New Thoughts (6/29/05-7/5/05)
A brief note of correction regarding my thoughts on Simon’s mother-in-law. Reading through the narrative, I had thought that Peter’s return from the synagogue with all his associates was the first that she and Peter’s wife had seen of him since he left to follow Jesus. However, for Jesus to have arrived on the Sabbath and gone straight to the synagogue would have required that this whole group had been journeying farther than was proper for a Sabbath day. It is possible, I suppose, that they had stopped just short of town the previous night, but with Peter’s house just ahead, was this really likely? I would think not. Nor do I think Jesus, His family or His disciples were yet sufficiently bold as to defy the Sabbath. That would come, but the time was not yet.
Throughout this introduction to the beginnings of Jesus’ ministry, I have been seeing my Jesus doing wonders of healing, and miracles of deliverance. A quick run through the parallel references for this section shows that this facet of His ministry didn’t change. Right to the very end, He continued in the pattern that was set here at the start. Consider that first night at Simon’s house. Many came, bearing their sick as well as those possessed. He spoke the demons out of those who came, and then healed them with a touch. (Mt 8:16, Mk 1:34).
Now, consider this. All that these folks had seen was one angry man in the synagogue suddenly pacified. Did they know him to be a demoniac? I would rather doubt it. If they had, they would not have suffered him to share their company, especially in the synagogue. There are hints in the passages speaking of Jesus’ first announcement of ministry in Nazareth that He had been healing the sick before He ever got there, apparently en route from John’s baptism and the subsequent temptations. However, this response feels so much more spontaneous. I would again note that, contrary to my prior thoughts, He had likely been in town for at least a day prior to that visit to the synagogue. They already knew He was here, so why had they not brought their sick to Him before? No, I think this was all in response to that one deliverance witnessed in the synagogue.
In this passage, we see a similar reaction to events. He had healed many in Capernaum, and then proceeded to other towns and villages in the region. But, the news of Him spread faster and farther than He traveled. The result was that people were coming from all over, traveling long distances for the chance to meet Him, to be healed by Him, to be delivered by Him. Nor was this a one-time reaction. Crowds in need would become a hallmark of Jesus’ ministry. Here are but a few of the examples:
Jesus comes to shore, and finds crowds there waiting for Him. He sees their need, and He addresses their need, healing them all (Mt 14:14). More crowds came. They brought their sick, lame and blind with them, and He healed them all (Mt 15:30). The crowds didn’t just come, they stayed. They followed Him. The healings continued (Mt 19:2). I want to come back to that one shortly. Even as He was at the temple in Jerusalem, they were bringing in blind and lame folk, and He continued to heal them (Mt 21:14).
Mark relays the result of this ministry. Having healed so many already, it reached the point where anybody with the least little affliction was crowding around Him hoping for a touch (Mk 3:10). There’s another thing that I need to come back to. We need to stop worrying about being so proper with our Lord. How can it be total dependence on Him when I insist on taking care of things myself?
Luke joins in the chorus relating to us how Jesus ministered to the people. This aspect of things surely touched the physician’s heart as well as his thinking. Here was a man trained in the medical science of his day. He knew how to heal up what he could. He also knew there were limits. How amazed he must have been to consider this Jesus, for whom those limits did not apply! What joy must have been his to learn of this One who cared as he himself cared, who wanted to fix all the hurts of life as he himself did, but who, so very unlike himself, had the power to do it. Look at this one passage that Luke records. On the spot, as these people gathered around Him, He cured all manner of diseases, and cast out any number of evil spirits (Lk 7:21). Now, so far, his account could have been of any number of faith healers and exorcists wandering the Jewish landscape, but then he adds something that sets Jesus utterly apart from that crowd. He even restored sight to the blind!
Look, Luke knew his medicine. He also knew these faith healers, these exorcists for what they were – mostly charlatans. He was not one to get all caught up in Egyptian mysteries, or any other such stuff. He was trained, an educated Greek, and quite probably rather agnostic before he encountered the Christ. He knew the limits of what men could do, and curing blindness wasn’t within those limits. I would imagine that he was pretty skeptical about this claim when he first heard it, but he was a proper historian and he dug up sources, witnesses to confirm the events. In fact, I doubt he was fully satisfied of the reality of this thing until he had spoken to at least one of those who had known his own sight restored. Here was evidence that was difficult to discount! It’s one thing to hear about all these faith healings. It’s quite another when you meet the one healed, when you have clear evidence of that prior condition, as well as the clear evidence of your own senses telling you that the condition no longer exists. I can picture Luke interviewing such a one, and waving his hands before that man’s eyes just to confirm beyond all doubt that there was indeed sight.
Having established, I think, that healing and deliverance were always a facet of Jesus’ ministry, I want to consider why this was so, and I want to consider what the result of it was. However, before I turn to that, I need to come back to that question I asked a few paragraphs back. How can it be total dependence on Him when I insist on taking care of things myself? This is a problem for me, I know. I am sure I’m not alone in that. There are so many things that I’m willing to put up with or to deal with on my own because they just aren’t a big enough deal to bother my God about. Yet, there it is; that picture of the crowds coming with everything, every affliction, every least physical issue, so that this One who cares so much could heal them.
