July 26, 2020 What Did Jesus Do? Hanging Out With All the Wrong People

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This morning I am continuing the series of messages titled What Did Jesus Do?  For the fourth message in this series we turn to Mark’s gospel, to the famous story of Jesus calling Matthew to be one of his disciples.

     

Jesus very purposely associated with some of the wrong people, and in the case of Matthew, called one of the wrong people to serve as one his closest associates and followers.  In doing so, the example was set for all of us who were to follow, an example that we are to be inclusive as the body of Christ, drawing upon the full variety of people to be included in the mission and purpose given to us by Jesus. This is not always easy as differences can create friction and conflict – and we have no shortage of examples of that difficulty in our current day – but it is the manner in which Jesus went about his mission.

     

Follow along as I read from Mark 2:13-17 – 

¹³ Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 

¹⁴ As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.

¹⁵ While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 

¹⁶ When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

¹⁷ On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Let’s take a look at several of the lessons from this passage – 

1. Jesus did not come to call the righteous because there are none; we are all sinners.

     

There is no shortage of ironies in life.  I received a call on my cell phone several months ago that is a great example of irony. I need to say, first of all, that I rarely answer my cell phone unless the number is programmed in my contact list. And though I receive calls from Russia, I don’t know anyone there, so I know not to answer that call.  This particular call came from Canada, which I ignored, but the caller left a message.  I laughed when I listened to the message, as it was from a law firm asking to represent me in suing companies making unsolicited calls to my phone. Hmmm.  Should I have hired them to sue themselves on my behalf?

     

There is some irony in this passage because those who thought of themselves as righteous certainly were not.  They were in their own minds, but that was the extent of their righteousness.  Jesus did not come to call the righteous for a very simple reason – because there are no righteous people!  To call one’s self righteous is more than a bit ironic, because no one can be considered righteous.  Paul writes in Romans 3:10 that there is no one righteous, not even one, and that is a phrase that comes from the 14^th and 53^rd psalms.  There is another verse that many of us learned when we were very young, and it applies here.  It is also in Romans chapter 3, and it is verse 23, which famously reminds us of what?  That we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  All is a very inclusive term.  All does not mean some, or many, or even most – it means all.  When Paul wrote those words it was in the larger context of a point that he was making that no one is righteous because whatever good we do is only what we should have done in the first place.  

     

But some people need a person or a group of people to look down upon so they can feel better about themselves, and so they can feel superior to others, and that’s what the so-called “righteous” people did (and continue to do today). The religious leaders of Jesus’s day used the classifications of righteous and sinner, and they conveniently placed themselves in the category of righteous.  Doing so gave them permission, in their view, to separate themselves from all the people that populated that class and it gave them a group of people over whom they could feel superior.

     

This is a self-righteous attitude that causes many people to take satisfaction when some well-known spiritual figure has a public failing.  Take Jimmy Swaggart, for instance.  I used to watch him back in the 80s, on Sunday morningTV, before going to church. He was great at pointing a finger of judgment at other people and condemning them.  He was great at talking about the sin of others.  And then his sin became very public, and he not only became a punchline for every late-night comedian, but he brought dishonor to the gospel, to the ministry, and to the church.  And because he had been so smugly self-righteous about the “sinners,” he found very little sympathy when he suffered his downfall.

     

As some have said, be careful when you point a finger at someone else, because there are three more pointing back at yourself.  But the religious leaders of Jesus’s day could not see their judgmental, self-righteous arrogance, but Jesus pointed it out to them, and they did not like it (not that Jesus worried about upsetting them).

2. Jesus did not see Matthew for who he was, but for who he could be.

     

John Newton, the composer of Amazing Grace, said late in his life, although my memory's fading, I remember two things very clearly:  I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.  Perhaps John Newton could write about how grace could be so amazing because he was a sinner who so greatly needed that grace, and so greatly received that grace.

     

Matthew was an interesting choice for Jesus.  He was an interesting choice because on the surface, he was a terrible choice.  A really terrible choice.  I mean, he was a truly awful, terrible choice.  Matthew was a traitor to his people, because he worked for the hated, despised Roman government.  As bad as it was that he worked for the Romans, it was doubly bad – triply bad – because he collected taxes on their behalf.  Remember the story of Zacchaeus?  Zacchaeus was also a tax collector, and when Jesus came to Jericho, where Zacchaeus lived, no one in the crowd was interested in letting him move through the crowd so he could see Jesus, so he had to climb into a tree (Luke 19:1-10).  As a tax-gatherer, Matthew – and Zacchaeus – were barred from the synagogue.  In spite of this, Jesus Matthew as a disciple.  What must Jesus have been thinking?  That was a question I’m sure was on the minds not only of the other disciples, but of everyone else.  If Jesus wanted to make a good impression on people, this was not the way to do it.  Having Matthew around was a great liability, because as a tax collector he would have been universally despised.  The idea of paying taxes to an occupying power was bad enough, but it was doubly offensive to pay taxes to one who called himself Lord and King – as Caesar did – because only God was worthy of those titles.  Caesar settled that question – in his mind – by saying he was god.       

