Tag Archives: heal

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – STUMPED!

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CHAPTER FOURTEEN

STUMPED!

“One time, when Jesus went for a Sabbath meal with one of the top leaders of the Pharisees, all the guests had their eyes on Him, watching His every move. Right before Him there was a man hugely swollen in his joints. So Jesus asked the religion scholars, ‘Is it permitted to heal on the Sabbath? Yes or no?’

They were silent. So He took the man, healed him, and sent him on his way. Then He said, ‘Is there anyone here who, if a child or animal fell down a well, wouldn’t rush to pull him out immediately, not asking whether or not it was the Sabbath.’ They were stumped. There was nothing they could say to that.” Luke 14:1-6.

How often did this scene not repeat itself and how often did Jesus not have to say the same thing and yet the same criticism was levelled against Him time after time. ‘Sabbath-breaker!’ What was wrong with the people that it was so difficult for them to understand the simple message of Jesus? He spoke it and lived it for three years and they still didn’t get it.

So what is this message that we have failed to grasp for the past two thousand years and are still not getting in spite of Jesus’ glaring example? It’s about mercy and compassion, not religion! Every time I encounter the ritualistic mumbo-jumbo that is done in the name of Jesus, I ask myself the question, “Is this why Jesus came?”

We have even managed to turn the work of the gentle Holy Spirit into a ritual. We lay hands on people and they have to babble or fall down, otherwise the Holy Spirit has not touched them! Is that really what we glean from God’s Word? How it must grieve the heart of Jesus that His church has wandered so far from His example and mandate.

The Pharisees were so stuck in their notion of God that not even the Son of God Himself could shift them from the beliefs and traditions that overruled their own Scriptures. They were so blinded by their arrogant pride and self-centred performance that they were unmoved in the presence of God Himself.

Strange that the ones who claimed to know God, never experienced Him right there and yet, people like Matthew and Zaccheus, greedy and wicked men, were transformed after one encounter with Him. And what of adulteresses, prostitutes, thieves, irreligious and thoroughly bad people?  They melted in the presence of His holiness and were drawn to Him like moths to a candle.

When we meet in His name, what is the purpose of our gathering together? Is it to perpetuate our beliefs, traditions and practices or is it to have an encounter with Him that heals our ‘swollen joints’ and releases us from our pain and imprisonment? Jesus did not come to start another useless religion. There are enough of those already. He came to show us the compassionate heart of the Father and to release us from the bondage of Satan’s deception into the freedom of the sons of God.

Jesus is about taking us to the Father and introducing us to Him as “gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6). He is about reconnecting us to the Father and to one another so that we can experience our true humanity in unity with our Creator and His creation.

How does our futile religious gobbledegook contribute to His purpose? What does eating this and not eating that, or doing this and not doing that, do to help us do life together with one another and with God? Does keeping laws do anything to rescue a child or an animal that has fallen down the well on the Sabbath?

You decide…

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – JESUS IS JESUS!

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CHAPTER SEVEN

JESUS IS JESUS!

“When He finished speaking to the people, He entered Capernaum. A Roman captain there had a servant who was on his deathbed. He prized him highly and didn’t want to lose him. When he heard Jesus was back, he sent leaders from the Jewish community asking Him to come and heal his servant. They came to Jesus and urged Him to do it, saying, ‘He deserves this. He loves our people. He even built our meeting place.'” Luke 7:1-5.

Quite a guy, this Roman captain! A most unusual man! Not like the run-of-the-mill Roman soldiers, it seems. He had a heart for people, unlike most of the others who were ruthless in the course of their duty. He cared about his servant and was distraught when the man lay dying.

He was also sympathetic towards Jesus. He knew about Him; he may have even been on the outskirts of the crowd, listening to Him while he was on duty doing crowd control. Was he perhaps one of those who were among the soldiers who had heard John the Baptist and had been baptised by him in the River Jordan? We will never know.

There was no doctor and no medicine to cure his servant and he stood by, helplessly watching as his servant began to slip away from him. Then he heard that Jesus was on His way to Capernaum. So desperate was he to get help that he sent some of the Jewish leaders to Jesus, hoping against hope that Jesus would not spurn a Roman’s cry for help.

He could not go himself because he was not sure of the reception he would receive. Surely Jesus would respond if the most respected Jews in his community would speak for him? He hoped against hope that this Jew would look past his people’s treatment of His fellow Jews and have mercy on him. He had no doubt about His ability to heal. That was not the issue. But would He help a Roman?

The Jewish leaders, whoever they were, Pharisees, elders of the town, men in charge of the synagogue…who knows?…were ready to plead his case with Jesus. Evidently they held the captain in high esteem because he wasn’t like the other Romans. He had a heart for them. He used his money to build a meeting place for them. He may have even stood outside on a Sabbath, listening to the reading of the Torah and feeling a tug of response in his heart to the God of whom they read.

The Jews were quite willing to act as messengers. They were keen to help the man who had helped them. They went to Jesus with the story of a warm-hearted man who needed help and was worthy of Jesus’ intervention because of all his good deeds.

