“CHRIST IS EUCHARIST FOR YOU”
Saint Luke 17. 11-19
Eve of a National Thanksgiving: 25 November Anno Domini 2009
JW Watson, pastor
Do you go to Jerusalem on the fourth Thursday of every November? That is, do you sanctify the Lord in your heart's Temple by receiving Him and His gifts? Or, do you go to grandma's house to stuff yourself with some poor fowl?
Of course, the two need not be mutually exclusive. A disciple can enjoy family and friends while still worshipping the Christ.
Repent of turning this wonderful opportunity to receive the Bread of Heaven into only an excuse to receive football, food, and fun. Americans also need to repent of thinking America is God's country, and that God ought to somehow be thanking them, and it. It's nice that the Indians helped the first colonists with their crops and animal husbandry…I suppose. But that is not what Saint Luke 17. 11 ff is all about. It's good to remember all the wonderful First Article gifts that God the Creator rains down on His creatures; the Creed as explained by the Reformer says as much. But fields, cattle, house, home, wife, children, and even eyes & ears is Not what "it's" all about.
It is because, ever since you rebelled in, with, and under your Adam & Eve, that you are not in Jerusalem the Golden. Of yourselves, by your own merits and worth, and "deservedness" you are not in Eden; you are not in the final Heaven; you are not in Paradise. Of yourselves you remain in Samaria-the land of mixed-breeds. God wanted you pure but you wanted to eat the snake's food. God wanted you to be people always and only of Bethlehem (the House of Bread) but you wanted to be Galileans, foreigners who ate, drank and were merry like all the other Canaanites.
But God so loved the World. God still loved the Egyptians, the Babylonians and the Canaanites. God loved the Gentiles and most assuredly His plans included them; His plans came to full fruition in their inclusion into His chosen people.
This text is not about physical healing. Yes the 10 lepers are cleansed. That was a good and gracious act of a loving and merciful God. Every miracle that Jesus performed which healed or cured or restored was good. Every one of those wonders demonstrated Who He really was. Every re-creation of those who were broken and damaged was (and is) an indicator that with GOD IN THE FLESH: IMMANUEL, the reign of sin and death is over. Eden is being restored and all creation is groaning in eager anticipation of the final Advent.
Yes of course when Jesus cleanses the 10 of their skin disease it is no more amazing than when He cleansed you from your damning trespasses + at the font.
Yes, physical healing is but an indicator of the even greater spiritual healing. But, let no man, let no Disciple ever spiritualize away the joy of the real, the earthy, the physical, the bodily restoration that Messiah brings. He didn't obey the Law that Adam the Man was to have obeyed so that you will only float around like Casper the Ghost. He didn't let His flesh be flayed like a filet; He didn't bleed like a stuck…like a throat slit lamb, so that your spirit could float like a transparent, membranous cloud. He became flesh and blood, He stayed (and stays) flesh and blood so that your own flesh and blood will become like His, like it was meant to be in the Garden, perfect, glorified, and wonderfully/joyfully/graciously SOLID and REDEEMED.
The nine healed men were thankful that they had been healed. You are thankful that you have jobs, spouses (or other loved family members and special friends), sight, hearing, clothes, homes, and good food to eat tomorrow. Good.
But the one clean man, the formerly dirty leper, who came back, shows you all what Thanksgiving is really about. Thanksgiving in the Greek is Eucharista. This is where the Church Catholic, not coincidentally, gets its word Eucharist. Thus you see the revelation in the very serendipitous liturgical practice of referring to the Lord's Supper as THE Eucharist. Not a Eucharist but THE Eucharist.
Christ Jesus is your creator. You give thanks for this/for Him. Christ is your Worker of the Law, your fulfiller of all that needs to be done. You give thanks for this/for Him. Christ is your Rescuer from death, from hell, from Satan, from the results of your sin. You give thanks for this/for Him. All worship is but Divine Service not human works. Divine Service is God's Work, Christ's Work.
True Thanksgiving is but True Eucharista, true Christ Jesus for you.
The healed Samaritan did not go to Bethlehem, to the manger, to show his good works with gifts, or action, or fervency. The restored foreigner did not pilgrimage to Nazareth to show obedience and servanthood of self. The man was drawn by the Holy Ghost to where Christ was, where Christ's Body and Blood was, to where Christ's words were spoken by Christ THE WORD.
And what did the man do? He did what Peter did in the awe of miraculous power? Well yes, but even more accurately he did what Luther recommends we do in the realization that our God was INCARNATE by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary and was MADE MAN. He genuflected. He knelt before His Lord and God.
True and laudable thanksgiving is to receive the gifts the Giver gives.
Meet and salutary Eucharista is to receive the Eucharist Himself.
GIVEN AND SHED FOR YOU FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS.
Go your way; your faith in Christ, by Grace, by CHRIST has made you well and immortal.
In the Name of The Father and + of The Son and of The Holy Ghost