Luke 17:11–19

¹¹And it came about while He was aon the way to Jerusalem, that bHe was passing 1between Samaria and Galilee.

¹²And as He entered a certain village, ten leprous men who astood at a distance met Him;

¹³and they raised their voices, saying, "Jesus, aMaster, have mercy on us!"

¹⁴And when He saw them, He said to them, a"Go and show yourselves to the priests." And it came about that as they were going, they were cleansed.

¹⁵Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, aglorifying God with a loud voice,

¹⁶and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a aSamaritan.

¹⁷And Jesus answered and said, "Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine— where are they?

18 1"Was no one found who turned back to agive glory to God, except this foreigner?"

¹⁹And He said to him, "Rise, and go your way; ayour faith 1has made you well."

It is approaching Christmas once again. Already we are thinking about what gifts we are going to buy for our friends and relatives. If you have children, they are at the top of the list. You are thinking of them and what to give them. If you are one of those really organized people you have already bought their gifts. If you’re like the rest of us, you will wait until the last minute and then have to push through the crowds and fight the traffic to do your last minute shopping, just hoping the things you want are still in the stores.

All of us who have had children know how much joy it gives us to see their faces light up on Christmas morning. There is nothing quite as fulfilling than to see their eyes pop wide open and their mouths gape in surprise. It gives us a warm feeling when our child runs over and puts his arms around us and says, “Thank you mommy,” or “Thank you dad.”

But sometimes it is so hard to think of what to buy them each year at Christmas. We look at their closets already so full of toys, dolls, balls, games, toy soldiers, stuffed animals, racing cars and stuff from Christmases past that we sigh and wonder where we are going to store all the stuff we buy this year. We know that soon after that first little look of surprise on Christmas morning, the next day most of the presents will be stuffed away and all but forgotten. It will be but a temporary, fleeting moment of joy, and then back to the normal routine of life.

The kids aren’t really surprised. They know to expect gifts on Christmas. They know to expect gift on birthdays. They just take it for granted. In fact, they are so used to us buying them whatever they want all year long they feel they are entitled to it. Every time we go to the store they expect to find something they want and they have refined the art of begging us for it. If we don’t buy it right there on the spot they know just how to cry, throw a tantrum in the middle of the store, or use one of their other proven methods to manipulate us into giving in to their every whim and fancy. They know how to manipulate us. They know the right things to say, the right buttons to push. Then after we finally give in and cringe at the thought of how far we are going over budget, they aren’t all that thankful, in fact, they expected it. They think they deserve it. It is our duty to buy them what they want. They develop an entitlement mentality that somehow they deserve it.

This isn’t limited just to children. We adults are often the same way. We are used to just going out and buying whatever we want and whenever we want it. If we have to wait a week for shipping we get impatient. Overnight shipping is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity. If we don’t have the money to buy it today, no need to wait until pay day, just charge it to the credit card and hope it’s not maxed out yet. We have so much stuff we begin to feel we are entitled to have whatever meets our fancy. We have so many things and material possessions that we feel like we are entitled to the affluent life style we have grown accustomed to.

Such an attitude also influences our relationship with God. If God doesn’t give us something we want, when we want it, he is not responding to our needs. If he tells us no, we can’t have something, we think he is being unfair. In fact, much of what we call needs, are really just luxuries. How easily luxuries become needs. Things like electric lights, plumbing in our homes, telephones, were once considered luxuries. Today we could scarcely live without them.

So it is with God. He gives us all things, our food and clothing, our family, our home, the air we breathe, the water we drink, even our bodies that we are never satisfied with; he even gives us life itself. Nevertheless, when we are all gathered around the table for Thanksgiving dinner today, if someone asks us to tell what we are thankful for this year, we get floundered and have to quick think of something to say so we don’t embarrass ourselves in front of everyone. All the while we are secretly thinking “Let’s get this over with fast so we can get to the food.”

