Fortunately Jesus isn't Tired of the Sick and Tired

S - Luke 7:20-22 (TLJ): "So the men came to Jesus. They said, "John the Baptizer sent us to you with this question: 'Are you the one who is coming or should we wait for someone else?'" Right then Jesus healed many people of their sicknesses and diseases. He healed those who had evil spirits and made many who were blind able to see again.  Then he said to John's followers, Go tell John what you have seen and heard: The blind can see. The crippled can walk. People with leprosy are healed. The deaf can hear. The dead are brought back to life. And the Good News is being told to the poor."

O - Jesus hasn't stopped healing people and people haven't stopped needing to be healed.  The physical healings are only one facet of Jesus' healing people.  It's an important part but not the only one.  Both our physical status and our spiritual status need to see, walk, be made free from life-taking conditions, to hear and to be brought back from the dead.  This is one of the many beauties of Jesus … he comes to bring transformation to all people; a transformation touching body, soul and spirit. He IS the One we're looking for, the One we need.

A - I am so very grateful for the status of my physiology … eyes, ears, legs, overall health and energy are all in the very good category. Of course, this doesn't automatically mean my spiritual condition is the same.  Fortunately, Jesus is not only capable he is willing to engage me and my need, whatever the cause, source or status.  The old song says, "All to Jesus I surrender" … this response must not be limited to what is good, right, active and capable but must include that which is failed, feeble , diseased, dying and/or dead.  All really is all … unto the transformation he intends and I need in all of me.

P - Lord who heals,

I admit that I need you in all of me … unto a complete transformation.  I am not asking for self-help but help.  Thank you for wanting into it all, for asking me/us to surrender it all to you and to believe.  This I gladly do.  I welcome you and your will on earth, in me and through me, like they do in heaven.  Today, I welcome eyes that see, ears that hear, my internal crippledness, leprosy and deadness to be touched by you unto all you've planned, dreamt, died for and got up from the dead for.  I love you back.

Steve  

A Curious Conclusion and a Common Condition

S - Matthew 27:3-7 (NLT): "When Judas, who had betrayed him, realized that Jesus had been condemned to die, he was filled with remorse. So he took the thirty pieces of silver back to the leading priests and other leaders. "I have sinned," he declared, "for I have betrayed an innocent man." "What do we care?" they retorted. "That's your problem." Then Judas threw the money onto the floor of the Temple and went out and hanged himself. The leading priests picked up the money. "We can't put it in the Temple treasury," they said, "since it's against the law to accept money paid for murder." After some discussion they finally decided to buy the potter's field, and they made it into a cemetery for foreigners. "

O - The conclusion of the leaders is quite curious.  It's against the law to accept money paid for murder but not against the law to pay for it?  Is not the entire law summed up in a single command? The stark contradiction in the religious leaders is actually the same contradiction in us all … it's just that ours is as unapparent to us as theirs was to them.  Like them we use the Scriptures to justify our decisions and actions rather than to rectify them.  We handle the word but do not allow the word to completely handle us.  Then, having fully engaged a flagrant refusal to do what the word says, we find a way to do something benevolent so we may feel our way to a more pleasant conclusion.  No one thought Judas would ever bring the money back … their conclusion? 'That was a close one, but we really dodged a major bullet there'.  The Lord is never shocked when we fail to do what we know we should.  His shock, his hurt comes in refusing to admit it and in judging others so harshly for the very things we are also guilty of.  Jesus always starts at love, then leads with mercy and then faces the facts … making a way for all who want to grow forward to do so.  This is how he calls all of us to act toward each other and even toward ourselves.  Love the Lord with all your heart, mind soul and strength and your neighbor as yourself.  Do this, he said, and you will live … for all the law and prophets hang on these two.

A - My working definition of a Pharisee really does fit here.  A Pharisee is someone who thinks they're in … and I think I'm in.  It is a function of my fallen nature, limited perspective and diminished capacities to miss the beam in my eye while calling attention to the sawdust in another's.  The Lord knows I/we won't live flawlessly.  He died to deal with this condition in us once and for all.  He does want us to live blamelessly … starting at love, leading with mercy and then facing the facts in the reality of not only his sacrifice but his resurrection from the dead.  Hope springs eternal in resurrection reality for this is the reality thrown open to all by the cross. Come to the cross but please don't stop there … step forward into resurrection life and hope for all.  Maybe one of the signs of leading with mercy is an indefatigable hope for any and for all.  In my experience, the absence of hope for all and in all circumstances confirms an absence of mercy.  Jesus says to all us Pharisees (Matthew 9:13 referencing Hosea 6:6) "Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: `I want you to be merciful; I don't want your sacrifices.' For I have come to call sinners, not those who think they are already good enough."

P - Lord who is Almighty and All Merciful,

Thanks for loving all … even us Pharisees and for making a way for all.  Thank you for how you've ALWAYS dealt with me by starting at love and leading with mercy, facing the facts and making a way forward in hope.  Thank you for calling me to recognize my liability to be a Pharisee and to engage your apparatus for engaging all people.  Lord, forgive me my sins AND my Pharisee blindness, judgment, curious conclusions and failed expressions of who you really are.  Thank you that the presence of hope confirms the presence of mercy.  Thank you for having mercy on me, a sinner and for insisting I live this way toward all.

Leaning into the life that is really life,

Steve

Believing In or Merely For?

S - John 4:46-53 (TLJ): "One of the king's important officials lived in the city of Capernaum. This man's son was sick. The man heard that Jesus had come from Judea and was not in Galilee. So he went to Jesus and begged him to come to Capernaum and heal his son, who was almost dead. Jesus said to him, 'You people must see miraculous signs and wonders before you will believe in me.' The king's official said, 'Sir, come before my little boy dies.' Jesus answered, 'Go. Your son will live.' The man believed what Jesus told him and went home. On the way home the man's servants came and met him. They said, 'Your son is well.' The man asked, 'What time did my son begin to get well?' The answered, 'It was about one o'clock yesterday when the fever left him.' The father knew that one o'clock was the same time that Jesus had said, 'Your son will live.' So the man and everyone in his house believed in Jesus."

O - The Lord's immediate response to this dad's understandably desperate request is quite interesting to me on several counts.  Apparently, asking Jesus for a miracle and believing in him is NOT the same thing.  Didn't the dad ask and didn't Jesus say in response to him 'You people must see miraculous signs and wonders before you will believe in me.'? Also, wasn't the miracle of the healed son the inspiration or confirmation for the entire household to believe in Jesus? The man had some faith because he takes Jesus at his word and leaves without Jesus coming with him to his home believing/hoping that his son would in fact recover and live.  Believing for something is not the same as believing in someone.  Jesus calls us to believe in him not just to believe for him to do stuff; all are called to follow the person of Jesus not just a concept of the Christ.

A - Believing in the person Jesus and not just the concept or a principle or promise is critical on so many levels.  When I am unable to grasp what is going on or why something is happening I can grasp his person and default to trust.  The Gospel is a person. God doesn’t want to capture a market share of the human race but to adopt human beings into his family. Heaven isn't offering us an improved version of self-help but help in the form of transformation.  Today the work is believing in the person of Jesus and in the ongoing context of a love relationship; Jesus want me to be asking for anything and to be willing for anything and everything he already has in mind to do.

P - Lord,

I do believe and please, please help my unbelief.  I want to keep asking big; to start my thinking, praying, speaking and believing at only one spot: with God all things are possible. Thank you again for loving me/us first and most and for refusing to change your mind. 

Grateful to be yours by right and by grace,

Steve