Lord, forgive me. I know that there are any number of issues I have refused to come to You with because I didn’t consider them worth Your attention. I know there are any number of things that my family asks me to pray for that I don’t, because they seem so minor. Why bother the Master with that? Yet, You have opened my eyes regarding this. You do care about the small stuff. Your desire for intimate fellowship is such that You want to share in every least detail of my life. Your concern for me is so great that You want to take care of every problem. And, if I were but honest and forthright with myself, I would have to confess that unless You do so, there is no little problem. They all become big because I am so unequipped to take care of anything on my own.
God, I thank You for Your great care over me. I thank You that even when I am negligent, You are not. Lord, You know the challenges that I face. You know those things I am so incapable of letting go. You have pried them from me before, but I foolishly keep taking them back. Oh, my God! I cannot let go, yet I cannot continue without letting go. I know it is not in my strength to walk away from these things. I know, also, that it is Your desire that I do so. Truly, I feel trapped by this, yet I know You are faithful. I know You can do for me what I cannot do for myself. I know, also, that I must await Your timing, and when the time comes, I must be prepared to step out in what You command. This, too, seems beyond me so often, yet I know You are able to do for me far and beyond what I think to ask for now. I know You are able to do through me far and beyond what I find imaginable when I look at myself. Oh, God! Let it be done in me as You have desired.
Now I turn my attention to the reasons that Jesus healed. We discussed this in home group last night, and discerned three fundamental reasons for this activity. First, as the examples show, Jesus healed because His compassion for those who came to Him could not have done otherwise. Here were God’s people, and they were suffering. Yes, many were suffering for their own sinful decisions, but here was the One who had come to bring release from the bondage of sin. Here was the One who had come to pave the way of peace, to provide forgiveness for sins. Here was the very Compassion of God walking among the hurts of man, and He could not, would not ignore that suffering, nor would He suffer it to continue when it was in His power to put an end to it.
To that degree, the social gospel that arose in the seventies was correct. Where it is in the power of God’s people to put an end to the miseries of sin, it is incumbent upon them to do so. Love that does not act in the face of need is no love at all. Holiness unto the Lord is nothing if it does not express itself towards the Lord’s children. The only problem with that movement was that it forgot God. It became all about serving the poor, and nothing about honoring God, nothing about serving God, nothing, even, about acknowledging God. All that they worshiped was the correcting of perceived injustices, but without God’s voice to declare what was just and what wasn’t, they were left with their own, sin-darkened opinions as guide. Under that blind guidance, the just punishment for unrepented sins appeared to be injustice to them, and the battle was taken to that line. They would not suffer the sinner to be called a sinner any longer, because it might hurt his sensibilities. No! Just minister to the symptoms and let the disease continue.
Jesus was not like this. He healed, yes. But, as I have said in previous sections of this study, He took care to first vanquish and expel all spiritual opposition. Those who held the chains of bondage by which the people were tied to sinfulness were first forced to leave or be put in chains themselves. Only then were the physical symptoms, which in large part came as a result of sins, dealt with. Nor did Jesus stop with those symptoms. He dealt with the spirit man. To have healed the sick and then left them as spiritually darkened as they were before would have been to invite their tormenters to come on back as soon as He was done. This He would not do. No, having removed the oppressors, having healed the pains that had come from sin’s imprisonment, He now fortified the ones He had rescued, taught them of faith, of heaven, of the great God and King who cared for them. He restored to them that armor of which Paul would write, most especially that shield of faith that was their defense against those forces of darkness that had once overrun them. In short, He dealt with the whole problem. We must do likewise. Both the physical need and the spiritual must be met, else we have not been doing the work of the Father.
A second facet to Jesus’ healing ministry was that it stood as a testimony to who He was, to His office, to His Godhead. There came a point in His ministry when John the Baptist, from his prison cell, sent some of his students to seek out Jesus, and confirm for themselves that He was indeed the Messiah. Now, several commentaries have pointed out the John needed no such confirmation. He had known from the outset who Jesus was, but he also knew his days were coming to an end, and he would do his utmost to ensure that those who followed him understood that it was Jesus they must turn to.
Well, those he sent came to Jesus, and informed them that John wanted to know if He was the One. In response, He simply turned to that crowd that was ever around Him, sought out a blind man there, and healed him. This was His answer. He made that clear to those who had come asking. “Go tell John what you just saw for yourself, the blind are healed.” That was the whole of His testimony, for it was clear from these actions that He was indeed the fulfillment of many a prophecy that every good Jew knew. It was clear from this that He was far more than a man. What He had done in their sight was impossible to man. But, of course, with God all things are possible!
At a later date, when Peter was preaching to Cornelius and his family, this was the thing he spoke of in making plain who Jesus was. “You are aware, of course, that Jesus of Nazareth had been so anointed by God, anointed both with the Holy Spirit and with power. You have heard how He did good and healed all who were oppressed by the devil, and you must know that this was because God was with Him” (Ac 10:39). This was the testimony Jesus had established, and it was a testimony that continued to speak after He had returned to heaven.
Finally, I think it clear that Jesus healed to attract crowds. Certainly that was the upshot of His activities even if it wasn’t particularly His intent. I will maintain, though, that it was His intent. This was as close to seeker-friendly as He got! However, as I said before, He was not going to be satisfied to deal only with the symptoms. He didn’t attract the crowds just to heal their immediate problems and send them away. No! He attracted them so that they could hear the message of the kingdom. That, as He said, was the thing He must do. He didn’t say that He must go and heal in the neighboring cities. He said He must go and preach. The healing would simply ensure that many were present to hear the Good News.
