New Thoughts (5/27/06-5/31/06)
I want to take the simple step of considering this narrative in its own order of presentation before I pursue some specific points brought out by the text. Beginning at the beginning, it is noteworthy that this man who has been made well, made whole in body and sound in doctrine, is walking in obedience on the Sabbath. He has been commanded to take up his mat and walk, and so he does. Now, observe the reaction. The officialdom of the Church sees a man cured, restored to health, and they see that he is carrying something around town on the Sabbath. Which of these two facts lays hold of their attention? Clearly, the violation of their understanding of the Sabbath is of far greater import, to their way of thinking, than the miracle of healing.
This is, of course, a recurring theme in the Gospels. Over and over again, the Church is presented with the miraculous in a fashion that challenges the empty ritual conformity that religion has become. Here is the point of the whole matter set before you; God with us, making mankind healthy and whole once again, the True Shalom restoring things to their original intent, but our eyes our own our own sense of order.
This is not the occasion to allow pride to turn our attention on ‘those foolish Jews.’ Neither can we write this off as being the problem of the church down the street, those other benighted denominations. It is our problem. It is the universal problem of mankind that we cannot accept the absolutes of righteousness. We cannot accept our own total incapacity when it comes to holiness. We cannot stand the thought of being a failure, so we change the rules of the game. Unable to stand in the light of God’s judgment, we make our own judgments to ensure that we can measure up. It doesn’t take long before these achievable goals have so thoroughly supplanted the real measure that we find ourselves declaring good to be evil. Then and there we have arrived at the same point these folks found themselves at. We find ourselves facing the Judge and judging Him by our warped and twisted standards. We find ourselves standing with the pundits of our age and saying that God surely has a lot to answer for. “And in those days, each man did what was right in his own eyes” (Jdg 17:6, Jdg 21:25). There is the end result of religion divorced from doctrine. There is the end result of a church divorced from God.
So, the guardians of ritual look upon the miracle of God and accuse him as a lawbreaker. His response is as sorry as their accusation. “He made me do it!” It’s the cry of any child caught out by his parents. Quick! Shift the blame! It’s this woman You gave me. It’s these unmanageable people you left me in charge of. It’s anybody’s fault but mine. It’s God’s fault! Oh, my goodness! How can he even go there? Yet, we surely do the same in a pinch. It is, once again, a common enough reaction for fallen man.
Now, it is a sorry enough state of affairs when we begin to accuse the man of God rather than rebuke the lie of ritual. Here, though, is something even worse. This man, who had been touched by the very hand of God and made well, had not even been bothered to know his Healer! Here he had been lying for thirty eight years, waiting for somebody to help him to the pool on the merest chance that he might get there first and be healed. Comes this man Jesus, and He speaks but a word and that man is up off his mat, more sound than he ever was before he became an invalid; and this man who has waited so long can’t even be bothered to say, “Who are You?” He is so caught up in himself that it doesn’t even occur to him what has just happened. The whole significance of the event has completely bypassed him.
Do you know why? Because he was caught off guard. He was busy preparing his next excuse. He had been lying about here for thirty eight years thinking up excuses for why he was still lying about here. He had absolutely no expectation of ever reaching the pool, of ever attaining his dream of wholeness. It was, for him, just a comfortable place to lie about. Watching his response, I find it rather questionable whether he had any real desire to be healed. To be whole meant going off to work. What sort of work was going to be available to a man of his age with no experience at anything other than laying about making excuses? Recall Jesus’ question to this one, “Are you willing?” Are you really determined to be made whole? Are you really even interested? That man never answered, only made his next excuse, and prepared to have another at hand when the next question came up. He might well expect to be asked why he didn’t simply move his cot closer to the pool so that he would be ready for the next time. I’m sure he had an excuse ready.
When Jesus simply said, ‘get up. Get up now!’ He was utterly unprepared. In fact, he was so thoroughly unprepared that he got up. He forgot that he couldn’t do it! We might think that he was a charlatan, but I think John has sufficiently explained that he truly was incapacitated. He was not faking his injury, even though he was not doing much about it. He was simply hopeless and lazy in his unbelief. But, the Healer came, and He was not particularly concerned about belief. He commanded, and even this unbeliever answered with obedience.
