You Were There (2/20/06-2/21/06)
I wonder, in reading this, how different the response of the crowds was from what one might see at many Charismatic events today. Was there that same near-idolizing of the event? It is noteworthy that Luke says they came both to hear and be healed. Yet, had they come to truly hear, or merely to be entertained? This is the constant disease of the human condition. I can easily imagine that in the crowds around Jesus were those who were excited by the display of power more than by what that display signified. I can easily imagine that there were those who were trying to figure out how He had done this thing, whether the leper was in His pay, what the trick was.
But, there were those, as well, who really had come to hear Him. They were the few, but they were there to understand what the long expected One had to say. These must surely have been working out how the healing of the leper fit with the Sermon on the Mount. They had been sitting under His teaching for some time now, had heard Him express how far love was supposed to extend. Look, then, at what the Teacher had done just now! He had touched the untouchable! So great was His love for others, so little His concern for His own safety, that He had willingly touched this man whose leprosy was so clearly evident. By Luke’s account, we might expect that every visible patch of skin on this man was flaking away from his body. He was a horrifying thing to see. Law required him to make his presence loudly known lest any man touch him by accident, but the Teacher had touched him not by accident, but with purpose and a will!
Well, there was a lesson for us! There is loving your neighbor displayed in unmistakable terms. And, wonder of wonders, it was not the leprosy that was contagious, but the righteousness of this Jesus! What was it John would say later? “The darkness cannot apprehend the Light.” Seeing this must surely have sealed that belief for him.
However the crowd may have reacted, though, I find it necessary to understand the reaction of the leper. He came to Jesus with a degree of belief that is almost shocking, if we can accept his words as being in earnest. “If You desire to do so, You can make me clean.” The way Jesus reacts to him might lead us to believe that those words were indeed his earnest assessment of Jesus, and not mere flattery of the latest faith healer on the scene. But, if his belief in Jesus was so solid, how then was his obedience so nonexistent?
Truth be told, I could ask the same of myself, I suppose. So, it becomes the more incumbent upon me to understand not only the leper, but the Healer, as I see them here outside the walls of Capernaum. First, the leper. If ever there was a life fit to make a man despair, it was the life of a leper. So fearsome was the disease he bore that law required him to loudly announce his presence lest any man should accidentally come in contact with him. How can I really understand what he suffered? How can I begin to feel what it’s like to be deprived of all human contact, all fellowship? The nearest thing I can think of to this situation in our present world would be AIDS. This, too, is so feared that people will no longer touch, lest they become infected. Now, we don’t require AIDS victims to shout out warning as they go through society, yet we are still inclined, if we are aware of their condition, to cut them off from society, to quarantine.
As if the disease itself were not sufficient anguish! The very term leprosy suggests the physical torture of this disease. All of one’s skin flaking off, forever having the raw skin beneath exposed. I think of that term ‘death by a thousand cuts,’ and I wonder how far this existence is from that sensation. Now, on top of the physical torment of this disease and on top of the imposed societal isolation that could not be avoided with such obvious symptoms, there is added the declaration of Mosaic Law. Even God will not accept you in this condition. Whoa! Can I even imagine this?
Perhaps there is one way in which I might begin to do so. If I were to imagine myself entering heaven in my present, still sinful condition I might be able to understand what it was like. My sin would clearly mark me out in that world of purity and righteousness. The Lord of that land, He Who is too righteous to so much as look upon sin, would of necessity isolate me from His demesnes, lest my presence defile them. There would not be one single being in all of heaven who would willingly associate with such as I, particularly when that association might so pollute them that they could no longer survive the presence of God either. Were this my lot, surely I would be a man without hope, without chance of consolation.
This is how the leper was made to feel in Israel. This is beyond the anguish of the leper’s lot in the Middle Ages. There, they still new the isolation from society, but at least the hand of God was still held out to them, thanks be to Christ our Lord. Because of this touch, outside the city gates, the Church would begin to understand that even something as clearly marked out by Mosaic Law as unclean could be declared clean by the Lord of heaven, and not only declared clean, but made so.
So, this man who has been stripped of every hope comes to Jesus. It is possible, to be sure, that one in such desperate straits might pursue any stray faith healer on the off chance they could actually be shown to do something real. But, I sincerely doubt that one who had done this often would come with the evidence of belief that this man showed. There is no questioning in his approach to Jesus, there is only a statement of his own certainty. “If you will it, You can do it.” He didn’t nee to be convinced of the power or the right of Jesus to cleanse him. His only question was whether the Man would be willing, would desire to see an end to his suffering. What lessons! What a reminder to us not to allow belief to slide over into presumption, but I must save this for later.
At present, let me turn to Jesus and His response to this man. Oh, how well He gives us to understand that He responds best to the faith that knows Him to be a Man of His Word, and here is just such faith. “You can.” And, how I need to learn to view my Jesus in that Light. He is the I AM. He is also the I CAN. Jesus, seeing the plight of this man and his earnest declaration, responds immediately. His heart cannot help but be touched by the visible manifestation of the unclean upon this creature who should bear the image of God. He, Who would soon enough know isolation beyond all that this man could yet imagine as He suffered separation from an eternal fellowship with the Father, must be broken to recognize the isolation this man was suffering. Oh! How immediately our Christ is willing to destroy the works of evil in us! How hard, though, for us to accept this simple fact. “I AM willing.” Notice that Jesus does not bother to confirm the ability in words. There is no need. Now, wonder of wonders, He touches the untouchable! What a thrill this must have produced in this one who had for years been shouting warning lest any touch him by accident. How long since that flaking flesh had known the touch of another? I can imagine the rush of pleasure that must have sent up his spine, and I can imagine that the shake induced by that rush caused the flakes to fall from him in a shower, leaving him truly clean, free of the itching effects of disease for the first time in how long?
Then there is this jarring followup from Jesus. It is a stiff, almost angrily delivered command. It is unmistakably a command, carrying every bit of authority as His teaching had evidenced. He is telling this man how to go about the need to give testimony that must have been building up in this man even as Jesus spoke to him. Of course he wanted to shout, to rejoice, to enter into a veritable flurry of contact with his fellow man. Of course, this one who had been required to shout ‘unclean’ as he went through his days wanted now to shout, ‘Clean!’ Who would not react in this way? But, Jesus says, ‘No. That is not the way to testify.’ Instead, He sends the man on a specific mission of specific purpose. He sends him to see the priests, to do what that Law required which had required him to declare his uncleanness. His obedience, then, would be the testimony of his cleansing.