Doubtless, I could be reminded of those many times Jesus instructed those He had healed not to tell anybody. Yet, I would note that not one of those people appears to have heeded His words on that matter. Am I really to suppose that Jesus was so unaware of human nature that He didn’t realize this would be the outcome? The fact is that there were other occasions in which His instruction was quite the opposite. Consider the case of the Geresene demoniac. Having been delivered from a legion of demons, his response was a great desire to join Jesus as a follower. But, Jesus instructed him to return home instead, specifically for the purpose of telling the people what God had done for him (Mk 5:19). Luke tells us that others who had witnessed this event were also spreading word of it (Lk 8:36).
One thing is clear. Healing got people’s attention. It was a powerful attraction to those who had suffered long. They had experienced the mystics with their attempts at exorcism. They had experienced the Egyptian magicians with their dark arts. They had experienced the science of Greece, such as it was. None of these had been of any avail. The best that might be hoped for was that their symptoms were relieved for a time, but always with the recognition that those symptoms would return. Here, however, was one who was truly healing people. He was not just making them feel better, He was truly making them better.
I’ve looked at His threefold approach to this ministry of healing elsewhere, how He first dealt with the demonic interlopers who spread the disease, then dealt with the physical symptoms in those who had been attacked, and finally fortifying true faith as a shield against future attack. This summary of His early ministry in the present passage has not changed that sequence of ministry. However, as I have surveyed the results of these healings, of the great crowds that marked Jesus’ presence throughout His time, I have to wonder how many of them received real life.
After all, we know that many who were healed by Him simply ran off rejoicing in the end of their symptoms. Remember the ten lepers? Only one came back to thank the Lord of all Creation for what He had done. I rather think that ratio was probably pretty typical. Crowds came. Crowds followed Him about. But, when the message became more difficult; when the words were of taking up one’s cross, of eating His body and drinking of His blood, well, who was going to stick around for that sort of talk? Only those who, like Peter, recognized that what they were receiving from this One was life itself.
We read here of great multitudes coming from every region save one. Multitudes following every move this Man made, constantly seeking a moment of His time to hear of their need, constantly hoping for some slight touch from Him that would put an end to their suffering and sickness. Yet, when we reach the upper room in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, there are but one hundred twenty followers to be found. One hundred twenty out of so many thousands! Healing drew the crowds, to be sure, but it seems that only a very few received the life that was spoken over them.
Even here in this passage, where Matthew tells us of the great crowds that followed him, there seems to be some disagreement amongst the texts as to just what it meant that they followed Him. Thayer’s lexicon speaks of this following as a matter of cleaving steadfast, of becoming one’s attendant or disciple. The word itself talks of being united on the road, of being on the same path. Yet, Zhodiates indicates that though there was this sharing of common direction, there was not such intimacy and commitment as would be expected of a real disciple. Where Thayer sees one wholly conformed to the Teacher’s example, Zhodiates sees only one who shares the course for a time.
Well, isn’t that a lesson for us? We are surrounded by followers. That is, after all, what our churches are, a community of followers. You will not find anybody in regular attendance there who would not claim to be a follower of Jesus. Yet, it is clear that the population of that community changes over time, and not simply because changes in life’s circumstances make it a geographical necessity. No, the reality is that many of those who will say they are followers of Jesus are only going to share His way for a time. If the road gets difficult, if the territory through which His Way takes them begins to get dangerous, if the things He asks of His companions begins to be too much, they will be gone, not to be seen again in the camps of the righteous.
In contrast will stand those who have truly followed as disciples. These have considered fully this One they have joined with. They have seen His ways, and recognized that He alone has the words of life, He alone is their hope in this world. Such as have fully grasped these truths will continue with Him whatever may come. These are the ones who will stand as martyrs, witnesses to the goodness of God by their own death, should it be necessary in the sight of the Lord. “Though He slay me, yet I will trust Him.” That is the reality in which the follower dwells. It is founded on the truth that though He slay me, it will be for my good, and the good of those others who serve Him. It is founded on the truth that though this physical life passes, there remains an eternity to be spent with the family of God in the kingdom of heaven.
Physical healing may draw us to Him, but physical healing must in the end be a temporary matter. Lazarus was raised from the dead, but his body returned to the grave eventually. Lepers were healed of their disease, but fifty years hence they were just as dead in their graves. As much as these reprieves were doubtless appreciated by those who received them, they weren’t really the point. The point was a spiritual rebirth in the soul of each man and woman of them, such that even as their bodies were lain in the ground, their spirits were soaring.
Here is a reality that the seeker-friendly church movement needs to come to grips with. It’s not enough to attract the crowds. The honey may draw them, but so long as they remain flies, the honey will become a trap to those that are drawn. It is a wonderful thing to attract crowds to come pay attention to God. There can be nothing wrong with making His name famous among the nations. However, it is necessary that we feed the crowds when they come. It is necessary that they hear the truth of God, that they hear it in such power and clarity that they accept the truth of God. It is necessary that they be brought to rebirth in Christ Jesus, else all those great numbers, all the excitement, all the income that may be derived from their pockets, will mean nothing. God doesn’t appear to be interested in numbers all that much. He’s forever thinning down the crowds that come speaking of serving Him, but in reality seeking to serve their own egos.