     

Now, I will add here that it I have always found it fascinating that the disciples responded in such an immediate way to the invitation of Jesus to follow him.  Peter, Andrew, James, and John left their fishing boats and their nets immediately when Jesus invited them to follow him.  In today’s Scripture reading, verse 14 says as he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him. Isn’t that amazing, how Matthew so quickly got up and followed Jesus?  I mean, the guy had an office, probably a staff, and a fair amount of responsibility, and yet he’s up out of his seat and following Jesus.  And, he also had a stigma upon him, because of his work as a tax collector.  Surely, he thought to himself, what would Jesus want with me?  And why would I follow him, when his other followers most likely won’t accept me? 

     

But he got up, left his office, and followed Jesus.  No one else but Jesus could elicit that kind of response, and I would also add that no other person would have called Matthew to a position of spiritual leadership. No one.  But Jesus did.  

     

For Matthew, why would he follow Jesus, as he would give up a lot.  Certainly, he would lose a good and a comfortable income.  But Matthew had a lot to gain as well, because he would, for one, gain the fellowship of the other disciples, even if that fellowship took some time to really develop, because the other disciples probably had to overcome some resentments and suspicions they had about him.  Matthew, an outcast because of his profession, gained a fellowship that he could not imagine would ever have been his.  He would also gain a far great purpose and mission for his life.  For Matthew, his journey to become a follower of Jesus reminds me of the words of Paul in Philippians 3:7 – whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.  Matthew lost, but he gained much, much more.

     

What is really interesting about Matthew, however, is that he also had a particular tool to use, and it was one that would far outlive him.  It was a tool of his former trade, as he managed his ledger – it was his pen (for this idea I am indebted to William Barclay, who wrote the commentary on Matthew’s gospel in the Daily Study Bible series).  But as a follower of Jesus, that pen became a tool that was used for far greater purposes than simply keeping a ledger.  I don’t know how many of the other disciples were literate.  Most people in the time of Jesus probably could not read and write, and that might have included some or most of the other disciples.  But Matthew could write, and he put that skill to good use when he wrote the gospel that bears his name.  Imagine – Matthew, the disciple who probably would have been at the bottom of everyone’s list – if he even made any list – wrote what became the first book of the New Testament, the gospel that bears his name.  Peter didn’t write a gospel.  He wrote a few letters included in the New Testament, but not a gospel.  Andrew didn’t write anything, at least not that we have.  James wrote a letter, but no gospel.  John is the only other disciple who wrote a gospel.

     

Jesus did not see Matthew for who he was, but for who he could be, and thank God – literally, thank God – that Jesus sees people in that way!  He sees us not for who we are, but for who we can be.

3. When it came to his associations, Jesus was an equal opportunity offender.

     

Generally speaking, we think of Jesus as associating with the outcasts – the sinners and the tax collectors. He did associate with the sinners and tax collectors quite often, and the religious leaders did not like it, even though the people he associated with loved him greatly because he would spend time with them.  Interestingly, though, Jesus offended not only the religious leaders, sometimes he offended the sinners and the tax collectors, because he did not disassociate himself from the religious leaders.  Luke 14:1, for instance, tells us that Jesus was in the home of a prominent Pharisee one day for dinner, and he was being carefully watched.  Jesus not only associated with those who the religious establishment considered to be sinners; Jesus also associated with the religious establishment.  Jesus loved not only the sinners and the tax collectors; Jesus also loved the scribes and the Pharisees, even though he could be sharply critical of them.  And, perhaps, Jesus was critical of them because they could have been better and they should have been better.  

     

The reality is, every group wants to feel – or to see themselves as – morally superior to others.  The scribes, Pharisees, and religious leaders certainly felt morally superior to the tax collectors and sinners, but the tax collectors and sinners could also feel morally superior to the religious leaders. Perhaps they believed, for instance, hey, Jesus is associating with us, so we must be special.  We must be better than those religious guys.

     

In our current cultural moment, there remains much of the same unwillingness to see others as equals, and the same unwillingness to reach across the cultural, social, political, and religious divides and offer a hand of friendship and unity.  There’s too much of the attitude that if you’ve ever made a mistake, you are not worthy of my love.  If you’ve ever held a position to which I object, you are not worthy of my love. If you cannot pass my theological, ideological, or political purity tests, you are not worthy of my love.  There are too many claims of complicity if you associate with today’s “wrong people” in any way.  That is not the way of Jesus.  

     

Life is not a choice between two ways, as so often presented today.  There is a third way, and it is the way of Jesus.  

     

I don’t want my life to be limited in a way that says I can only associate with the “right” people, however they might be defined.  If I disagree with someone, it doesn’t mean I will – or should – break fellowship with them.

     

Yes, Jesus associated with the wrong people – the tax collectors and sinners – but he also associated with the Pharisees and religious leaders as well.  In some way, every person is a wrong person, but Jesus is the right person to show us the way.  And I say amen to that.

July 19, 2020 What Did Jesus Do? Passing the Test

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A salesman was waiting in an office to submit his company’s bid.  When the person he was to submit the bid to stepped out for a few minutes, the salesman noticed a competitor’s bid on the desk, but the amount was covered by a drink can.  As no one was around, he decided to take a quick look to see if he needed to adjust his company’s bid.  What he didn’t know was he was being tested.  There was no bottom on the can and it was full of BBs, which went everywhere when he lifted the can.

