New Thoughts (3/11/06-3/21/06)
As I consider the opening of this account as Luke records it, I find an interesting contrast with his closing comment on the previous events surrounding the leper’s cleansing. There, he spoke of how many were coming to hear Jesus and be healed of their sickness (Lk 5:15). Yet, Luke, the physician, trained in the ways of medicine as it was then understood, chooses his words carefully. He specifically uses a term that has more to do with attending to the needs of the sick than actually curing them. In light of the leper’s response to Jesus after being healed, this is an aptly chosen term. Many came to hear, but few came to listen. Many came to be attended to, but few wanted to be truly cured. What’s the old blues song? “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.”
So often, this is the way we come to Jesus. We have a need, and we want our need met as we perceive the need. We don’t want anything extra. We’re sick. We want the symptoms dealt with. But, we want nothing said about the underlying spiritual issues. We’re not interested in the causes of the sickness, just the treating of its symptoms. If it’s a sin issue, to be sure, we’ll be out there doing it again, and when it leads to symptoms once more, we’ll be back, asking for our holy meds. As I’ve written elsewhere, we come to Him, and though our motives are so completely skewed, still we receive from Him. But, in this attitude all we can receive is His compassion. That His compassion is great boon indeed does not change the fact that our real need is for so much more.
Now, turn to Luke’s introduction of this new scene. For the moment, pass over the mention of who was there to see, and note the end of verse 17. “The power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing.” The physician, the careful Greek writer, has changed his terms. No longer is he discussing the meeting of needs. He’s talking cure. Now, here’s an interesting thing: As a physician, Luke had doubtless seen many illnesses successfully treated. He must surely have provided such treatments himself, or despaired of his profession. Given that he had himself cured patients, how is it that he now requires the active presence of God’s power to make a cure possible? It is possible, I suppose that he attributed all of his own successes to that same power, and he would be right in doing so. In the same sense, in my more lucid moments, I attribute any accomplishment I might experience to God, for apart from God, as He has said, I can do nothing.
Yet, in another sense, it is clear, even today, that any number of doctors, neither knowing God nor caring a whit about Him, succeed in curing diseases that would have required miraculous intervention even a few short decades ago. In that light, I think our writer has something more in mind when he changes his terms. The doctor can cure the physical ailment on a good day, but he can do nothing about the underlying spiritual disease. This is where psychology falls into sad farce as a ‘healing’ profession. They can heal nothing, because they know nothing of the spirit. They can medicate the symptoms until their patient no longer feels the pain. They can work on thought patterns, until their patients no longer recognize sin as sinful. But, they cannot do a thing about the real disease. They cannot effect a cure.
The cure most assuredly requires the power of God, and for precisely the reason that the scribes and Pharisees recognize upon hearing Jesus forgive the paralytic. Only God can forgive sin, and sin is ever and always at the core of our problems. Were it not for sin, where would disease enter? Were it not for our sinful habits, what would cause the many ailments that are associated with a life of excess? The leper went away cleansed – his symptoms gone. But sin remained untouched in his life, for he had not bothered to listen to the Jesus he claimed to honor. Any man of skill can, given the knowledge and the tools, address the physical issue. It takes the power of God to forgive the sin that lies within.
Now, I must acknowledge the teaching of my Teacher. There is not an absolute and necessary connection between physical and spiritual ailment. We are all of us hopefully familiar with the question the disciples brought to Jesus. They were convinced by their upbringing that sickness, particularly such severe issues as blindness, lameness, paralysis and the like, must surely be rooted in sin somewhere in the family history. They were firmly convinced of the possibility of generational curses. How else to explain the one blind from birth? It must be sin, and it clearly wasn’t the child’s sin. He hadn’t had opportunity, yet. Still, they understood the damage of the Fall, and recognized that even without opportunity, the child’s guilt was with him from conception. “In sin I was conceived” (Ps 51:5). There is the real story of every man and woman on the face of this sad earth!
Jesus, however, insisted that they change their thinking. The man’s sin was not the reason for his blindness in this case. Neither was it some terrible deed done by his parents. No, but the disease that blinded this poor man was for no other purpose but to allow God to display His greatness in the flesh of that man (Jn 9:2-3). How impossible it is for us to accept such a thing! All we can see is the evil of that present condition, as we judge evil. All we can see is the symptoms. At best, we manage to experience pity or compassion for the blind man, and wonder at a God who would allow such things. But, no. Good Christians that we are, we will not question how God could allow it. Instead, we will immediately turn to that bad devil, or else join the disciples in laying the blame on the family. God, however, is not terribly concerned with our misunderstanding of Himself. For love of His Son, He quietly corrects our vision until we begin to set aside our incessant need to see the evil in everything. He trains our eyes and our minds to stop considering the wrong in every event, and to start wondering what it is He is doing in the event, what wonderful good, what manifestation of Himself is there, waiting for us to open our eyes and see?
Returning to the current lesson, I will simply state this: When God cures, it is so much more than just dealing with our physical pains. It is a deeper work, a work of forgiveness. Again, that is precisely why His power must be present if there is to be a cure. Only God can forgive, and only forgiveness can cure the damage we have inflicted upon ourselves by our sinful choices. Only the power of God can so work upon us that we can finally heed the command to “Go, and sin no more.”
Authority (3/13/06-3/14/06)
It was a mixed crowd that was around the house that particular day. There were many who had come with earnest interests, whether in His message or only in His ability. Yet, there were also those who came with questions in their hearts. Luke points out that there were some number of scribes and Pharisees in the audience, and not just locals. We saw it before, with John’s ministry, that the Temple hierarchy felt it necessary to check things out. I would notice, however, that it was not the leadership itself who came to inspect. This they would not stoop to do themselves. Rather, they sent their associates. The scribes, while well-versed in Scripture, had no particular authority to pronounce a ministry legitimate or not. The Pharisees, while selective and strict in their habits, had not official position in the Temple. Yet, these ought to have been the people best equipped to understand the Man they had come to inspect.
I would like to be able to give these men the benefit of the doubt, to suppose that they may have come with the earnest intention of giving Jesus a fair hearing. It is not entirely out of the question. After all, we are still quite early in the career of Jesus, and the animosity that developed against Him had not yet had time to flower. It is possible, then, that this was an earnest effort by the Temple authorities to perform their proper role. After all, the leadership of the Church certainly ought to be concerned that these new and unusual things in the life of the church be examined and their genuineness discerned. It is the shepherd’s duty to protect the sheep, is it not? So, perhaps it is not outright animosity that provokes the reaction of these men to the surprise of Jesus’ reaction to events, but only pride of knowledge.
Here’s the thing: Everybody in that crowd, trained and untrained alike, was fully aware that God alone held the power to forgive sins. Unlike so much of our Western culture, this was a people that trained up their children in the faith of the nation. These were a people who had been taught from the Scriptures since an early age, and they would know every bit as well as the scribes who had taught them that God alone had this power to forgive. Yet, there was clearly a distinction between the common people of Israel and the upper ranks of religion: The people put their faith in God. Those we find represented by the scribes and Pharisees in this scene had left God behind, and settled for their own understanding. So certain had they become of their own great understanding that they no longer considered God’s wisdom and knowledge as being greater than their own. They had become so certain of their own teaching that they could no longer be taught.
It occurs to me that just as in the case of the leper there had been an opportunity for the authority of the Temple to meet the Authority of heaven, here was an opportunity for the teachers of the Temple to meet the Teacher of heaven. There really is so much that is parallel between this account and the prior event with the leper. So, the Teacher begins to teach. Of course, I am at this point jumping right past His response to the situation of the paralytic. We can return to that later. At present, I am more interested in His handling of these learned students at His doorstep.
