Thanksgiving: The Theological Holiday (Luke 17:11-19)

Luke chapter 17 verses 11 19. Hear the word of the Lord. On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee and as he entered a village he was met by 10 lepers who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices saying Jesus master have mercy on us.

When he saw them he said to them go and show yourselves to the priest. And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them when he saw that he was healed turned back praising God with a loud voice and he fell on his face at Jesus's feet giving him thanks.

Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered we're not 10 cleansed where are the nine. Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner. And he said to him rise and go your way. Your faith has made you.

Well may the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his holy word thanksgiving. We got the real fun of black friday. And then small business saturday yesterday cyber monday and you go online and you buy all the stuff that you couldn't find on black friday i guess.

Or from small businesses we're so used to that we don't see what a bizarre really absolutely bizarre juxtaposition of contradictory impulses that that it is going directly from thanksgiving. Understand what that's about expressing gratitude for all the blessings we have.

We're so happy and content for them. From going from that to the very next day. And to the consumerist selfish greedy urge to grab everything that i think i need that is black friday. Of course now black friday starts on thanksgiving itself.

And so you know people are thinking now let's just cut this big meal short so we can go to the mall and buy the stuff that will finally make me happy this stuff that i'm supposed to be happy about for this holiday.

Besides i don't like turkey that much. Anyway consumerism has now consumed thanksgiving itself. But to blame the destruction of thanksgiving onto consumerism really misses the point. Consumerism is the culprit.

You can shout well it sounds like there's some foreign force that has invaded our lives that if only we can rid ourselves of this invasion we can then return to being thankful and content and satisfied and worshipful like we really all want to be.

Consumerism is the ideology that says that the meaning of life is in the things that we possess. So if you want more life you get more or better stuff and you get a new gadget you know your current smartphone isn't quite good enough they come out with a new one or a newer even higher definition tv.

Somehow there'll be more definition of the tv than there is in real life soon new car or whatever. So the consumerist thinks that's where you get your life from. And that's what much of this season commencing on friday no excuse me on thursday itself is all about.

But some people could think then well if the problem is with these stores opening up on early on friday and now on thursday and drawing in people with their deals. The problem is with the capitalists trying to cash in on our free time.

If the problem is an ideology consumerism then let's teach a new ideology. So if we could then what we need to do is make the stores close. We could do that we could just shut down the capitalists we could ban the term black friday.

Then maybe we'd finally be thankful and content and satisfied and worshipful. Really what we'd be is just bored sitting at home eating our leftover turkey and just eaten up with discontent. The problem is deeper than consumerism if the poisonous fruit if the fruit is greed the living for stuff the selfish craving for whatever the newest thing the consumption of thanksgiving by black friday that's the fruit.

Then the tree is consumerism producing that fruit. But the root is our faith in ourselves our narcissism our fundamental belief that my chief end is to enjoy myself for as long as i can and everything and everyone including god himself exists to help me do that.

And if they can't well we'll dispose of them. Such people may even be religious. But when they survey the wondrous cross they see a piece of art. I'd like to have that on my wall and it's on sale down black friday i'll get that cross put on my wall.

Great story about love and sacrifice them. It's all about them not something that demands my life my soul my all. So they say oh that turkey was wonderful. So was that pecan pie. Now let's go to best buy and see what's on sale.

That's the new american holy day turkey day slash black friday. And that's a travesty. Because thanksgiving is our truest and most christian holiday. We see why. That is true here in luke 17 where the one who has faith real faith that saves not only from leprosy but from what the leprosy represents from sin is the one who is thankful.

You notice how thankfulness is the fruit produced by the salvation. Thankfulness sincere heart-filling utterly amazed gratitude is one of the surest signs of salvation. Here in luke chapter 17 jesus passes by 10 lepers and they're at a distance.

Lepers by law had to stay outside the towns. In the cities they had to stay separate. So these lepers stood at a distance. In verse 12 they see jesus and they cry out jesus master have mercy on us. Notice the way they talk.

They call him master. A lot of respect reverence. They plead for mercy. They know the right words. So jesus says back to them. Go show yourself to the priest. Very simple very direct. Now the priest in israel acted as a kind of health inspector to see if someone was really cured of leprosy and they could then come back.

You had to get the approval of the priest to come back into regular society back into the towns and cities and go shopping in the mall on black friday they could return. Leprosy in their terms was what we now would know of as a variety of skin diseases including the most serious of the skin diseases what is now called hansen's disease.