     

This morning continues the series of messages titled What Did Jesus Do? The message title is Passing the Test, which is different from what I had originally titled this message, and the Scripture text comes from the passage about the temptations of Jesus.  Follow along as I read from Matthew 4:1-11 – 

¹ Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 

² After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 

³ The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

⁴ Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

⁵ Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 

⁶ “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

⁷ Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

⁸ Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 

⁹ “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

¹⁰ Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

¹¹ Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

Temptation is generally thought of as an enticement into sin and wrongdoing, which it is.  In this passage, however, the word for temptation carries more of the idea of a test, which is different from that of wrongdoing. There is, if this is the right way to put it, more subtlety to a test.  There is a subtlety because temptation – especially the testing type of temptation – often contains an element of truth.  Just a little bit of truth, but enough to make us think, you know, that makes sense.  So let’s take a look at the three tests that Jesus faced, and how those tests apply to us.

Test #1 – Turning Stones Into Bread – Keep Everything in the Right Place.

If you have studied psychology, you are probably familiar with Abraham Maslow and his Hierarchy of Needs, as shown in the chart below – 

Maslow believed people have needs that can be placed in a pyramid, with the more important needs placed higher up on the pyramid.  At the bottom are the basic needs of life – food, water, and the other needs of our physical bodies.  As you travel up the pyramid, the needs are less tangible, but increasingly important.  While the pyramid doesn’t specifically use the words spiritual needsand the needs of our souls, they would be placed at the top of that pyramid.  We engage in all sorts of activities in our lives, which is fine, but the test is will we rearrange the pyramid, reversing the order of our most important needs?

     

When Jesus is tempted to turn the stones into bread, it is easy to wonder, what’s wrong with that?  If he was hungry, and he could turn the stones into bread, why not do so?  On the surface it makes a great deal of sense, doesn’t it?  Why shouldn’t Jesus do something to take care of his hunger? What could possibly be wrong with providing some bread for himself?  Didn’t God miraculously provide for the Hebrew people while they wandered in the wilderness?  Wouldn’t he be better prepared for his ministry after having some physical sustenance? There is nothing wrong with being hunger or wanting to satisfy our hunger, is there?  

     

First, I need to say this – Jesus never used his power to benefit himself.  Jesus did, however, use his power to benefit others. Jesus would not use his power to feed himself, but he used it to feed the hungry (the feeding of the 4,000 – (Matthew 15:32-39 and Mark 8:1-9; and the feeding of the 5,000 – Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:31-44; Luke 9:12-17; John 6:1-14), and on multiple occasions healed the sick.

     

The key in this test, I think, is in the meaning of the word fast.  The word fastmeans to demonstrate a firm and unshakeable commitment.  To hold fastto something, is what we say.  When Jesus began his fast it wasn’t just to avoid eating for the sake of avoiding eating; Jesus was fasting and was committed to that fast because he was about to begin his public ministry and he was demonstrating an absolute, unshakeable commitment to that ministry.  Nothing was going to come between Jesus and his mission.  It wasn’t that Jesus shouldn’t have eaten; no, it was Jesus demonstrating his absolute commitment to his mission, as that is what mattered most to Jesus, and he was going to keep everything in its proper place.

     

Here is where the lesson is for us – do not forsake the spiritual component of life or forsake the mission God has given us in life.  Don’t flip the pyramid.  We live in such a demanding time, where the daily grind of making a living and providing for our family overwhelms us to the point that we can forget there is a spiritual side of life that must be nourished and nurtured. 

     

Will our lives be defined by the physical, the temporal, and the daily list of urgencies that pop up on our radar screen every day?  Will life be only about putting bread on the table, enjoying some entertainment, and accumulating a pile of stuff, or will there be a spiritual component and will we hold fastto the spiritual?  We are more than just stomachs that have to be filled and bodies that have to be clothed; we are spiritual beings with a calling to remember that life is about far more than just visible and temporal matters.

Test #2 – Leaping From the Temple – Do We Trust God?

This is a really good example of how adding an element of truth to a test can make that test seem very logical and sensible.  Here, it gets really interesting because Satan quotes Scripture – he will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone(Psalm 91:12).  Here’s one lesson we can learn from this test – just because someone quotes the Bible doesn’t mean they are applying the Bible correctly or that they are to be trusted.  The Bible is used incorrectly quite often, and too many people have used it and applied it in ways that have been harmful to others.  The Bible has, for instance, been used to justify slavery.

     

Here is the test put to Jesus – are you sure you can trust God?  Don’t you think you ought to put him to the test?  He says you can trust him, but don’t you think you should make him prove he is trustworthy?  Before you really get started on your mission, don’t you want to make sure you’re doing the right thing?  Like the previous test, Jesus swats this one away quickly and definitively.

     

The question that speaks to us in this test is this – is faith enough?  After all, don’t people want proof?  Don’t people need proof?  Imagine the people it would win over, if Jesus jumped from the pinnacle of the temple and a rush of angels appeared to bear him up.  Imagine the people that would flock to follow him!  Wouldn’t that be easier?  Wouldn’t that be a more effective of bringing people of faith?  What would be wrong with reaching people in such a way? 

