the primal posture of the one who doesn’t.
May we be people (and may we be a church) who grow continually in the practice of thanksgiving!
In Christ,
Steven+
Scripture Reflections
On Sunday, we heard the disciples say to Jesus (in Lk. 17), “Increase our faith!” My guess is that most of us, at some point or another, have thought or prayed the same thing. Our faith in God can feel very weak, at times.
Jesus’ response is strange. “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it would obey you.’” I don’t know what is weirder—the fact that only a smidgeon of faith is needed, or the idea that anyone would want a mulberry tree to be planted in the sea. Suffice to say that Jesus’ response leaves us with more questions than answers.
But what follows in Luke 17 is critical, because Jesus immediately clarifies what matters more than the amount of faith we have. Or perhaps a better way of saying it is that he clarifies what it means to have a little grain of faith that grows.
In verses 7-10, Jesus tells his disciples that what matters most is their willingness to obey God. We are unworthy servants, and God wants us to just say “yes” to him. In other words, he cares more about the willingness to submit to him than he does to how strongly we feel our faith. Or, again, perhaps a better way of saying it is that we grow in faith by submitting to him. Obedience is the way to grow in faith.
But Jesus isn’t done, because immediately after this, we see an object lesson. Jesus cleanses 10 lepers, and one returns to give thanks to him (Lk. 17:11-19). Jesus looks at the one who returned in gratitude, and says, “Ten were cleansed, but only one worshiped and gave thanks; your faith has saved you.” In other words, our faith is exercised in thanksgiving and adoration—it grows that way. Giving thanks to God for what he has done is more important than how big our faith feels.
Obedience and thanksgiving. They are more important than how strong our faith feels; they are the means of our faith growing. They are the muscular exercises of faith, the way that it increases in us. We want to feel deep faith first, and then respond in obedience and thanksgiving. But Jesus says, in effect, “If you have a mustard seed of faith, then submit to God’s word and give thanks. In doing so, you will find yourself made whole by the faith growing in you.”
In Christ,
Steven+
Scripture Reflections
“If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.” (Lk. 16:31)
Jesus’ conclusion to the parable of the rich man and Lazarus is a bit strange—or so it might seem. If people could see God raise a dead person, wouldn’t they immediately believe in God? Jesus’ answer to that question is, “Only if they already listen to and obey the word of God.” In other words, miracles don’t convince people who have rejected God’s word; they only convince those who are already followers.
A psychologist could probably offer a theory about why we see in accord with what we believe and explain away things that don’t fit our preconceived assumptions and beliefs. As interesting as the theory of the mind might be, it is almost beside the point. Jesus isn’t offering a theory on the way the mind works; instead, he is making a statement about our relationship with God:
If you aren’t willing to obey God, then you won’t see what he is doing in this world.
In other words, the only way to have eyes that can see God is to bend the knee to him, first.
There is no promise implied that a faithful follower will always see miraculous activity. God often hides himself (especially as we grow more mature in the faith) to draw us onward in pursuit of him. He plays “hide and seek” with us in love, so that we might search for him. Jesus’ point isn’t to promise miracles, but instead simply that listening is the first step with God, and asking for God to prove himself without first obeying him is futile.
Each of us has places where we resist the voice of God. Grumbling, gossip, dishonesty, lust, despair, sloth, malice, hatred—none of us is immune to temptation, and all of us have places where we resist God’s voice. But Jesus’ statement should awaken our desire to listen to God with renewed zeal and to pray for the help of the Spirit in obedience. If we aren’t willing to follow, we shouldn’t expect to see God’s activity around us.
In Christ,
Steven+