Jesus, Healing and Wholeness

They always stood in the distance; outcast and ostracized. Things were so bad that they only had each other for company and had to yell, “Unclean” anytime a “normal” person approached. Such was the life of a leper in the Israel of Jesus’ time. And yet, when Jesus actually came into their vicinity, their desperation urged them on toward Jesus:

 

Now it happened as He (Jesus) went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Then as he entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”

 

So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.

 

And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.

 

So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.” (Luke 17:11-19.)

 

These nine verses are packed with significant theological points about thankfulness, racism, salvation, humility, and other aspects as well. My focus for now, however, is the example of the engagement and inclusion of Jesus. He shows no favoritism or partiality (see Romans 2:11). These men are of differing nationalities but are all suffering from a highly contagious and lethal disease.   

 

Rather than avoid them, Jesus sought to bless them, to heal them, all of them. He didn’t quiz them on their politics or sexual practices or where they went to church. Instead, He heard their cries of anguish and responded with compassion.

 

This is the Jesus I read about and have fallen in love with. This is the Jesus I want my life to reflect. And while I know I have a long way to go to truly reflect this Jesus, He is patient with me and is patient with you as well.

 

So my question is who is your Jesus? Is He in a box of dogma, rules, and regulations; or is He truly alive as Scripture proclaims Him to be?

Let...

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

─Philippians 2:5

Only 12 words in that verse, but they pack quite a wallop.  The Apostle Paul is writing to the Philippians and encouraging them to think of others more highly than themselves and also about the humility of Christ. He is eloquently explaining that while Jesus was in fact God in the flesh, He laid all this aside so as to secure our freedom from sin and death. But smack in the middle of these two major concepts is that 12-word verse. From what I can figure out from the Greek, a literal translation of this verse could also read:

For let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

The key word in this verse is froneisqw (phroneistho). It is where we get the words “let this mind be”. The Greek word, hence, the phrase, is in the imperative mood which means it’s a command. This is important to know because, “[T]here is no more forceful way in the Greek language to tell someone to do something than a simple imperative” (William D. Mounce, Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar, Zondervan, 2003, p.310).  Another key component to this is it's third person, singular; which means it could also be rendered something like:  “Let him think for himself the same things Christ thought.” (Greek fans can double-check this by looking at the Imperative Paradigm on p.313 of the above referenced book.)

What's the Point

While all this may seem rather thick and clunky, there is a very important point here. Followers of Christ are to intentionally think the things of Christ. The simple three-letter word, let, indicates that we, the ones doing the “letting” are to purposely direct our thinking toward the things of Christ (see also Philippians 4:8 and Colossians 3:2). We need to give ourselves permission to think like Christ.

The logical question is how do we know what He thought?  The logical answer is, of course, Scripture.  The Gospels obviously chronicle the life of Christ while on earth. But other areas of Scripture shed a great deal of light on the mind of Christ as well.

For instance, how many Old Testament passages does Christ quote?  A lot, He was very familiar and comfortable with the Old Testament and pondered its depth on many occasions. And right here in the text we’re exploring now are great insights into the mind of Christ. Let’s look at verses 6-9:

who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore, God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name.

Humility and obedience are prominent themes in these verses. Another prominent feature in the life of Christ was prayer. He spent hours communing with the Father. In fact, He intentionally set His schedule to have time with just He and the Father. You’ll discover this as you become more aware of the many times that Jesus arose early or steeled away from a crowd to seek His Father.

It is Attainable

So while the mind of Christ may seem so elusive, it really isn’t. While we’d be foolish to think we can unravel all the mysteries of the universe, we are equally foolish if we think it is impossible to live according to Philippians 2:5. We also need to remember that we have a helper, a counselor, in this journey of being a Christ follower:

“When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into the all truth.”

─Jesus, John 16:13

This promise was fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost after Christ’s ascension (see Acts 2:1-4). Now, because of this outpouring of Holy Spirit upon those who place their faith in Christ, we can pray for the wisdom we need to live the life of a genuine Christ-follower:

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach.