Wow! I need to repeat that, because this is so very key to understanding what happens here. His obedience would be the testimony, the evidence of his cleansing. The healing itself testifies nothing! The healing is nice, the restoration to fellowship with his neighbors is nice, but it signifies nothing if obedience does not accompany it. Here is the answer to all those who seem addicted to healing services and deliverance ministries, yet never seem to latch on to the fact of deliverance. The deliverance is not the evidence of the work. It may very well be a fleeting and temporary matter if obedience to the Deliverer is not its companion work.
Can I really lay hold of this right here and right now? This man came with faith in the ability of Jesus to make him clean. The priests, we might note, were never declared to have that power. They could declare the matter, but they couldn’t make it so. They could discern clean from unclean, but they could not make the unclean clean. This was reserved for One higher than they, and it was this One and for this reason that a command was given to the leper. The people, after all, would see what they needed to see clearly enough by the simple fact that his skin no longer suffered from all that flaking. They needed no further words from him to know what had transpired in his life. The priests, however, needed to see the work of the greater One. And the Healer needed to see if the healing would be more than skin deep.
That’s our problem. We get caught up in the flesh effect and neglect the spirit. We get so excited over the remission and removal of symptoms that we miss the message. “If you love Me, you will do as I command.” Here, it gets translated as, “If you are truly cleansed, show it by obedience to My Law.”
But instead the man shoots off in his excitement, and turns to every face he sees, telling them about the wonderful clearness of his skin. Now, the record declares that he did this in direct violation to the stern and clear command of Jesus: “Watch yourself! Tell nobody of this.” But, his crime in this newly cleansed state is worse, I suspect. Nowhere do I read that he ever went to the priest. Nowhere do I read that he made any offering. Nowhere do I read that he woke up to what he was doing and amended his ways. His flesh was clean to the eye, and any priest in the land would gladly have declared him ritually clean, but he frankly didn’t care about his spiritual condition. All he cared about was his physical health, and so he continued on as a spiritual leper. And the Healer, with the knowledge of God, must surely have been aware that this would result, and the compassion that had so moved Him at the declaration of Truth must surely have been tinged with an extra sorrow at knowing that the man who spoke Truth would still not grasp it.
New Thoughts (2/23/06-3/4/06)
This is an episode most worthwhile to dwell on in all of its details. There is simply too much that can escape notice when it is read more or less in passing. Like Matthew, we may be inclined to see the man healed of his condition and leave it at that. Matthew, to be sure, was aware of the rest of the events, but for his purpose of showing Messiah to Israel, the healing of the leper was the key matter. Similarly, Luke is not concerned with how the leper followed up on Jesus’ command. He is more engaged with showing the progress of Jesus’ ministry, so he moves right away to the increased following Jesus had as a result. It is left to Mark to show us the less happy circumstance surrounding the event.
However, I should like to consider things in some semblance of order in covering the word as we have it here. With that in mind, I would turn my attention first to the way this leper approached Jesus. It is interesting to notice that the approach becomes more dramatic with each account we read. Now, the order of the gospels is not generally believed to be a chronological ordering, but an ordering of purpose. Matthew is first not because his account is oldest, but because it is most closely involved with showing the connection of Old and New Covenant faith. Mark, likely the oldest account, comes next as the testimony, albeit second-hand, of the early chief of the Apostles. Then follows Luke, whose Gospel, like the ministry of his friend Paul, is aimed at moving the news into the world at large.
Yet, as the Spirit has ordered the sequence, we do indeed find the leper’s degree of worship before Jesus increase in each telling. Matthew notes only that he bowed down to Jesus. This need not have been much more than a general show of respect for a noted teacher. Under the circumstances, it could easily have been only the recognition that a leper should not have been in such a place at such a time, and therefore an acknowledgment of forbearance on the part of Jesus. Mark, however, says the man fell to his knees. Now, we are shown a man who is seeking a favor from somebody that he understands to be his superior. He recognizes a power or authority in Jesus to which he is not particularly entitled to appeal. This is not a man come to the court for justice. It is a man come to one of high station to beg for a favor.
Turning to Luke’s account, we find the man prostrating himself on the ground before Jesus. It is important that we recognize the significance of this behavior. The man, though a leper, was yet a Jew, and a Jew would not offer such worship to any man. Many had suffered martyrdom before as they refused to bow down to this king or that emperor. Many would soon be doing so again for their rejection of the religion of Caesar worship. Such worshipful honor as this man was paying to Jesus was reserved for only One. Only God could receive such worship from man, and no Jew would willingly offer that worship to any mere man. This is as much as a confession of faith on this man’s part as Peter’s later confession that, “You are the Son of God.”
It should be noted that Jesus does nothing to prevent this man from his act, and that is of utmost importance. Consider, when we read in Acts 10:25-26 that Cornelius, having received the seal of the Holy Spirit upon his faith, began to worship Peter in this same fashion. Peter, however, rejected that act outright. It was not right that he should be worshiped so. Paul dealt with similar issues in his ministry, and he likewise refused any attempt at such honor to himself. Indeed, we read even of angels rejecting the worship that is not their due. Truly, there is only One who can accept such honors, and the fact that Jesus did so is a clear testimony that He is indeed that One, the Messiah who is God incarnate.
It is possible, I suppose, that Luke had this very contrast of reaction in mind as he wrote, yet I would have to suggest that is not the case. The events are covered in two different letters written at two different times. It would be a most surprising degree of planning on Luke’s part to have intentionally foreshadowed the Apostolic reaction to worship by Jesus acceptance of it. Indeed, such a detail, stuck in here almost as an aside would likely have had far less significance to the Gentile Theophilus. He may have recognized the act as displaying the honor due a god, but he would not be likely to know how utterly shocking this act would be in a Jew unless it were towards the One True God of Israel. Yet, the Holy Spirit sees fit to let us know of His involvement in the recording of these details, and by His inspiration, Luke is diligent in setting down the fact of the matter for us to see today.
It is worth noting that every time we see Jesus accepting such worshipful honor, He is making a clear statement to any and all who are watching. Every acceptance of worship on His part is a declaration that He is worthy of that worship. It is a declaration that He Is “I AM”. This alone would be sufficient evidence of His claim, if not necessarily the validity of His claim. It serves to declare that He clearly understood Who He is.
This recognition of Authority is continued in the man’s words to Jesus. “You can make me clean.” There is no question in this. There is no doubt in this. It is, so far as he is concerned, a simple statement of fact. Yet, it is not so simple a statement as that. As of this point in history, the man had no evidence to support his claim. True, Jesus had healed many people already, and had already delivered several from their demons, but leprosy was not yet on the list of His successes. It was about to be, as we tend to measure it. In spite of this lack of evidence, the utter confidence in this declaration of “You can” is as clear a statement of faith as we could ever want for.
