You Were There (6/19/05)
With what we had witnessed at the synagogue, who could keep silent? Who didn’t have a relative or an acquaintance that needed what this Man clearly had to give? Of course word of Him spread rapidly through our town, passed from house to house, so that no man could be accused of violating the Sabbath. There was no need to travel, no work involved in speaking to our neighbors of what we had seen. As evening fell, it became clear that we had all reacted similarly to this news. We had all thought of one we knew who particularly needed this healer’s attentions, and we all, so soon as the Shabbat was at an end, began making our way toward the place where He was staying. Truth be told, some of us didn’t wait for the official declaration of sunset.
Such crowds, though! Those who had managed to get a head start seemed wise indeed. Why I had never realized how many people lived in this place until I stood in that crowd of people, all striving to get to the door of Simon’s house. I doubt that even the governor in Jerusalem finds so many waiting to petition his favor when he sits on that atrocious throne of his. It seemed impossible that even half of us would get close to this One, yet nobody was giving up. Hour after hour, the crowd inched closer to Him.
As I got closer, I could see that He was taking each one who came, one at a time, speaking over this one, probing the symptoms of that one, ministering to every one who came according to their need. By the time I began to draw near, He had already been at this for hours. You could see that He was tiring from His efforts, yet there remained so very many behind me. From time to time, He would look up at this waiting crowd, yet no look of despair, no hint of frustration would cross His face, but only that look that comes upon a man when he sees one he loves in desperate need.
Finally I was there before Him. Those eyes that looked out over the crowd behind me with such loving concern, looked back at me, and all that concern was still there, all that great love He had was focused on me alone. He spoke, but I didn’t quite catch what He was saying. I remember my mouth opening to speak. I don’t remember having anything to say but words seemed to be welling up inside me without my help. But even as my mouth began forming the words, He bade me be silent, and then, quite suddenly, I could feel a great burden lifting. It was as if I had been carrying a load for so very long that I had forgotten what it was like to walk without it. Suddenly, that weight was gone! I could stand up straight again, for the burden was lifted. I thanked Him repeatedly, but He just smiled at me.
Then He said something I don’t suppose I’ll ever forget. It struck me as so odd at the time that I just went home, thinking on what it meant, wondering who He was, what He knew of me. “Go and sin no more,” He said. How had He known, this stranger? Yet, there was a desire in me, such as I had not known for many years, a desire to do just as He had said. God grant that I be able!
New Thoughts (6/20/05-6/24/05)
It was after sunset, now. All three accounts make certain to note this fact. Why? Because it was indication that the Shabbat was over before the crowds began forming. No real comment is made about this. Indeed, if it weren’t for the notes in the NKJV, I probably would have passed this by as little more than a connective aside. It would be noted that they waited for the cool of the evening, and left at that. But, this is a Shabbat sunset, a sunset with legal implications. The day of rest was now over, and all the minutia that constituted work in the eyes of the religious officialdom were permissible once more.
Something that I think can be implied from this, although it is not expressly mentioned, is that if these folks showed up after the sunset, then Peter’s mother-in-law, as she served these guests at her house, was working before sunset, and that in the very presence of the Lord of the Shabbat. Now, that she would do this, and nobody in the house thought to correct her for it tells me something about that society. See, if it had been only her reaction to encountering the power of God in Jesus’ touch, we might see her willing to serve, but would also hear some word of reminder. It’s the Shabbat, you mustn’t! I think it was something that ran deeper than that, though, something more commonplace.
Perhaps it was the fact that a man’s honor meant more to him than God’s honor in Jewish society. So, if the requirements of these two demands were in conflict, man’s requirements must surely be satisfied. The honor of Peter’s house demanded that these guests be served, be fed and properly entertained. The demands of God, at least inasmuch as they were currently transcribed by the rabbis, required absolute rest. One could not be preparing meals on this day. Well, either Peter’s wife had already prepared enough to feed a dozen mouths when it was only she and her mother-in-law in residence, or her mother-in-law had some work to do when she arose from her sickbed!