Jesus was not misled by the crowds that went with Him wherever He was. Indeed, He explained the situation this way, “Many are called, but few are chosen” (Mt 22:14). Think about it. Thousands upon thousands were coming to this One who so patiently dealt with all manner of sickness and disease. Thousands came to Him looking for relief, looking for an end to their pain and sorrows. But, when these thousands heard what the whole cure entailed, they settled for a bit of medication for their symptoms. They weren’t ready to follow the full regimen that the Good Doctor laid out. The healing touch was good. The word of deliverance was good. It was good enough that even after they were healed themselves, they would likely hang about to watch the show as others went through the process. But, in the end the majority went away unchanged. No doubt, the demons that had been chased away from them would be back, for the house that had been swept clean was not kept clean.
Now, I had mentioned that these crowds were coming from all the surrounding regions save one. I find this curious. Consider those places that Matthew mentions. They came from Syria, from the regions of Tyre and Sidon. Now, there were doubtless Jews to be found in those places, most of them drawn by the excesses of those more native to the territory. This was the great danger of which God had warned His people when first they came into the land. Drive out the current occupants or know that they will wind up corrupting you. However, there is nothing in what Matthew says to suggest that it was only from among the Jewish population that these crowds came. No! Anybody who was sick, or cared for somebody who was sick, was coming to find this Healer.
Then, of course, there were those in Galilee, the northern region of Israel. Yet, the very name of that place indicated the lay of the land. It was the land within the Gentile circle. The BDB indicates that this was the region that Solomon had given to Hiram of Lebanon as payment for the lumber that king had provided for the building of the Temple. It was Jewish, and yet there was a great admixture of Gentile ways here.
From there, the list moves on to the Decapolis, a region dominated more by the Greeks than by the Jews. Not that the Jews are left out by any means, for Judea and the central city of Jerusalem also sent their crowds to meet this One. Finally, there is mentioned a region noted only as being beyond the Jordan. Well, we have already learned of the Decapolis region, which was largely beyond the Jordan, and there were portions of Judea that we find referred to as being beyond the Jordan. However, it seems to me that the region Matthew has in mind is more likely to have been Perea, a predominantly Arab region.
Now, one thing I notice from this is that from the start Jesus’ ministry was not something exclusive to the Jews, just as we find that there was nothing in the Law and the Prophets that excluded the nations from worshiping the God of Israel. God’s desire is, after all, that all should be saved. He has chosen Israel, but He has not played favorites. He has not abandoned the rest of those He created in His image.
Now, it must be noted that there is one group missing from this list, and that is the people of Samaria. Where were they? Why do we not hear of their own crowds coming out to meet Jesus? Were they healthier, so as not to need His healing? No, I don’t think so. It could be, I suppose that they simply hadn’t heard the news. After all, this was a people that the Jews avoided religiously, and how shall they hear if there is none to preach? Yet, I suspect that even this is not the case. Word got out, even if it was overheard in the marketplace. They were aware of Jesus, they just couldn’t be bothered to go out to Him.
Perhaps they were concerned about the reception they would get from this Jewish man. Perhaps they were concerned about the looks they would have to endure from their neighbors as they went in amongst them. Any number of reasons might be given for why they would not pursue the One who spoke life, but none could suffice. A friend of mine suggested that the issue was that they were lukewarm. They were not opposed to Jesus, but neither were they committed to Him. They were ambivalent. This would fit well with their natural description, for they were a mixed people, Jews in part, but Gentiles in part. This was what had made them so offensive to the full-blooded Jews. They had compromised. They were no longer pure, so they could no longer be God’s people. Having heard that often enough, they had lost all desire to be God’s people.
Wow! There are warnings for us in that aren’t there? Samaria’s problem was not so much that they didn’t want God, that they didn’t want Jesus. The problem was that the people of God had put them off, had pushed them away, had declared them unfit for the kingdom so often that those poor folks believed it. Who amongst the people we know have we so thoroughly discounted? Who among our co-workers, our fellow students, our families, our government officials, have we determined in our own minds is beyond salvation? How often have they heard that from us? Oh, they may not have heard it in words, but perhaps they’ve understood it from our attitudes.
Here’s another way to view it: How many would be attracted to join us in our faith given the evidence of our attitudes? Is our behavior outside the church of a kind that would recommend to others what’s happening inside the church? Or do we walk about barely distinguishable from the unbelief all around us? This is not to suggest that we must go out and rub our acquaintances’ noses in the good news of the Gospel, but it is to suggest that we ought to be noticeably different in our reactions to life. It shouldn’t need us preaching at them to make them aware that there’s a difference. It ought to be so much a part of our way of life that nothing need be said.
Now, there’s one other possibility (at least) that explains the absence of Samaria in the list. This thought comes by way of a phonetic coupling with what was preached at church last Sunday. It was a question raised by our Youth Pastor, Mr. O’Neil. He asked if there was some area in our lives that we were waiting for God to do something about. Well, it strikes me that this is exactly what was happening in that region south of Galilee. See, those to the north had come out to seek God’s touch, though they may not have understood yet that it was God’s touch they sought. Those to the west, in the Greek cities, had come out for, though they didn’t acknowledge God as the One and Only God, they acknowledged that something powerful was walking in Galilee. Those in Judea, who were perhaps best positioned to understand the Truth, came looking for Him. Even the Pereans were seeking Him out.