I wonder at myself, when I consider this simple, direct confession of faith. I wonder, because I know that as often as not, I do not share that confidence. I may say it often enough, but if I really wish to consider my actions, my approach to life, I am force to confess that they tell a different story. Too much of my effort is mine. Too much of my activity is a declaration that whatever my words may say, my belief is that I must do what He cannot or will not. This is not as it should be, needless to say.
Indeed, Holy Father, I have asked this week that You would reveal where obedience is needed, and here You have answered me, have You not? My obedience is needed in the walking out of belief. I am led to confess, my God, that in spite of knowing better, I have slid once again into what is little better than intellectual exercise. It is time that I return to wiser ways. It is time, again, my God, to recognize and acknowledge that You alone are able, and that You truly are able. In too many ways, Lord, I have been denying Your ability, Your will, and Your right in my own life. I cry out in anguish, this morning, Lord, at having so wronged You. I lay myself upon Your mercy, and am reminded even as I do so that Your mercy is as sure as the hope You have established in me.
I am blessed to be recalled to the facts, even in this morning’s message from Table Talk, that Your promise of redemption stands, your mercy remains. God, I look at where I am and it is clear that in spite of all the study, I am not where I should be. I have allowed too many things to crowd into my thinking and my time. I have come to resent too much of what is happening as merely consuming my precious time. My time? What am I thinking, Lord? Time is all yours, and is but a gift to me. True, as it is received from Your hand, given as such a gift, it is indeed precious to me, but mine? No more so than whatever righteousness I might possess at present.
Father, forgive me as well for those areas in which I have insistently denied that You can, those areas of weakness and sin that I insist on clinging to. Forgive me, for I have indeed been laying the blame for my sin on You, which is surely utter nonsense and worse! Oh! Restore my belief, if ever it was truly so strong. Remake me after Your own image and desire! Infuse such belief in me that I can no longer imagine the thing You cannot do. Infuse such belief in me that I would instantly turn to You in my great and constant need, knowing that You can, and with every reason to believe that You will.
Even this, though, does not completely capture the power of the leper’s belief. He moves beyond confessing that Jesus is able. He declares something that is so important to recognize and understand, yet is almost lost in the reading. Added to that powerful confession that Jesus can make him clean, is the statement that Jesus can make him clean. Understand that this was something beyond any power or authority that had ever been given to man. The priesthood, of course, had the authority to pronounce clean or unclean. They could make the judgment, had the tools and the rules to establish the case. But, they could do absolutely nothing in the way of making what was unclean clean. They could, fallen men like ourselves, do quite well at transforming clean to unclean. But the reverse was quite beyond them. Moses had not had this ability. David had not had this ability. Elijah and Elisha had not possessed such power. No man in the history of history had held it.
To make clean, it occurs to me this morning, is an expression of Creative power. There is only One who can create out of nothing – ex nihilo as the scholars like to say. Out of the nothing of our uncleanness, where no shred of righteousness is available to start from, God creates something clean and righteous. He can make. This Jesus, then, whom our leper confesses as one able to make clean, is confessed to be the One with the right to accept the worship He is here given.
At this point, I shall make note of how this connects together with what came before, as we have it from Matthew. In summarizing the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew speaks of the way people were perceiving Jesus. He taught as one with authority (Mt 7:29), as one with both the right to determine and declare the Truth, and the power to make His message stick. Coming to this encounter with the leper, I see the leper confirming Matthew’s assessment of the people. Clearly, in his approach to Jesus, he was declaring in many ways that he recognized in Jesus the Authority. Indeed, so strongly did he sense Authority in the Teacher that he was breaking much social and Levitical Law to even come before Jesus as he did. He was risking what little bit of a life as he still had in order to come honor this One, and seek His boon favor. A priest would not do yet, for there was not clean state to declare. A healer would not do at all, for they had no cure for him. Nowhere was there an answer to be found that would make him clean. Nowhere was there an answer to be found that would restore him to God’s grace. Only in this One Who is Himself God did he have a hope.
We must never lose sight of our common standing with the leper. We, too, are utterly without hope except for this One who came to rescue and reform us. We are every bit as much a pariah in heaven as was this man in society. We are every bit as evidently unclean, so steeped in our sin as to be manifestly evident to the most casual observer in those heavenly realms. The very purity of the region makes our own condition that much more obvious and distasteful. Yet we have the leper’s hope as well. We have been called by that One who can. And, as He said to the leper, so He has said to us: “I am willing.” The greater question is, are we?
This is a difficult question. For myself, I know I have often brought my need for change to prayer and left it there. In this present lesson, I am being taught that it is not enough. While the change I need is certainly impossible apart from God, it is also clear that God requires that I participate in that change. It is the lesson of Nehemiah all over again. Our prayers should certainly reflect the understanding that apart from God we can do nothing, yet our actions in pursuit of that for which we prayed should reflect that we are willing to do as much as we can. Prayer is good, indeed absolutely necessary. Fasting is good when God calls for it. But these things will avail us little if we do not get up and do what He commands.
I am a little ahead of myself in terms of the sequence of events so, God willing, I will come back to this point. Indeed, I can expect to be returning to this point frequently. It is a lesson I am not alone in learning at present. Meeting with a brother for prayer yesterday, it was soon clear we had both been hearing the same message in our studies, though we were pursuing those studies in very different regions of Scripture. Last night, I heard the point confirmed again by another brother. God is looking for those who will not just pray, not just worship Him and seek to have their needs met. He is looking for a people who will go forth and do as He has required of them, who will seek Him out before acting. He is looking for those who not only pray that His will be done on earth as heaven does His will, but actually obey Him in that fashion themselves.
Before I pursue that completely, though, I want to get back to the words of the leper. “You can,” is the most powerful understanding one can have of who Jesus is. Whatever the circumstance we face in this life, whatever insurmountable sin besets us, we need to know, to really know that He can take care of it. This is probably ninety percent of our daily battle with sin, and why we see less progress towards our goal of righteousness than we ought to. It is not that we are somehow beyond God’s ability. It is not that He isn’t quite willing to do what must be done. The issue is that we either don’t really want Him to do it and only asked because it seemed proper, or that we don’t really believe He can do it. We are quite prone to listen to the voice of doubt. We hear the whisper of our own past failures and, unwilling to attribute failure to ourselves, transfer the blame to Him. God failed me. If He could do it, surely it would be done already!
