Thanksgiving is Surrender
What if thanksgiving isn’t just something we offer, but the very thing that helps set us free?
For so much of my life, I have treated faith as a formula. If the formula is right, then I can be the right kind of person for God.
When I think this way, I assume that good faith will get me good things and a lack of faith won’t bring anything in return. But faith is not a formula. It is not a mode of transaction that keeps me on God’s good side.
What if this way of thinking about God is not only wrong, but something from which God wants to set us free?
How do we stop thinking about God in this way? How can we stop looking for the right faith formula or a faith filled with transactions?
It might be because it’s Thanksgiving today, but I’ve been wondering if gratitude holds the key to the freedom I am looking for. Maybe for you as well.
One of the stories in the Bible often associated with giving thanks is found in Luke 17. A story of healing, gratitude and wholeness.
On His way to Jerusalem, Jesus is called out by 10 lepers looking for mercy. Because of their disease, they aren’t supposed to come near “the clean” folks. So, as they keep their distance, they cry out for help.
It’s interesting how Jesus not only honors the law by maintaining His distance from them, but also honors it by sending them to the priests.
The priests are not the healers, they are the ones who declare whether or not someone has been made clean. So what is implied in Jesus’ sending is that He has, in fact, shown them the mercy they were asking for. After all, He wouldn’t send them to the priests in order to be declared clean unless He had actually made them clean.
Luke says that as they went, they were cleansed. But one of them, when he realized he had been healed, came back to Jesus. This former leper closed the distance he once kept and threw himself at the feet of Christ, praising and thanking him.
It’s a beautiful picture of worship and thanksgiving and could easily have ended with the man’s praise. But Jesus doesn’t leave well enough alone.
As the man lies at His feet, Jesus draws attention to the nine that were missing and points out that the man who returned was not only a foreigner, but the only one who decided to turn around.
“Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?”
Only one came back to give thanks. Only one closed the distance. And yet, only one didn’t do what Jesus asked him to do. What’s that all about?
If we are familiar with the teachings of Jesus, we have heard him say things like, “You have heard it said, but I say to you.” When He says things like this, He is referring to what the law has said. In saying this, He is not dismissing the law, He is bringing it to light. He’s bringing a greater understanding of the law’s intentions.
Sometimes I wonder if this is happening more than we realize. What if this kind of thing is happening here in this story?
Hold that thought.
After Jesus asks his questions, He says to the man at His feet, “Get up and go; your faith has made you well.”
But wait! Wasn’t he already well? Even though the other nine didn’t turn around, we are told all ten of them were healed. What is Jesus saying? What is different about the faith of this man? And what does it mean that he is now made well?
I wonder if we have a “you have heard it said, but I say to you” situation going on here.
But unlike His teachings, it’s not heard in the words of Jesus, it’s seen by what the foreign leper does.
In the case of our story, Jesus words are the “you have heard it said”. The law says you must go to the priests to be declared clean and Jesus instructs the lepers to do just that. But the faith-in-action of the man who returns is the “but I say to you” response that Jesus acknowledges.
Imagine it like this. “You told me to go the priest to be declared clean, and yes, I heard you say it. But I say to you, Jesus, that YOU are the High Priest and what I MUST do is come straight to your feet.”
Jesus sees the man’s “but I say to you” faith and sees a man who doesn’t see faith as a formula to get something good. He sees faith as a recognition of what is good. It’s possible that the nine who went straight to the priest might start thinking that the formula was the key. But the foreigner who returned knew that Jesus was the answer.
So, when Jesus says, “your faith has made you well” he is talking about more than the man’s leprosy. He’s talking about his life. Other translations will say, “your faith has saved you” or “your faith has made you whole”.
I love this picture. This man has been made whole and it is not because of his actions. This man has been declared whole by Jesus because of the actions of the High Priest Himself. The man’s gratitude demonstrates that wholeness is found empty handed at the feet of the One who saves us.
This is why I believe giving thanks sets us free. When we are thankful to God, we come surrendered. We don’t bring gifts to pay him back.
God never looks at us transactionally, as people who owe Him. He doesn’t give with restraint and he doesn’t give under compulsion. He is the Cheerful Giver.
That’s why thanksgiving is our only right response. When we are grateful we come with empty hands recognizing that the Giver is the only gift that’s needed.
There is no faith formula. There are no transactions required. Thanksgiving reminds us that we are free to fall at the feet of Jesus. It is only then can we find the strength to “Get up and go” in the wholeness and freedom he has prepared for us.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Image: “The Healing of the Ten Lepers” by James Tissot
It’s intriguing how the foreigner is the one who returned... he likely didn’t feel the same compulsion to stay in line with the Law. Maybe on the way, following the other 9, he didn’t fully grasp what they were doing and why, but then as he was healed on the way, it was such a shocking experience he couldn’t help but go straight back to Jesus. I love the image you present of Jesus being the “but I tell you” in the scene and being the true High Priest we come to.