By Jerry Batson, Th.D.
Special to The Alabama Baptist
Once again Thanksgiving Day serves to remind us of the value of cultivating a thankful heart. For sure, in the days of His flesh Christ displayed thankfulness. Theology 101 concludes the series about the personal qualities of Christ by taking note of how a thankful spirit was displayed in His life.
Last week we noted that at the Last Supper, Christ expressed joy through singing a hymn with the disciples. Prior to engaging in singing He prayed with thanksgiving. He prayed when He took one of the Passover cups. Luke 22:17 gives this brief account: “He took the cup and gave thanks.” At that point Christ transitioned from historic Passover celebration to the New Covenant’s new memorial supper. This new celebration involved the taking of bread. At this point, the record adds, “And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body which is given for you.’” After the eating of the bread, the account reads, “Likewise He also took the cup.” In so far as “likewise” indicates repetition, we may well understand that again Christ gave thanks before saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you” (Luke 22:20).
In short Christ offered thanks for the privilege of offering His body and shedding His blood for our redemption. Such giving of thanks grew out of a longstanding attitude of thankfulness. Years later when the apostle Paul gave instructions to the Corinthian believers about their observance of the Lord’s Supper, he included the fact that Christ gave thanks on that occasion, saying, “And when He had given thanks,” He broke the bread before passing it to the disciples (1 Cor. 11:24).
Last week we also noted that He rejoiced at the return of the 70 whom Christ had sent out. Not only so, but He went on in His prayer to say, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so Father for it seemed good in Your sight” (Luke 10:21).
On another memorable occasion Christ fed a crowd of 5,000 with a young lad’s lunch. The description of the event includes the fact that “Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted” (John 6:11).
Offering thanks
Later, on a similar occasion when He fed a crowd of 4,000, we read, “He took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitude” (Matt. 15:36).
Christ’s simple act of offering thanks before feeding the multitudes made an impression on the disciples, at least upon John. Writing his Gospel many years later, John used His example of thankfulness as a way of identifying the place, writing, “Other boats came from Tiberias, near the place where they ate bread after the Lord had given thanks” (John 6:23).
Do we not get the drift that Christ was a thankful person? Somewhat in imitation of Christ’s example His followers across the years have made it a practice to give thanks at mealtime. Not only at mealtime, but also the Bible exhorts us to make thankfulness a part of all of our praying, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Phil. 4:6).
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