This is the poisonous, traitorous nature of our thinking. The Truth is contained in two words: He can. We need this drilled into our spirit, drilled into our thinking, until it is as clearly established as fact with us as is our own name. I don’t need any convincing to believe that my name is Jeff. It is firmly established. In the very same way, I need to be firmly established in the simple fact that He can do whatever it is that needs to be done – in me, in my family, in my world. There is nothing that is beyond His ability, for it is He Who has told us, “nothing will be impossible with God” (Lk 1:37). Every need and every activity is covered by that declaration, for if nothing is impossible, all things are possible. Likewise, every time – from this time forth, and forevermore – is covered by that declaration. More than a statement of Truth, it is a promise. Nothing will be. Ever. For, He is the Eternal One Who changes not. What was possible for Him in the beginning remains possible now. What was possible for Him two thousand years ago has not suddenly become a challenge. What was really on offer to this leper continues to be offered today. Where we tend to look only for healing, for temporal, physical solutions to our temporal, physical discomforts, He is offering something far greater. Where we are satisfied with looking clean, He is offering to make us clean. Indeed, He is commanding us to be clean. Again, I must ask, am I willing to obey that command?
Again I must answer as honesty requires. No, I have not yet come to the place where I consistently obey. Yet, the desire to reach it has grown stronger with each passing day, and the reminders of how wonderful it is when I do have been prevalent. Yesterday the men of the worship team were blessed to find themselves in a time of earnest prayer before God. In the course of this prayer time, I was twice called to obey in ways that are not particularly typical of my nature, and twice, I was able to overcome my nature to obey my Lord. The results were exceptional. Yet, in the unfolding of this time, there was my brother speaking over me, recalling me to walk in my gifts with humility, without pride. Yes, and this brother has (to my knowledge, at least) little cause to know the full necessity of that reminder. Indeed, it is easy, after being used in such fashion, to fall into the stupid game of thinking I did something. I did nothing except that for once I obeyed the directions I was given.
How easy it is to obey when the command is, if not comfortable, at least exciting to us. How hard, though, when it is nothing but time-consuming as our flesh views it. I can, to put forward a mundane example, easily obey the boss who tells me to take an extra day or two off. The one who requires an extra five hours out of me, though? This is difficult. As often as not, I will be quick to point out the injustice of such a demand. Yet, where are my cries at the injustice of mercy shown in that vacation? Truly, my sense of justice, as with most men, is a tad skewed!
Where I was really thinking to go with this, though, is that we all of us need to be reminded that however we are being used of God, there remains plenty of reason for humility and none whatsoever for pride. Whatever is good in me, whatever obedience I manage, is by His hand at any rate. It is He Who has come to both will and work in me, and blessed be His glorious Name for choosing to do so.
I am now moving to a point that is wholly out of order as the story unfolds, but important in that it is striking me in this moment. Jesus declares to this leper that He is willing. In light of Who is at work in me, Who is willing in me, how powerful is that statement, “I AM willing.” As the story of the leper unfolds, it is clear that the fact of Jesus willing, while more than enough to truly make this man clean, was yet not the only factor in that cleansing. So it is with me. Although it is my Lord and Savior who is at work in me, although it is His labor that leads me to will and to work towards His purpose, yet my own effort is required. Although I may, like Israel under Nehemiah, pray as though I were incapable of doing the least bit to bring forward His purpose, yet must I likewise labor after that example, working as though I had never thought to utter a single prayer, as though the success of the venture depended wholly and solely upon me.
I have doubtless covered this point already, but it must be repeated for my own sake. The time has come for us to answer God’s command with more than prayer. For too long, I have been satisfied to leave the problem in His lap and, having prayed, set the matter aside. God is declaring that this is not the right way. While it is impossible to accomplish anything that He requires without prayer, it is the utmost folly not to commit myself to the very thing I have prayed over. If I am looking for change in my life, it is impossible without Him, but it is also impossible without me. It is impossible not because He cannot do it without me, but simply because He has made it very clear that He will not.
Let me now get back to the story. This leper came with absolute confidence that Jesus is able. He did not, however, try to insist that ability demanded willingness. He came with respect for the Lordship of the Lord: “If You are willing.” We need to recognize the necessity of honoring God in this fashion. It is the only appropriate approach to the King. It matters little how certain we are of His willingness. I have heard that excuse put forward before as reason to come to Him bold as brass. We already know He is willing, goes this reasoning, so there is no need to question. But, this is not a question. Look closely. There is no question mark in sight. It remains a simple statement of faith in the Lord, but it is a faith that is free from the poison of presumption.
Let me put it in these words, “I know You are able, and it is only a matter of Your desiring to do so that makes the difference.” Better still, “It’s Your prerogative to choose, not mine.” That is not doubt. That is honor. I confess that I struggle with this, even though I understand it to be this way. I have absolutely no desire to be found presuming upon God’s grace and will. Yet, if I listen to my own prayers, how often do they slide in that direction?
Holy Spirit, if in any way I have presumed upon what I know of You, if I have in any way allowed familiarity to encroach upon respect, I beg forgiveness. While I am thoroughly honored to be counted Your friend, while I would boast of being known by You, while I might gladly shout about being adopted into Your household, let me not neglect to honor Your power and Your rule. You are seated upon the throne of heaven and upon the throne of my heart. You are truly my Lord, as well as my Friend. Let me never, Lord God, presume upon Your office in the name of our friendship. Let me never, my King, be found insisting that You act in the way I would have You to act, even when my assessment of Your decision is in accord with Your character. Let my confidence in Your ways never slip over into insistence that You must act as I wish when I wish. Always, my Liege, let things be done in full accord with Your perfect will and purpose. I thank You, Lord, that so long as I continue to submit to Your will, I can be assured that You are working things out for my best interest, even when my own interests are not my best.
This morning, I am looking at the response Jesus makes to this earnest entreaty (and, be certain it was an entreaty. While the man’s words contain no question, the need and desire that moved him make his purpose clear.) What Jesus says is as incredibly powerful when understood as is the man’s confession. To the “You can” of the request comes “I am willing.” As regards the faith of this man’s approach, Jesus says nothing. He finds no need to confirm what He is able to do. That is settled ground. There would come a time when Mary would need such a reminder in a moment of weakness, but this is not such a time.
Let me turn aside on that thought for just a moment. There will be times in our lives when our understanding of the perfect capability of our Lord is weak. No, not our understanding, for we understand it well enough. We simply find it unbelievable that He can in our particular circumstance. Two (at least two) things might be leading us into such a dichotomy of thought.