But, there was Samaria, waiting for God to do something. They wanted the touch of this Fountain of Life. Don’t you doubt it! They wanted the liberation that He brought, the freedom from sin’s bonds. But, they were satisfied to sit back and wait for Him to do something. They would wait until He moved them. They could even make it sound righteous that they were doing so. After all, God is omnipotent, and everything must be done in His time anyway, so why should they try and change His timetable? Jesus had much to say about this attitude. He taught His hearers to pray unceasingly, to storm the gates of heaven with prayer. Now, He also warned against babbling. He wasn’t interested in filling the courts of heaven with endless drivel. No. He wanted purposeful prayers, spoken in faith.
See, the babbling of the Gentiles was really an evidence of their faithlessness. They had no hope that their gods wanted to hear from them, figured they must make a lengthy noise to get the attention of these higher beings. Some among God’s people had adopted that same attitude, come to think of Him as being asleep somewhere. Some in Christianity have held that view as well. They accept that there was a God who created the heavens and the earth, but they suppose He must have lost interest in the project after that. Such belief would find that extraordinary effort was needed to catch the attention of their disinterested deity. God, however, is not like that. He is attentive to the prayers of the saints. He hears, and He answers. The answers may appear delayed in our minds, but they are not. The answers may appear to come in response to lengthy periods of daily, perhaps hourly prayer, but in truth they were arranged in that first moment of earnest request.
Some would suggest that the faithful, having prayed, ought to trust in Him to answer, and simply sit back awaiting that response. But, that is not the Way of the Lord. No, the Lord’s example is that which Nehemiah recorded during the rebuilding of Jerusalem. The prayers for God’s help were long, earnest, and plentiful. Indeed, there was probably not a moment of the day that went by without somebody beseeching the Lord of heaven to come down and protect the work. By the same token, the people were hardly idle. They were fully committed to the labor of rebuilding over which they prayed. They were moving ahead on God’s project, in faith that He would do what they could not, and in determination that they would do what they could.
Do you know, then, who was on the other side of those walls, who it was that had them seeking God so arduously? It wasn’t just the descendants of Ishmael out there. Right there, in the rebuilding of Jerusalem, can be found the beginnings of the long-lasting issue between the Jews and the Samarians. The Samarians had been left in the land when the rest were sent off in exile. Survival required them to find a unity of sorts with those other peoples who were in the land. It was that or extinction. Now, the exiles were back, and rather than reach out to those who had remained, they rejected them outright. They would have nothing to do with these people, nor allow them to have anything to do with the rebuilding of Jerusalem. As if they had less claim to the Holy City! Is it any wonder that there was resentment? Is it any wonder that vile jealousy was able to work its poison in them? And God’s people, who should have known better, were unwilling to be the voice of Peace. They allowed the poison to work to the full. Centuries later, the poison was still running in their veins, and not only in the veins of the Samarians, but also amongst the Judeans.
Meanwhile, they were waiting for God to work in Samaria. They weren’t doing anything to help. They made no move for their own benefit, but just waited on God. Here is the problem of sin in the life of a believer. We become willing to put this holy face on our sins, rather than confront them. Oh, there’s nothing I could possibly do about it, so I’ll wait for God to deal with it. We’re so happy with this excuse that we offer it to our brothers and sisters. Oh, it’s ok. We understand. I’m sure you’ve tried everything to stop, but the flesh! Well, who can hope to stand against that? Just wait on God, brother. I’m sure He’ll take care of it in His time. This is not the Scriptural answer, folks! This is not the plan He lays out for us! No! He says to subdue the flesh. He says to exercise the spiritual muscle, to put down every vain imagination, every lustful thought. He tells us to train ourselves to be as dead men to sin. Now, when He tells us that, we are fools to think that means we ought to just lie down and let sin have its way. The point is quite to the contrary. The point is that dead men are not enticed by the lusts of the senses. They are impervious to sin because they cannot feel its attractions. The larger point is that we are called not only to pray, as the popular saying has it, until something happens. We are to do. Faith is active, just as love is active. A faith that lays back and waits on God to do everything will die for lack of nourishment.
I have no doubt in my mind that every man and woman of us suffers from this issue in one degree or another. I know there are those sins that we essentially refuse to deal with. Oh, we raise our prayers to heaven about them, especially if we are feeling the consequences at the moment. We pray and pray and pray, but we have little to no intention of doing anything about it. It’s all up to God, because we won’t be bothered. With that spirit within us, we can fully expect that He won’t be bothered either. If the people of God had not been hard at work rebuilding His city, His temple, it would not have been rebuilt. He, quite frankly, doesn’t have much need for either a city or a temple. Neither was He terribly concerned about how His reputation stood amongst fallen man. God is not a man that He should be shamed into action, nor that He should behave according to the dictates of swollen pride. He is purposeful.
He is also a good Father. He does not encourage sloth in His children, either in spirit or in flesh. He encourages them to remain active, to exercise, to pursue the work that is theirs. When He sees them doing as they ought, He blesses the effort, and comes along side to help. When He sees His children idling, how can we think He will be pleased? How can we think that when we tell Him we simply realized we couldn’t do it without Him, so we were waiting for Him to do it without us, that this somehow blesses Him? We, who call ourselves the servants of the Most High must surely serve Him, rather than waiting to be served by Him!
