Thoughts on Thanksgiving

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

This week, in the US, we will celebrate the national holiday of Thanksgiving. Though not a biblical holiday, Thanksgiving is most certainly a biblical idea. Most Christians, whether or not they live in the US, celebrate Thanksgiving more often than perhaps they realize.

A celebration common to Christians is the ceremony or sacrament we call Communion or the Lord’s Supper. Some churches call this the Eucharist, from the Greek word εὐχαριστία (eucharistia), which means—you guessed it—thanksgiving. So wherever we are, and whoever we are, when we take the symbols of the body and blood of Jesus, we are giving thanks and celebrating our life in Christ.

Here is something else you may find interesting. As you know, the simple ceremony we call the Lord’s Supper has its roots in the Jewish Passover. Part of the traditional Jewish Passover celebration is to sing a hymn titled Dayenu, (from a Hebrew word that means, essentially, “it would have been enough”). With fifteen stanzas, Dayenu recounts the saving acts of God in Israel’s history—parting the Red Sea, giving the Sabbath, completing the Temple, etc. The idea is that if God had given just one of these many blessings, “it would have been enough.”

God’s interventions in Israel’s history are powerful reminders of his saving actions on behalf of us all through Jesus Christ. Just as God saved Israel in parting the Red Sea, he saved us, through Christ, from drowning in our sin. Just as he gave Israel the Sabbath, he gave us rest in our new life in Christ. And just as he completed the Temple by taking up residence in it, Christ lives in us through the Holy Spirit. This being so, we too can say, “if he had only given us one of these many blessings, it would have been enough.”

Our national Thanksgiving Day is a good time to stop and say our own version of Dayenu—acknowledging that God has done “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20). God the Father gave his Son, the one of whom he said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). In obedience to the Father, Jesus went to the cross, was crucified, died and was buried. Then Jesus rose from the grave, defeated death and ascended to the Father, taking us with him!

I believe that God, who did all this, continues to move on our behalf, far beyond anything we can imagine. And while there is benefit in reading about God’s interventions in ancient Israel, we should often reflect on the mercies of Jesus Christ in our lives now. Just as Jews sing a rising crescendo of thanksgiving with Dayenu, may our gratitude as Christians be a crescendo of thanks to the one who is worthy of our praise.

As we contemplate our Thanksgiving meals, I am reminded of a poem, in the form of a prayer, attributed to Scotland’s favorite poet, Robert Burns:

Some hae meat and canna eat,

And some wad eat that want it;

But we hae meat, and we can eat,

Sae let the Lord be thankit.

I pray that you all have an enjoyable and inspiring Thanksgiving holiday,

Your brother in Christ’s service,

Joseph Tkach