There is another view one could take of this situation, and that is one far easier to believe. What I would suggest is that once behind their own doors, the people’s concern for observing rabbinical minutia was gone. While out in public, all care was taken to be sure that nobody saw us working on the Shabbat, but once in the house, common sense prevailed. I could see this sort of reaction in any people. I can see it in today’s church, even in my own church and in my own life. There are those things that come from the mouths of man, demands that are placed upon the believer that are more opinion than holy writ. They may be good things, but to give them the weight of heavenly commandment is improper. However, it becomes the expectation, so when people are gathered as believers, they will conform. But, let them step out of that environment, and their own predilections will prevail in a moment!
Quite frankly, this creates a greater danger for the believer than ever there was in that thing that was forbidden from the pulpit! For, if they learn to hide away the thing that while unhealthy is no sin, they will also have learned to hide away that thing that is sinful and therefore lethal. We inadvertently train those in our charge to hypocrisy. We train them to act in accord with expectations so long as they are in a place where their Christian family is in majority. We train them to be double-minded in these small things, and this can only lead to a life that is double-minded in all things. The world does not need another Christian chameleon! The world needs a people that is real with God, real with its own people, and real with the world around them.
Look what had happened to Israel! On the Lord’s Day, everybody went to the synagogue as duty required. Just like so many churches today, half the people there were doing no more than looking around, counting the bricks in the wall, trying to amuse themselves somehow until the service was over. Then, everybody carefully walked home – making sure that walk wasn’t too far. They continued in their holiness mode until they were safely out of sight of their friends and neighbors. Once in their private homes, though, well perhaps a little work. Nothing that would show outside, of course, no cooking fires to betray them, or anything like that, but there were always things that needed doing that would leave their friends none the wiser. Besides, I’m sure they felt certain they weren’t the only ones doing this. Everybody is like that!
What is truly sad, though, is that on the Lord’s Day, a day that was intended to be devoted to contemplating God, rejoicing in His presence, communing with the Creator, nobody would get near to Him. It was the last day of the week that one could hope to find Him, because custom bound people more tightly than ever on that day. What was supposed to be about seeking Him out had come to be about doing nothing. Rather than seeing the positive requirement of the Sabbath Law, the entire focus was on the negative requirements. People were so caught up in not doing what was forbidden that no energy or thought was left for what was to have been the purpose of it all. They were so busy not working that nobody was seeking. They wouldn’t even go to this One who could heal them of their devils until the day for seeking God was over. After all, what would the neighbors think?
What makes matters even worse is that thing we tend to forget: we are the neighbors. We have this same attitude in us, judging others for not coming up to our own personal code of ethics. Never mind their faith. Never mind that they are doing what God would have them to do. They’re not doing it our way, and that’s criminal in our eyes. As much as we love the Lord, we are forever in danger of the failings of our flesh. It’s still a possibility for us that if we were to see Him today, we would find cause to be offended by Him, rather than rejoice. After all, we are so quick to be offended by a brother, by an opinion, by a habit, and this One we serve is forever challenging the custom, forever reminding His observers that it’s God’s Law that matters, not ours, it’s God’s opinion that matters, not ours.
Look at the very verse that Matthew is reminded of in all this. Now, it seems clear to me that he has the end of the story in mind as he applies this prophecy to the beginning, but it may well be that he is also thinking of the remainder of that verse. The portion he quotes talks of how Jesus took our weaknesses and our illnesses and bore them. In this present setting, He is clearly taking away those things, but He is not yet bearing them in any visible fashion. That part will come later. And, when it does, we are told by that same prophecy just how people will react. Seeing Him suffering under the burden of our sin and sickness, we will think Him to be suffering at God’s hands (Isa 53:4). We will see what is happening to Him, and be so sure that God must be mad at Him. His sin must have been great to have such great sorrow visited upon Him. We will be as the friends of Job to Him, which is to say no friends at all.