The first is that the entrenched habits of life have convinced us of the impossibility of change in our own power, and we allow that to slip over into our assessment of God. This is a case of forgetting our own utter inability to do anything of worth. “Apart from Me, you can do nothing.” Pride allows us to lose sight of that, especially when we have experienced change and success in other areas of life. The fact that we have success in this area, but not in that leads us into the false assessment that this other area is an impossible situation. The fact that we, who were victorious in the first instance, have tried so hard to overcome the second and failed surely means it’s impossible. Now, as good Christians, we come to our senses a bit and remember that it’s not us that does the work anyway, it’s God. Unfortunately, we then move straight to deciding that God must be unable. Oh, but again our belief refuses to let us stay there. Of course God is able, else He is not God! So, do we move back to the place of confidence? No. We slide over into deciding He is able, just not willing. And, here my Lord and Savior responds, “I am willing.”
The second reason we may have for weakened faith is that the work that needs doing in us is a work we are not particularly keen to see done. We may recognize the need for change, yet not have in us a desire for change. In that condition, we are likely casting about for any sort of excuse by which we can avoid what we don’t want. Habits, however harmful we may recognize them to be, remain habits, and therefore comfortable. What would change those habits, therefore, must move us away from comfort and into the dangerous (by our measure) unknown. The flesh, fearing another loss, raises all sorts of reasons as to why we ought be allowed to continue unmodified. Surely, it’s not a sin, just a bad habit! Surely, if God were willing, He would have taken care of it by now. Well, if He hasn’t done anything about it, it must not be an issue. And, off we go, justifying ourselves and ignoring what He is seeking to do in us.
I had begun to end that sentence with “trying to do,” but that leaves the unacceptable proposition that we can somehow frustrate the purposes of God. We can pretend we are managing to do that, I suppose, but in reality, what God purposes to do He will do. When Jesus declares, “I am willing,” it does not simply mean, “yeah, I’m cool with that.” It means, “I am decided. I will do that thing, and I will do it now.” We don’t always recognize that second bit, that what He decides to do He does in a most immediate sense. There is no procrastination in God! He decides, and He does.
This is how His will is done in heaven. He decides, He expresses His decision, and every power of heaven moves immediately to see to it that His purpose is accomplished. In this life, it may not seem so immediate. It may take some time to unfold in a way that we can recognize. Think about it! In that moment that God decided to call me into His family, it was finished! In my own estimate, I am far from prepared to take my place in that family, but He sees it done, for it is done. The manifestation of that completed work in my own world of senses is taking a lifetime to unfold, but it is done.
In the same way, the incredible work of redemption was accomplished in the moment that God created a world that would fall. It was purposed before Creation that the Redeemer would come. This is a shocking thing to consider, for if He purposed that before Creation, then He assuredly understood that Adam, our representative, would fail to uphold his own purpose in being created. It means, then, that the very first command that God gave to man, He knew would prove impossible for man to keep. Don’t tell me that what He requires of us is never impossible! It is always impossible. That is precisely why the Redeemer was determined before Creation.
Now, if I take that thought but a step further, I must recognize that Adam was knowingly created with that flaw that would allow him to fall prey to sin’s temptations. That flaw, of course, is that power we call free will. And how much of the controversy between various corners of the Church have swirled around understanding that flaw! How we want to believe that Adam could have kept the impossible promise, and perhaps he could have. Perhaps, in that condition prior to the fall, he truly was capable of such complete and perfect obedience. But, if that possibility was in him, then why the certainty of failure? Why did the Redeemer come before the Creation? It seems to me that I must accept what seems a flaw in the creation of Adam, in spite of the fact that God declares his design ‘very good.’
If, however, I accept God’s assessment (as I surely must!) then Adam, with the fatal flaw of free will, was indeed created perfectly in accord with God’s purpose. God had made no mistake in the way He created Adam. Neither was Adam’s sin something outside of God’s plan. How we confuse ourselves on this point! The sin is not in Adam thwarting the plan of God, as if such a thing were even possible! The sin is that he chose to disobey the command of God, even though that failure to obey was part of the plan. In the same way, the sin of Pilate, of Judas, of the priesthood in Jerusalem remained sin, punishable by a death more permanent than the grave, even though the result of their actions would only contribute to the very purpose of Redemption that God had put in place before there was ever a man to fall.
So, let us understand this thing. When Jesus declared, “It is finished!” it was the earthly manifestation of the unfolding of God’s eternal purpose that was complete. In heaven, it was a finished matter before we would even think of it as having begun. Such is the certainty of every Word of God! We may look upon the Church and despair at times. We may look upon our own condition and despair at times. But, God, Who has seen the end from the beginning, knows no such reason for despair. Certainly, there is a Father’s sorrow at seeing His children go through these periods of self-harm. No parent wants to see his child suffer for having made mistakes. But, like any good parent, He wants His children to grow up, and to grow up strong and wise, and being a good parent, He knows that growth requires that we learn the hard way sometimes.
Before moving on from this initial exchange, there remains one question to explore. What is to be made of those last two words of Jesus, “Be cleansed”? Was it a command given to the disease? Some would understand it that way, particularly where the need to speak the word of faith is considered a legal necessity. Some might consider it simply confirming His decision, rather like a ‘let it be done.’ I would have thought it more a command, given the missing subject in that declaration. However, looking at the syntax in the Greek, I see that it is a passive command, meaning that the subject is not commanded to do, but to receive. That said, the only question that can be asked is whether the disease or the man is commanded to receive. Given these options, I would suppose it must be the man, for how could a disease receive cleansing? A disease, once cleansed, is no longer disease. A man, however, continues a man after being clean, only more so.
That said, there remains the issue of this man’s reaction to his healing, a reaction I shall turn my attention to shortly. In that reaction, it seems clear to me that he did not heed that command. The disease was healed, but he was not made clean. Had he been truly clean, he would have done as Jesus commanded him thereafter. He would have gone straight to the priesthood to complete the obligations of cleansing.
However, before I focus on the reaction of the leper, let me turn to the fact of his healing. There can be no doubt that the symptoms of leprosy had been eliminated in his body, that the disease had been destroyed form his flesh. That much is plain, simple fact. The question that always comes to me as I witness these healings that Jesus performed is why? It is, to my thinking, an important why, because our present culture is so keen on healing and deliverance ministries. If we are to deem them important, we can only do so in light of their purpose to the ministry of Christ. If we are pursuing these things for reasons beyond the reasons of our Master, we are at grave risk of idolatry, having lifted a ministry above the Lord of all ministries.