How did that affect Jesus? Had we been in His place, we might have been impressed by the man’s credentials. The very fact that these Jewish leaders were willing to act as messengers was quite unusual. They came because they were friends, not because they were obeying orders. They were with him in his trouble.

Would Jesus respond to their plea because of who the man was or because of who He was? Would the fact that he was a Roman influence Him? Would He, a Jew, go into the home of a Gentile? Would He help him because it was a group of Jews who acted as mediators?

Luke does not comment on the reason for Jesus’ response. However, if we fast-forward the story, when Jesus was hanging on the cross, suspended on nails that Roman soldiers had driven into His wrists and feet, we hear words from His cracked lips that encompass not only the ones who were responsible for His being there, but also the ones who had carried out the orders. ‘Father, forgive them…!’

Now we understand that the commendation of the Jews was quite unnecessary. Had this Roman captain been a typical soldier, cruel and uncaring, Jesus would have still responded to his request. Why? Because Jesus is Jesus!

You can also have absolute confidence in His mercy!

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – WHAT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO?

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WHAT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO?

“On another Sabbath He went to the meeting place and taught. There was a man there with a crippled right hand. The religion scholars and Pharisees had their eye on Jesus to see if He would heal the man, hoping to catch Him in a Sabbath infraction. He knew what they were up to and spoke to the man with the crippled hand, ‘Get up and stand here before us.’

“Then Jesus addressed them, ‘Let me ask you something: What kind of action suits the Sabbath best? Doing good or doing evil? Helping people or leaving them helpless?’ He looked around, looked each one in the eye. He said to the man, ‘Hold out your hand.’ He held it out — it was as good as new! They were beside themselves with anger, and started plotting how they might get even with Him.” Luke 6:6-11.

Another nail in His coffin! The religious types were becoming more and more enraged with Jesus. What raised their wrath against Him?

Wherever He went, He bumped into need after need after need – people who were enslaved by all kinds of things; demons, deformities, diseases and, worst of all, the burdens that their own so-called spiritual leaders put on them which God never intended for them to carry. These things enraged Jesus as much as His compassion angered them.

Here was another stand-off – on the Sabbath – another set-up in the synagogue and they waited to see what He would do. He had already cut them down to size by defending His disciples against their accusation of “working” on the Sabbath by rubbing grain in their hands. Now it was His turn. Jesus would never turn away from need, and they knew it.

Jesus didn’t need to read their minds. He only needed to look at their faces and read their body language to know what they were thinking. I think He was having fun. ‘What should I do?’ He shot at them, ‘Leave the man in his suffering just because it is a day called “Sabbath” or heal him because the Sabbath is as good a day as any to be kind?’

The hyper-religious ones didn’t even answer. They couldn’t without exposing their wicked hearts. Then, to crown it all, Jesus did nothing! He spoke! Was it wrong to speak on the Sabbath? They hadn’t tied that one up with a rule yet! Jesus didn’t even use the word “heal” or any equivalent. What’s wrong with, ‘Get up and stand here before us,’ and ‘Hold out your hand’?

The scribes and Pharisees were floored. Without doing a thing, Jesus healed the man just like that! They had no answer for that one but they were angry anyway; angry because He had got the better of them again, making them look like fools in the eyes of the people; angry because He had shown up their selfish indifference to the suffering of others; angry because He had ignored their rules and they were always right, so they thought; probably angry most of all because they could not understand how He did what He did and they were not willing to admit that God was working through Him.

The Pharisees aside, what was Jesus teaching by His actions, to us as well as to those who were with Him? Sabbath is much less about going to church as it is about reaching out to people in need. Sabbath is about resting from our own work to do the work of God. Sabbath is not about a day. It’s about a lifestyle, resting in the work of Jesus that frees us from slavery to our own selfish ways so that we look beyond ourselves to lift the burden off other people’s shoulders.

Jesus was insisting that righteousness is not about not doing wrong but doing right; not abstaining but taking action for those who had no power to act for themselves. He defined wickedness, not as doing wrong, but as not doing right. The rich men in His stories were charged with greed and indifference, one for hoarding his bounty instead of sharing, and the other for ignoring the poor man at his gate.

What about you? Are you a stickler for laws, or are your eyes and ears open to the poor?

The Proof Of The Pudding

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THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING

Calling the Twelve to Him, He began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits. These were His instructions: ‘Take nothing for the journey except a staff – no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.’ They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them (Mark 6: 7-13).

It was time for the acid test. Twelve men had spent enough time with their rabbi to have a feeling for who He was and what He was about. It was time for them to put into action the lessons they had learned. If they were to continue the mission of Jesus when He was no longer with them, they had to show Him that they could do it, that His confidence in them was not misplaced and that they had enough confidence in both Him and themselves to replicate Him wherever they went.

He sent them out in pairs so that they would have each other for encouragement and support. Jesus was not interested in “lone rangers”. They needed each other and He paired them up so that they would learn to live together as one. Imagine! Who did He put with whom? Peter – the motor mouth? John – the hothead? Thomas – the dubious one? Judas – the schemer? O yes, they needed each other alright – because they had many rough edges to knock off.

