We all love when God blesses us with some good. How happy we are when an illness is healed, when we are spared in the midst of a terrible accident, when a financial need is met unexpectedly. All ten lepers who begged Jesus for mercy received it. All ten were suddenly able to return to their families and to the temple. But nine of them never returned to the one who healed them. They never returned to Christ. They didn’t recognize Christ as the source of their healing. And though we are probably dumbstruck by their lack of thankfulness, how many of us receive much good from God and yet never return to Jesus to give Him thanks? The healing which the nine lepers received was only temporary. They later died which means that although it was wonderful for them for a time, they appear to have remained in their sin and their trespasses which meant that when they died, they died forever. Not, of course, because they were rude and didn’t say “Thank you” like their parents taught them, but because they didn’t receive the eternal life that Jesus came to bring all people. To others we can certainly give God lip-service about how good He has been to us, but if we do not return to Jesus to receive the life and salvation which He died to win and which He freely but only distributes through the Word and the holy sacraments, then we, like the lepers, will receive the earthly good God gives but will lose it all and suffer death for all of eternity because we refused the healing of our sin obtained on the cross and distributed through the Means of Grace. Beloved in Christ who have received all kinds of earthly good from the hand of your gracious heavenly Father, come to Jesus who pours out the eternal healing word and wine of absolution as a free gift to all who will receive it in faith. I look forward to seeing all of you this coming Lord’s Day.
Pastor Ulmer