When Thanksgiving Eats

Day of Thanksgiving

November 22, 2017

Luke 10:42

When Thanksgiving Eats

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Thanksgiving in our way of speaking implies us doing something. There are many parts of your body that do the work of thanksgiving.

Your brain by remembering.

Your legs by taking you to church.

Your tongue by speaking and singing.

Your heart and hands by praying.

What about your hands and your stomach? Can they give thanks?

I think Martha from the Gospel of Saint Luke thought so. I think she's right. She was giving thanks to her Savior by feeding Him. She was using her hands to make food for Him and His followers.

Think of Grandma on Thanksgiving. What does she want from you? To gush about the dressing or the turkey or the pie?

No, she just wants you to be there at the table, eat, and get along with everybody. You give thanks by receiving her food and we call that eating. That's thanks enough for her because that's her vocation—to serve and care for her family.

So part of thanksgiving is giving the food. But another part is receiving the food. And this is especially true of how we give thanks to God.

Part of thanksgiving is the remembering, worshiping, speaking, singing, and praying. But another part of thanksgiving is receiving His gifts.

Like the annual coming to Grandma's Thanksgiving table in family unity and eating her food—only far, far better—Christians come to the Lord's table in unity of faith and eat and drink the Lord's supper. This eating and drinking gives us life and salvation because of the Word of Christ.

On the night when He was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is My body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.”

1 CORINTHIANS 11:23B-24 CSB

Jesus gave thanks as He celebrated His Holy Supper with His friends. He gave them His body under the bread and in thanksgiving they received the bread of life for their salvation.

Jesus wasn't telling Martha that her bread for their stomachs wasn't important; He was telling her that His Word is the bread that gives life whether stomachs are stuffed or empty.

There are many good ways to give thanks: with our brains, hearts, tongues, and hands. But the best way to give thanks is to keep on receiving the one thing needed, the Word of God, that says: “Take, eat, this is My body given for you. Take, drink, this is My blood, poured out for you for the forgiveness of sin.”

In this thanksgiving meal of the Lord,

as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.

1 CORINTHIANS 11:23B-24 CSB

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. Amen.