To that end, perhaps this present example shall prove a useful lesson for my understanding. One thing that I think must be clearly understood, given this encounter, is that healing is not something reserved solely for the unbeliever. This is important to know, particularly in light of Jesus’ own comments in that regard. There was the point made in Nazareth, in response to unbelief, pointing out that of all the lepers then extent in Israel, not a one was healed to our knowledge. Yet, Naaman, a Syrian and a potential enemy of the nation was healed personally by one of the greatest prophets of the land (Lk 4:27). I confess, I have often associated healing and deliverance as primarily tools for drawing the unbeliever to Christ. Yet, that is not the case, if I look more closely. The leper that we have here was clearly a believer. “You can” is not the statement of unbelief. Naaman, too, had some degree of belief that Elisha could do what he needed done. Indeed, it is worthwhile to recall that when Jesus spoke of Naaman, He was speaking to a crowd of unbelieving countrymen. The point was not that Naaman was an unbeliever, but that physical membership in the chosen nation was no guarantee of God’s favor.
This is not sufficient, however, to justify the treatment of healing and deliverance that is common to the more ‘spirit-filled’ realms within Christianity. Healing and deliverance are a necessity in this fallen human state. They are not, however, the point of faith. Neither are they the primary purpose that Jesus has in mind. I have said that there was belief in these cases, that those who came to Him for healing had a very real belief that He could heal them. There are those, as well, who having received their deliverance went on to be major characters in the unfolding of the Gospel. Yet, it seems there are far more who received their physical healing or their physical deliverance and then wandered off seemingly unaffected in spirit. This leper is one such. He leaves excited, to be sure. He is shouting to one and all of the great things Jesus has done. Unfortunately, he is doing so in direct disobedience to the One he is shouting about!
Belief is there, but obedience is not. Healing is there, but cleansing is not. He was commanded to receive cleansing, but he was only willing to receive healing. He stopped short, and just how short he stopped is made clear in the fact that he not only disobeyed the command of silence in regards to telling the people what had happened, he also disobeyed the command to testify and to complete the cleansing as Moses had commanded. There is so much disobedience on display in his response to finding himself healthy! Oh! How greatly we need to learn from his error. It’s high time we stop being wowed by the physical manifestations of healing and deliverance, and save our praises for the spiritual manifestation of real cleansing.
How am I to understand all this? That belief is no assurance of obedience is clear enough from my own life. That the command of Jesus is surely sufficient to accomplish all His purpose, and that the Word of the Lord does not return void is clear from Scripture. That God, in pursuing His purpose of salvation can and does operate on us in spite of our much vaunted free will is clear from both experience and Scripture. He calls. We answer. The myth of the seeker is just that – myth. Yet, here is the Deliverer come with the command to be cleansed – addressing Himself to the spiritual matter far more than the physical – and this man, so far as we can tell, departs uncleansed. He is healed of his leprosy, but he remains unclean as regards his relationship to God.
This would be shocking to me, this disobedience even in the immediate face of such a wonderful gift, if only I didn’t so often see the same in myself. There is a difference, I trust, much as there is that difference in the reactions of Judas and Peter to their failures. Many tell me that the difference is in the reaction to failure. I must still contend, though, that the difference is in the call of Jesus. One had truly been called into the family of God. The other had not. That is the only real difference between the two, and in every case, it is the only difference that really matters.
The leper, as much as he experienced the compassion of the Christ, did not experience the call of the Christ. Not every miraculous healing indicates that the one healed is a believer. Not every deliverance from the powers of darkness indicates that the one delivered is now a child of the Light. The compassion of the Christ is bigger than all that! There are indeed those He has called. He has called them because the Father has given them to Him, and these He shall not suffer to be lost to Himself. That said, His compassion is not reserved for those He has called. It may be theirs in greater degree, or in preference, (although that is only a maybe) but it is not theirs alone. God is merciful to both good and evil alike, as He Himself testifies. He gives life and breath to both kind man and cruel, to both wise man and fool, because even at his worst, man remains a creation made in His image. His sorrow for the condition of these vessels meant to bear His perfection knows no bounds, even though in His sovereign will He has determined that many will bear the punishment that Justice demands for their sins, while others will know Mercy.
Now I come to the response of the man to his healing. He came to Jesus with a belief that we have seen was quite strong, more than simply a belief in Jesus’ abilities, encompassing as well His office an authority. “You can make me clean” is such a powerful statement, such a perfect assessment of Jesus as God. It is full of confidence and free of demands. So, how is it that this man of faith and belief is so thoroughly disobedient the moment his healing has come? This is something that Matthew opts to ignore, as he is more focused on declaring how Jesus fits the Jewish prophecies of Messiah. Luke likewise ignores the failures of the leper, although he does make note of the fact that in spite of Jesus’ admonitions to silence, news was spreading and the crowds growing. It is left to Mark and to Peter his teacher (if this be accepted) to tell us how the man reacted and why the crowds grew. There we learn that the man summarily dismissed the direct and sternly delivered command of this One who had healed him.
Notice those terms Mark uses. It was a stern warning. There was an edge of something akin to anger in Jesus’ voice as He told this man to go to nobody but the priest. There could be no doubting of Jesus’ sincerity in this. It could not be mistaken for simple humility speaking. It was an order, plain and simple. Deliver yourself to the priest, and do what Moses commanded. Nothing else. Yet, the man instead did pretty much the exact opposite, telling one and all about this Jesus who had healed him of leprosy, and so far as we know, he never went to the priest. It’s not that he delayed his testimony, it’s that he never delivered it. In spite of all these people he told about Jesus, he never testified! How’s that for a shock to the system?
What he was testifying to was his healing, as if all who saw him were not instantly aware of that simple fact! As plainly visible as the leprosy had been, equally so its absence. The very fact that he was in town at all would declare the truth of that matter. But, all of this did not make him clean or declare him clean. It only declared him healthy. Lesson number one: health and righteousness are not connected. Let me say that again: good health does not righteousness declare and bad health does not sinfulness declare. We ought to know that, for Jesus Himself delivers a similar message to His disciples on another occasion, but we tend to make the connection anyway. Perhaps the leper did as well. If so, he was wrong. He had been commanded to accept his cleansing by the only One who could possibly provide it, but he refused the cleansing, accepting only the healing.
I am returned to that issue of how this can be. How can it be that a man with such faith and belief could in almost the same breath be so utterly disobedient to the very One he put his faith in? There is the companion question of how it is he could refuse the command of God, and seemingly thwart God’s will as expressed by Jesus. As I know from Scripture, God’s word does not fail of its purpose (Isa 55:11). While His words are true, and His commands to man good, it is clear that man more often than not fails to obey His commands. Did His words not, then, fail of their purpose? No, they did not fail. We have failed to understand His purpose. The purpose of the Law was not that we might obey, but to make utterly clear to us how badly we were in need of somebody beyond ourselves. The Law was given to make the need for a Redeemer plain to us. But, we got so caught up in the cycle of trying and failing in our own power, or worse, seeing the impossibility and just giving up, that we missed His purpose. Yet, His purpose was accomplished. Those whom He was calling to Himself recognized the situation and rejoiced in understanding that He who commanded the impossible was also determined to bring about His Salvation. The zeal of the Lord shall accomplish this! “By My own right hand, I shall do it!” These are the words recorded for us by those who got the message.