─James 1:5

A Starting Point

The easiest place to start for “letting”, or allowing, the mind of Christ to come into our thinking is to first become more familiar with and comfortable with…Jesus.  Begin recognizing that Jesus is more approachable than your best friend, for He can become your best friend. He is more compassionate than any world charity, and more loving than the most loving parent. So run into His arms, sit on His lap, and get to know the Heart that can change yours. You’ll find this wonderful Heart in the Gospels.

Endurance and the Waves

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering…

─Galatians 5:22a (NKJV)

Have you ever had waves of trials slamming into you seemingly simultaneously? Sometimes it’s like waves are hitting me from all four sides and from the top and bottom all at the same time. I cry out to the Lord for relief but they don’t cease, they just keep slamming into the shores of my soul.

This is counterintuitive to me. Let me explain in a formula:

The more trials + the longer they last = heightened weakening, enhancing the potential for failure. Bad.

The solution, humanly speaking at least, would be:

Reducing the number of trials + shortening their length of time = greater strength, enhancing the potential for lengthened success. Good.

But have you noticed; God doesn’t behave the way WE would. He doesn’t comply with our limited-view expectations. We see time in hours, days, weeks, etc. He sees time immemorial. Therefore, God’s equation would seem to be something like this:

Be strong in the Lord through trials (Ephesians 6:10ff, 1 Peter 1:3-12) + obedience (1 John 5:1-3) = deliverance (eventually, Deuteronomy 8:1-10).  Faith.

Without God, our ability to endure multiple trials is seriously compromised if not completely paralyzed. The world just does not have solutions that sink into the soul without first corrupting the soul. However, God provides the antidote to this worldly pollution; the indwelling Holy Spirit. That is why the Galatians verse above is so important to grasp.  Fruit is something that grows outwardly based upon what is already inside. An apple tree produces apples, not oranges. Why? Well, because it has apple characteristics (genes) all the way to its core (pardon the pun). So if we are saturated to our core in the Holy Spirit, then we’ll produce Spirit-sparked fruit. One of these fruit is longsuffering.

Longsuffering is from a Greek word that is also translated as ‘patience’ or, more aptly to my point of view, ‘endurance’.  Endurance, according to the Encarta Dictionary, means “the ability or power to bear prolonged exertion, pain or hardship.” That sounds an awful lot like longsuffering to me. 

Thus, back to my equation example. If trials were simple and/or short in duration, then our ability to endure through them would be just that—our own ability. But as trials mount to the point of fainting, God, by way of the indwelling Holy Spirit infuses us with the ability to persevere, to endure. And if we’re not careful, we may even have joy through the endurance because joy is another Spirit-sparked fruit. 

When the trials finally cease, whether in days, weeks or even years, there will be no doubt that it was God that brought us through the trials. Hmm, reminds me of a couple of other Scriptures:

And He said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

─2 Corinthians 12:9

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trails, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

─James 1:2-3

And, finally, as we endure through the trials, we need to realize that we’re not alone:

“I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

─Jesus, Matthew 28:20

So hang in there, a better day is coming.

Totally Surrendered or Resignation

                                   “I surrender all…”

The above line is from a popular contemporary Christian worship song.  Every time I hear that line or even sing it, I think to myself, “Really?”

Have I surrendered it all? Has the writer of that song surrendered it all?  If so, then why aren’t there lyrics teaching us how to surrender it all? 

I’ve blogged about surrender before, but I’m still not satisfied with my understanding, or lack thereof, about being totally surrendered to God. I’m also unsure what the difference is between being totally surrendered to God and just plain old resignation, giving up or caving in. 

How does total surrender avoid becoming fatalism? For instance, is the phrase “It must be God’s will” really code for saying, “I can’t do anything about it, so I give up.” Or perhaps we think that “it’s predestined this happens, so I’m helpless. Now where’s that remote.” 