     

Doesn’t that make some sense?  I mean, isn’t that a question that often confronts us – why doesn’t God make his existence and his presence more obvious?  Wouldn’t this be a very dramatic way to prove God’s existence?  You have most likely seen pictures of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.  The Wailing Wall is what remains of Solomon’s Temple, which existed in the time of Jesus. The Wailing Wall is quite tall, and if you imagine the Temple on top of the wall, we are talking about quite a distance from the pinnacle of the Temple to the ground.  Yes, it would be quite a dramatic display for Jesus to leap from the pinnacle and to see a band of angels swoop down to catch him.  It’s making a big assumption, however, that people would find such a demonstration to be adequate to bring them to faith.  I know it sounds as though it would be really convincing, but would it?  In our technological age, a lot of people would assume it’s a trick.  Yeah, I saw something like that at Disney World.  But even in the time of Jesus, not everyone was convinced, even when they witnessed a miracle.  In John chapter 11, for instance, when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, not everyone was convinced by that miracle, and does it get any more dramatic than raising the dead?  Imagine what it would have been like to be there.  Jesus cries out, Lazarus, come forth!  (John 11:43).  And Lazarus, four days dead, walks out of the tomb.  And yet, amazingly, this is that point at which the religious leaders decided that Jesus must die.  As tempting as it might be to desire dramatic proof of God’s existence and God’s power, it is not a guarantee that such a display would convince people of his existence or bring them to faith.

     

For us, we have to ask ourselves, can we trust God without an absolute display of his power?  Will we trust God even when our prayers seem to go unanswered?  Will we trust God after we have prayed tirelessly for someone who is seriously ill, and yet healing does not come?  Will we trust God and hold to faith when we struggle to understand the presence of suffering and evil in the world?  Will we trust God when our lives seem out of control and we don’t know what will happen?  

Test #3 – Bow Down and Worship – Who Do We Worship?

The third temptation is one that has been with us since the beginning of time.  It has inspired stories from the literary classic Faustus, where Doctor Faustus makes a deal with the devil in order to gain power, to Captain Jack Sparrow of Pirates of the Caribbean. It’s about a trade – a very bad trade. 

     

Jesus is presented with a trade –I’ll give you the world, the devil tells Jesus, if you bow down and worship me.  Right up front, I think we have to say one thing about this test – the kingdoms of the world were not Satan’s to give.  Psalm 24:1 says, the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.

     

We must be very careful how we view and use power.  Power is very tempting, and very dangerous.  The currency of politics is power.  The political view of power permeates every facet of society.  If you want to get something done in our culture then you seek power to accomplish what you want.  Jesus would face near constant temptation to use political power to accomplish his mission.  Even his closest disciples carried the hope that he would usher in a new political age for the nation of Israel by becoming a political Messiah.  When Jesus entered into Jerusalem, at the Triumphal Entry, many were hopeful he would declare himself a political messiah. 

     

But the currency of God’s kingdom is not power, at least not in the coercive sense, as it exists in politics; it is love, which is a far great power.  The gospel has political overtones, but there are many dangers when political power is used to advance the gospel.  The gospel does not need political power in order to be advanced.  In fact, I believe we run the risk of diminishing the gospel when we mix it improperly with politics.  

     

If you read my final column in Friday’s Sentinel-News, I wrote about this idea.  I would not say we should not be involved in the political process, but I would caution that mixing faith with a partisan point of view is quite dangerous, and in the end, it only diminishes the witness of the gospel.  It becomes what is called an Esau trade(from the story of Jacob and Esau in Genesis 25:19-34).  An Esau tradeis one that forsakes the long view of life for short term gain.  Charles Colson, who went to prison for his role in the Watergate break-in back in the 70s and was converted while in prison, made quite an interesting comment.  Colson said this – the early church had no political power, but had tremendous influence; the modern church has great political power, but very little influence. I think he is absolutely correct. The kingdom grows through the power of love, not the power of politics.

     

Jesus gives this warning in Matthew 16:26 –For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul?  And what will a man give in exchange for his soul?  What will a man give in exchange for his soul? What is the price tag on a soul?

     

The danger is that it is easy to sell our souls a little bit at a time.  Life has a way of wearing us down and driving us into compromises where we are trading away our soul, one small piece at a time. What seems like a small temptation leads to a bad decision that leads to another bad decision and soon we find that piece by piece, we have given away our soul.

     

I used to enjoy putting together jigsaw puzzles.  Everyone has their own system for how to assemble a jigsaw puzzle. Some start with the border; I would look for similar pieces, which gave me several disconnected sections.  I would look at those sections and try to figure out how it all fit together.  I think this is a metaphor for life.  We see life in pieces, and those pieces often seem unconnected to us.  We keep looking but we can’t figure out how the pieces fit together into some kind of whole.  God, though, sees the whole picture.  We must trust that while we cannot always see the big picture, God does, and he is always at work making connections and pulling our lives together.

    

Test come to us each day of life; some are small tests and some are large.  How we respond to those tests, how we answer to those tests, will have a great impact on our faith.  Let us pray that we will pass the test.

July 12, 2020 What Did Jesus Do? Lord, Please Heal Us.

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I have always been amazed at how often people want to show me their scars. I can’t tell you how many times I have been in a hospital room and before I have a chance to say please don’t, the bed sheet or the hospital gown gets moved and there is a scar I didn’t need to see.  Maybe it’s the medications; I don’t know, but I’m not much on seeing scars.  