Why did Jesus tell them to travel light? I think it was a test for both preachers and listeners. The Jews were part of the Middle Eastern tradition to be hospitable. There was no ”guest house” industry in Israel. Travellers relied on the hospitality of the people as they moved through the country. The attitude of the inhabitants would determine their attitude to the message. If they received the disciples with generosity it would be a sign that they were open to their message, and to one whom they represented.

The disciples were not to be picky about their hosts. They were to accept the hospitality of those who received them gladly and not to go off looking for more comfortable accommodation or better cuisine. It was a case of give and take. Where they were welcome they were to stay as long as they were in that town.

Why should they travel light – no suitcase of clothing and no ready cash in their money belts? This was also to be a faith journey for them. They were to learn to trust their heavenly Father to meet their needs as they went out proclaiming the kingdom. Again it was to be give and take. As they obeyed the Master, so He would ensure that their everyday needs were met.

What if the people of the town or village rejected them? Jesus’ instruction sounded like He was telling them to thumb their noses at them. That’s probably how we would react, but that was not Jesus. When a rabbi was training His disciples to walk with him, they did not walk in a bunch around him. They walked in an orderly line, one behind the other. The rabbi wore sandals with flaps on them which kicked up dust as he walked. The one closest to the rabbi, who led them, was privileged to have the dust of his rabbi on his cloak and feet.

As representatives of their rabbi, the disciples would have their rabbi’s dust – His disposition – on them as they went from place to place. If they were not welcomed in the town, they were to shake the dust off their feet – not cursing the people, but leaving behind their rabbi’s blessing as they went on their way. Isn’t that neat! Isn’t that just like Jesus! The very dust of the rabbi’s blessing would testify against them because of their unbelief.

The disciples must have been ecstatic, disease and demons giving was to the authority Jesus had given them. Getting rid of the Romans had nothing on that! Even Judas was in on the deal. We will never know what was in Judas’ heart that led him to betray his Master after an experience like that.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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The Power Of Words

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THE POWER OF WORDS

 “After two days He left for Galilee. (Now Jesus Himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honour in his own country). When He arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed Him. They had seen all He had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival. for they had also been there.

“Once more He visited Cana in Galilee where He had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to Him and begged Him to come and heal his son who was close to death.

“‘Unless you people see signs and wonders,’ Jesus told him, ‘you will never believe.’ The royal official said, ‘Sir, come down before my child dies.’ 

‘Go,’ Jesus replied, ‘your son will live.’ The man took Jesus at His word and departed.” John 4:43-50 (NIV).

Jesus spent two days with the Samaritans in Sychar. What must it have been like for His disciples? Were they still so wrapped up in their prejudice that they spent an uncomfortable two days, champing at the bit to get out of there, or were they so enthralled with the teaching of Jesus that they forget where they were? Most definitely the former, I think. They were still their old Jewish male selves and probably couldn’t wait to put Samaria behind them!

They must have breathed a sigh of relief when they finally put their feet back on Galilean soil, back to friends and family and familiar territory to take a break from their hectic schedule. But not for long. They were no sooner back in Cana than there was someone clamouring for Jesus’ attention.

John described him as a “royal official”. Was he someone from Caesar’s household or was he of Herod’s clan? John doesn’t tell us. We only know that he was someone important in social circles but that didn’t make him immune from potential tragedy in his family. His son was dying and he had no-one to turn to in his anxiety…until Jesus arrived in Cana.

Jesus could do nothing without it being broadcast around the country. He was the current sensation in Galilee. People who had been at the Passover were buzzing with news about Him. He was the “homeboy” who was making waves wherever He went and they loved it, for now.

The stricken family pricked up their ears when they heard He was back. The father wasted no time in setting off from Capernaum to Cana. He wouldn’t even risk sending a servant to enlist Jesus’ help. When he arrived in Cana and found Jesus, his earnest entreaty received an uncharacteristic rebuff from Him. ‘All you people are looking for are signs and wonders to boost your faith. You want what I can do, not me.’

The frantic father brushed Jesus’ words aside. His errand was too urgent to engage in a discussion. ‘Please,’ he begged, ‘come and heal my son before he dies.’ Jesus was satisfied that the man’s request for help was genuine and not another ploy to get Him to do a miracle to entertain the crowds. He did not even need to be there in Capernaum to heal the official’s son. ‘God,’ He said, ‘your son will live.’

This man’s faith in Jesus was tested to the limit. Jesus did not respond to his plea, ‘Come down and heal my son.’ There was no need for His physical presence to do the miracle. His word was enough and the royal official knew that. He understood how authority worked, and he recognised Jesus’ authority in the unseen realm. He set off home with complete confidence in Jesus’ spoken word.

What will it take for us who claim to believe in Jesus to have that kind of confidence in His word? His promises, printed in a book, have no less authority to do what He has said than the words He spoke to that desperate father that day.

Do you believe that?