How do we tell the difference between circumstances that truly are unchangeable, where God’s grace is sufficient for us; versus understanding that God is calling us to do something in the circumstances to change them? Am I really destined to have health conditions all my life, or is God expecting me to do something to mitigate the health conditions? Are the hungry destined to be hungry so I might as well drive by the guy with the sign asking for food?  Or is this cowardice and avoidance of the human condition when I could easily hand him a granola bar and an apple? 

In other words, when does total surrender also involve taking action, taking personal responsibility? 

I return to the health condition example. While medical interventions are necessary and helpful at times; I can take daily responsibility over my own behavior that will produce greater and more positive results immediately. I can easily choose to eat healthy and get regular exercise. Or, I could shrug my shoulders, mope that I have health conditions, and slowly morph into Jabba the Hut. 

Surrender then seems to be a combination of accepting the health conditions while equally accepting that God expects and enables me to not let the conditions control my life and overrun my soul. So to in other areas of life, such as sharing our faith, helping to feed the hungry, or helping friends or family in need. But sadly I sense that many people view total surrender as equating to total inaction.  I’m inert, therefore I’m totally surrendered.  Somehow, I think not. Jesus was totally surrendered, and He was also a man of action—lot’s of action. 

He [Jesus] was moved with compassion for them, and he healed their sick. When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.”

But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” (Matthew 14:14-16)

This record astounds me, especially since it goes on to say that the disciples were beside themselves about how they were going to feed ten to fifteen thousand people (the text says 5,000 men, the men likely had wives, children and/or others with them; so the number could easily have been up to 15,000!). Jesus didn’t panic, though. A little boy brought Him what was basically a sack lunch with five loaves and two fish. Jesus took these ingredients, thanked His Father for the sustenance and then commenced feeding an impossible amount of people in an impossible way.

Jesus, totally surrendered to His Father, was obviously a man of action. Just in this record alone, we see Him take action by healing the sick and feeding thousands of people. And inserted between these two events was His command to His disciples: “You give them something to eat.”

So as I struggle to figure out what being totally surrendered means, I can be assured that it isn’t fatalism or nihilistic disregard for life.  But it does have high doses of prayer, compassion, and action.   

Obedience--Pursuing God, Part 2

Obedience.  Oh, how we seem to hate this word. For some reason, we have fallen into the trap of thinking that obedience somehow means we lose our identity; that we somehow become less of an individual, and thereby lose our significance.  Hogwash!

 

Consider this:

 

‘Yet He (Jesus) learned obedience by the things which He suffered’ (Hebrews 5:8, NKJV).

‘He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross’ (Philippians 2:8).

 

Jesus, the great I AM, embraced obedience to a degree you and I never will. So if the Savior of all mankind was obedient, then we ought to follow His example and rid our thinking of all the nonsense that obedience is bad. And while last week we explored two key elements in pursuing God—prayer and Scripture—this is the third key to pursuing God—obedience. 

 

‘Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome’ (1 John 5:1-3).

Interestingly, the above reference calls us to obedience while also stating that being obedient is not burdensome. In other words, God’s commandments are not heavy or weighty. This truth is much to the contrary of what the enemy wants us to think.  So much of faithless religion is based solely on works; the more we work then the more favor we have with God. Yet here God is saying that His commandments are not burdensome; man’s commandments may be, but God’s commandments are not. 

But is this true? Let’s look at a couple of examples.

 

Let’s begin with Jesus Himself by looking at the Mark 12, where a scribe poses a question to Jesus:

 

“Which is the first commandment of all?”

Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:28b-31).

Hmm. I can just imagine this exchange. The Scribe, probably in some sort of robe, wanted to trap Jesus by asking Him a question that seemed impossible to answer (see also Matthew 22:34-40 and Luke 10:25-28). But Jesus, leveling His gaze in a way that looked right through the man, had no hesitation in His answer. Not only that, Jesus gave two commandments back at the man, not just one (you can’t put Jesus in a box).  He didn’t throw out a bunch of rules and regulations; instead, he spoke of love.