Oh! But that is ever the way when God speaks. That is the way this man who is writing these words came to belief. God spoke, and there was no possibility of doing anything other than as He said. It was no harsh, dictatorial edict, but simply a point to be accepted and acted upon, in my case. Here, although it is the voice of command, it is no more the harsh and dictatorial edict than it was at my conversion. It is simply this: “This is what you’ve been waiting for. This is your time, your moment. Now, grab hold of it.” In theory, at least, that man could have refused. He could have continued to lie there making excuses. He could have looked at Jesus and pointed out the obvious: “I can’t.” Somehow, though, that thought never occurs to him. I would observe that the same theory that suggests this man could have refused the command would suggest that the soldiers who came to arrest Jesus in the garden could have chosen to stand their ground when He declared, “I AM He.” It’s theoretically possible, to be sure. It’s just that with God involved, the theoretically possible opposition to His will becomes operationally impossible for us.
Still, this man has not recognized the Power that commanded his healing, has not even shown an interest in Whose touch he has experienced. Or, has he? He did not seek to know Who had brought his healing, yet it seems he understood Who was behind it. Notice that he is found in the temple later, when Jesus seeks him out. He may not have understood much, but he understood that much. God had done something for him, and he felt obliged to do something for God, even if he had tried to place the blame on His servant.
There in the temple Jesus comes to him; seeks him out and delivers a message to him. “Forgiveness has come to you, so cease from your sins.” Well, now he’s just completely offended. Sins? How could a man lying incapacitated on a mat for thirty eight years do anything sinful? What mischief could he get into? Here, the man of excuses has felt the finger of blame being pointed at himself again, and he doesn’t like it one bit. How dare this Man say it was his fault? Again, the real message gets lost in the habit of the flesh. The real message is, “Your sins have been forgiven.” What the flesh heard, though, was, “These last thirty eight years were your own fault.” So, the pride of the flesh decides to strike back. Rather than act on the advice to sin no more, the flesh turns immediately to the sin of vengeance. I’ll show Him! I’ll let the authorities know that He was the one who told me to break the Sabbath.
This man has now had a second chance from the God of second chances. What he neglected in the shock of his healing, he is given another opportunity to do. He could have turned to thank his Healer. He could have bowed himself before his Savior. Instead, he turns on his heals to turn this One in to the ritualists whose unbelief he shared. Now, at least, he knows who healed him, although he clearly does not recognize that One’s office. What will he do with it? He will have his vengeance – “There’s the man, officer!”
Empty religion had not completely divested itself of Truth as yet, in this case. They were not wrong to insist that the Sabbath was holy and set apart. They were simply a little too literal in their interpretation of the Law as promulgated by God and His spokesmen. Indeed, there were prohibitions on carrying loads on the Sabbath, as I shall pursue later, God willing, but they missed the point in pursuing this detail. The point was that the Sabbath is a day to focus on God and on God’s work, not a day to cease utterly from anything and everything. Yes, there are prohibitions on bearing burdens on the Sabbath, but the point is that this day is not a day for buying and selling. This is not a day for typical industrious pursuits. It is a day for the pursuit of God. It is to this end that Jesus makes His point. “My Father has never stopped working. He always works the Sabbath, so I am doing likewise.” It’s not the fact of work that is at issue, it’s the nature and the purpose of the work. This is what the Pharisees missed. Once again, Jesus is doing no more than restoring the Law to its proper footing.
Well, they understood this much: Jesus was claiming kinship with God. He had the audacity to speak of God as His Father! No man in Israel would ever dare to make such a claim. Why, this was clearest blasphemy, declaring oneself worthy of God’s honor! The penalty for blasphemy was equally clear, and they began to consider how they might inflict the due penalty of the Law.
That’s one reading of events, at any rate. I would note one or two things in regard to their response, though. There was, first and foremost, a very sensible reason why no man in Israel would dare to call God his Father. The simple reason is that there was not a man in Israel who could claim sufficient resemblance to the character of God to make the claim anything but farcical. It was requiring enough credulity on the part of the nation to believe the claims of Abraham as father. Here, about the only resemblance lay in the cut flesh of circumcision. Where was even the least inkling of Abraham’s confident belief in God? I would also note, at this point, that if they truly held this claim Jesus made to be blasphemy, then surely they ought to have taken up the stones to purge His evil from their midst on the spot! They had the witnesses. They had the accusation. They had the Law. If they had a concern for righteousness, then surely, they should have acted with alacrity, not gone off to conspire how they might destroy the Man.
What this tells me is that somewhere down inside, they knew better. In spite of their complete unwillingness to respond to that knowledge, they knew. Again, I must say that faced with such thoughts, we cannot keep pointing at them. We need to look at ourselves. How often are we faced with the fact that we have been utterly and horribly wrong about the things we believe, and yet we have refused to change? How often have we looked upon a habit of ours that we know is destroying us and yet refused to cease from doing as we have always done? It’s hard enough on such personal matters as others never need know that we face. Here, though, is the added issue of pride. Here, there is the issue of being the authority on the very matter about which we have been so wrong. To admit it, in this case, could easily shatter the trust and respect that people have had for us. At least, that is the way we tend to see it.