Now, I would turn to another aspect of this ministry that Jesus was beginning. What I am thinking of is the message, for every one of these three accounts makes note of the preaching. Yes, Matthew writes of the healing, but only after noting that Jesus declared the Gospel, the Good News. It was this message that Jesus was compelled to bring to the other cities of the region. He never said He must go and heal folks in other places. He said that He must go and preach. This simply confirms to me that the healing, as consistently as it was present as a facet of His ministry, was but a facet, and a facet of lesser importance. It was the advertisement, the draw, but the message was the point and purpose.
Neither did that message change much at all over the three years of His ministry. In fact, Jesus Himself speaks of the consistency of that message, a consistency that covered not only His own message, but also that of His forerunner. He spoke at one point of how the message had changed. Before John had begun to minister, the message was always about the Law – those things that God required of man, and about the prophets – those promises of God that seemed so far away. Beginning with John, though there was a signal change in the message. Now the message was of promise accomplished. The message was about the good news of God’s Kingdom. What was the Good News? Well, it was that His kingdom was imminent. One might even go so far as to say His kingdom was come, given that the King Himself was walking amongst them. The Good News came with its own requirement, though. It required repentance. It required real repentance from a heart that recognized that it really wasn’t prepared to be in the presence of the King.
Jesus, having thus laid out the distinction between what preceded Him and what would follow upon Him, makes this comment: All those who have heard this great Good News are forcing their way into the kingdom (Lk 16:16). What an odd statement this seems! How is it possible that any man should force His way into God’s presence? Might I suggest the force that bears a man into God’s kingdom is a fierce determination to pursue God’s way? We force our way into His presence first and foremost by the repentance that is redemption’s great requirement. Yes, and it requires force to overcome those sins that make repentance so necessary. We force our way in by radical commitment to the King. We force our way in by a fierce insistence on pursuing His ways however hard the path before us.
We force our way in by persistent prayer, as well. As I have already commented, that prayer is not to be empty repetition, a mere flood of words. Such prayers are like mosquitoes in the courtyard, an annoyance and a disturbance, but nothing particularly welcome. No, the prayer that we are talking about here is one that is offered in faith. It bespeaks a full conviction and belief that God to Whom we are speaking is listening. It also necessarily reflects the knowledge that He Who listens will answer. If there is repetition, as persistence must, I suppose, admit, then it is a repetition that reflects no uncertainty on the part of the believer. Rather it is a celebration of the certainty of God’s goodness!
I might ask myself whether my own prayers of repentance truly fall into this category of prevailing prayer that will bear me into the kingdom. It’s a question absolutely worth asking, for the flesh (and the mind that is its flagship) are so easily fooled into thinking the situation better than it is. When I pray for forgiveness, when I pray for help with besetting sins, do I really believe He will help? Do I really want Him to help? In all honesty, I must confess that there are times when I would have to answer ‘no’ to one or both of these questions. There are times when I seek forgiveness even as I go on to do the very thing I’ve asked to have forgiven me. Do I recommend this? No. Am I pleased by it? No. It is utmost foolishness to pursue such a course. This I know, and yet I allow the flesh to draw me down again.
Still, I cling to the great Good News that my Jesus has paid the price to free me from these things. I may not be struggling free of them now, but I will again rise up against the fetters, because the Spirit of the Living God insists I must. I have tasted of the victory my God has provided. I have seen the wreckage that is the camp of sin. Though my flesh rebels against me, yet I will choose the side of victory and life. Though weakness be my lot in this present moment, yet I will lay hold of the strength of my Strong Tower, my God and King, my Redeemer and Savior, knowing that He will cause me to stand. Oh, but may I not be found as Samaria, idly awaiting the Deliverer. May I be found instead storming the gates of Heaven, seeking admittance, striving to stand as a citizen of that glorious place!
I have identified the message of the kingdom. This, it can be seen, was the theme of Jesus’ preaching. Whatever parables, whatever examples He expounded, whatever healings and deliverances He performed, they were to one purpose: to make plain that the kingdom of God was here, that vengeance upon sin and evil was still His, and that forgiveness and mercy were given freely to all who would call upon Him in earnest, to all who believe. The healing, the deliverance, these were in this sense a foretaste of heaven. The time would be when sin’s aftermath of disease would be no more, because sin would be no more. The time would come when the demons no longer had license to roam the earth. They would be confined to the pits of hell from which they had come, never to trouble the people of God again. Death itself would be vanquished, no longer holding power over God’s children, because they had within them the very fountains of life.
See, punishment of sin is not all that great news in the ears of the sinner, for he knows himself guilty, and suspects that punishment must fall upon him, for it is after all, his sin of which we speak. Of a certainty, the sinner must be made aware of his sinful state, for almost to a one, the sinner will think himself a good man until it is made clear in his own sight that he is not. A man must understand the weight of the sentence against him before he will understand the enormity of the offer that follows upon that understanding! One who thinks himself wholly alive will not be terribly excited by the offer of life. What enticement is there in being offered what you already have in full? No, it is only when he has been given to recognize the looming sentence of death overhanging his future that the offer of life and liberty begins to draw his soul. I don’t suppose there are many who would see death in their immediate future and not do all they can to change course. But, when the road to life looks hard, and the road we are on so easy, the natural inclination will be to take the easy way. The kingdom lies down the more difficult path, but we have a sure Guide in our Lord. And we are assured that we will indeed make the passage intact.
I said that the message Jesus brought remained unchanged, was as much a constant in His ministry as was the healing. Luke, in one summary passage, notes that this was pretty much Jesus’ life: going from place to place, into each city and town in turn, teaching in their open places and preaching in their synagogues, always bearing the message of the kingdom of God (Lk 8:1).