 

The Apostle Paul spoke to this as well by way of an admonition.

 

“We should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the conning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ” (Ephesians 4:14-15).

Again, the exercise of obedience from 1 John 5 as further defined in Ephesians is speaking the truth; but it isn’t speaking it hatefully or as a verbal weapon. Instead, truth is to be spoken in love.

 

So a third key in pursuing God is obedience. Obedience to God is not burdensome because it is to be bathed in and motivated by love.  So as we allow the Holy Spirit to work in our souls by intentionally pursuing God in prayer and Scripture with the desire to be obedient, He will empower us to also love with the love by which He first loved us (see Galatians 5:22 and 1 John 4:19).  

Pursuing God

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

─Jesus, Matthew 6:33

 

“Believing, then, is directing the heart’s attention to Jesus. It is lifting the mind to ‘behold the Lamb of God,’ and never ceasing that beholding for the rest of our lives.”

─A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

 

‘Seek’ in Matthew 6:33 is the Greek word, zeteo. It means to strive or desire; it also means to seek a thing or to crave.  The sense of the word and its usage in the verse is not a simple seeking for my car keys or wallet.  Not to get all technical, but ‘seek’ is a present-active-imperative which means it can be interpreted to be an ongoing command. In essence, Jesus is saying, “Continually seek after, crave, and desire the kingdom of God and His righteous.” So unlike our car keys, that when we find them our seeking ends, Jesus is saying that seeking God is a life-long pursuit.  After all, the Creator of the Universe has no beginning and no end, so we could never contain God like we can contain our car keys. As we begin to grasp one aspect of God, a myriad of others begin flooding our soul, thus, continuously giving us small doses of the eternal nature of the living God.

 Yet striving after the things of God is itself a key to deepening our relationship with Him. 

But is Matthew 6:33 a prosperity doctrine? Is He saying that as we pursue God we’ll get rich, get the big house, the big car, and the exotic vacations?  I don’t think so. While these things may not be inherently bad, Jesus is looking at the deeper things of life, He’s looking at the spiritual things.

 First of all, Jesus actually states that Solomon, the richest man ever up to that point, wasn’t even as arrayed as the lily of the field. That’s quite a statement. Solomon had everything there was to have, whether moral or immoral. A lily by contrast, is a simple, but beautiful flower. So Solomon vs. the lily could also be stated as mass materialism vs. simplicity.  Jesus is speaking to the need of mankind, not the greed of mankind. What’s more, I think He’s also speaking to spiritual riches, not just material riches. Material riches rot, fade, break, and wind up in landfills or wills. Spiritual riches lead to eternal rewards in Heaven. 

The big question, of course, is how do we pursue God and His Kindgom?  Is there a specific devotional or discipleship plan we should follow? While there are several of these types of plans available, I think the better place to start is to observe the Master Himself. Jesus lived a life of pursuing God, of doing God’s will at all times; therefore, He is the logical example to follow.

One of Jesus’ primary actions was prayer. The Gospels are filled with examples of Jesus seeking solitude early in the morning to pray to His Heavenly Father. In fact, often one of the first things a person thinks about when they think of Jesus is prayer.

Another key aspect of Jesus’ life was His knowledge and grasp of Scripture. He didn’t just know Scripture as a thing to memorize or a box to check on a daily to-do list, He ate, digested, and lived what the Holy Writ taught. He came to the Scripture with no personal agenda. Or as Chris Webb states, He read with “empty hands.”

“To read with empty hands means setting aside our agenda and developing an interior silence…Without this silence, it is much harder for us to hear the living voice of God speaking through that Word” (Chris Webb, The Fire of the Word: Meeting God on Holy Ground, Chapter 6).