This, then, is a warning for the teacher and the pastor. It is a danger we must recognize as being our own danger, that we will become so concerned for our reputation as an authority that we can no longer admit to being wrong about anything. When our reputation is of greater concern to us than God’s we are in danger. We have slipped from the path of righteousness and fallen into pursuing pride. Oh! The weakness of this flesh, that we so easily slip into exactly the things we are warned of! How quickly we turn aside the warning as being for somebody else. How slow we are to deal with ourselves when these things arise for our attention.
Yes, Lord, and I must surely acknowledge this in myself. You bring to mind those times in recent days when I have been noticing this very thing, a growing intolerance of any teaching that doesn’t correlate exactly with my own understanding. This is not the perspective of a teachable spirit, but of a pride-bound mule. Father, I am well aware that there are truths, particularly in Your revealed knowledge, that are worth standing up for, that require an absolute rejection of every contrary belief. But, Lord, give me the wisdom and the grace to recognize that truth from what is only pride in my own position. I thank You, Lord, for giving me this hunger for study, and I pray that You never allow it to grow weak in me. But, Lord, don’t let it become a tool of pride, a hammer for beating down every least disagreement. Let it not be found that I have opted to label others as less informed, and thereby rejected Your words from their lips. God, keep these ears open to what Your Spirit is saying, whatever source He may speak through.
It struck me as curious that three different words appear in this passage when describing what happened to the man who walked. When speaking directly of the deed, we read that the man became well, or was made well (for it was Jesus who made him well). Here, we have the same word that Jesus used in addressing the man’s need. Indeed, the whole phrase reflects the question originally put to the man: are you determined to be made well? Are you determined to be created as a whole man, well in body and true in doctrine? It is this word John uses in describing the immediate response of that man. He became well. Shalom – all restored to its proper condition. This is also how that man describes what transpired, when the authorities began to harass him. It accentuates the miracle. He was made well – that wholeness created from nothing, coming out of nowhere. When that man returned to tell the authorities that Jesus was One who did this thing, he again uses this phrase. It was He who made me whole in body and true in doctrine.
When John turns to those authorities and their response to the event, though, the word changes. No longer is it ‘made well,’ but it becomes ‘him who was cured.’ The change in phrase is indicative of their perspective on the matter. They saw nothing miraculous. They saw one who had been ‘restored to health.’ Nothing exciting about that; the sense of the miraculous is gone. It is as if one who suffered a cold had gotten over it. That is all. What is this minor matter in the face of the Sabbath? This word ‘cured’ is the weakest of the three that are used in the passage.
We encountered it before when Jesus was first entering ministry. There, it spoke of how he cured all who came. It was, as we saw then, a matter of serving, attending to the need. It was not the same as what transpired on this occasion. Yes, in both cases the physical symptoms were addressed. Yes, the physical outcomes resemble each other so closely as to be indistinguishable. However, that is where the cure leaves off. The spirit and the soul are untouched. The man is no more whole than he was before, he is only more sound physically. This, too, is a part of the reason we find this word in the perspective of the authorities. This, too, factored into their assessment of the situation. Fine. Perhaps there had been some sort of miracle in this man’s case. Even so, it was a curing, a purely physical issue. Again, what was that in the face of the Sabbath and its great spiritual significance to the well being of the nation?
By way of contrast, when John considers this man, it is as one who was ‘healed.’ It’s funny in a way that Zhodiates, in his dictionary, goes to great lengths to point out that ‘cured’ and ‘healed’ are not the same thing, but then neglects to get to the distinction. What I find from Thayer’s Lexicon is that the former word is, as I have said, a restoring to health, a matter of therapeutic ministrations (indeed, the Greek is the word from which we get our ‘therapy’), whereas the latter word returns us to the concept of making whole. As well as addressing the physical aspects of healing, it brings in the benefit of being made free from sin.
Wholeness is so far beyond a mere cure! Any decent doctor can cure. Indeed, the body is quite capable of many cures without the intervention of any doctor or nurse. But, neither the body nor the doctor can make whole. Neither body nor doctor can free one from sin. That requires the intervention of the Healer – He Who alone can forgive sins, Who alone can create in us a righteousness of which no prior trace can be found.