     

Scars become, however, markers – literally – of some of our experiences in life.  I have a scar on my right wrist that I’ve had since I was in 5^thgrade.  I wish there was a dramatic story behind it, but there isn’t.  I have one on my left hand and another on my left arm, all of which are part of the story of my life.  They also are physical evidences that healing has taken place, thankfully.  I have quite a collection of other scars as well, but they are not scars that can be seen.  They are scars of the heart, and of the soul, and because they are not visible it’s impossible to see if healing has taken place with those wounds.

     

Last Sunday I began a new series of messages, titled What Jesus Did.  Today, as we continue the series, we remain in the gospel of Luke, picking up just after the story from last week, when Jesus spoke in the synagogue in Nazareth.  The theme of this passage is healing, and the title of this morning’s message is Lord, Please Heal Us.  

     

Follow along as I read from Luke 4:38-44 – 

³⁸ Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. 

³⁹ So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them.

⁴⁰ At sunset, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them. 

⁴¹ Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Messiah.

⁴² At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them.

⁴³ But he said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.” 

⁴⁴ And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.

Listen again to verse 40 – At sunset, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them.  I don’t know how many people are covered by the word all, but I assume it is quite a few.  Luke tells us that Jesus healed them(verse 40).  The gospels often tell us of the large crowds that followed Jesus, and one of the reasons why so many people flocked to Jesus was their hope of being healed. 

     

Let’s talk about healing.

Healing takes time. 

     

Several years ago, I officiated at a funeral here in town, and the burial was in Eminence. After the funeral, as we processed to the cemetery, we passed Kroger.  As we went through the traffic light, I looked in my mirror and saw a car pull out of the Kroger parking lot and end up in the back end of the funeral procession.  Well, it’s hard to keep a funeral procession together and sometimes that happens.  We were about a mile down the road when I looked in the mirror on the passenger side of my car.  I was the third car in the processional, and it was a rather long processional.  I was amazed at what I saw in my mirror – the car that got into the funeral procession was making its way down the shoulder of the highway, passing the cars in the processional.  I’ve seen a lot of interesting things happen at funerals, but that was a first.  And, interestingly, the driver was not in much of a hurry, as you might expect when they decide to pass the line of cars by driving on the shoulder of the highway.  The funeral procession was going about 35 mph, and I would estimate the car on the shoulder was going about 35¾ mph.  As the car passed me, I looked over and was surprised to see, for one, that I knew the person.  And, second, the person was cruising along as though they were out for a Sunday drive and that passing a funeral procession while on the shoulder of a highway was the most normal thing in the world to do.  I wanted to shout, speed up!  If you’re in that much of a hurry, get moving!

     

But some things can’t be made to go any faster, sadly.  And healing is something we cannot make go faster.  If you’ve been through any surgery, you know the healing doesn’t come quickly enough.  When you lose a loved one, you know the healing of that loss does not come quickly enough.  Some healing might come in a few days or weeks, but some healing takes months, and even years.

     

I often wonder, how long will it take to heal the losses and the wounds of the last 4½ months?  How long will it take to find healing from the wounds inflicted by Covid-19?  Those wounds are much more than the physical, though the physical wounds are plenty.  There are the wounds of an economy that has collapsed out from under scores of people.  There are the wounds of the family members who could not be with their loved ones as they were in hospitals, and the wounds of not being with a loved one when they departed for eternity.  The wounds of not being able to be at a funeral or memorial service.  There are the wounds of the racial struggle of the time, and all the years that have led to this moment.  There has been so much suffering, and we need healing.  

     

We see the healing that Jesus brings to so many, but we sometimes overlook that much time led up to some of those moments of healing.  John 5:1-9, for instance, tells us of the man Jesus healed at the pool of Bethesda (¹Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. ² Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. ³ Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. ⁴From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters.  The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease he had. ⁵ One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷ “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” ⁸ Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” ⁹ At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.)

     

It was a healing that came in a moment, but we must remember the man had been an invalid for 38 years.  His 38 years of struggle was not just his physical difficulty, but also the lack of anyone in his life who could care for him.  In verse 7 of that story, the man tells Jesus I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred.  Yes, there was a great need for physical healing, but there was a great need for healing of the man’s spirit as well.  For 38 years he had been suffering, and many of those years, it appears he had suffered along.  Mark 5:25–34tells of us the woman who had a hemorrhage for twelve years (And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it.  Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering).  For 12 years this woman had been suffering.  There was physical suffering, and also the economic devastation that came as she had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse.  Mark 5:1-20 tells us of the demon-possessed man who lived in a cemetery, for we don’t know how long, but it had been a while (¹They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. ² When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. ³ This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. ⁴ For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. ⁵ Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones. ⁶ When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him.⁷ He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!” ⁸ For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you impure spirit!” ⁹ Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” “My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” ¹⁰ And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area. ¹¹ A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. ¹² The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” ¹³ He gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. ¹⁴ Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. ¹⁵ When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. ¹⁶ Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. ¹⁷ Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region. ¹⁸ As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. ¹⁹ Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” ²⁰ So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed).

     

It’s hard to be patient.  It’s hard to wait.  But sometimes, healing takes time.

Healing is painful.

     

I have been very fortunate in my life in a number of ways, and one is that I have never had any kind of surgery, except one very small procedure that really doesn’t count.  I’ve never been under anesthesia.