So to truly establish a pursuit of God in our lives, we must have a genuine prayer life; not rote prayers, but honest, heart-felt prayers in an attitude of full attention on God and the things of the Spirit. Next, we must become comfortable and familiar with Scripture; intentionally laying aside our agenda and seeking God’s heart and voice through His written Word.

Applying these two keys in our lives will deepen our identity in Christ and strengthen our faith.

My next blog will look at even more keys for deepening our pursuit, and therefore, the presence of God in our lives. 

Jesus, Faith and Action—Installment Two of Jesus and the Centurion (Matthew 8:5-13)

We left with Jesus offering to immediately leave and personally attend to the sick servant Himself. The Centurion, however, states that he feels it won’t be necessary, just the supreme authority of Jesus speaking it into being is enough. Stop and read that last sentence over again…think about the sheer intensity of that one man’s faith in the midst of an unbelieving and pagan culture.  This draws my thinking all the back to Genesis 1:3:

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.  

The Centurion basically said that if Jesus states, “Let there be healing,” there will be healing. 

He is also revealing that he understands Jewish tradition about entering a Gentile’s home and how that will make them unclean; but the deeper and more profound exhibition of the Centurion is simply his faith.  As we saw earlier, he has accepted Jesus as the Messiah by the fact he addresses Jesus as Lord, not as teacher or rabbi or “hey you.”

But his acceptance is not merely in his head, he believes so intently in Jesus that he risks his reputation to publicly approach Jesus, pleading for the healing of someone he greatly cares for. That’s a deeply abiding faith; a faith that is stronger than status, ideology, or culture.  It’s a faith that will withstand trial and tribulation. It’s a faith that spurs him to action. (For more on faith in action, read the Book of James.)

Even Jesus is astounded by it:  “When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, ‘Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith’” (v. 10).  Then He goes on to teach in verses 11 and 12 that God’s salvation will be for all people, not just “the sons of the kingdom (Israel).” This is a significant pre-cursor to the Apostle Paul’s grand proclamation “that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Ephesians 3:6).

This record closes with Jesus saying to the Centurion, “’Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.’ And the servant was healed at that moment” (v. 13). We don’t hear from the Centurion again.

It’s tempting to say, “Well, that was nice of Jesus to help out like that,” and then move on with the rest of our day, as if the record was nothing more than a mere story to tantalize but not to internalize. The same thing happened in Jesus’ day, He performed miracles but the masses were more tantalized by events but did not internalize the message of the Man.

I think part of the message of the Centurion is simply that Jesus is real and wants to work in our lives now. Rather than looking to Him for the next big thing, the next mass-feeding; look to Him for the even greater miracle of overhauling your soul. Let Him and His Words fill your being with awe; open your heart and your thoughts to His work by way of the indwelling Holy Spirit to heal you.

So God hasn’t reached down and healed my neck, I still have a triple fusion held together by surgical adhesive and a large titanium plate and I still have aches and muscle spasms; but does that mean He hasn’t reached into my soul to heal it?   Quite the contrary. Just last night while praying with my bride, I cried out my discouragement with certain recent events in life. I awoke to find the circumstances unchanged, but my sense of joy and zest for life was renewed. That’s healing, my friends. That’s Jesus making His presence effervesce from deep within my soul.

Faith isn’t just a surface-level salve for a minor scrape; it is an-ever bubbling fountain, continually springing up from the depths of a soul saturated in Jesus. This Holy Spirit infused saturation then cleanses the internal parts of man—the heart, the soul, and the mind; this births the transformation of a continual renewal in a person’s life (see Romans 12:1-2). And this continual renewal shapes us to be more like Jesus right now in our everyday life. Isn’t this what our hearts are craving, to be like Jesus on this earth right now?

As we ponder this, the lesson of the Centurion becomes internalized in our soul, it now has relevancy to our lives by prodding us to ask ourselves, “Do we believe?”

So take some time to get quiet with God and ask that question, and see what stirs in your soul.