As I have been considering these three words, it has been brought to my attention that in many ways, my own perspective on healing ministries is not far removed from that of the authorities we find in this passage. I, too, tend to see nothing more than the physical aspect, and this leads me to question the value of such ministries. The question that must be asked, in light of this, is whether that physical aspect is truly all that has transpired. If so, then indeed that has been no ministry, but only therapy. If healing has been – particularly on the part of its recipient – nothing but an addressing of the physical need of the moment, then let the whole business be done outside of any claims to some Christian basis, some miraculous basis. It is therapy and nothing more. It is no more exciting than what any other physical therapist does every day. The only distinction is in the particular methods applied.
Oh, but if that one who was cured was, at the same time, healed; well, now we are talking something entirely different! If the physical manifestation of healing has been but an accompaniment to the real, inward work of redemption, then I need to get excited. I dare not write off every manifestation of healing as merely physical. That is the same error these authorities fell into. They failed to see the miraculous because of the mundane nature of the wrapper it came in.
Hear this, as well: This is a part of the reason we do not see the miraculous happening in the house of God as we ought to. It is because our expectations have been reduced to that of a Pharisee. What we seek in the miracle of healing is more often a cure than a healing. When I pray for my brother’s foot to be restored, is there any thought at all for a spiritual implication in that? Not really. After all, he’s already a brother in Christ, already redeemed and made righteous by my Lord and Savior, so what need have I to pray for that? Oh, but I am reminded of John’s prayer for Gaius: “I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers” (3Jn 2). There is the prayer of healing for the believer. If that one’s soul is in good health, then may his body reflect it. If not, may the soul be healed that the body may follow after.
The body can not be healed until the soul is healed. Until one is made free from sin, how can one be free of sin’s effects? If, then, we are going to pray for healing (and surely, we ought to), we need to pray for this manner of healing – healing in which the physical is but a reflection of what has transpired in the spirit.
Is every physical ailment, then, a reflection of some spiritual issue? Not at all. Jesus addressed that plainly enough with His disciples. Even so, many today would try to insist that He was wrong in that. No, they won’t say that outright, but they have slipped into what might be considered the exact opposite error to that of the Pharisees. Where the Pharisees could see no spiritual aspect to physical healing, these cannot see anything but a spiritual aspect to every physical malady.
This, though we tend not to recognize it, is a sign of the world’s no fault mentality creeping into the Church. It sounds wonderfully spiritual to be pointing out demons at work in this one’s sickness and that one’s injuries. The reality, though, is that we have merely found a way of not addressing our own sinful and fallen condition. It’s not our fault. It’s those demons that plague us. Now, there are absolutely cases where this is a true assessment of the situation, although I would question whether that can be the case in one who can honestly lay claim to salvation. If we can lay claim to being indwelt by the Holy Spirit, how can we simultaneously claim to be possessed of some demon or other? What can Light have to do with darkness?
At the same time, we dare not lose sight of the fact that even Paul was buffeted by demons – from the outside. He had his thorn in the flesh, whatever we may theorize that thorn was, and he acknowledged it as something sent by the hand of the adversary (2Co 12:7), nut unlike the fiery darts against which he tells us to take up the shield of faith (Eph 6:16). What he did not do, though, was to lay the blame for his sins on the devil. He accepted the blame for his own failures even as he accepted the forgiveness Jesus held out to him. How can we accept forgiveness for something we don’t believe was our doing? It’s nonsense! Who really thinks that way?
Well, then, let us understand that in the same way that not every illness is the work of some demon, neither is our every sin. We must acknowledge our own sins as being our own before we can claim to have repented of them. We must acknowledge our own fault in the matter before we can receive the forgiveness of Jesus. Until we stop looking at all of our own problems as being the fault of some other being, we will continue to see demons behind every least annoyance. It is time that fallen man remember that he is fallen, and that he cannot pick himself up. There is One standing by Whose greatest desire is to restore a man to his feet, but he cannot do so until the man realizes he fell down.
One thing which seems undeniable as one reads the record of the Gospels is that healing happens. Where Jesus is, healing happens. It does not necessarily happen to everybody and everybody with a need, but it happens. Those who accept this truth tend to get caught up in questions regarding what causes or prevents that healing. As often or not, the reasoning leads to ideas that our personal belief or unbelief is the controlling factor. Indeed, we can even draw upon Scripture to support this idea, for Matthew writes that Jesus did not heal in His hometown because of their unbelief (Mt 13:58). At the same time, though, I have to note the man who cried out, “I believe! Help my unbelief” (Mk 9:24). His unbelief did not prevent Jesus from healing his son. I must suggest that, given the overall testimony of Scripture, unbelief has never even once prevented God from doing what He will. Notice the comment from the author of Hebrews. Talking about the reason for the forty years spent wandering in the desert, he reaches this simple conclusion, “We see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief” (Heb 3:19). God’s will was hardly prevented from unfolding by their unbelief. His purposes were not frustrated in any fashion whatsoever by the sinful willfulness of man. Neither can it be said that unbelief prevented Jesus from healing in Nazareth. The more accurate assessment would be that unbelief prevented Nazareth from entering in. Jesus willed not to heal in that instance, because to heal on that occasion healing would have been counter to the purpose of the kingdom. It would have done nothing for the spiritual wellbeing of those witnessing the event, and would not further the agenda of the King.
