Tag: Thanks

When Jesus Said ‘Thanks’

Background Passages: John 6:11, John 11:41, Luke 10:21, Mark 14:22-24

I married into a family with odd holiday traditions. Pizza on New Year’s Day. Steak on Thanksgiving. Reuben sandwiches on Christmas Eve and Hamburgers on Christmas Day. Nothing against turkey, but I’ve never been wild about dressing, even though everyone else thought a serving of my Mom’s oyster dressing was close to perfection. Adopting the new traditions worked for me.

Our family Thanksgiving meal morphed a little over the years. On this Thanksgiving morning I stood over my grill, cooking chicken and beef fajitas, the new family standard for the holiday.

There were 22 people in the house and one-half of them were active, noisy and fun-loving children under the age of nine. At some point after all the running and all the games…after hours of chasing the little ones in circles upstairs…after eating my weight in fajitas, guacamole and coconut cream pie…after having no time to just relax, everyone left. With a cursory effort at straightening the house my wife and I plopped down on the couch in a state of mind we call “blessed exhaustion.” Parents and grandparents know the feeling.

I’m as tired as I’ve ever been, but I am eternally thankful. I love my family and love my time with them. I am thankful for their presence in my life.

Thanksgiving as a holiday was not a tradition in biblical times. Offering thanks to God, however, was a natural part of their worship. It made me wonder about the times Jesus expressed his thanks to God and if those times might be instructive for today’s daily living.

A quick review of my Bible Concordance shows four distinct times when Jesus offered thanks to his father in heaven. Let’s take a look at that for which Jesus was thankful.

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Looking out on a sea of hungry people, Andrew tugged at Jesus’ sleeve and introduced him to a young boy who shyly placed a woven basket filled with five loaves of bread and two dried fish into Jesus’ hands…an innocent offering to help the great teacher feed the multitude.

“Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish,”

In this first instance, Jesus offered thanks to God for his provision. The Bread of Life thankful for the bread of life.

It seems proper to me to be grateful for God’s provision…for food, clothing, health, shelter, family, love, hope…every blessing of God bestowed upon his people. That which I possess in material and spiritual things is far greater than I deserve and far surpassing anything I expected in life. I am thankful to God for his provision.

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While ministering to people in Galilee, Jesus received word that Lazarus, one of his best friends, lay gravely ill a great distance away in Judea. With work still to be done where he was and knowing that God was at work in both places, Jesus stayed for two more days before he journeyed to Bethany. In the days it took for Jesus to arrive in Bethany, I believe Jesus spent time praying for his friend and that God would use the circumstance for the glory of God.

As he neared the village days later, Mary and Martha met Jesus with news that their brother Lazarus died. They buried him four days prior. After comforting the sisters of Lazarus, Jesus asked the people to move the stone away from the entrance of the tomb. Jesus stood outside the tomb and prayed again a prayer of thanksgiving.

“Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said it for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

It never ceases to amaze me the confidence Jesus expressed in the availability of God’s power. In the words, “You have heard me…” Jesus knows God has heard his prayers and will provide him the power to work a miracle in order to give glory to God. His desire was not for personal gain, but that those who witnessed the miraculous could turn toward Jesus as the promised Messiah.

Do you, like me, find it incredible that God, creator of the universe, takes the time to listen to our prayers. I am thankful that, through the intercession of the Holy Spirit, my prayers are heard by an Almighty God. Even when I cannot articulate my need, nor express my feelings, he hears the cry of my heart. Because he hears, God’s power to sustain me in times of greatest need is a prayer away. I am thankful that I can walk through life knowing that God hears my prayers and acts on my behalf.

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At one point of his ministry, Jesus paired up 72 of his followers to travel ahead of him proclaiming the good news to the villages and towns. As he commissioned them for the mission work, he told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” God blessed their efforts and many people put their faith and trust in Jesus. When these disciples returned to report all that God had done through them, Jesus was overjoyed.

“I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little children.”

Jesus often chided the Pharisees for relying on the ritual and rule rather than truth and spirit of God’s word. Because they had hardened their hearts against Jesus and could not see who he was, they missed out on the blessings that come with a life lived in faith. Jesus expressed his gratitude that God would reveal his truth to the unlearned, the leper, the tax collector, the sick and afflicted, the sinner. That God would reveal his word to someone like you and me.

On this Thanksgiving, I am thankful for parents, every pastor, every Sunday School teacher, every Bible study leader, every friend who modeled Christ in the way they lived and who introduced me to Jesus. I am thankful for my wife as my spiritual partner. I am eternally thankful for the work of the Holy Spirit in my life as he revealed each new message and meaning of scripture throughout my life.

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Jesus offered his final word of thankfulness in the quiet of the upper room, hours before his arrest and crucifixion. Jesus reclined at a table, sharing a meal with his closest followers. He knew without a doubt what the next few days would bring. He knew what his disciples would face in the time to come.

When the moment was right, he got their attention.

“While they were eating, Jesus took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, ‘Take it. This is my body.’ Then, he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them and they all drank from it. ‘This is the blood of my covenant, which is poured out for many.’”

In that prayer of thanks, Jesus acknowledged the sacrificial purpose for which he was sent. Offering his body and his blood for the atonement of the world’s sin. Though he knew what was to come, he expressed his thanks to God for the opportunity to be the agent of salvation to all who would believe. Jesus could have chosen to step away. Instead, he stepped up and allowed himself to be hung on a cross as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.