It's an infection of the skin and nerves that leads to a loss of sensation particularly starts in the extremities. It gets numb. The nerves are destroyed by the bacteria. And then the people with it can't feel those areas infected areas anymore.

And they get infected. Or they get wounded. And they don't heal. And they some just drop off. Sometimes so extremities become deformed and eroded. We saw lepers in ethiopia missing fingers. I don't mean just like one or two here or there.

Sometimes whole hands with no fingers. Body disfigured by leprosy. Leprosy also serves in the bible as a symbol for sin. Leprosy is contagious and disfiguring because it's contagious. Lepers were required to stay separate from the rest of society like here when other people came near they were required to call out unclean unclean a warning to them.

Like sin. Leprosy spreads and so must be ostracized. So it destroys relationships. When people are eaten up by sin it separates them from others. It makes us unclean to god and to each other. Like leprosy sin disfigures us.

We were made in the image of god to be thankful to be worshipful to be gracious and loving and giving like god is. But when we get eaten up by the selfishness of sin we become these monsters who consume everything who take every gift as if it were our right.

And when we're done with it we just move on to the next next relationship next neighbor next god next church to devour for ourselves. Here jesus encounters those with this most serious form of leprosy.

They rightly call out for mercy. Okay their words are right. They know the right words to say. But their actions will show if they really saw healing as a gift of mercy. When you know something is something you get because it's mercy you know it's not deserved and you you're grateful for it.

And we'll see here whether they're really where they really see it is is mercy. Or whether they think it is something they have a right they have a claim to it. It's kind of a deserved pay they get because of what they did.

Or maybe it's it's it comes their way. Because of who they are because of their status they say they want mercy. If that's what they really thought healing was they would be filled with thank thankfulness when they get it.

So we'll see as in james it's not a matter of talk. Remember it's a matter of actions. Jesus tells them to go to act based on his command. Notice even before they're healed. He doesn't like lay hands on them and heal them and then send them to the priest.

Notice he says go. And in verse 14 they are only healed as they are going. In other words they're already on their way uh to the priest. Um to show them that they're healed. They set out to go to show them they're healed even before they're actually healed.

So they're required to do this act of faith. But they had such faith in jesus they went at his command even though they weren't healed yet. When they started and they are all healed. You notice that that's important.

They're all 10 of them are healed. They receive this miracle of healing. Now we normally think assume people are they're not made grateful by run-of-the-mill gifts by things they think they earn by by their food and their shelter and their friends and their family.

You would get it that people aren't made grateful for that because they think they earned it or they they just take it for granted. But surely we think people would be made thankful by a miracle a miracle of mercy.

Surely that would make anyone thankful. Surely we're not so hard-hearted. Are we that even miracles don't make us thankful. Are we really that hard-hearted here after 10 miracles only one man is made thankful when he saw that he was healed rather than go to the priest and then maybe went back home.

He turns around and he comes back to jesus. And as he's coming to jesus you know just kind of when he sees him from a distance he loudly just praising god. He's just gushing out praise and shouting it out to everyone that hears hallelujah.

You can see this guy going down the road waving his arms and shouting hallelujah. And when he sees jesus he comes to him he falls down. He's just prostrated on the ground although he's flat on his face on the ground before jesus is giving him thanks.

He's saying hallelujah thank you lord. He's thankful now this is true thanksgiving. He knew that he was not owed a healing. He knew that it wasn't his right something. He wasn't something he earned by doing the right ritual or saying the right confession or by being a moral man or not something by birthright because he's in the right nation like something he inherited.

He knew it was a gift given to him. So he was thankful the others. Yeah not so much. He was also a samaritan. Now normally the jews and the samaritans didn't hang out together but lepers such outcasts.

Well they just didn't care. All the society rejects us who cares. If we hang out with the samaritans too that he was a samaritan was probably a large part of what made him exceptionally thankful. If the rest were jews then maybe they thought they deserved healing is their birthright.

I'm a son of abraham. We will inherit the kingdom of god. So this is what we get. We get healing. They may have thought healing was something that owed them a right to claim not a blessing bestowed. But this man though he was different his head hadn't been inflated with the kind of ego boosting talk about what is owed him about what he deserves.

That he deserves the healing the money your best life now that it's all yours by right. If you'll only name it and claim it. The type of religion that panders to narcissistic people who take everything for granted.