Here, however, it would seem the situation was not far different. The man who was healed does not give any evidence of belief. Unlike so many other occasions that we read of in the Gospels, there is no great avowal of faith in God prior to his being healed. There are only excuses as to why, in this place of God’s visitation, he had never entered in – excuses for unbelief! Yet, healing happened. Healing happened not because of the man’s belief, but in spite of his unbelief. Healing happened not because he had somehow made a way for it to happen, but simply because his healing served the purpose of the kingdom.
Even that serving of kingdom purpose can be lost to us, because all we see is Jesus persecuted for doing the right thing. This, in our estimation, can hardly be the kingdom purpose. Where’s the blessing? Where’s the prosperity? But such questions don’t reflect kingdom purpose, only the foolishness of the flesh. “In this world, you will have persecutions” (Mk 10:30). This is the present inheritance of the kingdom minded. It comes hand in hand with the family, the house and the farm that are part of the promise. You will have persecutions. That is part of the purpose of the kingdom, however incomprehensible it may seem to us. That Jesus should be persecuted for this healing was likewise a part of the purpose of the kingdom. God would not, in His justice, bring punishment upon the arbiters of religion until they had been brought face to face with their sins. Even here, in the events we witness in this passage, God is holding out the opportunity to repent. “Can you not see how far off base you have become with your religiosity? Can you not see that your conceptions of holiness have made you utterly unmerciful and therefore utterly unholy? Will you not turn from your wicked ways and return to the pure religion?”
This man was healed in the midst of his unbelief. That act was a living parable played out before the Pharisees, the priests and the scribes. For their belief had become unbelief in practice. Even so, the Healer was present with an offer of healing. But they were not willing and more importantly, neither was He. Healing happens. Even in the face of unbelief healing happens. We may never understand why in one instance God chooses to heal the most ungrateful of men, and in another He chooses to leave the most devoted servant of Christ to suffer his wounds, yet it is clear that both things happen. If we are to accept God as He claims to be, we must likewise accept that in both cases, it is God’s choosing that has been made manifest, and His purpose that has been served. That said, we really have no reasonable choice but to praise God, of Whom we rightly say He works all things for the good of His chosen, to Whom we attribute every good and perfect gift. We must acknowledge that, whatever our own sense of events, these truly are good and perfect gifts. We must accept that the God of Justice is just in what He has determined to do.
I must say that there is an awful lot to be shocked by in this account; an awful lot that makes me shake my head at the sorry state of those involved. It is hard to know what to find most reprehensible in this scene, but way up on the list has to be the utter ingratitude of this one who was healed. This is a motif that is played out over and over again in the course of the Gospels. Healing comes and those who are healed, rather than turn and worship the Healer, simply run off in the forgetfulness of receiving. The whole impact of their encounter with God has been a mild shopper’s high. They have got what they want, and they’re off to enjoy it with no further ado, not even so much as a thank You.
This is so clearly displayed in this case. The man responds, having no real choice but to respond to the command of God, and gets up. Thirty eight years he has been incapable of such an act and here, in a moment, the capacity to not just stand on shaky legs, but to bend down, take up his mat, and walk off. Yet, he cannot spare a moment’s thought for thanks. He’s just gone. John is rather polite in this case, and says that Jesus had slipped away, but it strikes me that He would not have slipped away if that one had been looking for Him. This is, after all, the Jesus who says, “seek and you shall find.”
So, here is this man who cannot be bothered to say one word to his Healer. But, here is the truly amazing thing. In spite of it all, his Healer is bothered to seek him out! Had we been treated so shabbily, we’d be out the door never to return. People have abandoned the Church for far less cause than this. One week without a proper greeting and it’s, “I’m outta here!” Well, here is the very Son of God, having given an unimaginable gift to this most undeserving man. He receives not so much as a word of thanks before that man runs off, and yet, He comes to seek that man out. He doesn’t come to accuse him. He doesn’t come with the parent’s reprimand of, ‘what do you say?’ He comes with a simple word of warning. “You have been made whole.” And, let us recall that the wholeness he has received is more than physical, but includes a cleansing from sin. So, he hears the words said to so many, “Go, therefore, and sin no more.” In his case, it comes with an added bit of warning. Failure to change may lead to worse things than being confined to a mat.
