Jesus, Have Mercy On Us!

Thanksgiving - November 24, 2005

Luke 17:11-19

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

I’d like to tell a story about a time I was filled with some fear and trepidation. It was a Wednesday in September of 1999. On that day, I was forced to let a nurse 'prep' me. What a funny word for a quick shave - where I don’t normally shave. Then, a doctor put me to sleep. After that, another doctor took a surgical knife and cut into my body. All this was done to fix me. All this, to help me. Before it all took place, I must admit, I was a little bit nervous.

I prayed fervently that God would be with me. I asked God to give the doctors and the nurses the wisdom needed to perform their tasks quickly and efficiently. I also asked Him to be help me to heal quickly when they were finished, if it was His will. I also asked God to be with me, to comfort me and to calm my fears. I knew, in my head and heart, that He would do all these things. While I trusted that God would take care of me, I will admit that my flesh was still a little nervous.

I am sure that you have all been in this state at one time or another. Nervous about something and you asked God's assistance to calm you. You were probably afraid of something at some time too, and called upon your Savior to be with you. Maybe you begged Him to be with you as you needed comfort at the loss of a loved one. I do not doubt that you have all suffered some illness or some other thing which needed healing, and for which you begged your Heavenly Father to grant strength to you in the recovery, and also swift healing.

You and I run to God and call out to Him fervently when we are in need. We beg His mercy as did the lepers in our text who called out to Jesus. We even trust that God will answer our prayers for Jesus' sake. And He does!

You have been healed more than once from whatever plagued you. September 1999 wasn't the first time I saw a doctor for surgery. God has calmed your fears. He has comforted you in your grief. What is more, He has touched you again and again.

Yet, how often are we like the nine who were healed in our text? How often have we begged God to heal us and when we got better, forgot to thank Him. You remember the flu which made you miserable? Yeah, that one. You asked God to be help you get over it. Well, God allowed that flu to linger for a bit, you didn't get better overnight. Finally, He did heal you, according to His timetable.

When it was all over, did you remember that it was Him who ended your suffering? Or, did it take so long that you forgot you had asked Him for help and never gave Him the thanks He deserved? And so, you became like one of the nine who was healed and didn't ever look back.

Yes, each and every one of us is like that, aren't we. I have been an ungrateful recipient of God's grace and mercy. You have been ungrateful as well. Oh no, not every time, but even once, is often enough.

What is more, today, you are physically able to be here. Today, you are gathered in this fellowship of believers to hear the Word of God and to eat the most blessed Thanksgiving meal. In fact, the word Eucharist, one of the names for the Lord’s Supper means exactly that, Thanksgiving. So, as we gather to receive the blessed sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are gathered for the most holy Thanksgiving meal. You are gathered with your blood relatives, all those who are bought by the blood of the Lamb - your family in Christ.

Imagine yourself cut off from your family. Imagine you couldn't be near them. Imagine you couldn't see them, except at a distance or by telephone. If you were a leper, you wouldn’t be able to do that. If you were to see them in person, to hug them, to touch them, to kiss them, you thing might condemn them to the same disease and lingering death to which you as a leper suffer. That is how these ten men were living when they called out to Jesus for mercy.

Imagine yourself unable to attend worship because your physical illness might jeopardize the lives of all those present. So, because of your illness, it is forbidden for you to be gathered with any other people - you are forbidden to enter any public place. This would mean that you could not be here today. You could not come into God's house to hear His Word and receive His sacrament. You couldn’t attend Thanksgiving dinner with your family of faith - you couldn’t attend the sacrament.

Imagine what it would mean to be cut off from family, from friends, and from the gathering to worship in God's house. Imagine being alone to suffer as your leprousy slowly rotted the flesh off your bones. Imagine your pleading to God every day - for His mercy, to have pity upon you and heal you. Being alone, you would wander alone, wallowing in your self-pity.

So we find these men in our text. These men were all in the same boat, yet they had found each other, even as misery loves company. And so they wandered together, looking for pity. They joined together in asking God for healing. Then came Jesus! With their weak leperous voices, they called out to Jesus from a distance, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" Hearing their cry, Jesus' commanded them to go and show themselves to the priests.

Jesus' words could only mean one of two things - first, they had to go to the priests to be declared unclean or secondly, to go and offer the prescribed sacrifice and be declared clean - should the deadly disease of leprosy leave them. They were already unclean, so Jesus' command to them could only mean one thing. Although they appeared to themselves as leprous, they did as Jesus commanded. They did not doubt, but believing went to the priests.

While on the way though, they noticed that their leprosy had been healed, they were cleansed. Can you imagine their great joy? One of them, a Samaritan, one who was a hater of the Jews and likewise, the Jews hated Samaritans - this one returned to Jesus when he noticed he was healed.

The others, they did what Jesus commanded them to do, they went to the priests. They went to the priests and offered the sacrifices prescribed by the law for the cleansing of leprosy. What else should they do? Didn't they show their faith by doing what Jesus had commanded? They had believed that Jesus could help them, so they did as He had told them to do.

So then, why would Jesus be sorrowful when they did not return to give thanks? Because their faith was in the healing, not in the healer. They were now united again with the people of God, but they left God behind. They may have accepted the temporal blessing from their Savior, but they refused the eternal salvation that He longed to give them.

We too are like these nine, we often go it alone. We beg God's mercy upon us, we ask for His healing and blessing. Yet, when it comes, we see it only in terms of the blessings of the body, the work of the doctor's prescribed medicine or the talents of his surgical skill, and the wonderful healing ability of our own bodies.

The Samaritan saw the healing of His body and knew more, that this was indeed the work of God and so, returned to Jesus, glorifying Him as God, and giving Him thanks. He saw in that simple miracle, the One who could heal not only His body, but would give to Him salvation and save him from this wretched mortal life.

As much as God has taken care of your physical bodies, your life here on earth in the flesh, He has done so much more for you. Can you imagine living in a country where you are not allowed to worship God as you desire? Can you imagine your pastor being imprisoned because he will not preach and teach what the government approves? At present, you live in a country where you are free to worship the only True God. You can safely gather in this building and hear preaching which is unhindered by governmental interference.

What is more, you are free to gather in this place and give thanks to the One who not only cares for you body, but your eternal soul as well. Here you can gather for a Thanksgiving meal of epic proportions - God’s own body and blood - given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Here you receive salvation.

You will sit with your family later. Maybe you will take time to thank God for all the things that you enjoy, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, rich gravy, cranberries, pie, family and friends - and maybe even for yams. But even before you do that, you have gathered yourself at this table. Here you acknowledge God’s greatest gift to you in Christ Jesus, the salvation of your soul. You give thanks for His incredibly rich mercy and grace, by receiving His gifts. Indeed, you give to Him your most hearty thanks and praise as you hear His Word, eat His body, drink of His blood.

Eating and drinking, enjoying the gifts laid before us, is the highest thanks that can be given to the host of our Thanksgiving meal. Let our thanks be shown to our gracious host, Jesus Christ, by eating and drinking at the table Christ He sets before us, for as we do so, we show that we believe that He has indeed had mercy upon us. Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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