The texts tell us that Jesus knew their thoughts. Whether we choose to take that literally or we understand it simply as meaning their conclusions were made obvious by their expressions makes little difference, I think. It would be perfectly fair and reasonable to ascribe to Jesus the power to know men’s minds, for He is God, and in this particular set of events, is noted as being accompanied by the power of God. So, yes, it is entirely plausible to suggest that He literally heard their reasoning in His own head. It is equally reasonable to think that their reaction, particularly as it was steering towards the heinous charge of blasphemy, was registering quite visibly on their faces. Yet, something held their tongue on this occasion, and the matter remained unspoken.
Now, there is that in the NASB translation of Jesus’ reaction that somewhat bothers me, perhaps only because I make my living by reason and logic. Here, where Matthew’s account is translated as “Why are you thinking evil,” the other two are presented as “Why are you reasoning?” In a time when so much of the Church is caught up in the false conclusion that thinking is evil, it troubles me to see this combination. In this case, I really prefer the Amplified Version, as it treats Luke: “Why do you question?”
I must interject at this point that questioning is not in itself wrong, either. The key to Jesus question here is not the activity, but the motivation. Like so much in this walk of faith, it’s the heart that matters. So, let us understand that it’s not ‘why do you question,’ but ‘why do you question?’ When Paul taught the Bereans, they likewise questioned what he was teaching, yet there was a radical difference in motivation. Look at these men who are thinking to pass judgment on God. In their limited wisdom, they conclude from true knowledge a matter that is utterly false – damnably false. True: God alone has Authority to forgive transgressions of His law. Makes perfect sense. Amnesty must certainly come from the establisher and keeper of Law. Now they are presented with One who exhibits exactly this Authority. What shall they conclude? There can be only two conclusions: either the man is a blasphemer or the Man is God – or at very least authorized by God.
The Bereans, had they been present, would have doubtless proceeded to make a careful search of the Scriptures to determine whether this Man was who He claimed to be. They would have done so for very good reason: because they hoped beyond hope that He was. These experts, however, were so confident of their understanding that they felt no need to think further on the matter. Indeed, though they taught of the great hope of Messiah, they had taught so long on the matter that they had reached a number of inviolate conclusions as to the nature of Messiah. These conclusions were wrong, mind you, but they were cast in concrete so far as the teachers were concerned. He would be a conquering King, and that would be that. There was no place in their understanding for a Suffering Servant. So, unable to accept the Messiah that Is, they are forced to conclude that the man before them is a fraud and worse. Faced with one they felt worthy of stoning, I am sure the rage of offense was visible in their faces for Jesus and all else to see.
Yet, Authority is unruffled by their accusations. Where authority is real, what concern will be paid to the conniving of princelings? Jesus takes no offense and offers no offense. Instead, Authority, facing the teachers who ought rightfully to be working under Him, takes up His office as Teacher. Here, learned ones, you who are charged with the security of God’s people, answer this question: Which is easier to say?
Well, truth be told, this is one of the harder questions I’ve heard from Jesus. His meaning and His answer are not immediately obvious. When I look at the questions by which He brings out the message of His parables, it seems that there is only one answer that can possibly be given. Here, I am not so certain. I rather doubt that those He was asking were any more certain. In fact, it occurs to me just now that this may well have been the whole point. Where the parables aimed at guiding the listener to a conclusion, Jesus is in this case trying to guide His hearers away from their conclusions. They had already concluded by their understanding that He must be a blasphemer for the words He had spoken. By His question, He challenges not their correct understanding of God’s authority, but their conclusions about how that authority applied at present.
They were upset by His words. Indeed, they were even at this early stage starting to ignore His deeds and the witness of His life in favor of focusing on what He said. To carry the charge of blasphemy, as with any charges brought before the courts of Israel, there must be witnesses. Those witnesses must be able to do more than declare, “He said.” For His words to be blasphemous, they must be lies, or they must truly malign the authority of God. When Jesus draws them to compare the two statements, then, He is presenting them with one statement for which no evidence can possibly be produced either proving or disproving the claim, and another statement to which all the senses of the body may testify.
In saying that a man’s sins are forgiven, who can prove the matter true or false? If it is God’s prerogative alone to so forgive, who is man to claim to know His judgment in the matter? We may well be able to testify to the fact of a man’s sin, but to his forgiveness we can never truly go beyond speculation. However, in the matter of healing the case is different. If I claim that a man is healed, and he continues to lie obviously ill at my feet, then it is made equally obvious that I am a liar. Yet, many a so-called healer walked in Israel then, and many wander the air-waves today, whose lies would be equally obvious to one who hadn’t been conditioned to think that miracles and faith healings are a process. Look to the Master! You will not often find any process in the healing, only the accomplished fact.
So, what is Jesus really getting at? In the first place, He is pointing out the poor effort they have shown in protecting and teaching their charges. So many who have claimed miraculous healing yet failed to deliver on the claims have been allowed to continue their chicanery unchecked, yet here are the gatekeepers of Truth ready to attack over words whose veracity they cannot hope to prove or disprove! Now, He truly speaks in parables, for this is something that these men will not understand or receive except God sovereignly chooses to open their ears and minds.
Where is your concern for the obvious charlatans who claim to represent God? How is it you are so quick to denounce those who dare to aspire to a greater righteousness than your own, yet pass on dealing with these wolves amidst the sheep? These are questions we need to answer ourselves! How is it that the Church today is willing to tolerate a pastorate that will not stand up for the Gospel they claim to represent? How is it that the Church is willing to accept a man in the pulpit who as much as declares that the Holy Book of our faith is not to be believed? What is wrong with us that we will forgive the prophet whose prophesies are obviously false, the healer whose claims of healing fail to pass muster when confronted with physical evidence? How have we fallen to such a state that we accept the preachers of half-truth as legitimate representatives of the God of all Truth?
In our advanced state of ‘culture’ we have fallen into the traps of tolerance. We have accepted the lowering of our standards, and have resigned ourselves to the climate of lies. We have allowed the ways of the world to inform our own ways. That’s the ugly truth of the matter. Well, I must say that God’s standards have not changed, in spite of our own. God’s standard for the prophet, and His just punishment for the false prophet have not changed, although He can no longer find a man willing to administer His justice. God is still utterly unwilling to be mocked by these so-called representatives of the faith. Their punishment shall be just, and fully earned. Yet, would I prefer to see the mercy of my God extended to these sad imposters. Would that He would recall them to Truth, that they might themselves stand up and denounce their previous wickedness! Oh! There is a testimony worth hearing! May I live in a day, Lord, where the liars who have maligned Your name will lay down their lies, confess Your Truth, and be healed.
Jesus, then, is trying to break through the walls of preconception in these men. He is forcing them to confront these preconceptions, and to see the foolishness of their skewed values. Then, to make certain they understand the point, He explains why it is He now will do as He does. They are offended at this apparent abuse of God’s authority. Jesus, therefore, provides a verifiable act to confirm to them that the authority they seek to protect has been given to Him. If they can just understand this fact, then they can understand Who has stood in their presence. By His words He makes it sufficiently clear, I think, that the harder statement to make is the provable one: “Rise and walk.” If His authority is real, the man will walk. If it is not, the man will remain as paralyzed as ever, and they will have their evidence that here is a liar.
In this, He has presented these men who have come to judge His ministry grounds for a valid judgment. The evidence that He presents on His behalf is utterly incontrovertible. He commands this man, whose muscles are clearly paralyzed and unable to respond to any man’s command, to walk. And, the man does! Now, notice that Jesus does not present this as a means of verifying His truthfulness. No! It is presented as a validation of Authority. As with the leper of the preceding event, this healing is beyond anything that man has ever done. These are the sorts of acts that have marked the true prophets of Israel, the great prophets, the Elijahs and Elishas. At the very least, then, here is evidence that a prophet of the Most High is amongst them, and the priesthood who bear the voice of the people to the throne must surely acknowledge the primacy of this One who bears the voice of the throne to the people.