In this case, two commands are given to the leper. The first is ‘receive cleansing.’ This command is obeyed. As I look at the three accounts this morning, however, I am beginning to understand that command in a new light, yet again. Yesterday, I would have said that it was the leper to whom the command was given. Today, though, I notice something in Matthew that helps explain to me how this man could have both obeyed and disobeyed in the same moment. Jesus commanded, “Be cleansed,” and Matthew tells us that immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Notice what Matthew didn’t say. He did not say the man was cleansed. Granted, Mark does put it that way, but he also goes on to give us the record of this leper’s disobedience, thereby clarifying and limiting his application of the word. Luke stays away from it entirely, and simply says his leprosy left him. What I am seeing, then, is that the command was indeed given to the disease itself, not to the man. The leprosy was cleansed, which seems a bizarre concept to our thinking. It is, we might think, no more than the lesser knowledge of the ancients showing. However, I think it makes a necessary distinction. The man remained unchanged in spite of the improvements in his health.
Then, I can understand why there is this second command. He is commanded to suppress his natural urge to shout to everybody about his healing and instead go immediately to the priest and fulfill the requirements of Law. He is commanded to inconvenience himself in obedience to this One who has done so much for him. This was to be a testimony to the priesthood. But, the ex-leper, having what he wanted, had no interest in being inconvenienced by the legal niceties. It was one thing, it seems, to have been so bold in approaching this One he recognized as Lord when his need was upon him. It was quite another to be put out by His requirements when his need had been met. He did not obey the command, a command clearly addressed to himself, and delivered in no uncertain terms. The One who spoke that command, Mark tells us, spoke sternly, His tone bordering on angry, so strong was His feeling on the matter. Hmm. Jesus almost angry, it’s a hard thing to consider, given that He had just acted out of such great Compassion.
I begin to understand, then, that His sternness with the man was largely because He knew full well He would be disobeyed. His Compassion for the man was not so much because of the disease that assaulted his flesh, but because of the disease that was upon his soul. This man was not one called by the Father. He had come, driven to desperation by his need, but his need was much greater than he knew. He would not, could not obey the word of the Word. Was that word, then, void? Had the purpose of God failed? In a word, no. It is impossible that this could be the case. The purpose of God was not, odd though it sounds, in the man’s obedience, nor was it in his commanded testimony to the priesthood. Had that priesthood been in the number of the elect, this command would have been given to one among the elect, that it would be obeyed and the testimony given to a people ready to receive such evidence. To a priesthood condemned, however, such testimony would have countered the purpose of God, awakening in them a recognition of their perilous state.
The purpose of God, in this case, is not expressed by the command. The man remains no less sinful having refused the command of his rightful Lord and King. His guilt is in no way lessened by the fact that God’s purpose was served by his failings. But, God’s purpose was not thwarted by his decision, rather served. How can we think ourselves able to somehow frustrate God’s plans? Hasn’t it occurred to us that in the course of however many thousands of years since the world was created, the Devil has been trying to do that very thing, and has failed utterly? From the moment man was placed into Eden, he has been doing his utmost to destroy man, having known before creation that man’s role would be his own destruction. He did everything he could to prevent the arrival of a Redeemer for mankind. He did everything he could, even arranging for the murder of that Redeemer when He did come. Yet, he failed in every attempt. As much as he thought he was winning, he was playing into the Master’s hand, doing the Master’s will, though he was thoroughly unwilling that the Master’s will be done.
As it was en route to the Redeemer, so it is now, only more so! That wily devil is so frustrated by his failure to stop the Redeemer that he is all the more desperate to wreck God’s plans now. He redoubles his efforts. Having found the Son of God undefeatable, he has turned to those God has adopted. He has chosen out the Chosen for his own special attentions, seeking – were it possible – to turn them away from the God who chose them. He cannot, in truth, be any more successful in this attack than in his previous efforts. Where we see him appear victorious in some fray or another, we must recognize that even those little victories are turned to the purposes of God. We may not understand how, but we can be sure that this is the case.
Now, I labor this point for a reason. We need to recognize the futility of the enemy’s attempts to frustrate God, because we are so foolishly convinced that we are able to frustrate God. If this enemy, whom God warns us is too strong for us, though in no way too strong for Him, can do nothing to block God’s purpose; if this powerful prince, fallen out of heaven itself, can only find his every rebellion having served God’s plan perfectly in spite of himself, can we really think we are able to stop what God has purposed? No way! If He has truly purposed my salvation, I can consider that as good as done. There is nothing in heaven, on earth, nor in hell that can prevent me from coming to Him. There is nothing in me or outside of me that can turn me from Him. His purpose will not fail of being accomplished, and in that fact is all my hope and joy. There is no license in that understanding. I am not thereby freed to sin with impunity.
As a parent, I so love my child that the worst things she might ever do could not counter my love. It is unimaginable, however far she were to fall (God forbid!) that I would consider her beyond my love. Yet, I do not, as a matter of course, allow her to run her life any which way she pleases. I do not allow her to ignore the commands of her parents with impunity, to rebel without consequences. God has built us into families for a reason, folks! It is the best model we have, here in this world, for understanding our relationship to Him in the greater scheme of things.
Now, Mark has pointed out to us that the testimony this man failed to give was intended for the priests. Those priests, had they been faced with the obvious evidence of this man’s healing, would have to have wondered at the power by which such a healing had occurred. Had they been faced with this man’s obedience to the Law, they would have to have recognized that the power by which he was healed was a godly power. The priests, who alone were authorized to declare cleansing, and who were in the official position by God’s assignment to perform all that was required in that regard, must recognize that one who could make what they could only declare had greater authority. They were in great need of seeing this testimony, that they might understand that indeed someone greater had come, and that He was in full accord with the very same Law by whose authority they could but affirm His works. By the leper’s inaction, then, we might not be far off in finding another cause for the loss of the priesthood. Because of one man’s unwillingness to obey, an entire tribe was lost to disobedience.
Oh! That’s a powerful thought! Thank You, Holy Spirit. This is a huge point. Because of one man’s unwillingness to obey, an entire tribe was lost. Do you realize just how true that is? Just how critically important it is to recognize our own responsibility there? We are each of us, particularly the men, more particularly the fathers, one man whose response to the command of God upon us may well determine the course of our tribe. Now, I will once again remind myself that whatever my response, I need not have the conceit that I can somehow thwart God’s will. His will will be done, and that’s that. Here, I am free to choose my response, but my response does not impact God. It impacts me, and as I am seeing here, it is quite likely to impact my family and those others who know me well. It may well even impact those who share in the local body of which I am a member. How utterly important, then, that I choose rightly when God commands.