So critical was this message to the Way that the apostles, carrying the work forward after Jesus’ departure, still left the message unchanged. They had taken to heart what Jesus had said: Since John, the message is the gospel of the kingdom. Paul, for one, was careful to make plain that this was still the content of his own preaching. Knowing that he was coming to the end of his ministry, he offered this testimony to those whose lives had been changed by hearing his preaching: “I went among you preaching the kingdom” (Ac 20:25). When all the words are boiled down to their essence, that is it: the kingdom is here, repent and make yourself ready for your King. Even in his later imprisonment in Rome, the message went forth. He was allowed his own place, though he was a prisoner, and there he was allowed to receive all who cared to seek him out. For two years, he continued thus, and through it all he preached the kingdom of God, teaching about the Christ openly and unhindered (Ac 28:30-31). For any who cared to hear, the message was unchanged, and the offer of Redemption was still there.
So it continues today. For any who care to hear, the message is unchanged. The kingdom of God has come to earth. The King Himself came to establish that dominion, and to free all those of His kingdom who had been in bondage to the wrongful occupying forces. It may not seem this way to the natural eye, nor can we believe that His kingdom is established in full as we look about us. Yet, He has come. He has penetrated the ranks of the enemy and drawn forth His own. He continues to seek out and save those of His people who remain captive. The offer is still there. He will pay the ransom if you want your freedom. His are the riches of every nation. He can well afford the price of your sins. He has already paid for them in full, truth be told. He is also well able to force the issue against a reticent foe. See, the price was already paid. The full due penalty for your sins, your transgressions against the laws of heaven has been paid in full, but your cruel jailor refuses to release your bonds. He will not abide by the laws he claims to be enforcing. He has lied to you, for he is a liar, and the father of lies. He has told you that you are doomed to remain imprisoned forever. The truth is that the order for your release has already come down. The truth of the matter is that He who arranged your release is exceedingly angry that the order has been ignored, and He is coming with power to make certain that the ignoring comes to an end. He will vanquish every opposing force, for the force that could withstand Him never has been and never will be conceived.
Cry out from your bonds! Cry out for the mighty King of heaven and earth! He will save you. He will not suffer your life to be wasted in the prison you have been moldering in. He will not suffer you to be lost to the kingdom. Don’t you know how much you have to offer the kingdom in your liberty? Don’t you know how much your big brother has cried after you in your chains? Don’t you know that nothing, nothing will stop Him from bearing you free from that place? Cry out to Him that He may come to you swiftly, and lift you from the pit. Cry out to Him that He may come and strike off the chains that bind you. Hear the Good News! Come, repent of your sins, those things that you continue to do, knowing them wrong, yet feeling powerless to stop. Rise up! Take the battle to your captors! Insist on the liberty your God has purchased for you! Force your way into the kingdom that is your right and proper home!
Jesus declared that He must preach this message in every city and town. It was for this that He went forth, and it was for this He was sent. It was His purpose. More to the point, as that word ‘must’ indicates, it was a necessity. It was, as Zhodiates puts it, “an unavoidable, urgent necessity.” It was not something which He could either choose to do or not. It was a direct order. It was the decree of God that He bear this message to God’s people. The decree has not stopped with Him. It has passed to us who serve in His stead, who continue His ministry in our own time and place. The decree has not changed because the message has not changed. The message has not changed because the need has not changed. Wherever God’s children continue to rot in the bonds of sin, the message must be delivered. Eyes must be opened to the cavalry waiting to charge to the rescue. The prisoners must be incited to rebel against their guards, to force their way free of the prison cells and battle their way back into the kingdom that is here.
I have looked at the work Jesus did and the message He proclaimed. What remains is to look at the way in which He was empowered to do these things, the very key to His ministry. That key is given to us in the text of this passage. It is the explanation for where Jesus had gone so early that morning. It is the same thing that He is seen doing again and again during those three years. He was getting away to be alone with God. Matthew relays other occasions when Jesus did so, such as the time He sent the crowds away and then retreated into the mountains to pray (Mt 14:23). Luke tells us this matter of solitary prayer was a thing Jesus did often (Lk 5:16). Now, I don’t believe for a moment that He ceased from praying, or from communicating with the Father when He was amongst the people. No, I am sure He prayed with those people, that He prayed with His disciples, that He prayed in the temples and on the roads. It’s not so much the fact of prayer that is of import here, it is the type of prayer. He was alone with God. That was the key. He was spending time with Dad. In that time, Daddy God was able to refresh His Son with fellowship. He was able to impart to His Son wisdom and knowledge for the day ahead. He was able to teach His Son of the things that must be done, and how best to do them. He was able, most importantly to reassure His Son, to praise Him for His faithfulness, and encourage Him to steadfastness in what lay ahead.
Now, there are several things I need to consider in regards to this example our Brother sets for us, not the least of which is that if He needed times of retreat, how much more do we? I recall, at our recent men’s gathering, that it was declared to be a Men’s Advance, rather than a Men’s Retreat. See, the idea was that women retreat, but men advance. All very cute, to be sure, but who are we to think we don’t need that which our Lord, our Teacher, our Example needed so often? How long do we think we will remain standing on the front lines if we do not have times of retreat in which to refresh and restore? I tell you, it won’t be long. No, the idea of a retreat is an idea given by the Lord Jesus Himself. He told His disciples to come away to a lonely place. Why? The ministry had been going great guns. They had been healing, praying, delivering. Why they had been so busy in the pursuit of kingdom labors that they hadn’t even taken time to eat, so great was their zeal. But zeal must ever be tempered with wisdom. They needed to recharge, and though they didn’t recognize this themselves, their Teacher did.