Now, as regards the authority that is given to the Man Jesus, and through Him (as He has declared the case) to His disciples – among whom we are to be numbered – I find these verses of worth. First, as I pursued to parallels to the verse in which the scholars’ conclusions are given, I find not only the basis for their correct understanding of God’s unique Authority, but I find this as well. By the arrangement of reference alone, I find these connecting thoughts, which combined become powerful indeed! In another part of Luke’s account, we find Jesus at table, and again declaring the forgiveness of sins. Those at table, we are told, were wondering to themselves just who this Jesus was, that He forgave sins in this way (Lk 7:49). Turn immediately to the definition of Authority! “I AM the One. I wipe away your transgressions, not for your benefit, but for My sake. I will not remember your sins” (Isa 43:25). What a powerful answer to those doubts. How can He speak with such authority? “I AM Authority!”
Considering God’s self-Authorizing statement here, I would point out one other, most wonderful thing. He says it is not for us that He has forgiven us, but for Himself. Since it is not for us, we can understand that likewise it is not because of us. The forgiveness of God is nothing we have earned, it is something done for His own interest but from which we derive great benefit. Now, it ought to be obvious what motivates God to forgive us, and that motivation is to make His own glory manifest. He is glorified and His mercy and love is displayed in a fashion as incontrovertible as this healing when He forgives. Indeed, that very forgiveness is the thing that distinguishes the power of a cure from the compassionate treating of symptoms.
One thing more, though, I would have us understand from this declaration. When God declares that He will not remember our sins, let us hear it like this: “I will not to remember.” Recalling Jesus’ words, “I am willing,” remember that the willingness He expresses is the decisive will: I have decided to act, and will do so now. So it is with the forgiveness of God: I have decided to forget what you have done, and I do so now. What great power is ours in understanding that! What an awesome release from guilt is to be found when we finally get it!
When the leper asked for cleansing, the God who wills not to remember our sins was pleased to say, “I am willing.” When the repentant heart comes before Him, truly ready to change even if incapable of change, this very same Jesus, Counselor before the throne of God, takes up our case. However the devil may connive at us, seeking to destroy our standing with the Holy One, he must fail, because our Counselor is at the Judge’s side. He notes the penalty He Himself paid the court on our behalf. He recalls to mind the glory that will redound to the name of God when this sinner is set free by the knowledge of the Court’s forgiveness. He takes upon Himself the responsibility to work in that repentant sinner that he may go forth from the court fully equipped to sin no more. Seeing the dedication of this One to Whom He has given His Authority, He is recalled to that very word He uttered. “For My own sake, this man’s sins are blotted from the record. They are to be recalled no more in My presence.”
Kings longed for this power, lusted for the power to determine what shall be heard in their presence. Men have died for defying the orders of such kings when their power ran unchecked. To speak an unwelcome word in the presence of the sovereign was to put one’s life at risk. So stands the devil in relationship to God Almighty when it comes to the status of His children. Whom He has rescued from the pits, He will not suffer to hear accusation against, certainly not from the pit-master.
Now, comes this wonderful news: God gave the Son Authority. He gave the Son Authority specifically to judge, and He gave this specific Authority to this specific Son for the specific reason that He is the Son of Man (Jn 5:27). See, had He only given that Authority to Jesus because He is the Son of God, the authority must stop there, for no other can claim the necessary qualifications that Jesus might pass on His authority to them. But when Authority is handed to the Son of Man, and this alone is declared as the qualification for His receiving Authority, now He may reasonably delegate His Authority to any son of man whom He chooses to deputize. Understand that this Authority to judge encompasses the authority to forgive. And, because it encompasses the authority to forgive, it encompasses the authority to heal, to deliver, to cure. Though the connection between sin and disease is not a necessity, it is often a reality. To heal a man’s sickness and leave his sins intact would be the cruelest of jokes. What worth a lengthening of days, when an eternity of punishment yet remains at the end of those days?
Response (3/15/06-3/17/06)
Now, we have a great variety of reactions to consider in the course of this story. Yet, I notice this morning that in thinking on this passage I skipped right over the reaction of the paralytic himself. Come to think of it, not one of the writers felt it worth mentioning how he reacted to the first words Jesus spoke to him. What must he have thought, having come all this way, and his friends having expended so much effort, to hear those words? He had come for healing, after all, and instead he gets these words about forgiveness. I wonder what people would make of one who responded in that fashion to their needs today. What would you make of it if you went to the doctor and rather than prescribe medicines or therapy or any such thing he simply declared that you really ought to see a pastor about those sins?
Wow! I wonder at this! I know myself well enough to guess at some of the more common reactions to being told, “your sins are forgiven.” Many people would just get offended at the suggestion that they had sin to deal with in the first place. What sin? What are You talking about? You don’t even know me! Others might fall into slightly paranoid consideration as to who had told Him. After all, if He knows what I have done, others of more consequence might know, too. Who knew? Who told? So, yes, I wonder how this paralyzed man reacted. I wonder how he would have reacted were he not held in place by his paralysis.
It was suggested to me by another last week that Jesus spoke these words to prepare the man’s heart, to build up his faith. Perhaps. After all, it was not in response to his own faith that Jesus acted, but to the faith of his friends. Yet, if I shed my Christian hindsight and think about it from this man’s perspective, these are hardly words meant to comfort. Indeed, they come as a shock, as I have suggested. Now, I must grant that the Jewish mind would have felt a stronger connection between sin and sickness, but still it is a shock to have it put so bluntly to one, and that by a stranger! Well, we know he didn’t run. I wonder, though, if it had not become possible for him to do so in that moment… Reading the account, we tend to see the moment of miracle later, when Jesus says, ‘Rise, and walk,’ but if indeed this is no more than the proof of Authority then Authority was already exercised. The healing was done, and nobody yet recognized it. Indeed, it is quite possible that much of the slackness of muscle had already gone from this man, but the crowd around would prevent very many from having seen the change.
Be that as it may, when Jesus commands the man to stand up and he does so, all opportunity for legitimate doubt was removed. This was, of course, Jesus’ intent. He had already said that the followup would serve to legitimize His claim to Authority. The proof of His power was laid before the eyes of all. They could argue as to where this power came from, but they could not deny that it’s reality. A man who was clearly incapable of walking had just risen up and walked away. Yes, and what was his attitude in departing? He was praising God! When God heals, it is that He might be glorified, and here, His purpose has been obeyed in the one He healed. So, whatever may have been his initial reaction to the news of forgiveness, it would seem he understood it clearly enough as he left. Not only was he free to walk in his own power, he was freed to walk in the power of forgiveness.
I want to repeat that, and then I want to dwell on it for a moment. Not only was he free to walk in his own power, he was freed to walk in the power of forgiveness. This is what the cure is all about. This is the difference between the attendant serving that so many come for, and the power to heal that pours from Jesus. The leper was assuredly free to walk with skin intact after his encounter, yet he had not shed the bondage of his sins. This man, having had those bonds shattered, could truly rejoice because not only was his body whole, but his spirit was more whole than ever it had been. Here was one who was truly experiencing the renewing of his mind, the new creation of a life touched by Jesus at its core!
This is something there that I still long for. Jesus, in many ways I feel like the leper more than the paralytic. Here is this same thing I have come to You about so often, still plaguing me after all this time. Here is that one thing that it seems I can daily repent of, daily declare my will to be free of, and yet walk right back into it again. How often, my Lord, have I cried out to You for the liberty to call this thing quits once and for all? How long, my God? How long before I experience the cure that You are willing and able to provide? Somewhere deep inside, I know it is already done. I know that You have already cured. Yet, where is the evidence? Where is the glory that should be given You for that victory?
In the same breath, what do I think to accomplish by wheedling at You in this way? You see right through the drapery I would put on my prayers. You look through to the real matter beneath all the words that try to present it in the right way, in the pious way. God, I want to be free of this thing, and it has for so long been beyond me to lay hold of that freedom You want as well that I don’t know if I really believe my own beliefs any more. I don’t know if I have the faith to believe that You have done it. My mind knows that it is finished, but my habit doesn’t. My mind, it seems, is utterly convinced. I have learned enough about You to know that You are faithful, that You have done it. I know, because You have impressed the knowledge upon me, that You are willing and that You are able. I know that because You are able and You are with me that I am made able. Yet, there remains this inability. How can this be, Lord? How does it end? What am I missing, that my mind and spirit might unite and take the control that is rightfully theirs?