The narcissist thinks that every good thing that comes his way is deserved. His or her baseline of expectations. In other words what do you expect. And anything more than that you think is is a bonus.

The narcissist's baseline of expectations is everything. Everything he or she wants is expected. If he or she has leprosy then getting healing it's expected. I should get it. They think anything other than that in their mind is the worst injustice that i don't get the job.

I don't get the money i want. I don't get the the relationship i want. I don't get the car i want. I don't get the helix i want. This is horrible. They're. They're wrong. They're cheating me. God himself is wrong.

Having leprosy in the first place would be them. They would think an undeserved travesty that now the narcissist may cry out have mercy as a necessary means for getting whatever he or she wants. But once it is given once the healing comes once once they've been given the gift once you've done them the big favor.

They think. Well that's mine. That's my right. That's my earned wages. That's what i deserve because of who i am. Don't you know who i am. I'm the one who deserves healing. That's my birthright. This man though the samaritan man didn't think that way.

The samaritan ex-leper he's on the ground shouting his hallelujahs to jesus and jesus notes. You know we're not 10 cleansed. Where are the nine. Why do they think they deserved healing that they're not even grateful for.

It was no one found. Jesus says was no one found to give praise to god except this foreign. It just occurred to me. The man is giving praise to jesus. And jesus says he's giving praise to god. The implication though was that the rest the the other nine that they weren't foreigners.

They were probably jews. And so they should know better. Right. They should have been raised on the word of god from a child hearing hearing the promises of god the instructions about god. They should be praising god too.

They should be filled with thanksgiving. You know this this odd overwhelmed heart-feeling gratitude. Instead they think yeah i got what's coming to me. Finally what i had a right to. Yeah you can't earn the gratitude of ungrateful people.

I mean that's sad. That's a sad reality. But that's the reality. You cannot earn the gratitude of ungrateful people. It doesn't matter what you do for them. You can't earn their gratitude. You can even heal them of leprosy miraculously.

And they'll shrug their shoulders and think well it's about time. But the one who knew he didn't deserve it he was filled with thankfulness. So jesus says to that one rise and go your way. Your faith has made you well.

Or it could just as easy to be translated your faith has saved you saved him from leprosy saved him from the wrath of god. If you've been saved through faith be overwhelmed by the indescribable gift of your salvation.

If you've been saved through faith realize you didn't deserve that. It wasn't owed you. It's not. It's not something you should kind of expect. Just you begin with this baseline of expectation. God's gonna save me.

It's what i no seeing something he did for you purely because he is gracious. And once you see that your heart will be filled with thankfulness and you'll be transformed by a sincere heart-filling utterly amazed gratitude.

You will look at your life astounded and think so much good i received so much good all thanks to god. It's that understanding that gave us the holiday of thanksgiving. It came directly from what the puritans believed and experienced.

Now the typical way of telling the thanksgiving story is to tell about the first group of puritans who came to america now commonly called pilgrims landing on cape cod in the fall of 1620 barely surviving their first year.

Many of them dying of diseases because they were weakened by malnutrition and was the harsh conditions in north america compared to what they were used to. But when they had survived that first year they had a good harvest.

They felt now they were established that they were. Now it looked like we're going to make it. After all they thought that this was an occasion to thank god for sustaining them. And so they had a great celebration.

They had a thanksgiving inviting the local indians you know to share the wampanoag. Then they said they said we assume they didn't really say this this this was fun. Let's do it again next year. And so a tradition was born now.

The first part's true. The second part about the assumption that's not that's not what really gave us ongoing thanksgivings. The puritans had ongoing thanksgivings because they believed that every like from the book of james every this or that was under god's control and so they responded to got what god was doing every this or that and some of those this or that's are good things.

That means god gave it to you and you respond with thanksgiving and that. And so that's where thanks ongoing thanksgivings come from. On the other hand if events showed that god was displeased with them they would call days of fasting and humiliation.

If there were droughts or shipwrecks or severe indian attacks or epidemics they saw those events as whips in god's hand to discipline them. They believed that all things were under god's control. So they would obey what we saw remember in james 5 weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.

And they would call they would weep and howl and call a day of fasting and prayer days of humiliation. They said that these days of humiliation were for quote due examination of our ways toward god and consideration of god's ways toward us.