Come away. Lay down your labors for a time. Lay down your responsibilities for a time. Wow. It sounds almost sinful to our ears, and yet there it is – the command of our God. Come, set it all aside, and spend time with Me. Do you know, this is what the Sabbath is about? This is what it is intended to be. It’s not just a day to laze about and do nothing. It’s a day set aside to be alone with Dad. It’s the original Father-Son outing.
What happens on those outings? They aren’t times for Dad to belabor his son with endless criticisms. They aren’t times for Dad to talk endlessly responsibilities and techniques for getting this and that done. No, the teaching comes in more subtle ways, more gentle ways. These outings are a time for conversation. They are times not only for the sons to hear what the fathers are thinking, but also for the fathers to hear what their sons are becoming. They are times to be mentally exposed to each other, times when the inner thought-life is revealed a little bit more, not necessarily by means of confession, but more by what a frank and friendly exchange of thoughts reveals about the thinkers.
This is what our personal time with God is for. It is time to enter into a frank and friendly exchange of thoughts with Dad. Now, if it’s all about our needs, there is no exchange going on. Neither is it a friendly matter. It is simply the cry of a whiny child. This is not to suggest that Dad doesn’t care about our needs. Quite the contrary. Any father will respond to the earnest need of his children. Any father will likewise respond with annoyance if all they ever hear from their children is need. If the only time I spoke with my Dad was when I was at the end of my rope, I’d soon find that he had become less responsive, that he was not terribly interested in hearing it again. Why? Because there has been no relationship building. I have not treated him as a father, but as a bank and loan, or worse yet, as a welfare office. If this is what our prayer time is like, what cause do we have to think Daddy God is pleased?
Now, I would also have to say that endless torrents of praise are not really the thing either. There is that old acrostic applied to the matter of pray, “ACTS” – Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. These are the ingredients, we are told, from which we should build our prayers. True enough, I suppose, yet if these are all the ingredients we use, we still do not have conversation, we have monologue. Communion requires conversation. It requires that we allow time to listen as well as to speak. If we are not hearing what Dad has to say, then all our chatter about what a great guy He is, all our admissions of weakness and failure, all our requests for His help are just a torrent of words that we really don’t even buy ourselves! If we think He is so great, if we know that we are in desperate need of His help, why then do we not give Him time to speak to our need? Where is the gap in our incessant flow of words into which He can enter the conversation?
Look, we have been given an incredible privilege, a privilege so great as to be unimaginable, yet we treat it like something common. We have been allowed access, access to the throne room of God, there in the courts of heaven. We have been given the privilege of coming to Him whenever we choose to. We have as our Father, the Lord of all Creation. We have as our Brother the King of all kings. The Utmost Authority in all of existence, the very Source of all existence has allowed us to come visit whenever we want, and has promised that He will set down whatever matters of state might be before Him to take time with His child. You want an example for fatherhood? What greater example could you ask!
But, there are questions I must ask. I must ask them of myself first and foremost. Knowing the awesome privilege that is mine, how do I treat that privilege? Do I avail myself of the Presence that is mine to share? Do I come to Him as a loving child, or as an impertinent brat? Have I fallen into the trap of coming to Him only in my times of need, and neglected Him when I didn’t sense a need? Have I left Him a place in my conversations? I know the answers are not the ones I would prefer to give. I know myself too well to pretend that I could answer these as I know I ought. I do not, truth be told, take nearly enough time to be alone with Dad. Oh, I have plenty of time in these studies, and I can assure you that there are many times when I know the words I am typing are coming from Him as a message to me. I would even go so far as to say this is one of those moments, when my Dad is trying to tell me something.
I also know, though, that too often I am simply excited by hearing, and forget to pay attention to what I am hearing. It’s as though I were to get a call from my father, and be so excited about hearing his voice that I completely missed what he was saying. Too much of earthly conversation is like that, just sounds passing back and forth between people who are more interested in the textures of those sounds than in the meaning the sounds contain. I don’t want it to be like that in my conversations, not with other people, and certainly not with my Father in heaven.
Father, when You are speaking, keep me from getting lost in the wonder of that simple fact. Keep me from getting all impressed with hearing Your voice, and instead attend upon Your words. Grant me, oh God, the wisdom to lay hold of what You are saying to me, to understand what You are telling me, and to put into practice the lessons You teach in those moments. I know, my God, that I have not been spending time as I ought, have not been taking full advantage of the privilege of time alone with You. I know, too, that You have been growing me in the area of prayer. There are things I have been doing in that area of late that would have been almost unthinkable not that long ago. For this I thank You most profusely, my God. Yet, as I come to the end of this time of study, I know it is not enough. There must be more. There must be time for You and I to be together, without anybody else. There must be those times when You and I can speak openly together without distraction, without concern for who else might overhear our conversations. I have seen, my God, in the example given by my Brother Jesus, that prayer, this personal, most intimate time in prayer is indeed a matter of survival. I know, too, that I have not taken that time as I ought. Help me, Holy Spirit of God, to take that time by force, to insist upon moments together alone with You.