Lord, I look at these events, at this instant and immediate cures that You administered and I find myself wondering if we haven’t all been rather foolish in accepting the process instead. Is process just our way of covering for a lack of faith? I rather think so. Oh, we wouldn’t want to ‘put You in a box,’ to insist that You must act in a particular fashion, especially when Your failure to act as we expect might point to a weakness in ourselves. My, how I find I have hidden behind my own brand of piety! God, forgive me, that I have so maligned Your character to protect myself from seeing my unbelief. Yes, and heal my unbelief, that the rest of that which I so long for may be manifest at last!
Holy Spirit, I must include a thank You here for the work You have been doing. Yes, I have seen You at work amongst my brothers. How shall I deny that You have been bringing into the light that which I have so long kept hidden? And, I thank You, Holy One, for not only have You brought it to Your light, but You have given me the support of my brothers, the knowledge that I am no longer alone in the battle. How surprisingly powerful this is! God, let me not fall into leaning on them rather than You, but thank You none the less for providing this comfort in my time of trial.
To return to the study, then, I have looked at how the pious elite, the scholars, reacted to the presence of Authority. Let me also consider the response of the rest of those gathered to hear Jesus. These understood as well as the teachers that God alone was able to forgive sins, for sins are transgressions of His Law and an offense against His rights. Who else, then, should have the right to forgive offenses against Him? Yet, these people came to no such conclusion as the scribes had. Hearing the claim of authority in His declaration, they did not jump immediately to the conclusion of blasphemy. They waited for events to unfold, to see what witness God would give to His claim. Now, there is wisdom! It is the same counsel that the Sanhedrin would receive later: If this is of God, then nothing we do will stop it. If not, He will take care of it. Either way, better that we keep our hands from it and allow Him the defense of His name.
So, they wait for God to pass judgment and He does. The proof is given by the cure. After all, that is why the cure was waiting. Because there were those who did not think He had Authority, He was determined that they have evidence of it. Again, His instructions to the leper were geared toward this same end: to present evidence to those in authority, to announce that their Superior was present. The King’s Son was come into the lands of His tenants, and He announces Himself to those who oversaw His lands. Theirs is then to yield to Authority, but instead they cling to the power they have come to enjoy.
Here, the evidence is presented with no chance of man’s weakness preventing it. There can be no denying what their own senses have witnessed. They are free to judge, now, but they must judge based on evidence rather than opinion. They had been so ready to condemn on an unproven and improvable charge. Now that the confirming evidence was before them, what would be their decision? Was He the Prince, or would they insist on the charge of blasphemy? I think we must conclude that they were convinced of His credentials, for were they not we would surely read of their seeking to stone Him then and there. That can be the only response to true blasphemy! That was the Law of the God Whose reputation they thought to protect. If they were its upholders, how could they do other than to pursue the legal remedy required by the situation? But, faced with evidence such as this, could one really conclude that the Man was demon possessed, or otherwise different than His claim?
There would be those who insisted that He was indeed possessed of a devil, that His healings were of demonic origin and that He was an imposter intent on destroying the people of God. But, those who witnessed such things as this directly could not reach that conclusion. They were too smart for that. They understood intuitively that an evil demon could not be credited with willingness to perform such a signal good. There would necessarily be a catch had the healing come from such a source. Now, we are warned by Christ Himself that there will be imposters who come, performing signs and wonders in hopes of deceiving those who are in the Way. If our eyes are only for the remission of symptoms, we are at risk of just such deception. But, again, the real Healer heals more than the body. The real cure touches the soul.
So, how would I react to the sort of things these people witnessed? I don’t really see but one possibility. I don’t see that anyone who had actually been there, however skeptical they may have been on arriving, could come to any other conclusion. Here is Authority, and that Authority given to a Man. I suspect that there was very little said in the immediate aftermath of this event. I suspect the entire crowd was too thoroughly awed by what had just transpired. Jesus’ words lent such importance to the event that all must acknowledge not only what had happened but what it meant. Authority was present in the flesh of Man, yet the claim of that Authority must necessarily mean that God was present, for He alone held such Authority. I think these may have been the first to comprehend that here was the God-Man. I think they must have understood in a moment what theologians would later take centuries to hash out. Here was One who was wholly Man, more wholly Man than has been seen before or since, yet He was clearly, at one and the same time, God. Here, then, was God Incarnate, calmly standing in their midst. What reaction can there be, given this realization, than to be utterly silenced by the shear awe of it? Indeed, in the presence of God, what other response can their ever be? When He is truly before us, all our pride of words, all our wealth of wisdom must flee away. Whatever we may think we have achieved is made nothing in the moment of knowing ourselves in His presence. The King has come into our house, and we cannot possibly do anything but humbly serve His Worship.
One correction I must make to myself, though. At first reading, I was thinking that these people had recognized that Authority was given to a man, to this particular man, Jesus. However, as I read it more carefully, I see that they had already leapt far ahead in their theology. They understood that Authority having been given to Him particularly meant that God had been moved to delegate His Authority to men in a more general sense. They glorified God, Matthew says, because He had given such authority to men. Not, to one man, but to men at large. That is the authority Jesus puts into our hands when He tells us that the things we bind and loose on the earth are bound and loosed in heaven. The healing we see unfold on earth – that healing that is deeper than physical or even mental – is achieved in heaven as well, where alone the soul can be healed.
Jesus taught us to forgive as we are forgiven by God. A tall order indeed, but this is the forgiveness that releases that heavenly, spiritual healing, for our forgiveness in some strange way releases His forgiveness. The little hurts (by comparison anyway) that we suffer to forgive others for are but reflections of the weighty guilt of sin that can only be lifted by His forgiveness. When we recognize why we forgive, and what power there is in that action, well, who can measure what will happen!
What remains one of the more disturbing things about this is that the scribes were so quick to reach the verdict of blasphemy. These were the men whose purpose was to know the Scriptures and to teach the less learned of its truths and application to various situations. They were the legal counsel to the Counsel, the experts on what Torah said. And yet, they are the ones who apparently fail to comprehend God’s actions in light of His record. Now, I think I mentioned elsewhere that these men were really trying to do their job, or at least the job that the Temple leaders ought to be attending to. They were checking out the new guy to make certain of His teaching. Then and only then could they recommend Him to their charges, or advise against Him as the situation warranted.
As the ones who were learned enough to teach, though, it is rather disquieting to this teacher that they missed the point so thoroughly when it came to Jesus. Here is the danger of our learning, I suppose. When our learning is combined with a certain authority, as it was with the scribes, it becomes a matter of power for us to be right in our pronouncements. I am reminded that the authority of the scribes was not of an official sort, which made it that much more fragile and at the same time more precious in their own sight. Their authority was strictly on the basis of their knowledge. If their knowledge was once called into question, they felt, their authority would be gone and with it their power and influence. They had become used to rank and therefore turned somewhat feral in defense of that rank.
Pride must never mix with our learning in the things of God. It is a poison that will lead us into a realm of knowledge without belief. Consider the case at hand. These men, so knowledgeable in the matters of Law and Prophecy, would gladly tell you that Messiah must come. The Pharisees, too, had their hope set on Him. Yet, here He was before them and they saw Him not. Indeed, the very claims that Messiah must make as Messiah they took as clear and obvious evidence of blasphemy. It is knowledge but it is not belief. We know Messiah must come but we don’t really believe He is coming. In a way, these guys were post-modern before their time!