     

I have, however, spent a lot of time with a lot of people before and after their surgeries, so I know there is a certain amount of pain involved in healing; sometimes it is a lot of pain.  I often remind people there are two kinds of pain involved in healing – there is the chronic pain that makes surgery necessary, and there is healing pain that comes after, and that pain goes away.  People often tell me they can tell the difference between those two kinds of pain.

     

When we have a physical ailment, we go to the doctor and get the needed surgery scheduled, even if we really don’t like the idea of surgery.  We know we need to see a doctor and we know we need to endure some amount of pain and we are willing to do so.  When I tore the meniscus in my right knee several years ago, I was in terrible pain.  I wanted relief, and I was quick to make a doctor’s appointment to find relief. Even though I do not like needles, I was very happy to have a big needle stuck in my knee, providing cortisone that gave me relief.  

     

But it is often very different when it comes to other kinds of healing – the spiritual, the emotional, and the psychological healing that we need.  We aren’t as quick to seek out healing for those difficulties, even though they cause us great pain.  I will hurry to the doctor when my knee hurts so that I can get that shot of cortisone.  I can’t get there fast enough to get that pain take care of, but when I am in need of other kinds of healing, I will go out of my way to avoid the healing I need for those.

     

I could – but I won’t – talk to you about some of the kinds of healing that I would like to find in my life, but I struggle with the pain that is involved.  It’s a pain that is greater than a physical pain so I will do what I can to avoid it.  So what I do, then, is carry around the chronic pain instead of opting for the healing pain.  And you know what?  I suspect you all are the same.  Am I right? 

Healing Always Happens.

     

One of the questions I have been most asked over the years is this – why are some people healed, but not others?  All of us have prayed for a friend or loved one to receive healing.  We have all enlisted others to pray on behalf of someone we love, someone who needed healing. We have all been enlisted by others to pray for someone who needed healing.  And we have all wondered why healing did not come, in spite of all the prayers that were offered.  I have witnessed situations where healing has come, thankfully.  I have heard doctors tell families, we do not know why your loved one was healed, other than to say it was a miracle.  But I have also been with many families when it became obvious that healing was not going to happen.  If you have struggled with the question of why some prayers for healing – and in many cases, quite a few prayers – were not answered, I have an answer to give you this morning, and it is only three words – I don’t know.  I don’t know why some people are healed while others are not, and if anyone tells you they have the answer to that question I would recommend you keep a fairly skeptical sense about you.

     

While I don’t claim to have any definitive answers to questions about healing, I do believe that healing always comes. Always. I know this sounds as though I’m contradicting myself by offering an answer when I have already said I do not have one, but I don’t claim this as an answer as much as I hold to it as a statement of faith.  Healing, in my opinion, always comes, and that is the good news.  The bad news, however, is that it does not always come when we want it to come or in the way we want it to come.  Much of the time, healing does not come until we have entered eternity. When we think of healing I believe, then, that we must take the long view, that is, a view that incorporates eternity.  Our lives are not measured only by the time we spend in this temporal world, but also by the eternal world.  I will admit this is not the most satisfactory response, as all of us have prayed and hoped for healing to come to someone we have loved, and that it would come in this world.  Well, looking at it from an eternal rather than temporal perspective, healing does come, when we enter eternity.  For me, I accept that as enough.  I might hope and pray for healing now – in this world – but I also know that it is not guaranteed to come.  I will, though, hold to faith that the person will find healing and wholeness in eternity, and that I will see them once again.  For me, I find great comfort in this truth.

     

When I was serving as an associate in Anderson County, a member of our congregation was diagnosed with cancer.  He and his wife were very important to Tanya and me.  They were like adoptive grandparents to us, and we cared very deeply for them.  I remember visiting with Bill on a number of occasions when he would talk about what he would do when he was healed.  He and his wife owned a business in town, and he would often say, I’m going to sell that business, retire, and spend time fishing. And I’m going to come by and pick you up and we are going to do some fishing together.  As the weeks passed, he did not get better. His condition continued to deteriorate, and he often expressed his questions about why he was not getting better. He was convinced he was going to be healed, but he was not, and eventually passed away.  But here is what I believe – I believe he was healed.  It was not in the way he had hoped, or that his family had hoped, or that I had hoped, but he was healed.  When he was welcomed into eternity it was without any physical ailments or disease.  And though everyone who knew him wished he had been healed and given more time in this world, we also know we will see him again.

     

There is not a person in this sanctuary who does not have a need for some type of healing in their life. Perhaps it’s a tattered or fractured relationship that needs healing; perhaps it’s forgiveness that needs to be offered or accepted; perhaps it’s guilt that needs to be let go of; perhaps it’s grief that has stayed with you for so long.  There are as many different needs of healing as there are people here today or any other day.  Healing might be, at times, slow and painful, but remember this – healing always comes. Always.  

     

Lord, Please Heal Us. God is a healer, and will heal us.

July 5, 2020 What Did Jesus? Putting Down Markers

Here are the links to view the service from which this message comes.

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This morning I begin a new series of messages, titled What Jesus Did.