There are eternal consequences at play, here. The point of healing is not your physical well-being. I know I have said this often enough, but it still bears repeating. The point is not your body, it’s your spirit. The body will still pass on and decompose however miraculous the healing. It’s the spirit, the soul, that continues, and it is the condition of spirit and soul that God is concerned with, that we ought to be concerned with.
It must be recognized that what is said to this man is something that needs to be heard by every believer. You have been made well. You have been recreated as a whole being, freed from the damage of sin, freed to live as God intended. Don’t turn back to your sins. Don’t pick them up again. You have died to those things, Paul says. How shall a dead man respond? Sin has no enticement in the grave. Jesus warns us that for those who return, worse things may befall. It was as likely as not a physical matter that caused us to turn from our sins in the first place. It is when the temporal anguish of the consequences become unbearable that we finally turn from our filthy habits and seek a way out. It is physical desperation more than any sense of spiritual anguish that leads us to seek out the One who can help. This is part of the reason we find that common reaction of those who receive just running off with no further thought. It is because there was no real thought behind coming to Him in the first place, other than to have some therapy, some relief from the pain.
There is a warning, then, to the forgiven: Understand what has happened. You have not just received therapy, you have been recreated – made whole. In light of that, don’t turn back to your sins, for if you do, there are worse things to come. You came to Him because of the fleeting pains of this life, and in spite of your motivation, He responded. In spite of the limited nature of your request, He answered without limits. That said, to return to the cause of your pains, to spurn the unlimited gift of His response is to once again crucify the Son of God, to trample His sacrifice underfoot (Heb 10:26-30). If you found the effects of sin unbearable in this life, what will you do with an eternity of consequence? That is the issue put before the man as he stood in the temple. That is, in reality, the question put before the leaders in the temple. Most assuredly, it is also the question put before each and every claimant to faith in this present age.
Now, allow me to turn my eyes on those temple leaders for just a moment. It is clear enough that their understanding of the Sabbath was rather stunted, yet their concern for the Sabbath was commendable in its way. The response we ought have to this lesson is not that we can set aside the Law, even the Sabbath Law. The Church has been through periods of teaching that the Sabbath was part of the ceremonial aspect of the Law and therefore no longer applicable. Then, there have been periods when the teaching was that we must observe the Sabbath as strictly as ever the Pharisees did. In both of these cases, we have been taught incorrectly.
The reality is that the Sabbath is a portion of the most undeniably and universally applicable section of that Law, the portion that came down written by the very finger of God. It is right there alongside the laws against idolatry, against worshiping anything other than God. It is right there alongside the laws condemning murder and false witness. The Sabbath is not some law buried deep within Moses’ exposition of case law. It is right there on the front page. Keep the Sabbath holy. Look at the original commandment: Remember the Sabbath. Keep it holy. You have six days to do your work, but the seventh is a rest of the Lord. You will not work, nor shall your children or your laborers or your guests or even your animals (Ex 20:8-10). The key to the Sabbath lies in the initial command: Keep it holy. Keep it set apart for the Lord’s use – exclusively for the Lord’s use.
Where things had gone wrong was that the focus was off that main point and onto the explanation. Rather than keep it set apart for the Lord, they had transformed it to do no work. Even God was not allowed to work, so far as these guardians of His name were concerned. This is exactly what is playing out as the Church encounters the work of God. Rather than recognizing that God has always worked the Sabbath, they are utterly offended by this display of rash disregard for propriety. Rather than rejoice that the God of Life is bestowing life in such a magnificent display, they seek to rebuke their Creator for having the audacity to do anything on this day. The Sabbath was never intended to be part of the ceremonial Law, the law governing the rites of the Church, but that is exactly what they had made of it. It had become nothing more than ceremonial.
That they should have turned their attention so greatly onto the aspect of work, onto how much and what sorts of work violates the Sabbath, can hardly be thought shocking. Consider once again what the commandment had said. “You shall not work, nor shall you allow anybody or anything the least bit under your control to do so.” Were that not enough, there were the words of the prophets to bolster the point. Jeremiah, for one, warned the nation to keep the Sabbath holy. “Don’t even carry a load from your house on that day. Don’t do any work” (Jer 17:21-22)! You know, there is at least the grain of a healthy fear of the Lord in those who take that to heart. There was a healthy fear of the Lord at the base of the scribal efforts to understand just exactly what, if anything, was allowed by this Law. If they erred, they would err on the side of caution, lest by their negligence they fail of His command and be found teaching others to do likewise. Would that we still had such fear of His holiness!