Today, it is a rampant disease. I know it is rampant. I find it in myself. Even after all this study, even as one wholly convinced of God’s Truth and truthfulness, even as one certain of His call and my salvation; still I find that my actions display a lack of belief. I know He has saved me, yet so often I act as one still in darkness. I know He heals body and soul, yet I continue in habits that if not sinful are assuredly not healthful. I know He answers prayers, yet I often pray as one unsure that He is listening. Am I alone in this? I rather doubt it. Yet, it is a cause for great concern. I begin to understand that one who cried out to Him, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.” It is precisely this problem that the scribes suffered from, although they seem to have failed to seek the remedy. It is the great danger of any man, trained and educated by this world, when he comes to the pages of God’s Word. We may study it. We may memorize it. We may think deep and marvelous thoughts in regard to what we find here. And still at the end of it, we may well find ourselves ever so well-versed in the technicalities of what we have learned and still utterly incapable of applying it. We may have gained all manner of knowledge but never a grain of wisdom. It is amazing, isn’t it, that those who have been fit to teach may yet be unfit to learn?
Worse still, when our thinking leads us down trails akin to these that we find the scribes upon, it is entirely possible that we make ourselves guilty of the very charge they leveled against Jesus! Their accusation was of blasphemy, because He had laid claim to equality with God. Fast forward a few years, and you will find the Sanhedrin doing everything they can to muster this very same charge against Jesus. Yet, their representatives were here in this moment, having come to exactly that conclusion. Why then did the Sanhedrin have to manufacture witnesses for their purpose? Perhaps this is the best evidence we can seek if we hope to discover how these witnesses reacted to the power Jesus displayed.
It would seem they got the point. It would seem that they recognized that His claim of Authority and equality with God was well-founded Truth. Otherwise, as I have asked before, how is it they did not seek to stone Him on the spot? That is the only reaction to a blasphemy of this scale. That is the demand of the Law they knew so well. No, their reasoning, faced with the evidence of Authoritative power, could only conclude that He is indeed God in their midst. In reaching this conclusion, they steered clear of the blasphemy they had come close to declaring themselves. For, as Zhodiates points out in his dictionary entry on this word blasphemy, resisting the work of the Holy Spirit, since He is God, is to be included as a blasphemous matter.
There is a question to be pursued, though, in this regard. How does one resist the irresistible? If God is omnipotent, then who is impotent man to oppose Him? How can he hope to? The devil cannot successfully oppose Him, and His grace is not something we can choose to accept or not. The gift is given and He commands its reception. He wills within that we might will to accept.
It’s sadly funny, is it not, that we think our will free until He comes and frees our will. Then, seeing that He works in us to will and to work, we reach the conclusion that our will is no longer free now that it is! What we fail to see is that until God came to us and began working upon our spirit, we were so corrupted by sin that we could never choose the good. We could never choose God because our will was bound to the evil choices that our fallen nature had chained us to. Then, He came and freed us to truly choose. He cleared our vision that we might realize there even was a choice. There, finally, is freedom to choose, and how do we respond? Well, we begin choosing what is good. What man in his right mind would not do so? You are presented with a choice between a choice meal and poison. You know which is which. Which will you choose? You are given the option of living in a place of clean air and plenty, or a place that is choked with pollution and people are dying for want of necessities of life. You know which is which. Which will you choose? Of course, you choose the one that is clearly better! Yet, when we start choosing the good, when we see that it is God working in us to will and to work for His good purpose, we reach the conclusion that He has made us automatons without free will to choose! No! The very work He has done in you is to make that will free! Without His work, there never was a free will, and as I have attempted to illustrate, the will, once truly free will of course choose what is good. His good purpose is good. He is the very definition of Good. Is it really any wonder then that the will finally free will tend to choose what is in His purpose? What is His purpose? He tells you! He says He has a plan and a purpose for you, and that plan and purpose is to prosper you, not to harm you. His plan is hope for you where before was nothing but futility (Jer 29:11). Why would you choose not to pursue His plan? When we begin to grasp this, I think we will find our reaction to God’s action will be a source of constant joy.
Take Courage (3/17/06-3/18/06)
So, with that thought in mind, I return to the word I taught on in home group last night. It is one word, in the Greek, although it is translated many ways in English. The translation that best fits the word and the occasion, though, is “Take courage”. Thayer’s lexicon informs me that this particular verb is only used in the imperative, command, form where it is found in the New Testament. I have found six events in the course of the establishment of Christianity wherein this command is given. Of these six, five are delivered by the Christ Himself, and the sixth by His disciples at His behest. Several, but not all, are associated with the outpouring of the curative power of Jesus. I suppose one could find that same power operative in the remainder but not in so evident a fashion. What can be said to be common to all of these events, though, is that the command to take courage is in every case accompanied by a good reason to be courageous.
Let me first consider each of them in their turn, and then I shall avail myself of the combined message that these separate events create. The first reason we have for courage is the very thing Jesus says to the paralytic: Your sins are forgiven. In learning that our sins are forgiven, we learn that God is no longer angry with us, though we know He most certainly had the right to be. If we understand that He is not looking to put is in some dungeon for our crimes against Him, then we know we can be bold to approach His throne.
Not long after this account, we come to the story of that woman who had been suffering for so many years, seeking a cure by any means she might avail herself of (Mt 9:22). Every doctor had been tried, every quack remedy bought and taken. Every faith healer had received a donation from this woman in return for their mummery. She had gone broke dealing with all these people, and remained as sick as ever. But, she would try once more, for this Man was different than those others. To her, Jesus speaks encouragement as gently and as personally as He has done to this man on his mat. “Daughter, take courage.” She’s family! Yes, I realize that in such situations as these, son or daughter can often mean little more than sir or madam. Yet, He could as well have kept the address on terms of superior to inferior, simply issuing His command with all impersonality. He chooses to be personal, though, because she is family, just as the paralytic is family. He then gives this woman reason indeed to be courageous: She has been made well! Her faith has made her well. What the herbs and concoctions of the doctors could not do, what the mysticism of the faith healers could not accomplish, her faith in Him had done. By that faith, she was made greater than those she had patronized, she was shown superior by the witness of her own health.
Now we can turn to the experience of twelve exhausted disciples. They had been ministering all day as the crowds came looking for the Teacher. At days end, He had sent them off across the waters of the Sea of Galilee. Though it was nothing new to these men to be out on that sea, the fact that this crossing would be made at night would make it something rather out of the norm, and the experience of their years in the trade would surely have warned them of the coming storm. Yet, at the Master’s command, they took to the water, and began the crossing. In the dark of that night, with waves and wind pounding their tiny vessel, they rowed on, grimly resolute, when one of them noticed somebody passing by them on the waters! Yet, it was not a boat that passed, only what appeared to be a man. Is it any wonder that their first thought was that some ghost pursued them on top of all this? Come to think of it, how often do I hear Christians today predicting just such sorts of harassing spirits coming in the wake of their work for the Kingdom? But, Jesus has a message for us in the midst of the stormy battle, “Take courage; it is I” (Mt 14:27, Mk 6:50). I AM is here with you. You are not alone. Never that! Though all seems to be going against you, there is One who is going with You, and He is the Master of this world and every other! At His command, all this opposition must cease.
Once more we will find this command coming to one who approached Jesus in search of a cure. This time, however, it will come not from Him, but from His students, His disciples who have hard the command from Him these many times, and have learned the lesson well. A blind man in Jericho hungered for his sight. Hearing that Jesus was going by, he cries out with a faith and understanding almost unparalleled in the records. Here was the Son of David! Wow! Where the Pharisees were forever disparaging His parentage, this man in his blindness saw through to the Truth. How he cried out for mercy from this Prince of the Kingdom, but others from the area tried to quiet him down. We have such an important visitor today, Bart, please don’t go making a scene now! It’s just too embarrassing. But, Jesus heard the understanding of faith in this man’s cry, and told His disciples to call the man over (Mk 10:49). This, they did, with words learned from the Teacher: “Take courage!” And, as their Teacher had taught them, they gave good reason for courage. “He is calling for you.” What wonderful words those are to my ears! He is calling for me. This great one, this Prince of the Kingdom, this King of kings is calling me! I am humbled by His attention.