Our lack of gratitude is the result of taking God for granted. We take the blessings he pours down on us for granted. We develop an entitlement mentality when we think that we really deserve it anyway. Thanksgiving is directly tied to humility. The humility that understands that we don’t really deserve it. Lack of thanksgiving is the result of pride; thinking that we deserved it.

Such an attitude, the feeling that we are entitled to God’s blessings, is nothing other than self-righteousness. Feeling as if we are deserve the gifts of God is pride. This is the real reason we find it difficult to be truly thankful for the things we have and the blessings God has given us. Our sinful human nature is full of pride and self-righteousness.

This is probably why the 9 lepers did not come back to thank Jesus. Remember they were all of descendents of Abraham. The one who did come back was not; he was a Samaritan. But the other 9 had been taught all their lives that as descendents of Abraham they were special. They had fallen for the line of the Pharisees that as children of Abraham they were entitled to God’s special favor and protection and that they deserved special treatment.

This entitlement mentality is fundamentally a rejection of Jesus Christ. Thinking that we deserve it and expecting God to be good to us is the exact opposite of trusting in Christ for his undeserved love and mercy. It is trusting in self. It is self-righteousness. It is the opposite of faith. It is rejecting God’s mercy, because, it is the feeling that we somehow deserve it. If we deserve it, it is not mercy; it is not grace; it is not a gift. If we deserve it, it is merit; it is self-righteousness. This is what Luther calls the worst sin. It is dangerous because in our eyes we don’t see it as sin. We think sin is some sort of violent, evil act. But if we think we deserve God’s blessing because of something we do, we are thinking of ourselves as being good and we are blind to our own sin. We are doing what we say in the liturgy; we are saying “we have no sin.” But “if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” We think we are entitled to God’s blessings, because we don’t see our own sinfulness. But it is rejecting the grace and free gifts of God. It is, in other words, what Jesus calls, “The unforgivable sin.” It is the sin of unrepentance and unbelief.

Unbelief condemns to hell. Unbelief refuses the gift of God’s forgiveness. and without forgiveness, no matter how good we might be, we are condemned to eternal fire and punishment.

If we recognize that death and punishment is what we deserve, then when we hear about Jesus Christ who suffered our punishment for us; who took our sin upon himself; who died in our place so that we could be freed from death that is truly good news. When we realize that we don’t deserve God’s grace, but only his punishment, then the message that God has saved us from punishment and has freed us from an eternity of suffering, then our hearts are filled with complete thanksgiving. When we finally get it that we are sinners but our sins are forgiven, then we are overcome with awe and wonder that God has been so good to us. Then we are like the Samaritan leper who came running back to Jesus to offer him thanksgiving.

So before we can be thankful, we have to be needy. We have to understand our need and our depravity. That is why in Scripture thanksgiving is often tied to affliction. We see that in the case of the 10 lepers. We read about it in the Psalms.

Then they cried out to the lord in their trouble, he saved them out of their distresses…let them give thanks to the lord for his lovingkindness and offer sacrifices of thanksgiving.

The Lord supports the afflicted; Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; sing praises to our God on the lyre.

But I am afflicted and in pain; may thy salvation, o God set me securely on high. I will praise the name of God with song, and shall magnify him with thanksgiving.

Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the most high and call upon me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you and you will honor me.

That is the reason God gives us crosses to bear in our lives; suffering, pain, illness are all given to us so that he can extend his arm of salvation and to give us a thankful heart. That is the reason he slays us with his law, so that we will be crushed to the ground and filled with thanksgiving when he delivers us from sin and death.

Today we are thankful for God’s mercy, because we know we don’t deserve it; it is a gift. Today we are thankful for God’s abundance because we don’t deserve it. We thank him for the food he provides, for the air, the water, the love and friendship, for the abundance we have in our possessions and for the freedoms he gives us in our nation. We can even thank him for the closest so full of stuff that we don’t know where we will put all the new goodies that we will receive this year at Christmas. We thank him for these things because we have been humbled and know that we really don’t deserve any of it. We are not entitled to them. But we have a loving, generous God who delights in showing blessing and goodness on his children forever.

Amen.