It is certainly quite easy to look at what God says even in just these two places, and grasp the concept that He doesn’t want us working on His day. But, as Jesus seeks to remind His servants on this occasion (for the priests and Levites were certainly His servants whether they acknowledged it or not), the point was not the work itself but the reason for the work. The point was not so much to provide us with a day to laze about doing nothing. The point was to keep the day holy – to keep it set aside for His use. Well, then, if it is set aside for His use, then surely when He puts us to work on His business we ought to get busy!
If I have set the day aside for His use then He must be allowed to use my part in that day as much as He is allowed to use the day itself. This is the corollary of the wording of that Law, if you will. If me, my family, my animals and my guests are to observe a day of being set aside for God’s use alone, then I must allow that He may use me, my family, my animals or my guests – all of the above, if He so chooses – to accomplish what He purposes to accomplish. After all, all of those included by that command are either His family or His guests, and as such He has the right of disposal over them. When I have guests in my house I do not relinquish command of the house to them. I may (and should) authorize my guests to make themselves at home so long as they remain under my roof, but if there should be conflict between their sense of being at home and the rules of my household, they must either accede to my rules or cease to be my guests.
So it is with us. We are all guests in the house of God until and unless He chooses to adopt us as family. Either way, we remain under His command. In particular, we who call ourselves His, who acknowledge Him as our Father, must understand that not only are we called to set the day aside as holy and set apart for His purposes alone, but we are called to be just as holy and set apart ourselves! Having been joined to Him in betrothal, we have already entered into the eternal Sabbath that He enjoys. Having been joined to Him in betrothal, we are already committed to be set apart to Him alone. We are already in a place where we ought to be prepared for instant obedience. Where He says to go we go. What He says to do we do. When He tells us to stop and be silent we do not take so much as one more step, do not utter so much as a ‘Yes, Lord.’ We simply stop and be silent.
I’m back at Caleb again, at that different spirit, the spirit of the angel. We can never respond to Him as we ought until we attend to Him as we should. I mentioned earlier that the priests and the Levites (and the scribes and the Pharisees) were very much His servants although they would not acknowledge it. What is a priest, after all, if not a servant in the house of God? What is the purpose of a Levite if not to minister to Him, to serve? The same can be said of every claimant to the name of Christian today. For that matter, it can be said of every non-claimant. The servant, particularly the bond-servant, the slave, does not cease to be a servant and a slave simply because he denies the fact. Slaves were forever running away from their masters if opportunity arose and the master was displeasing. That did not make those slaves freemen. To be a freeman required the authorization of the master. God has not relinquished His right over anybody. He is still Lord of all.
The good and faithful servant, who is not looking for opportunities to shirk his duties, or to run off, has his eyes ever and always on the master. He has made a study of the master’s ways so that he may better anticipate the need. He is, as Caleb was, as the angels are, poised, prepared and attentive; ready to embark on the least command of the One he serves. He is prepared to be instant.
This is the call upon us, particularly in this hour of our visitation. We are called to be prepared – in season and out, in church and at work – to answer to the Lord’s command. We can never be instant in serving Him if we are unprepared to hear Him, or if we are unequipped to act.
We call Him Father, even as Jesus called Him Father. There is a distinction, of course. Jesus could call Him Father in such fashion as the authorities understood here: He was indeed laying claim to equality with God. No, not laying claim, for there was no need for Him to claim it. It was already His. Let us say, then, that He was proclaiming what was already true and established fact. He is One with the Father. When we call God our Father we cannot make so strong a statement of it. What we ought to be able to claim, though, is that we resemble Him. Our character is fashioned in accord with His example, our actions are those He would take in the same situation. My Father has been working until now, and I am likewise working. This was something Jesus could say of Himself. Implicit in that is that the sorts of work He did were the sorts of work Father God is doing constantly. Our Father, the Upholder of all life, works until now that we may live, and the Son is seen upholding life. We, too, should be seen upholding life, not just with empty words and angry protests, but by every act. Then, we can say we resemble Him and be believed.
In the same degree that our claim of God as Father lays a certain obligation or responsibility on us to live like a son of the Father, it also brings to us an incredible assurance. For, if one’s father is that one whom he resembles in character and deed, then one’s father is also he who is most closely united to himself. I love this definition from Thayer’s: The father is united to his children ‘in the closest bond of love and intimacy.’ Let me rephrase that ever so slightly. The Father is united to His children in intimacy and deep, abiding love. Then, comes this wonderful point. The Father makes His children aware of His purposes! He shares with His children that they might share in His purposes. It is a thing most worthwhile to bear in our mind that God has no real need of our services. There is nothing in all His great plan of redemption that really requires our effort. He is, after all, omnipotent. He could have accomplished the redemption of creation as easily, if not more easily, without us. The fact is, however, that He chose to include us in His planning. He gives us the opportunity, the gracious blessing, of participation in what He is doing. This is evidence that He truly is our Father. As our Father, He not only informs us of His plans, but goes out of His way to include us in those plans, to involve us intimately in His own life. That is our assurance. He has in mind to keep us intimately close to Himself, intimately involved with Himself. For this is our training and our discipline. How shall we better approach a life that reflects Him than by joining together with Him as He works?