     

You will remember, I’m sure, the popularity of the WWJD bracelets a while back. I had a couple of those bracelets, although I don’t know what happened to them.  Maybe it’s a reminder of the shortcomings of making anything related to Jesus into a trend, as trends come and go.  WWJD stood for What Would Jesus Do, a phrase popularized in the Charles Sheldon novel, In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do?  The phrase, central to the novel, did not originate with Sheldon, however.  Charles Spurgeon, a well-known minister in 19^thcentury London, used the phrase in a sermon several years earlier, but what might be the first known use goes all the way back to the early 15^thcentury.  That use of the phrase was in a book by Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ.  The book is a classic of theology, and I read it in seminary, but I’ll confess that I don’t remember much about it.

     

I think it is a good sentiment, certainly, askingwhat would Jesus do?  But perhaps the best way to discover what Jesus would dois to study what he did. And Jesus did a lot.  

     

So let’s start at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.  Let’s turn to Luke’s gospel, chapter 4.  In chapter 4 of Luke’s gospel, Jesus is in his hometown of Nazareth, where he attends the synagogue, and reads from the Scriptures.  Follow along as I read from Luke 4:14-22 – 

¹⁴ Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 

¹⁵ He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.

¹⁶ He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 

¹⁷ and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,

¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 

²⁰ Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 

²¹ He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

²² All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.

This was the first sermon of Jesus.  First sermons are not always memorable.  Mine wasn’t, I’m sure.  In fact, I have no recollection of what I said in my first sermon.  It was sometime in my high school years and was probably more of a brief devotional.  Maybe my first realsermon was the summer after my high school graduation, at West Middletown Christian Church, in West Middletown, Pennsylvania.  I think there were 15 people there, including myself.  About all I remember was that it was not a memorable sermon.

     

The first sermon of Jesus, however, was very memorable, as it provoked quite a reaction.  At first, the reaction was very positive, and then, well, much less so.  If you read ahead in chapter 4, you find that the reaction of the people changed very, very dramatically.  After the comment of verse 22 – all spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips, the attitude of the crowd changes to one of anger.  They were so angry at Jesus that they took him to the edge of town and were going to throw him over the edge of a cliff.  They got up, drove him out of town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff(Luke 4:29).  

     

What in the world caused such a drastic change in the reaction of those who heard Jesus’s sermon?  Why did the people in that synagogue turn so quickly from praise and admiration to taking Jesus out to the edge of town to throw him over a cliff?  The worst that might happen this morning is I might bore you, but that would hardly make you want to throw me off a cliff.

     

What Jesus did was to put down several markers in this sermon.  They were markers of what would be the cornerstones – the markers – of his ministry.

     

So let’s take a look and see what they are, and we will see what angered the crowd.

Jesus came to announce the arrival of the kingdom of God, which was good news.

     

Mark’s gospel, in 2:14-15, provides us with a bit more detail about Jesus in Galilee during this time. Mark tells us that Jesus went around proclaiming the kingdom of God is near.  In Luke’s gospel, we are given more of the details of the values of God’s kingdom, as the passage Jesus chose from Isaiah tells us of those values. Isaiah spoke of the kingdom of God as having good news for the poor, freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight to the blind, and that it promised to release the oppressed.    

When Jesus said, after he read from the book Isaiah, today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing, that was very exciting for people.  It was exactly what they wanted to hear.  The time of waiting on the arrival of God’s kingdom and God’s messiah was what they had longed for; it was their hope, for century after century.  And it was good news that Jesus brought! The word for gospel – euangelion– literally means good news. 

     

It’s an interesting list of people that Isaiah mentioned, and that Jesus quoted – the poor, the prisoners, the blind, the oppressed.  Jesus had good news for them!  The poor, the prisoners, the blind, and the oppressed were people who were left behind by society.  Those were the people, among many others, who welcomed and loved Jesus.  They welcomed and loved Jesus because he stood up for them, and they were not used to having someone who was on their side.  There were no social safety nets at that time in history for people who were in need.  There were no government benefits for the poor and the hungry.  There were no medical benefits for the blind.  The was no mercy for the prisoners.  And there was no justice for the oppressed.  The early church, in keeping with the spirit of Jesus, had as its first ministry, the serving of food for a good reason.  There were a lot of poor and hungry people!  Throughout the history of the church, these are the people – the poor, the prisoners, the blind, the oppressed, and many others – who have been served by the ministry of the church. 

     

That is the way the church lives the values of the kingdom of God – we go where we find people who are left behind by society.  It’s why we are involved with the community ministries that help people who are struggling. It’s why we are helping with ministries that provide food to people.  It’s why we go to the Diersen Center in Louisville and before that we went to the Luther Luckett prison in LaGrange.  And the oppressedis a rather broad category, but in our time, it is a reminder to stand with those who have faced prejudice and have been ostracized by society and – in some instances – from the church as well.

     

Last fall, at Light Up Shelbyville, Tanya, Nick, and I were walking down Main Street, enjoying the festivities. We walked past a booth sponsored by one of the churches here in town, and as we walked past, one of the members of the church presented a tract to me and said, I’ve got some bad news for you brother!  I took the tract to read later, but didn’t respond, although I have since thought that perhaps I should have.  Why would he say he had some bad news?  The gospel is good news!