So they would they said quote make a solemn and real profession that we justify god. Otherwise these bad things are happening in their lives. There's epidemics people are dying disasters. And they would justify god.

They would say to god your ways are right. Oh god what you're doing to us is what we deserve justify god and judge ourselves. It says a lot about us in our culture that we've abandoned this fasting day days of humiliation and only kept the feasting day.

Maybe that's why now our feasting day our thanksgiving day is being consumed by our greed and hollowed out by our consumerism our dissatisfaction. They were more thankful precisely because they were more repentant more grieving over their sins more aware of those sins of their own depravity and so more aware that what they really deserved was judgment.

They were happier at their thanksgiving days because they wept more on their fasting days. The great early puritan pastor john cotton wrote besides the celebration of the lord's day every week we sometimes appoint extraordinary occasions either of notable judgments do set apart a day of humiliation or upon special mercies we set apart a day of thanksgiving.

Notice the puritans in thanksgiving were celebrating god's work in the present what he had done for them lately it was the public expression of an ongoing relationship with god. It wasn't like a lot of people think today that they had that first thanksgiving.

Is this one surviving their first year their first harvest and then celebrating sort of the anniversary of that every year after. No they saw god's hand at work. Now recent things that have happened maybe a full harvest maybe peace for the indians healthy children a revival among the youth whatever good thing has happened.

And then in response to that they would call hey look what god has done good things. Let's have a thanksgiving. Between 1632 and 1686 they called 61 days of thanksgiving. That's 61 thanksgivings in 55 years a little more than one a year.

Of those 20 thanksgivings were called for improved harvest and better health. 31 thanksgivings were called for peace and unity for good leaders for victory in battle and better relations with england.

Five thanksgivings were called for the well-being of england and peace in europe. And then there were five thanksgivings they called because things are going pretty good like god is is blessing us he is not destroying us.

No specific reason given that it was spontaneous and dynamic it was about the present not the past is what makes it kind of difficult for people today to understand. Because almost all our other holidays are anniversary things we remember you know when christ was born or a new year or whatever things like that.

But this was supposed to be you know god's done something good. We're gonna have a thanksgiving. Now we've confined it to a scheduled day of the year. So we made it cyclical and repetitious which obscures what it means obscures that it's supposed to be an impromptu response to what we perceive god is now doing a spontaneous response of something from our hearts of being filled with an utterly amazed gratitude because god has done something new in our lives a blessing.

And we realize we don't deserve it. So we're thankful. But i'm glad we still have thanksgiving even if we pinned it down. The other thing that makes it difficult for people to understand what is this vestige of a tradition that we have left over from the puritans called thanksgiving is that it is a theological holiday.

It's not simply an anniversary of a harvest meal but it's the reaction sort of a chemical reaction when two doctrines mix in our hearts. Right. Like putting two chemicals in a beaker and stirring it and it blows up.

You put two doctrines in our hearts and stir in our life. And you get thanksgiving when two or three doctrines that the bible teaches and the puritan believe come together they combust and they explode in a reaction called thanksgiving.

And those two doctrines are two main ones are depravity and providence or the sovereignty of god in all things. Now first the bible teaches and the puritans believed in the doctrine of total depravity.

Human depravity is one of the most clearest and forcefully taught doctrines in the bible. Don't believe me. Let me quote some verses on that. Genesis chapter 6 verse 5 the lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil.

Continually try to find a loophole in that. Psalm 51 verse 5 says. Behold i was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Isaiah chapter 64 verse 6 says. We all we have all become like one who is unclean and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.

Jeremiah chapter 17 verse 9 the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick who can understand it. John chapter 3 verse 19 says. People love darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.

In john chapter 8 verse 34 the lord jesus says. Truly truly i say to everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. And romans chapter 3 verses 10 to 11 says. None is righteous. No not one. No one understands no one seeks for god.

Finally ephesians chapter 2 verse 1 says. We are dead in sin and there are others. And that being what we are like. That's the description of us left to ourselves without god's grace in our natural condition always inclined to evil sinful from conception desperately sick dead in sin lovers of darkness by nature slaves to sin not seeking god.

Even when we think we're being religious since that's what we're like. What do we deserve no good thing. Now far from the narcissist who thinks that he or she deserves every good thing and takes it for granted.