As Jesus approaches the end of His time preparing these disciples to carry forward His work, He draws them to Himself for a final time of training. When that training has been completed, He will turn His attention to a prayer fitting to the office He is about to take up. He who is the King of kings is also our great High Priest, eternal holder of the office after the order of Melchizedek (Heb 5:10). At the close of His lesson, though, the Teacher offers words of encouragement to His students, albeit that the encouragement comes with its own words of warning (Jn 16:33). So long as you are in this world you have tribulation. How often we choose to forget this bit! How often we determine to have a happy life in our happy Jesus! But, He has told you, o man of God, what must this Way is truly like. You will have trials. You have them already. The world cannot help but react to the Presence that is within you. Well, this is hardly comforting is it? Ah! But it is followed by one of the greatest ‘however’ statements to be found anywhere, “BUT take courage!” No, this isn’t what you wanted to hear about our great movement, this isn’t what you wanted your Messiah to say, but hear the rest! “I have overcome the world.” You looked for a victorious King coming into the land and destroying all His enemies, and I tell you He has already done it. Your problem is that you look on this present life as the important part, but the battle has been in heavenly places, and there, the enemy has already been cast down in total and utter defeat. Take courage, then, for I leave you in the battle, but the battle is already won!
One last place I hear these words from my Lord. This comes well after He has faced death and defeated it. This comes after He has fully assumed His office, and indeed trials and tribulations have been the lot of His followers ever since. Indeed, we will next hear Him speaking to one of those who had greatly contributed to those tribulations. Here was Saul, the Christian slayer, except now he was himself imprisoned in Jerusalem because he was not only a Christian himself, but a particularly effective one at that! He was making great inroads all over the place on behalf of the Christ who had called him in the midst of his attempts to wipe out the very idea of this Way. He has come to Jerusalem in obedience to this One who saved him. He has come boldly in spite of knowing the danger he faced, and, having come, he has been taken into Roman custody to protect him from a mob that has been stirred up against him in the Temple. Unknown to him at the time, there is even then a conspiracy forming amongst the rabble rousers to connive him out of Roman custody so that they can kill him. Well, there he is, in a prison cell for being on the Lord’s business and in obedience to his fellow apostles and to Mosaic Law. He has done everything decently and in order, and yet he is now at risk of life. But, his Lord has not forsaken him! Right there in the prison cell, the great High Priest comes to His charge with a word (Ac 23:11), “Take courage! You must yet witness in Rome as you have witnessed to Me so well here in Jerusalem.” The King has a purpose which this worker must yet fulfill, and what is a must with the King is a certainty in His workers. His will will be done!
So, having walked through these many occasions, let me put the reasons for being courageous for our Lord on display in near proximity. Hear them as they are rolled up in one great reason for courage! Take courage for your faith has made you well, and your sins have been forgiven! Take courage, it is I who comes to you, and it is I who calls you to Me. Take courage, for you have purpose in My kingdom, and that purpose must yet be done. It shall be done, whatever trials you may face along the way, for I have overcome!
Listen, That faith which makes you well, is your faith by possession, yet it is His faith, and that is what truly makes it powerful. That faith to be well is nothing you need to work up. He gave it to you! It is His free gift, yours to have and to use. That very gift is a sign of the forgiveness that is yours already in God’s courts. Your sins have been forgiven, and as if that were not gift enough, the Father has also been pleased to give You of My faith, and because My faith is in you, is yours, you have been made well. Can I be so bold as to say that even if symptoms persist, even were you to die with disease still raging in your body, you have still been made well by that faith, for it is the sickness of the soul that matters, not the weakness of the flesh.
Hear, too, in the fact that He has come to you, that He is calling you, how great a boldness ought to be yours. That forgiveness and faith which He tells you is yours? It has not been granted you because you’ve been good. In fact, it’s come to you because you’ve been so bad. You were so bad you didn’t even understand how bad you were, but He came anyway. You weren’t looking for a Savior, but Salvation came looking for you, and called you, having first opened up your blocked ears to hear His call. Think about it! Before Bartimaeus ever got back his physical sight, his spiritual blindness had been healed up. How else did he recognize in the Jesus he couldn’t even see the very thing the experts on Messianic prophecy had missed? The important healing had already happened. The restoration of physical sight was just another gift bestowed – that, and a sign of what had been done internally.
Then, finally, there is the courage of knowing we are part of His purpose. We are part of His plan, and His plan is not subject to failure or futility. What He has purposed shall come to pass, for His word does not return to Him without having accomplished His purpose. He has told you that He has purpose for you. He has plans for you, plans for a hope and a future. He has created you specifically to fulfill those good works that He has prepared specifically for you to accomplish. This is indeed a wonder! You and your purpose were both established by Him, and that, long before you were born. You were created to do those good works, and those good works were prepared for your doing. Oh, the dark lord of this darkened world is not pleased to see God’s children awake to their position, and about their purpose, Father’s purpose. He knows his time is limited, and his cause utterly futile, yet in the rage of his futility, he will lash out. We will feel the brunt of those attacks as he seeks to make his last days comfortable, but those attacks must surely fail, for He who has purposed our existence and our raison d’etre has overcome. It is no future thing that we must wait for, it is an accomplished thing, accomplished in that moment of “It is finished!” “I have overcome.”
You sought a victorious Messiah, and you found the Suffering Servant. You thought you must have misunderstood. All those experts in prophecy misunderstood! They could not accept the Humble King who came, but you did! Now, don’t you go thinking that this present humility is the whole of the story. Don’t you think that those who misread who I AM also misunderstood the meaning of Messiah! No! I AM victorious. I AM victorious NOW! I HAVE overcome every obstacle, and you will come victoriously to your purpose. You shall fulfill all that I have for you to do because you must. You must because I have already determined that you shall! Don’t fall into foolish thoughts of no free will, rejoice in being freed to pursue the path of righteousness with success! Rejoice in the newfound freedom to choose obedience to Me!
Obedience (3/19/06)
Why am I back to this topic of obedience once more? Well, it is again something that is more noteworthy by virtue of the parallel verses for this account than in the account itself. That said, let me turn my attention for just a moment to Mark’s summary of the event. The paralytic, having first been commanded to take courage, as Matthew tells us, and then commanded to get up and walk, has done all that was commanded him. Now, notice that he was not only told to walk about, but to pick up and carry the bed which had been used to pick up and carry him! Further, he was told not only to walk about a little bit to please the crowds, but to walk home. This sort of evidence was clearly beyond just impressing those who were watching. This sort of obedience was clearly far and away beyond doing the minimum necessary to convince the masses.
I’ve seen enough of the ‘get up and walk around a bit’ and we all get excited at what is almost no change at all. I’ve seen enough of adrenaline rushes being proclaimed as healings. No doubt, there were a number in that crowd who could say the same thing. Faith healers are, after all, nothing new. I am hungry for the sort of healing that is present here, the healing that is truly and undeniably an outpouring of God’s own power. That’s what’s worth getting excited about. That’s what gives witness to the incursion of God upon history once more.
So, what does this have to do with obedience? Well, if you refer back to the study covering the leper’s cleansing (Mt 8:1), I noted that obedience is our testimony. That is such a powerful matter to understand. In the case of the leper, obedience was not found and so his testimony proved more trouble than useful. Because he refused to obey the command that took up too much of his time, the tribe of the priesthood was not presented with the evidence that would have declared Messiah’s present to them.