     

The gospel has too often been presented not as good news, but as bad news.  The gospel has too often been used as a way of bludgeoning people with judgment and criticism.  In this historical moment in which we are now living, some churches seem to be surprised that they are on the receiving end of criticism from the culture at large. Well, the reality is that some churches have been critical and judgmental to many people, they have failed to be open to people, and they have not stood with the poor, the prisoners, the blind, and the oppressed.  Too often, some churches have stood with those who have either ignored those groups or have helped to perpetuate their suffering by supporting policies and practices that have made their lives even more difficult.  Why, then, should those churches be surprised when the culture turns a deaf ear to what they now have to say?  Instead of offering good news, they gave only bad news. 

The definition of the kingdom offered by Jesus surprised a lot of people.

     

The words of Jesus, and his definition of God’s kingdom, was not what people expected, which is why people became so angry with Jesus.  Because Jesus did not define the kingdom of God the way they expected, they took him to the edge of town, to that cliff, where they planned to cast him over, into the abyss below.  In the verses following this morning’s Scripture text, Jesus expanded the definition of the kingdom to include the Gentiles.  That was not what the people wanted to hear.  They wanted to hear about how special they were, and that the kingdom was for them but not for others.  Jesus, however, gave a far more expansive definition of the kingdom when it came to who would be welcome.  Jesus put down a marker of God’s acceptance of, and love for, all people.  And yet, it is what they should have known, as they were in the synagogue for worship.  Worship that does not change the heart of the worshippers to welcome those who are different is not genuine worship.

     

Those who were considered the sinners and tax collectorsin the time of Jesus had been told for years how bad they were and how undeserving they were of God’s grace.  Jesus, instead of perpetuating such attitudes or turning them away, opened his arms to them, and because he did, people came running to him.

     

Jesus sought to correct a lot of bad and faulty theology in his day, such as the rejection of those who were different.  The religious leaders, in particular, discovered that some of their beliefs and some of their theology was, quite simply, wrong.  When we read the Sermon On the Mount, for instance, Jesus says, 6 times – 6 times! – you have heard it said, but I say to you.  It was his way of saying, you’ve learned the words of the law, but not the spirit of the law, and you are wrong.

     

Admittedly, it is very difficult to discover that what you have believed for many years is not correct.  I’m not taking the side of the self-righteous religious leaders of Jesus’ time, but we all struggle to change our point of view when we learn we are wrong.  Not everything we have been taught is correct, including some of what we have been taught in church.  Some churches, for instance, resisted the inclusion of other ethnicities because they were told it was against God’s will.  That’s hard to believe, isn’t it?  But when people you love and trust tell you something is God’s will – even if it is not – it is hard to admit we have accepted and believed a falsehood.  I remember a friend of mine, years ago, telling me about an instance that took place in his home church, when he was a young boy. The church voted, at the conclusion of a Sunday morning worship service, to exclude African-Americans from membership in their church.  He recalled standing with his parents and others in the church to vote for that policy. He was young, and he trusted those who told him such a practice was God’s will.  As he grew older, he realized what he was told was wrong, and contrary to God’s will.

     

Sometimes, we get things wrong. We have to be humble about the reality that we can be like the scribes and Pharisees, and we can be wrong.  Some churches have been so lacking in humility, pointing angry fingers of judgment at people, telling them they are not loved or welcomed by God, that it’s no wonder they aren’t getting much of a response from people now.  

Jesus did not worry if people did not like what he said or did.

     

In his time, Jesus was a polarizing figure.  He was loved, he was despised, but no one was indifferent towards him. One of the reasons why people had such strong reactions to Jesus is because he challenged them, and he challenged the status quo.  Jesus was not afraid to challenge the powers of the age, which was one of the reasons why many people loved him.  Jesus pointed out the ways in which people were abused and mistreated by those who held the reins of power – and in the day of Jesus, most people were abused and mistreated – which in turn guaranteed he would be despised by those who benefitted from that power.

     

Have you also noticed that Jesus wasn’t always diplomatic?  In fact, sometimes he wasn’t diplomatic at all.  My personality is very different.  I don’t like to offend anyone, and generally go out of my way to try and avoid offending people.  If someone came to me, wearing a plaid shirt, stripped pants, and a paisley blazer, for instance, and asked me what I thought about it, I would say, I think you are a fashion trendsetter.  When, actually, I should probably say, unless you are David Pilkinton – who is the only person who could actually make that work – please do not go out in public dressed like that!

     

Immediately after praising Peter for correctly confessing that he was the Messiah, Jesus told Peter get behind me Satan(Mark 8:33).  That’s really harsh, isn’t it?  Read through chapter 23 of Matthew and, wow, talk about harsh!  Jesus was really critical of the religious leaders, calling them snakes, a brood of vipers, and compared them to tombs full of dead men’s bones.  Nothing diplomatic in those words, is there?

     

Jesus was not afraid to be criticized or to offend people.  Yes, he was often very gentle, comforting, and pastoral.  At other times, however, he was blunt to the point of creating a very angry response.  He did so because there was so much at stake.  There were so many people who were suffering and so many people who needed someone to stand up for them, and Jesus did not hesitate to be that person.

     

We are living in a very unique historical moment.  It is a moment that has a great many challenges, but it has a great many opportunities as well.  This is a moment for the church to truly be the church.  It is a moment to stand on the markers that Jesus laid for the kingdom. It is a moment to stand for those who are forgotten – for the poor, the prisoners, the blind, and the oppressed. Those are the people – and many others as well – for whom Jesus stood.  This is what Jesus did, and so must we.