Yet, the very tale of Job ought to have warned us against such a judgment. Indeed, His own disciples would fall into the trap of thinking that all suffering could be explained as the result of sin. They would ask, on one occasion, whether the man before them was suffering for his own sins, or those of his forebears. Jesus declared that there was no connection. He was suffering for one purpose alone: that God’s glory might be shown through him. Perhaps, if we were to look for a single, consistent reason for suffering, that is it. Perhaps, moreso than the consequences of sin, this is the sole reason for suffering: that God might be glorified.
See, if the suffering is the punishment for sin, God is glorified by the upholding of His justice. If He should heal one of their sickness and suffering, He is glorified for His grace and mercy. God is not frivolous about these things. He is very purposeful in all that He causes to occur on this planet. It is He, after all, who brought order into a cosmos in chaos. He continues to bring order. We do not understand His choices. We do not understand why He chooses just penalty for this one and sweet mercy for that. We can’t even tell the difference half the time! Yet, we can trust in this: what He does is done as the best possible thing that can be done. What He does, He does with purpose. What He does, He does for the good of those who are serving Him.
Can we look upon the sacrifice of Jesus, the heinous death He suffered not as just punishment for His sins, but as One standing in our place? Can we look on that scene and think that from Jesus’ perspective all things were working for good? He served the Father as no other. Where, then was the great blessing and prosperity? Where was the glorious temple, the kingdom, the glory? Where was all the great benefits of obedience to God? We thought Him to be suffering God’s judgment, and so He was, but it was no judgment upon Him, it was the judgment due us. It is thus that He bore our grief and sorrow.
As we look out on a lost world, as we walk out in that lost world, we need to keep this lesson in mind. We walk as the representatives of our Lord. If we walk with a judgmental attitude, if we are busily condemning those we see, determining in our minds who is beyond salvation and who shall be saved, we have failed before we started. We represent not our God, but the same spirit that corrupted the Pharisees. In truth, we play the devil’s role, and seek to take up the throne of God ourselves. Who else is fit to make such determinations? It is not for us to do. We cannot see the heart. Our mission, as defined by our Master, is to go and preach the Gospel. It is to tell every person we know that Jesus truly is the Messiah. It is to tell the lost that there is a Lighthouse to guide them home. It is to tell the dying that there is the possibility of life. It is to tell the sick that there is a Healer in town. Nowhere in our orders will we find the directive to go and determine which ones you think might be receptive and go work on them.
I see no signs that Jesus, in facing this crowd, was making judgments about how any one of them would react. He simply dealt with the need of each individual in turn. Their reaction was up to them. His concern was to do the will of the Father. If we need more proof of His attitude towards the whole thing, we can consider the case of the lepers. He healed ten of them, but only one came to give thanks for what He had done. Do you think He didn’t know how those other nine were going to react? Do you think He had the least concern for the rejection in that reaction? He was perhaps the most rejected of men, driven from His hometown, hated by the heads of the church, considered slightly crazed by His own family. Yet, He pursued the course God set, and He held fast to compassion. He was determined to manifest the mercy of God. Can we do any less?
Turning my attention fully on Jesus, I want to see what I can learn from His example here. In the description of His actions on this evening, I note that once again He deals with the possessing spirits first, and that is done without personal contact. He cast them out with a word, just as He had rebuked the demon in the synagogue earlier. In that preceding event, He brought charges, as it were. He spoke to the demon, reminded it of the warrant out for its arrest, and stood as a recognized officer of that court when He delivered the message. It is no wonder that demons fled! It was flee or go to court immediately, a court that could judge perfectly, and therefore must certainly pass down a verdict of guilt. Here, the image is of forcefulness. He overcame all opposition, overwhelmed the struggle these demons put up, and forcefully tore them out of those they had possessed. And all this He did with a word, the creative Word of God!
Look, I’m not interested in magic formulas, special incantations, rulebooks for dealing with powerful spirits. That’s not faith in God, that’s nothing more than dark magic and necromancy. To pursue that course is to fall into the devil’s own trap, and to begin worshiping his power, obeying his rules. We are called to pursue a different course, the course we find in our Lord’s example. He did not join in physical contest with these enemies. He did not seek to win them over by philosophies. He simply spoke the Truth, delivered the verdict of the courts of heaven, and required them to depart.
