Tuesday, April 8

Thanksgiving for Healing… Or Not

Tuesday, April 8

Luke 17:11-19

When healing comes, it is a relief, and that relief is proportional to the burden of the sickness. Thanksgiving, too, can be relative to the perceived relief experienced in the healing…or not.

The Thanksgiving Day Gospel reading in the LCMS lectionary is the healing of the 10 lepers, Luke 17:11-19. The text notably begins with Jesus going “through the middle” of Samaria and Galilee – two regions perceived to be of more uncleanliness than Judea in the South. Of course, it was in Judea where Jesus would be crucified.  The entire earth was “sick,” (Is. 1:6; 24:5) and the Redeemer and Healer was right in the middle of the sickness and would carry it away, (Is. 53:4) literally becoming sick with sin, until it killed Him.  (II Cor. 5:21; I Pt. 2:24)

Jesus alienated folks in His own hometown, reminding them that Elijah and Elisha healed only certain foreigners. But most of the ill Israelites and even the vast majority of sick people in those foreign lands would remain in their sickness. God does not always heal, but when He does, it brings joy.  And it should bring thanksgiving. When sickness is acute, heartache breaks down barriers. And leprosy brought Jew and Samaritan together – but together they suffered a new barrier of alienation from the world. Jesus’ healing brought joy, and broke down that barrier.  He would do the same with those He called.

Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan. (Lk. 17:5,6)

Only 10% of the 10 lepers gave thanks after the miraculous healing of their leprosy “as they were going” to present themselves to the priest. OK, it was one Samaritan who returned to give thanks.  I was trying to put the best construction on the discouraging stats. I wonder sometimes if God reveals the real proportions of the greater populace through simple math like “1/10.” From the mouth of the One who counts our hairs, it would be fascinating to hear the real number of people who give thanks after they are healed. And possibly it would be even more intriguing to learn of the percentage of thanks in proportion to the perceived burden of that sickness. I’m not saying that hang nails are less of a burden than cancer, but they are.

Unless Jesus returns first, we will all die of a physical illness, or a mortal wound as a manifestation of the deadly spiritual illness which infects us all. The body matters to God; He created us physical and good and healthy and even without the shadow of death lurking around us. But sin changed all of that – and all of us. And every person Jesus healed eventually died from some [other] physical ailment.

But Jesus is “The Resurrection and the Life,” meaning that those who believe He is their ultimate Healer walk in the light and knowledge of their future and final totally-restored healthy state… in the midst of this sickly life! The 10 lepers were healed “on their way.” We, too, should give thanks now – on the way to our final healing – even while dealing with the various sicknesses of an unhealthy world.