From time to time I come across something that in the light of it, I am desirous to live in line with it.
There were three episodes that made me perk up and take notice of Him again. Familiar episodes, to a degree, but always worth watching again.
In the first episode, four guys ripped open a roof to allow their paralysed friend to get access to the Teacher. The telling of this episode says that the first thing He said to this paralysed man was that His sins were forgiven. This raised some concerns in the minds of the religious experts on hand who were well versed in knowing that what He had done was blasphemy because only God forgives sins. Then He asked this sound question as to which was it easier to say – the sins thing or the thing you might have expected Him to address first. Just to prove the point, He addressed that as well and as the former paralysed guy walked out with his four friend, the crowds remarked on how they had never seen anything like that before. Those comments were deemed to glorify God.
The second episode was a lot more discreet. The Groom was stopping off at an important well in Samaria. He came across a Samaritan woman and asked her for a drink. She raised the question of how come he was breaking all the racial and social etiquette with the request. He made it an issue about the water. She thought He was on about the physical water and then He made some significant claims as to the kind of water He had to offer. By the time the conversation had finished, He had been well nourished and she left the conversation having been satisfied in a way no man had satisfied her before. That was enough to bring a crowd to check out this guy who broke the rules to quench the thirst in ways other liquids just cannot reach.
In the third episode The Provider would feed thousands with a few pieces of fish and bread only to turn around and tell them don’t go looking for that kind of bread. Don’t spend life focusing on that when there’s something that will feed them in a way where they will never hunger again.
Hunger, thirst, loneliness and physical disability are very evident areas requiring attention. The Son of Man was at hand to meet those very evident needs. Yet His mission was to use that meeting of those needs as a platform and opportunity to point to other needs. Needs that highlight the human condition ever in brokenness and ever in need of true wholeness. Also ever neglecting the source of that wholeness but now presented with it because of the outreach from heaven to earth in the Son of God.
It is not enough to have certain issues resolved, because it fixes something temporarily, but never touches the root of the situation. What those who follow in the way of the Lord are always challenged with is the degree to which we are sensitive to meeting the real needs of those around us. Even as Jesus was heavily concerned to meet the real needs of those He came across. Even when they misunderstood Him, rejected Him and felt threatened by Him, He still extended Himself to those who would receive Him.
For the many that turned away or only liked Him when He did the wonders, there were those who were forever changed after He met there real needs. Changed to the point that they wouldn’t have a problem sharing their story around towns and cities. Changed to the point that it was nothing for them to pour some of the most expensive, extravagant and scented perfumes on His feet. Changed to the point that it was their honour to be beaten for Him and die for Him, because His love reached them and met their real needs.
Oh for the grace of God to do something in the light of that that’s in line with that.
(Photo by John Moeses Bauan on Unsplash)
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 