Now, it must be said, and it can be confirmed by a brief study of the record of the saints, that the reason He could do as He did was because He was recognized as a representative of the courts of heaven. Before we go running out to chase the demons away, I suggest that we had best do some serious self-assessment. Are we recognizable representatives of God’s kingdom? Is our status as an ambassador of the heavenly courts clearly recognizable? I tell you, if we feel it necessary to declare our credentials in the midst of such activities as these, we are positioning ourselves to take the drubbing that the sons of Sceva experienced! Is your house in order? That has to be the first priority, if we’re going to serve in such a capacity as this. Otherwise, best leave it to those who have prepared their hearts, and made the light manifest in their lives.
The next thing I notice about my Lord’s work here is that He didn’t move to dealing with the diseases and the weaknesses until this prior work was accomplished. There’s no sense dealing with the symptoms when the cause is still there. I also note that in dealing with the illnesses, it was a definite matter of touch. This, I suspect, is also a part of why the demons were dealt with first. He was not willing to come into contact with that evil. The illness was not evil, let’s be clear on that! The illness was a symptom. The one that had been possessed was not evil. He was but a warrior that had dropped his shield and been overcome.
Be innocent as it pertains to evil. Don’t even suffer it to touch you, for what communion have light and darkness? Think about John’s instructions when it came to the evils of false teachers. Don’t even greet them! Don’t even give them the hint of acceptance that some might find in your saying hello to them. This is the same principle I see Jesus pursuing here. There will not be any possibility of defilement for Him. He will not suffer there to be contact until that evil occupant has been swept from the temple.
But, no sooner is the temple swept clean than an incredible thing happens. He comes with a touch, with a laying on of hands. Here, I believe, is an impartation. Here is the flip-side of the very thing He was so careful to avoid. He would not suffer to be touched by one possessed, lest there be the least possibility of an impartation of that evil into His own being. Yet, with the evil removed, He was quick to impart of His own righteousness into the cleansed vessel, and it is that very impartation of righteousness that has worked the cure.
They brought Him their sick. These were weak. They were weak physically, symptoms of the things that they had allowed to come upon them. They were weak morally, which had led to that allowance in the first place. Had He simply healed their physical maladies, they were none the better for it, for physical maladies simply reflected the moral condition. Out of the abundance of the heart… It was the moral weakness that was most in need of His ministrations, and it is exactly that moral weakness that He is most particularly fit to address. He imparted of His own essential righteousness into that place of weakness. His own character came to each one of these poor folk, and stood in the gap. Where defenses had broken down, He came with repairs. Even as Israel had come and repaired the fallen walls of Jerusalem. Here He stood, bearing both hammer and sword, re-establishing the defenses of His people, that they might stand against the further attack of the enemy.
Now, we must consider another question. If the demons were declaring truth as they encountered Jesus, why did He silence them? The record says that He did so because they knew who He was, but why was this an issue? Years later, we will find Paul reacting much the same. A servant girl declared that he was a servant of God, and rather than accept this truth, he rebuked the spirit that was upon her. The problem is not in what they were saying. The problem is in why they were saying it. They were speaking truth, but their intent was distraction. Their intent was to put up obstacles in the way of God’s purpose. How so? Well, in part, one might suppose that if the people understood up front that this was Messiah they were meeting, they would have had all their preconceptions in place about the mighty King who was come to save Israel from the oppressors. They would, perhaps, have tried to push Him into that role. They did attempt to do this at one point, but to have Him dragged before the Romans on viable charges of rebellion, well, one knows how that story’s going to end. Further, they might just manage to have the charges be reasonable, rather than the nonsense that was eventually brought against Him.
Their hope was that by declaring the truth of Him, they could instigate such actions in the people of Israel that His end would be swift. They hoped that if His end were swift enough, there would be none who believed the very truth they declared of Him. Why, after all, would the Father of Lies be promoting the Truth, except in the hopes that nobody would believe that Truth, coming from him? Jesus was wise to their games, and would not allow them to do as they wished.
