Giving Thanks is Christlike

I hope you’re on track for a won­der­ful Thanks­giv­ing! Paula and I are prep­ping to host a bunch of Stan­ford stu­dents who could­n’t get home for the hol­i­days.

Thanks­giv­ing is not a Chris­t­ian hol­i­day in the same way that Christ­mas is, but it is a hol­i­day that I am always delight­ed to cel­e­brate because grat­i­tude is one of the most impor­tant Chris­t­ian virtues. The phras­es “give/given/giving/gave thanks” occur 28 times in the NIV trans­la­tion of the New Tes­ta­ment. Half of those times it is Jesus Him­self giv­ing thanks, so to give thanks is Christ­like.¹

So be grate­ful this week and always! This Thanks­giv­ing, I pray you feast upon delight­ful food while sur­round­ed by peo­ple you love and that the delec­table­ness of the desserts is only exceed­ed by the quan­ti­ty of the laugh­ter. May grat­i­tude fill your heart and ani­mate your mouth.

1. Here are the four­teen times (scat­tered across ten pas­sages) the phras­es “given/gave thanks” are used in ref­er­ence to Jesus. Inter­est­ing­ly, they are all relat­ed to food.
   * Matthew 14:19 — And he direct­ed the peo­ple to sit down on the grass. Tak­ing the five loaves and the two fish and look­ing up to heav­en, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the dis­ci­ples, and the dis­ci­ples gave them to the peo­ple.
   * Matthew 15:36 — Then he took the sev­en loaves and the fish, and when he had giv­en thanks, he broke them and gave them to the dis­ci­ples, and they in turn to the peo­ple.
   * Matthew 26:26–27 — While they were eat­ing, Jesus took bread, and when he had giv­en thanks, he broke it and gave it to his dis­ci­ples, say­ing, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and when he had giv­en thanks, he gave it to them, say­ing, “Drink from it, all of you.”
   * Mark 6:41 — Tak­ing the five loaves and the two fish and look­ing up to heav­en, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his dis­ci­ples to dis­trib­ute to the peo­ple. He also divid­ed the two fish among them all.
   * Mark 8:6–7 — He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. When he had tak­en the sev­en loaves and giv­en thanks, he broke them and gave them to his dis­ci­ples to dis­trib­ute to the peo­ple, and they did so. They had a few small fish as well; he gave thanks for them also and told the dis­ci­ples to dis­trib­ute them.
   * Mark 14:22–23 — While they were eat­ing, Jesus took bread, and when he had giv­en thanks, he broke it and gave it to his dis­ci­ples, say­ing, “Take it; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and when he had giv­en thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it.
   * Luke 9:16 — Tak­ing the five loaves and the two fish and look­ing up to heav­en, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the dis­ci­ples to dis­trib­ute to the peo­ple.
   * Luke 22:17, 19 — After tak­ing the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you.… And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, say­ing, “This is my body giv­en for you; do this in remem­brance of me.”
   * Luke 24:30 — When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them.
   * John 6:23 — Then some boats from Tiberias land­ed near the place where the peo­ple had eat­en the bread after the Lord had giv­en thanks. ↩︎