Far from that we actually don't deserve any good thing. We deserve torment and wrath and hell. Hell should be our baseline of expectation. That should be what we know. We have earned anything better than hell that we get for even a second is a gracious gift better than we deserve.

And yet we have so many gracious gifts so much of our lives is better than hell isn't it. Now the question is why. Why do good things happen to bad people. That's the real philosophical conundrum that we should just be baffled and amazed by.

Why do good things happen to us bad people. Why here we are. We're soiled from head to toe. We're covered in the leprosy of sin. It's eating away at us. It's disfiguring us completely. It's cutting off the spiritual nerves in our heart.

It's numbing us to spiritual things to the things of god. Unclean unclean that's who we are. And we're standing before a holy god and we're asking him arrogantly. Why are you treating us like we're dirty.

What we should be asking. As the old song goes why me lord what have i ever done to deserve even one of the blessings i've known. Why me lord what did i ever do that was worth love from you. And the kindness you've shown.

Why do good things happen to bad people. That's the amazing question and you could ask i guess. Well either god is not holy and so he's not holding us to his standards. Why he's allowing us to have good things.

Because we're so bad. We should be bad things. But maybe he's not holy. He's not holding us to a standard. Well we're shown throughout the bible like in isaiah 6. You know holy holy holy. That he is holy.

We know that's not true so we can mark that out. Or maybe some people think i don't know anyone that really thinks this. But try to be logical all the explanations. Maybe we us bad people get good things because like before god's not all powerful he's not in control that he really wants to punish us for our sins.

But we keep getting away and we keep getting the good things that he doesn't want us to have. Well the bible teaches and the puritans believe that god is in control. As we saw in james chapter 4 verse 15.

You know we ought to say if the lord wills we will live and do this or that. Because whether we live and do this or that is totally according to what he wills. So even the little this or that of our business life every little good this or that we enjoy is under his control and so he gave it to us.

So you can count that out. The only option left the third option god is generous to us despite how bad we are. So we should be thankful. Thanksgiving is such a genuinely christian holiday because it recognizes that god is indeed in control of it all.

Then the theological chemical reaction in our hearts when we believe in our depravity believe in god's holiness and god's sovereignty leads to thanksgiving. Thankfulness comes when we really believe that there is a god who is at work giving us all the good things we don't deserve.

So when we look at all the good we received whatever it is perhaps a good family or a loving spouse good children a home of rewarding work food and drink. Churches where others are thankful to a country where we're free to attend and support those churches you know that wasn't luck.

It wasn't just because we worked hard and we worked smart we did the right things and so we built this. No a gracious god gave it to us. Part of what makes it hard for us to understand thanksgiving is that we often think just like modern secular people think that god is there.

Yeah he's the god of miracles. God can do miracles but the rest of the world that's not miracles kind of the cause and effect the things of science the things you can understand the natural laws that's all out of his control.

He's not involved in that that the world is like a machine churning away and he's not involved in that he's he's the god of miracles not the god in this world. So we think then well we could be thankful for miracles like if i got healed of leprosy by jesus i'd be thankful for that.

But if we got leprosy and we were cured by doctors prescribing the right combination of antibiotics well we just pay the bill and we go about as if god had nothing to do with it. There's very little understanding today even among christians of the doctrine that made the puritan so thankful and it made them so thankful that they founded a holiday all about expressing that thankfulness that that doctrine and distinction to the ignorance of so called luck and the arrogance of the self-made.

It's called providence. Providence means that god is in control of even the natural things the this or that the cause and effect things that we think we understand you know like the weather our jobs our grades a good harvest.

We plant the seed it's watered and it grows. And we think okay that's all science. Yeah. But that's god's in control of that science. Providence can be a cure from a disease like leprosy hansen's disease.

If we take the right medicine all of that is providence. It's under his control. Now whether god heals leprosy through miracles or antibiotics is still just as much the work of god either way. Now think about it because you know that's that's hard for us to understand.

But just think think about it for a second. You know god is all powerful. Right. God all powerful. So since he's all powerful which is it more more difficult for god to do heal leprosy or cure it with antibiotics which is more difficult for an all-powerful god to do.

Last 20 years say 16 million people have been cured of leprosy by the medicines the antibiotics. Jesus here healed 10 by a miracle. Now which is more difficult for an all-powerful god to do. Neither all powerful.

Nothing is difficult in any way for you god can just as easily do either which is more under god's control. Put it that way. The miracle is that yeah that's under his control. It's a miracle. Or the antibiotics the doctor prescribing the medicine.