Let me put it another way, a way more directly applicable to us today. He would not suffer the distraction to continue. This may well be one of the chief failings of the charismatic movement. We fail, too often, to discern the difference between real encounters with the real God and distractions of devils. I know I’ve written of this before recently, but it bears repeating. If the demons are putting on a show, we must not allow ourselves to be entertained by it. We must, insofar as we have the recognized authority to do so, rebuke those distractions, that the pure expression of the Word may be seen. When we hear somebody offering raucous agreement with a message on maintaining a quiet spirit, how is that anything but distraction? How is that agreement? How can we think that flagrant displays of the exact opposite behavior is agreement, whatever the words of the lips might say? This is not something to be amused by, it’s not something that ought to encourage the preacher, it is evidence of a wolf in the camp, and that wolf ought to be dealt with immediately and clearly.
Jesus would not suffer the distractions to continue. He would not tolerate the nonsense. If we intend to do the work of our Lord and Master, if we intend to stand as His disciples, we must do likewise. Suffer not the distractions to persist, but rebuke the devil in our midst. We needn’t make a scene in doing this. There is no particular reason for lots of hand-waving and hocus-pocus. A simple reminder to that foolish spirit that he is in the wrong place, and the eyes of heaven’s court have found him out ought to suffice. As I’ve noted before, don’t play the game if you’re not walking in the clear and visible authority of that heavenly court. This is no game for a closet-Christian to play. But, if you are not yourself in a spiritual position to deal with the issue, then for the sake of the body humble yourself and seek out one who is! Suffer not the distractions to continue, the work is too important to allow this.
Finally, as I taught in home group last night, there is the incredibly powerful message of Jesus’ example as we find it here. I love the message that Luke gives to us regarding how Jesus approached this scene. He laid hands on every one of them. He worked with that crowd one person at a time. This just blows me away. Indeed, the image so hit me that it has worked its way into a song this last week. It’s just one of those fundamental proofs of God’s great goodness, and it stands in such stark contrast to much of what one sees in the supposed super churches of our day.
Jesus took time to address each individual at their own, personal point of need. He did not offer blanket blessings on the crowd and dismiss them. There is no reason He could not have done so. It did not require His personal, physical contact to heal, as we will see in a later event. He could have simply willed their healing into existence. He could have healed them with a word, even as He had cast the devils out with a word. He chose, however, to take the time to deal with each person there one on one! What an awesome thing this is! With all that crowd there at Peter’s door, so large that Peter would recollect it as seeming like the entire city of Capernaum had come out into that street before his house, Jesus did not rush. He did not consider how very far away His bed was in that moment. He didn’t calculate how many seconds He could afford to spend with each one there. He didn’t take a single concern for Himself. His concern was wholly focused on those outside, and as He came face to face with each person there, that concern was just as wholly focused on one.
This is the most amazing expression of God’s love! As much as His love is expressed towards all His children, as much as He has the care of every moment of every life of every creature and plant in creation to deal with, still He makes time to be with me. Just me. Just the two of us in times of sweet fellowship! Who could conceive of such a thing? What other idea of God has ever suggested even the germ of this concept? Gods are mighty, invincible beings to be feared and appeased. They are to be placated and petitioned in the vain hope they might deign to do us a favor. But, to seek a god out for fellowship and conversation? I really don’t think you’ll find that as the common expectation of any other system of belief. It simply doesn’t make sense as a human conception of God. It is something that God revealed of Himself for that very reason. We could not even begin to imagine such a truth, so He must come in person to show us what He wants. Even with that before us, it’s so hard to accept what is so evidently true of Him. We still struggle to accept that He wants not just our honor and worship, but our friendship. It’s still hard to accept that we can truly declare ourselves friends of God. Yet, that is exactly what He longs for. Ever since Adam and Eve made that first error of judgment, and God’s just nature required their punishment, He has been longing for a return to that unique relationship they had had. They had walked together in the garden, enjoying conversation together, but that has been gone, now, for a very long time. God longs to have such conversations again. He longs to have such conversations with you, with me.
He’s got all the time in the world, and He wants to take some time to be with me. The question is whether I will take time to be with Him.