Father, thank You. Thank You for finding such great desire for us in. Thank You for calling us into such intimate relationship, for blessing us with sonship and with news of Your plans. Thank You for entrusting to me this small piece of Your plan and purpose. Thank You, too, for that word from Pastor Sanford this morning about the meaning of tarrying. Oh! How You move to keep this message fresh in my mind! How You are calling me, calling us all, to not just wait, but wait in a state of preparedness, of preparation. It’s as though You are saying, ‘Get ready! Get ready!’ Funny how I hear You saying that with my own pastor’s accent. Yes, but Your ‘Get ready!’ is not just for an exciting moment, but for a kairos moment, a moment of great purpose – Your purpose. You are calling us in so very many ways to be about preparing ourselves for the moment of Your call. Is it, as so many think, Father, Your call for us to come home, or is it Your call to action? I rather suspect the latter, for the fields remain ripe for the harvest. Yet, the darkness gathers on this land and I know You cannot, rather will not, be patient forever. Whichever, then, is the call that is coming, Lord, even so, let it come swiftly! Yes, Lord, and let us be found ready, prepared to act in the very moment that Your command comes.
I want to include a couple of side points here, thoughts that have been occurring over the last couple of days. The first of these concerns Caleb once again. As I was studying that man, I noted how he had taken hold of God’s promise to bring Hebron to Israel, yet had not found the promise a thing to cling to. He had not raised a ruckus when Hebron was given to the priests. As I was talking to my brother about this, something occurred to me. There was good reason for Caleb not to be upset. Neither can we bring accusation against God for failing to uphold His promise to Caleb. The promise was that wherever Caleb set his feet would be his inheritance, and I must maintain that God upheld that promise fully, even when Hebron went to Aaron’s descendants. See, the thing I missed was that Caleb didn’t even have to set foot in Hebron to bring its fall! Here, God’s word was again upheld. Caleb didn’t take the city, God gave it to him. All it took was for him to move in God’s promise for God’s purpose. The key is that his eyes were on both the promise and the purpose. He wasn’t interested in his own wealth, but in God’s command. I don’t believe we find it written that Caleb went into Hebron, only that he went up. Giants will fall!
The second thought occurred to me last night as I was watching a Phil Keaggy concert. He was singing that incredible song, ‘The Maker of the Universe,’ where he points out how God had made each and every portion of that which was used for His crucifixion; the tree from which His cross was fashioned, the iron for the nails, the thorns of His crown, the hill upon which He died. All of these were the work of His own hands. Indeed, we must include the soldiers who mocked, the priests who stirred up the mobs and the mobs who were stirred. But, my focus, like that of the song, is on the non-human part of the picture. It occurred to me that in some way this expresses the justice of all creation groaning under the same burden of sin that has afflicted mankind. For, it was not only mankind and his rebellion that was evident in His death, but the rebellion of all creation. The disease of sin has effected not only man, but all of nature. Nature was subjected to futility against its will (Ro 8:20). Now, the text as we have it says it was subjected because of Him who subjected it, but may I suggest that it was subjected by us to whom dominion had been given?
There in the Garden, Adam was given dominion over every aspect of creation on this earth, over every animal and every plant. His fall, then, was the fall not only of his own kind, but of everything over which he ruled. Nature itself fell with Adam, and nature itself joined in the rebellion that brought about the death of our Lord and Christ. This was, once again, evidence of the justice of including nature in the punishment of sin. It is also evidence of the righteousness of including nature in the redemption that is ours! Is it any wonder that Paul writes of all creation groaning and suffering, waiting for us to be manifest as the adopted sons of God? Our redemption is nature’s redemption! When we are restored, its own restoration is arrived.
Oh, blessed be the Lord my God! We are already adopted. We are already His children by His own proclamation. Oh, that we would be manifest, though! Oh! That we would in every moment reflect His own nature in ours. Manifest: clearly visible and plain to see – undeniably clothed in His righteousness and proud of it. Yet, proud not of our having arrived, for we have not. Our pride and our joy shall be only that He is present and moving to save His kingdom. Rejoice, for that kingdom is at hand. Let His children be made manifest! Amen and amen!