Here, though the priests are not present, their legal experts are. They have witnessed this event in its entirety. They saw the paralytic arrive as a man totally incapacitated by his disease. They have now seen him depart bearing the couch of his affliction. Luke tells us that he was glorifying God as he went, and how could he not? In himself, then, he was fulfilling the purpose of healing. He was glorifying God. But, he was hardly alone in this activity. All who were present to witness this act of obedience were likewise glorifying the God whose Authoritative display they had just witnessed. Now, I must suppose that the scribes and the Pharisees who had come to assess this new ministry were included in that ‘all.’ There is no ‘but,’ or ‘however’ in the text to suggest otherwise. All, they tell us, were glorifying God for what had so clearly been manifested before their own eyes. Because of one man’s obedience, there were now those amongst the advisors to the priesthood, to the Sanhedrin, to the high priest himself, who were convinced that Messiah was truly here.
I have often made the point in these studies that when God heals, there is ever and always something far more significant going on than the healing itself. We may be wowed by that event, but the real excitement is in what the event signifies and what it generates by way of response. Where healing comes, there is always an underlying purpose of seeing God glorified. That is the only true purpose for healing a body which will undergo decay whether the healing occurs or not. The healing, like the obedience of the saints is a testimony to God, not just to His existence, but to His character. He is indeed a good and merciful God, worthy of all fear and reverent awe, but worthy also of our worshipful devotion and love.
I think we must connect these two matters of healing and obedience in our understanding. Both of them are matters of testimony to God. Both of them are intended to give reason to glorify God. So, as I have allowed the parallel verses to build the picture of courage for us, let me likewise bring together some references that we might see the meaning and the importance of our obedience to the Lord’s commands.
As Jesus develops on the theme of the vine, there comes this instruction to the disciples who are as the branches of the Vine Jesus. When the are very fruitful, which is in itself a proof of their true discipleship under Jesus, this fruitfulness leads to God being glorified (Jn 15:8). Well and good, and what does this fruitfulness look like? For that answer, we can look back to the Forerunner, for the message he began is the same message Jesus completed. His message was “Repent! The kingdom is at hand.” When some came hoping to appear righteous, he scolded them with a call to real righteousness, that righteousness that could only come when they had admitted to their unrighteous present. Real repentance was the necessary precursor to entering that kingdom. So, if one wished to claim such repentance, John says, bear fruits of real repentance (Lk 3:8). If you are obeying the call to repent, then repent! Let the evidence of your life display that decision to turn away from your sins. Obey that call you hear upon your soul to set aside the deeds of darkness and ignorance. Let your fruits reflect your repentance which is itself the manifest evidence of obedience to the call of the Kingdom.
Yes, and Paul adds his voice to this. Indeed, he makes the connection between us being obedient and God being glorified. Because those to whom Paul ministered were obedient to the Word delivered, because the actions they undertook bespoke the truth of their confessed acceptance of the Gospel of Christ, those who were to benefit by their obedience would glorify God (2Co 9:13). Let me simplify that just a bit: They will glorify God for your obedience to the Gospel. They may not do so intentionally. They may simply glorify God for having received your support. Yet, that glory given to God still finds its cause in your obedience.
Finally, in this regard, I bring to our attention another word from Paul. My, how boastful it may sound to our ears. How we would doubtless frown on anybody amongst our acquaintances who would dare to claim such a thing. Yet, I must insist this is more to do with our jealousy than God’s. Paul’s claim is succinctly put. “They were glorifying God because of me” (Gal 1:24). Do you know why this idea is so offensive to us? Do you understand why it upsets your delicate sensibilities to hear somebody make such a claim about themselves? Do you recognize the voice that brings accusations of pride or worse from our lips? It is quite simply because we know the same cannot possibly be said about ourselves! Here, in these words, is the simple testimony of a man who is wholly in his purpose. He is doing those works God created him for, and he is doing it all in one perfect accord with the God who created him. He is in complete obedience to God’s commands, whether those commands bring him along the direction he thought to go or those commands thrust him into great and obvious peril. Though the command of God sent him into the camp of those who would destroy him, still he was obedient, and because he was obedient to the Lord in all things, they glorified God.
There is a testimony to hunger after! There is something I hope can some day be said of me, that because I was obedient to what my God commanded of me, He was glorified. Let it be said of me, when I get to heaven that I was fruitful, that my repentance was real, and that because of my fruitful, repentant obedience to my Lord and Savior, God was glorified. That, after all, is the fruit of this tree of faith! If by my life no others are brought out of darkness into the kingdom of light, in what way have I been fruitful? If there is not one who will stand as a witness before the throne of heaven, declaring that my testimony contributed to their own arrival at faith or their perseverance in faith, then how can I think I shall be called a fruitful branch?
Lord, let it be said of me that because of my obedient walk with You in this life You were glorified. Let it be said of me that because I insisted on walking in accord with Your ways and Your directions with everything that is within me, lives were changed. Let it be said that because You were made evident in my character, ears were opened to Your call and lives were rescued from the slave camps of sin. Let me be found, Holy One, serving the purpose for which I was created: to bring glory to Your glorious Name!
Remarkable Things (3/20/06-3/21/06)
Here is a thing I ought not to be surprised by, yet should most assuredly be awed by: In our time together yesterday, the very subject of our reaction to God came up. It did not come up because I brought it up, but entered the discussion and prayer quite independent of me. I say this ought not to surprise me simply because God is so wonderfully good at coordinating and orchestrating the seemingly disconnected events of our lives, particularly as it pertains to matters of the Spirit. I say it ought to awe me because it is God who has done this, and seemingly for nobody else’s particular benefit but my own. That He should take such care over me, that He should be concerned enough about this one man to work such ‘coincidence’ into my days is reason enough to be in awe of Him. That He can is stronger reason still.
The message, then, that unites this present part of my own study with what was discussed yesterday is that we have lost our respect for God in large part. We are too often taught that God is our friend, and since we so little understand the full and proper extent of friendship, we come to think of Him in pretty casual terms. The fact is, though, that while He has befriended us, even adopted us into His own family, He remains the Supreme Being. He is, while HE loves us, still the King, the Ultimate Authority, the One who created us! His power, while He delegates to us from that power as we serve His Son, remains His alone. We may call upon Him to make His power manifest, but it is His decision alone whether He will do so.
I have to ask, when is the last time that our response to God was anything like what is recorded in these three views of a healing? Look at the descriptions. The multitudes were filled with awe, records Matthew. What does that mean? Well, it’s a far sight more than saying they were going “ooh,” and “aah,” and pointing at the departing man. We think ourselves awed when we see a good fireworks display. Not in the least! Not in this classic sense of the word. No! The awe that God should incite in us borders on terror. We ought rightly to be terrified at the thought of being so near to His presence because we are still men of unclean lips and we know it. We ought to serve Him with fear and trembling because we recognize how utterly unworthy we are to be in His service. We cannot truly and properly reverence Him until we have known the terror of Him. That was the response of those who witnessed what transpired in that house, and even those scribes and Pharisees who were present could not escape such a visceral response.
Look at Mark’s choice of words, then. He tells us that those who were there were amazed. To a man, they were amazed. Who could witness such power at play and not be amazed? Here, again, we have a word that has become debased over time. We see a lovely sunrise and are amazed. We see the colors of the evening sky and think ourselves amazed. We might come a little closer to the sense of the word when we witness the power of bombing runs, or when we consider the shocking power of a nuclear explosion. Yet, even this doesn’t really fit the bill, for these things are in large extent detached from our own experience. The very fact that we are in a place to view the effects is evidence of our own security from those effects and therefore, while we are duly impressed, to claim we are amazed is an overstatement. Even as I recall ‘witnessing’ the downfall of the Twin Towers – which, to even call it witnessing is overstating the fact – the things I felt in seeing what was transpiring still did not touch on the amazement that these people felt, because again I knew myself to be far removed from events. I was not witnessing that destruction, I was merely viewing it.
