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+