Leprosy is a living death. It causes
skin tumors, kills nerves, weakens muscles and harms vision, and all that is
bad enough. But the leper had to leave his city and his family as well. He was
cut off from his community.
Lepers had their own community…a
community in which the old distinctions between rich and poor, Jew and
Samaritan, slave and free really didn’t matter any more. That’s why the group
of ten lepers who approached Jesus in today’s gospel was made up of 9 Jews and
1 Samaritan. Normally they’d have nothing to do with each other. But leprosy
brought them together.
When Jesus commanded the ten lepers
to go show themselves to the priests, he was fulfilling the Old Testament law.
Leviticus 14 says that when a leper is cleansed, he should show himself to the
priest. Funny thing was, in all the Old Testament, only one leper was ever
healed…and he was a Gentile. That law lay fallow until Christ came, and it’s
not a stretch to say that the reason it was written was precisely to point the
priests to the coming of Messiah.
But today I want to focus on the
importance of giving thanks in the
Christian’s life. In the Gospel lesson, the Lord Jesus is surprised that only
one of the ten who were healed, returned to give him thanks…and that man was a
Samaritan. Nine of the ten took the gift the Lord gave, but forgot to give
thanks. They went back to life as it was before. Only one came back. He alone
entered a new life.
Dear brothers and sisters of our
Lord Jesus Christ, I wonder how often we forget to give thanks. I wonder if we
realize how central thanksgiving is
to the entire Christian faith. In Romans 1, Paul says, “For the wrath of God is
revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is
evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His
invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly
seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without
excuse. For even though they knew God,
they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their
speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and
exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of
corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.”
Did you catch that? The way to
darkness begins by knowing God and yet
refusing to honor him or give him
thanks. Too often we curse the symptoms around us in our culture and don’t
acknowledge the cause within us: a simple lack of gratitude.
But what do we have to give thanks
for? We were not leprous. No…but we were born slaves to sin and Satan, living
in death until Christ came and joined us to his death and rising in Holy
Baptism. And that was just the beginning. He gave to us prodigals the robe of
righteousness and his own signet ring, the seal of the Holy Spirit. He feeds us
week by week with his own life-giving body and blood.
I’ve told you before that sins are
of two kinds: power and pleasure. Sins of power are seen especially in anger; sins of pleasure are seen
especially in lust. We get angry when
we think we’ve been treated worse than we think we deserve. But what do we call
it when we think we’ve been treated better
than we deserve? Why, that’s nothing else but gratitude…and grateful hearts pour themselves out in thanksgiving.
And what about sins of lust? When
King David committed adultery, the Lord tells him, “I gave your master’s house
and his wives into your care, and if that had not been enough, I would have
given you more.” In other words, David fell into lust because he was not thankful for what he had been
given.
When we forget to give thanks, life
begins to break down. For we were made for thanksgiving, as a candle is made
for burning. Even the three holy children, cast into the fiery furnace, were
saved by the child of the Theotokos as
they gave thanks to God and praised him.
So important is thanksgiving that
St. Paul told the Thessalonians, “…in everything
give thanks, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” In everything. Are you healthy? Give thanks
to God for your health; he’s given it to you. Are you ill? Give thanks to God,
for sickness turns our minds to him. Are you well-off? Give thanks to God, who
has given you more than you need, so that you may share it with those who have
less. Are you poor? Give thanks to God, for he will teach you in poverty that
he is able to supply all your needs. Do you struggle with sin? Give thanks to
God, who is able to help you overcome? Have you overcome some sin? Give thanks
to God, for he is the one who gives the victory. Is your family a source of
joy? Give thanks to God, who brought you together. Is your family a cause of
grief? Give thanks to God, who gives us the grace to love the unlovely, so that
we might have insight into how he loves us in Christ.
In life and in death, in sickness
and in health, in riches and poverty—in everything
give thanks, for in giving thanks the darkness is lifted, our minds are
illumined and, as is right, God is glorified in all things: the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit.