I am thankful for the work of God’s Son on the cross and the new life he gave to me. I am thankful that he is still at work in the hearts of people around the world. I am eternally grateful for his sacrifice.

Through his words and actions, Jesus teaches us to give thanks. I am grateful this Thanksgiving, not simply for his provision, but also for his desire to hear and answer my prayers. I am thankful that God choses to reveal his truth to anyone willing to listen and learn. I’m thankful for those who serve as his teachers. Finally, I am thankful to God for sending his Son to live among us, to die on the cross and rise as the living Lord of my life since the day I accepted him as savior when I was nine years old. He has been a sustaining presence in my life since that day.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

With Gratitude to the Giver

Background Passage: 2 Corinthians 4:15; Psalm 9:1

I sat in the audience of my grandson Eli’s second grade Thanksgiving program at Turner Elementary School with my cellphone camera on record. The children, dressed in traditional Pilgrim suits made of construction paper and colored with crayons, shared the history of that first Thanksgiving feast among the Pilgrims and Native Americans. They recited their parts and sang a couple of cute songs. Eli, my oldest grandson, nailed the closing speech without stumbling over a single word, making his parents, his little brother and his grandpa quite proud.

The Thanksgiving story they shared with their parents had changed little from the somewhat sanitized version of that first Pilgrim settlement my classmates and I told our parents 58 years ago. No matter. The songs sounded delightful. The kids looked cute. Their excitement more than a little infectious.

One of the songs they sang struck a chord with me. A catchy tune to be sure, filled with expressions of thanks for things young children enjoy…recess, summer, friends, family, etc. It wasn’t so much the things for which they shouted their thanks that made me think. It was the question posed repeatedly within the song. “What are you grateful for?” We won’t quibble with the prepositional grammar. That’s not the point. The use of the word “grateful” rather than “thankful” caught my attention, making me think about the difference in these words we often view as synonymous.

Why is that distinction important to me? Gratitude seems to hold deeper meaning than mere thanks. I can say thank you to someone who opens a door for me when carrying a heavy box. I can express thanks to a friend who gives me a birthday card. I can express my thanks to the cashier at the checkout stand when they give back my change. Though they may be sincere in expression, they are far more often mannerly responses to ordinary acts.

Gratitude, on the other hand suggests a deeper feeling of inner delight that rises unforced from the heart. Not a verbal response, but an emotional outpouring. Gratitude is the feeling of joy that rises in one’s heart when thinking about the giver, not the gift. The doer, not the deed. The actor, not the act.

The apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Spirit, chose his words carefully…always. I sometimes think those who translated the original scripture into the various translations of the Bible available to us today were less careful, choosing words that fit more readily into the common vernacular of their intended reader.

Paul wrote his second letter to the Corinthian church and spoke of the difficulties faced in presenting the gospel in a hostile world, giving God the glory for every inch of progress made in spreading the gospel of Christ. Paul spoke of his willingness to suffer and the future hope he had in Christ.

“All of this (suffering and effort) is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.” (2 Cor. 4:15)

I’m not a Bible scholar learned in Greek. Any insight I have into the scripture, especially as it makes distinctions in the choice of Greek words, is a gift from commentaries and commentators more gifted than I will ever be.

It seems in this passage, the translator’s use of the word thanksgiving missed the mark, the unique play on words, that Paul originally expressed. The Greek word for grace is charis. The Greek word for thanksgiving used in this passage is eucharistian, derived from charis or grace. Eucharistian is often translated gratitude. So Paul essentially says, “so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause gratitude to overflow to the glory of God.”

In other words, gratitude grows best in the garden of God’s grace…a direct response to the unmerited gifts from the Father…the feeling of inner joy you hold for one who has graciously given to you.

In Paul’s passage to the Corinthians, Paul knows that as God’s grace draws more and more people to him, those who now recognize themselves as recipients of God’s grace have joy swelled up in their hearts toward the one who extended grace to them. A cycle of grace and gratitude born from God’s extended grace to us that circles back to cause our own heart to jump for joy and gratitude toward the one who was so gracious to us.

So here’s the point I’m probably not making very well. It’s Thanksgiving. During this holiday we take ample opportunity to offer thanks to God for those things in which we delight. Family. Friends. Health. Work. Community. Freedom. Smiles. Laughter. Memories. Hands to hold. Perhaps we find ourselves thankful even for recess and summer. These are among the many blessings for which we give thanks.

Care must be taken that our thanks do not end with the gift. Care must be taken to express our heart-felt gratitude to the giver of all of these blessings. The one who graced us with these life gifts. The God whose grace and gifts are sufficient in every way.

Paul said as the gospel of Christ spreads throughout the world that it causes “gratitude to overflow to the glory of God.” God’s greatest gift of grace through his son, Jesus Christ, causes our gratitude to overflow and glorify God. I like that idea and think it offers great insight into the true nature of Thanksgiving. Our gratitude for the blessing of Christ in our lives, the blessings he gifts us with in life, still must overflow to the glory of God.

So, I’ll ask the question that Eli and his classmates asked, “What are you grateful for?”

When you answer, join me and let your gratitude extend beyond the gifts. Let your gratitude glorify God as the giver of every blessing.

“I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.” (Psalm 9:1)