The amazement these people experienced was more akin to those who found themselves in the vicinity of the towers as they burned. These were people who were nearly out of their minds, bordering on insanity because the events around them were so far beyond what experience could comprehend that the mind was shutting down to protect itself from overload. Sadly, it seems to take these great powers of destruction to generate anything close to that sensation in us. This is in part because it has become so unnatural for us to think of God as anything real and involved in our world. We have all fallen into the error of the deists to some degree, even the most fervent of us. We believe in God. We feel we must. Yet, deep down, we are no longer convinced that God takes action in this world He created. You know what? That’s exactly where Israel was with God. That’s exactly why the Son was rejected by His own when He came. They believed in God, they just didn’t believe, after so long a silence, that He still cared for His people. They preached the care, but they didn’t believe it. Were I to bring it forward, I might say that even in the most charismatic of churches, we are preaching His miraculous power, but we don’t really believe it.
Were He to come into our churches today and do as He did here, we would be in just as great a state of shock to have witnessed such things. We are, in fact, so saddened by the lack of such miracles in our ministries that we have lowered the bar on miracle to encompass whatever it is we do have. Do we no longer see people lifted up in instant recovery from their illnesses? Then, we will consider the normal course of physical healing a miracle. Are we no longer witness to the lame healed in an instant? Then we will declare every recovery from cold, hiccup, or even hay fever to be a miraculous event. I suppose that on some level, since all of these can still trace their source back to the God of all Providence, it is not wholly untrue, but it is a pretty cheap view of miracle we have settled for.
I’m tired of the process as miracle! I’m tired of a belief that settles for half measures. I know my God better than that, and I am hungry to be witness to the real manifestation of His presence. As nice as the tingly flesh stuff is, as good as it is to be filled with the joy that comes in worshiping Him, where is the amazement? Where is the awed reverence that His people have known in times past?
I must note that it is not the laughing comradeship with the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom. It is not being God’s best pal that He requires of us. No, it is the fear of the Lord that is at the foundation of wisdom (Ps 111:10). It is that we walk humbly with Him (Mic 6:8). How dare we to presume upon the good graces of God?
I have just been reading a novel about Robert the Bruce, written from the perspective of his page. However much this page was included in the friendship and camaraderie of his king, this one thing remained: he would not presume upon that friendship. He would not take liberty with that friendship. He was careful, however elevated, to accept the king’s friendship but to continue giving him the service, the circumspection and the honor that was his due. How can we, the servants of the Most High God, think it holy to do less? We love singing that new chorus out there, “I am a friend of God.” Yes, and that is true enough, but we must never lose sight that “He is the King of kings, the Lord of lords.” He is still the same pure God who cannot and will not abide the presence of sin. It is, perhaps, because He calls you friend that you have not yet been called home. For, were we to come home as we are at present, that friendship must surely come to an end. Even those of royal blood must obey the command of He who is King or suffer the just punishment of His Authority!
Let me turn now to Luke’s choice of terms. He says that they were seized with astonishment. Here we may finally have a phrase that hasn’t completely lost its power, although it is not altogether intact. Let me put it in stronger terms for us: They were violently seized by an ecstasy of rapture that was so strong as to leave them temporarily mindless – out of their minds with the power of their emotional response. This is how it seems the people of God always wind up reacting when He has drawn close. We can see it in those ecstasies of the prophets in the Old Testament. We can see it in the ecstatic utterances that became a characteristic of the early Church. Perhaps we can find some trace of it in the spirit-drunk antics of the present day, but there is this that is lost: “a state of blended fear and wonder.” We barely even remember how to wonder, let alone stand in fear of Somebody we cannot see. Lest we think that they were simply excitable, though, Luke adds the fact that they were “filled with fear.” The evidence, and what it implied, was assuredly a cause for ecstatic rejoicing. The reality that He was here, standing in their presence, was likewise a cause for fear. This was a people that still remembered that to see God was death. These were a people who understood the terror of Isaiah at finding himself in the Throne Room. This was a people that still knew why he cried out, “I am undone!” Indeed, that is exactly where they found themselves in this moment.
In moments like these, there is only one way to respond. It is the way that these people respond. They began to glorify the God who had done such an incredible thing in their presence. That glorifying of God went well beyond shouts of joy. Neither was it an incoherent cacophony. It was an expression of the realization that what had just been witnessed by them was certain evidence that God was real and really involved in this life. They had seen “remarkable things.” Seeing the Greek that got translated there, we might as well say they had experienced a paradox. They had been witness to something that began from utterly contradictory, apparently mutually exclusive facts and had arrived at a valid and acceptable conclusion. Yes, God alone was able to forgive sins. Yes, this man had said the sick man’s sins were forgiven. He had, in the thinking of many, declared Himself a blasphemer. Yet, here was the power of God displayed in unequivocal fashion. Though His words seemed to make Him an enemy of God, His actions clearly declared Him not just friend of God, but God live and in person.
What they had witnessed was such as would force them to rethink their beliefs. They could no longer give lip-service to a belief they didn’t really feel. I can imagine that somewhere in that crowd, people were thinking, if not shouting, “HE’s real!” This was, after all, an age that had grown up without the direct witness of such things, without the prophetic voice keeping God present and fresh in their thinking. It was a generation that had been taught, but did not know God for themselves. Now, they had been introduced, and all the training of earlier years informed them that the One they had just encountered was even more powerful than this display declared Him to be.
This was not a crowd reacting with excitement for some thrilling theatrical display. It was a people in fear for their safety because they realized in Whose presence they stood, and they realized, perhaps for the first time, that to be in the presence of Holiness was a dangerous thing for sinful flesh. Yet, it was not an abject fear. This was not the groveling, pleading fearfulness of a traitor brought before the king, even though there is more truth in that parallel than not. It was a reverent fear, something we find hard to even define because it has become such a lost attitude for us. It was an acknowledgement of the Power and Authority that was present before them, and mixed with it was the understanding, at some level, that the God who was with them was actually with them, for them. The very fact that they were still alive in His presence was a sign that He had not come for strict Justice.
They glorified God, Matthew writes, because He had given such authority as was His to men. How easy it is to misread that and to consider the Authority as given only to that one Man. Indeed, that would be more than enough reason to glorify God, that He would step down into this life and heal so much as a single soul! But, when we realize that He has done so much more, He has placed that same authority into the hands of His servants, not just the Suffering Servant, but every adopted child of God, wow! Who can help but shout of His glory! Who can help but be amazed, stunned, truly shocked and awed, by a God who would trust His children with His own power, His own reputation!
“We have seen remarkable things today.” Yes, a paralytic rising up and walking away was truly remarkable. In fact, it is so remarkable that the majority of the faithful today would consider it impossible, would be sure that any claim to such a healing was but a hoax. We don’t have room anymore for the remarkable, for the miraculous. Yet, this was the least remarkable thing. Far more remarkable was that this One who had claimed equality with God had not been smote with power from on high, but entrusted with power from on high! He had not been punished, He had been confirmed! What a God we serve, that He by whose hand we deserve every punishment and worse would instead come to us with healing and forgiveness! That He Who is eternal would willingly take upon Himself the frailty and uncertainty of the life He created in man is unthinkable, and yet here it is, undeniably presented before their eyes.
“We have seen remarkable things today.” When was the last time we found cause to day this? When will we stop settling for the mundane, powerless displays of a faithless faith, and call ourselves blessed by it? How long will we continue to be satisfied with teachers that teach unbelief, with prophets who have not vision, with healers that can only treat the symptoms? When will the Church rise up and insist on being the Church? Where are the people who believe that God is alive and imminent?
How long, Lord? How long must we wait, before we see Your power moving through a Church that knows Whom it serves? How long must we tolerate the imposters who have stood in the pulpit, declaring You a liar and themselves the experts? How long, Lord, have You been waiting for Your children to wake up and make Your glory manifest? God, I am so hungry to have legitimate cause in the witness of my own life to say, “I have seen remarkable things today.” The things You have done in me are indeed reason enough to shout of Your wonders! That I am even here, talking to You, acknowledging You as my God, my King, my Savior is a remarkable thing. And, while that is enough, God, to keep my faith strong, yet I would see Your power pour forth as it has in ages past. Yet, I would see Your Name made once for all glorious, would see You take up Your lace on earth, and come to that time when every knee shall finally bow to You.