You go to the pharmacy. You get it you take it your cure which is more under his control. Neither they're both equally fully 100 according to his will. We don't always get that because we think we understand one and we don't understand the other.

When god acts beyond the laws of nature like here in luke 17 we call it miracle. Ah we see wow god's at work when he acts through the laws of nature like in healing through medicine we call it providence.

But both are equally his work according to his will. The only problem really is with us. We see god acting through providence. We see providence act. We see things happening and we think we understand it.

So we don't see god behind it often and we take it for granted. We can fail to see god willing every this or that as though nature is out of his control as though it's just luck or us working hard and smart mastering the laws of nature with our science.

So the cure then is our right as something we've earned something we've we've mastered we've harnessed by our own willpower and god's out doing miracles. And we ever need a miracle we'll call it them then.

But until then we can manage fine without you. For now thanks god that's the attitude. The result though is we're not thankful. It just happens. These natural things we think we are we made it happen.

As abraham lincoln said when he established the regular the national holiday of thanksgiving he said because these bounties the blessings of good harvest the food we have the clothing the prosperity the health and so on he says because they are so constantly enjoyed because we have them constantly we repeatedly regularly we're used to them every day he said.

Quote. We are prone to forget the source from which they come. Now think about it. If nine of the ten lepers could forget the source of their healing when it's a miracle take the miracle for granted. How much more likely are we to be ungrateful for the blessings of providence.

For all the good things that the lord provides through means through jobs and family and medicine and machines like cards and computers and ovens and smartphones things that we think we can understand.

We're so prone to be ungrateful not only because we're narcissistic often unaware of the judgment we deserve. Our baseline of expectation is we take all the blessings for granted. Not only are we like that unaware of the judgment we deserve but because we're so flooded with blessings regular blessings constantly blessed we just get accustomed to it.

And we shrug our shoulders and go on. Then if one little thing we don't have when we get bitter by that now i don't know whether the story in luke chapter 17 is meant to be a statistical analysis of human gratitude.

But if it is 90 of people are not made thankful by miracles that's pretty astounding isn't it. How much more likely are we to be left ungrateful by providence. So we take his blessings for granted. We make his constant provision of gifts the baseline of expectation.

And then get dissatisfied when we don't get more than that. The lord jesus told us in matthew chapter 5 verse 45 that the father sends his sunshine on the evil and on the good. We all need it. And he blesses the evil with sunshine and the good people he sends rain also a blessing by the way in a semi-arid land where most of the people were farmers.

If you lived in a place like israel you definitely want rain. And he sends that on the just those right with god and on the unjust. Those who are not right with god he blesses them all. But few are made grateful for it.

In acts chapter 14 the apostle paul right after healing a man crippled from birth a miracle. And the pagans were just amazed by that. They brought out their pagan priests and they were going to sacrifice a sacrifice to and give thanks to paul.

They thought it was a greek god. Paul says that the true god has already been giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons satisfying your hearts with food and gladness. You know it's right that what we do on thanksgiving is eat.

God's given us food is a blessing you know what. For to eat it we all of it is good he's paul says if received with thanksgiving we're surrounded by god's generous gifts. And yet we're so seldom thankful for it.

I've known people have had great favors done for them from small favors like looking after their kids without taking any pay to having their lawns mowed when they're out of town to big ones like being given the career the business they wanted just basically just handed to them as a gift.

And yet they're still not grateful. They take it for granted. And they end up in fact accusing the people who gave them so much. I'm not loving you. You can't earn the thankfulness of unthankful people.

Because the problem is a lack of a holiday our lack of thank you cards. The problem is the heart. What is needed is a change of heart. We need a miracle. We need a miracle like jesus healed these lepers.

But this time we need the healing of what the leprosy pictures the heart deep spiritual nerve destroying infection of sin. The only cure is a miracle. A new heart for god to remove that old dead heart consumed with greed for whatever shiny new thing that looks good at the moment.

The miracle of suddenly seeing something that you were blind to before that you were numb to. You couldn't feel it before. The goodness of god the sunshine the rain the life and breath. Every morsel of food every drop to drink that it's all a gracious gift that you don't deserve.

You see that. And having a heart a new heart now that's been amazed by that and even more amazed that the father sent the son to heal my dead heart. Thanks be to god for his indescribable gift.