See, the issue in the story before us is not that God’s will was somehow countered by the leper’s going to everybody but the one he was sent to. God’s will was not somehow thwarted by the fact that the priests did not receive the testimony, nor the opportunity to confirm His Son. That was not in His plan, so it’s failure to occur was in accord with His purpose, even if it was in opposition to His command. The purpose of the command was not to bring the priesthood, but to test the messenger. Here was one who had come to asking to be cleansed, and the question was whether he would be satisfied with healing, or whether he would be obedient unto cleansing. Would he take the freebie and run, or would he commit himself to the costly act of obedience?
I wrote, a week or so ago, that the Healer needed to see if the healing would go more than skin deep. That’s not quite right. He already knew before ever He reached out to touch the man. The leprosy was cleansed, but the spirit would not have it. Jesus was well aware of what would come of this man’s ‘testimony.’ It would necessitate a change in His availability. We can rejoice in the thought that His ministry grew even with the man’s failure to comply. We might think it commendable in this man that he was the cause of such growth. Indeed, I think we must understand that the growth that came to the ministry of Jesus by this man’s disobedience was indeed the purpose of God. At the same time, I think it critical that we keep the disobedience of this man in sight. Because of his testimony of disobedience, Jesus could no longer minister in the cities. A change had indeed come to His ministry. It had been moved from its beginning stages into full flower. But, at the same time, the One who had healed this man’s desperate condition was no longer so easily available to those with even greater needs. No longer could He be found in the cities where the weakest, neediest of the needy could still find a way to Him. Now, they would have to find strength and means to come out to the wilderness where He was. By his choice, this man was making it less likely that others in as great a need as his own would be able to receive what he had received, and that is a sad response to have to such a gracious gift.
I must return, though, to the point God has made regarding obedience. Obedience has been the theme that connects everything in this particular study. It seems to be the most important part of our faith, that we ought to obey Him in Whom we profess belief, and yet it is the least common. My God has been hammering this point home to me throughout the course of studying this section, both from the study itself and from those I have been talking with.
We have become to comfortable with our faith. We are gladly willing to come cast all our cares upon Jesus, but we have lost interest in taking up our own crosses. We are pleased to receive His gifts and to use them for our entertainment, indeed, we look for nothing more than to be entertained by our services. But, when He requires us to actually do something with our professed belief, that’s a whole different matter. It is uncomfortable to obey God’s command. It is costly to obey God’s command. It requires time, effort and sacrifice from us, and we don’t particularly care to give what it takes. I know I have been battling this on many different fronts in recent days.
Thank You, Lord, for this. I am understanding my reaction more clearly now, and I must surely ask Your forgiveness for it. My! How I have been railing on again about the loss of my time. Where is the joy in seeing Your people rising up? Where is the instant obedience I keep praying I might find in myself, when it comes to Your command? Forgive me, Lord, and thank You as well for Your mercy towards me.
It is so important that we get out of this mode! Our tribes depend on us. Our families depend on us. Future generations that we are not even aware of, still sleeping in the wombs of our children may be lost to the kingdom because we would not obey the command of our Lord God. Oh, His purpose will proceed, but our tribe will no longer be part of His purpose. Is that really a legacy we wish to have? I don’t think so. Jesus taught His listeners on another occasion that in this matter of the kingdom, one must first count the cost. We have either failed to do so, or forgotten the results of that calculation, and now, with the work of the kingdom before us, it begins to look more costly than we first believed. It demands so much more from us than we had thought. Well, in that recalculation, let us also recognize that the payment that comes to us for that effort is also much more than we really understood at the start.
Indeed, the reward that is ours in obedience is not just for us, but for our children, our children’s children, and generations we will never know. What is our choice for their inheritance? Never mind your salvation. That is as established as it shall ever be. The leper’s leprosy was healed. That much was settled. Our salvation is just as settled. But, our response to our Savior in this state of salvation determines so much more. If our love is indeed approaching the love of God, if our love is more for others than for self, then our obedience is that much more critical. When obedience is costly, and it almost always will be, we need to stop assaying the cost only in terms of our personal interest, and start realizing the greater cost of disobedience. I, for one, do not wish to be recorded in the annals of the kingdom as the one whose disobedience led to the loss of my tribe. Rather, may my obedience counter the disobedience of generations past, and rescue this tribe from ruin!
There is one last area I want to explore before I end this study, and that is the response that Luke notes in regard to these events. He says that the multitudes gathered to hear and be healed. What are we to make of that, though? Were these people who were suddenly intent on learning what the Master had to teach them? Was there a sudden surge in desire to obey God? Indeed, just what manner of healing were they coming to seek of Him?
In this regard, I find it interesting that Luke chooses a particular word for healing which does not really convey the idea of being cured. The word he uses is tied to our English word therapy. They came for therapy. They didn’t particularly want healing, just some relief from the symptoms. This is not far different from the leper. He didn’t want cleansing, he just wanted the symptoms gone. The word Luke uses, then, has this idea of serving, as being an attendant to the one served. They didn’t want a cure, they wanted to be served.
In like sense, I suspect we would find that the majority did not come to learn from Jesus, but to be entertained by His stories. The Man was a master of His craft, after all. His parables were wonderful constructions, and can easily entertain as well as edify. The difference lies in the ears that listen, and the mind that takes it in. The great disease of humanity is that we more often prefer entertainment to learning, relief to cure. This is part of why psychology is so popular with people. Psychology rarely if ever cures anybody of anything. Instead, it serves us by making us comfortable with the way we are, or perhaps smoothing over our worst symptoms with medication. But, the underlying sickness remains, and we’re satisfied with that. The sickness can stay, we reason, if it isn’t going to be a bother. This sin can remain, just so’s it doesn’t cause us any embarrassment. Likewise our faith. Just so’s it doesn’t embarrass us, we’ll follow this One.
It’s time to stop being entertained. It’s time to stop playing at our Christianity and start doing. It’s time we start listening to our own prayers and doing something about the things we have taken to prayer. It’s time we start recognizing what our studies are revealing to us, and acting upon what we have learned. It’s time to stop playing Church, and start laboring for the kingdom. It’s time to get serious about declaring the Gospel not to each other, but to those who have yet to hear. It’s time we move from milk to meat. It’s time we truly disciple those who are coming up behind us, training them not for weakness but for war. It’s time to be what God has called us to be, to do what God has called us to do, and to go where God has called us to go.
