Luke 10:17-20
Thanksgiving Eve, 2023

In the Name of Jesus

    You’ll often hear at this time of year that you should “count your blessings.” The idea is that you should survey your life and find all the good things in it.  Which is fine and right, but not necessarily as easy as it might seem. For we often have a difficult time as fallen creatures in recognizing the true blessings God gives us, and think them to be nothing particularly special. And on the other hand we frequently look at things that are lesser gifts and think them to be the greatest of all.

    So how exactly do we go about counting our blessings?  Our Lord’s rebuke of His rejoicing disciples is a good starting point. The disciples had been sent out with a mission. They were to announce the Messiah’s presence, the fact that the Creator had broken into His creation in order to re-create it, to redeem it, and to restore it. And, much to their amazement and joy, they found great success in their mission. Even the demons submitted to them in Jesus’ Name.  But then, strange as it seems, comes the Divine rebuke: “Rejoice not in this,” Jesus says, “but rather rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

    What was the problem that causes Him to reign in their joy?  It was this: Just because the demons submit to them in Jesus’ Name does not mean that the demons have stopped being dangerous.  Nor does the fact that the mission enjoyed such success mean that their ministries are going to be easy, fun, wealth-building enterprises that will gain them prestige and status in the world.  For hard days are coming.  There will be joy in their ministries; there will be triumphs.  But that will not be the dominant thing.  Measured in that sort of a way, from the point of view of earthly success, their ministries will be failures.  They build no cathedrals.  They obtain no worldly fame during their lives.  They live out their days in poverty and  humility and difficulty, and finally, all but John will be martyrs for the Lord.

    Our Lord’s rebuke is serious. His rebukes always are. “Rejoice not in worldly happiness and success and stuff, but rejoice that this world is not all there is.  Rejoice that your names are written in heaven, and that no one can take that away from you.”

    So it has to do with how you count and what you count as your blessings.  What was the main blessing of the disciples’ mission?  Was it their success?  Was it the fact that the demons submitted?  No.  Those things were good, but they were the byproducts.  The real blessing was the Word they preached, the Word they themselves believed, the Word by which they themselves were saved.  The real blessing was the Gospel–the Good News of the Creator’s presence, true God begotten of His Father from all eternity, and true Man, born of the Virgin Mary–that He, Jesus the Christ, had come to seek and save the lost.  That message had gone forth and done its work. The powers of darkness are overcome by the light of the Gospel. That was the great blessing of the disciples’ mission in which they were to rejoice.

    So then, the way we count our blessings is measured first of all by eternity.  What has God given to you that’s going to last forever?  Scripture says that God did not spare His own Son, but gave Him for us all.  Jesus Himself is your own possession by faith.  From Him flow the Father’s blessings of forgiveness of sins, everlasting life, and the resurrection of the body.  Everything else in life is meaningless and useless without these things.  For all the pleasures and the prestige and the stuff of this world can’t undo the torments of hell.  Our 80 or 90 years in this world are a mere blink of an eye compared to eternity.  We must begin counting our blessings, then, with the Word and the Sacraments.  Your names are written in heaven because God wrote His name on you in holy baptism.  You hear God’s own eternal voice of mercy in the Gospel.  You have everlasting life because He puts His life into you with His body and blood.  God’s abiding and infinite gifts of grace are our greatest blessings.

    Now the material things we enjoy are certainly also gifts of God, the daily bread which He teaches us to ask for, our spouses and children and families and friends.  These things, too, certainly come from God and are indeed blessings.  All we have comes from Him and nothing good comes apart from Him.  He is the cause of anything good that anyone, believer or unbeliever, has and enjoys.  He causes the rain to fall both upon the field of the Christian and the pagan, even though one doesn’t recognize the true source of the gift.

    However, even daily bread is subject to abuse.  That is the difficulty with counting these material things.  They can be blessings, and they can be curses.  Our Lord’s earthly gifts can be misused and can quickly become temptations and then curses.  For example, certainly alcohol has noble purposes, for cleaning wounds and killing pain, and for enjoyment and merriment of the soul. It is, however, also the cause of many evils.  Yet it is a gift of God.  Likewise, your new house or car or truck. Is it possible that you become more attached to it than to God?  Is it possible that holding on to and maintaining your stuff drives you to stinginess and an anxious devotion to money and work?  And is it possible that even the spouse and the family whom God has given you as a blessing–is it possible that they can become more important to you than God Himself?  During the holidays especially, it’s important we remember Jesus’ words, “Whoever loves father or mother [or] . . . son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Matt. 10:37).  We must always be on guard against using God’s blessings in such a way that they become curses in our lives.

    The same thing is true with how we think of curses. What constitutes a curse? Sickness, disease, poverty, tragedy? All of these might be counted as curses, but all of these are also used by God to chasten His children for their good.  Psalm 107, which we just prayed a portion of, goes through example after example of how the Lord humbled people so that they might repent and call upon His name and be saved.  Only then were they truly able to give thanks to the Lord.  Those bad things, then, in God’s hands become blessings.  Those of you who have unbelieving or straying family members or friends–wouldn’t you rather that they experience some difficulty in their life that turns them back to the Lord than that they have a life of ease and self-fulfillment that leads to eternal separation from the Lord?  Prosperity can be a curse, affliction a blessing.  

    For the worst and most cursed affliction of all was what Jesus had to suffer.  Was there ever a greater curse than what was experienced by Our Lord in His Flesh on our behalf?  How feeble and small our own suffering is in comparison.  Scripture itself says, “Cursed is the One who is hung on a tree” (Gal. 3:13).  And yet, by way of that Greatest of all Curses comes all of our blessing.  By way of the cross comes our forgiveness, our joy, our peace in Him.

    So I hope that you get the point our Lord is making: “Do not rejoice simply in temporary earthly blessings; and do not despair simply over temporary earthly curses; but rather rejoice that your names are written in heaven forever.”  That’s how the Apostle Paul could say in the Epistle, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation. . .  I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” Let us not find our greatest joy in the things of this world, even the good material blessings which God has given us.  Nor let us take the Gospel for granted and merely give superficial thanks for it.  Rather, rejoice above all in the One who is the Giver of every good gift, that through Christ we have fellowship with God Himself.  Rejoice in the Gospel, the Scriptures, Holy Baptism, the Lord’s Supper.  Give thanks even for the crosses He gives you to bear.  And then count only secondarily, and hedgingly, the other things in this life that you enjoy.  

    For not everyone’s name is recorded in the Book of Life. Not everyone who says, “Lord, Lord” is known by Him.  But you have that.  To have God know you by name in Christ; to receive the Justice of God appeased through the death and resurrection of His Son; to be declared holy, righteous, and innocent, without blemish or sin for the sake of His Love and His Mercy–to have that is really to have something to be thankful for.

    So, on this Thanksgiving Eve, and every day, do count your blessings; and while doing that, remember especially to give thanks that your names are written in heaven.

In the Name of Jesus

(With thanks to David Petersen)