Miracles
The Lord Jesus, The Pharisees, and The Sabbath
**Sorry, no audio this week due to technical issues (of me not changing the batteries in the mic…đ)**
Letâs turn back to our passage from last week, John 5:1â18.
âAfter this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalidsâblind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, âDo you want to be healed?â The sick man answered him, âSir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.â Jesus said to him, âGet up, take up your bed, and walk.â And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, âIt is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.â But he answered them, âThe man who healed me, that man said to me, âTake up your bed, and walk.ââ They asked him, âWho is the man who said to you, âTake up your bed and walkâ?â Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, âSee, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.â The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, âMy Father is working until now, and I am working.â
This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.â
Last week, I began with the reminder to try to put ourselves into the passages we are reading, especially with those who Jesus interacts with, because if we are careful and willing, we will see ourselves reflected there. But the scriptures arenât about us⌠theyâre about Jesus. So in the forefront of our mind must always be not just âWhat is this saying about me?â But more importantly, âWhat is this saying about Jesus?â
Quick Review of the Structure of John
Remember, thatâs Johnâs intention when writing this gospel â to paint a portrait of who Jesus is through story, symbolism, contrast, and reflection.
 If we go back that that first graphic we looked at when starting this series, youâll remember that John uses a lot of 7s in his book. In chapter 1, the introduction to the book, as Jesus gathers His first followers we see seven different titles for Him: âLamb of Godâ, âSon of Godâ, âRabbiâ, etc. Then, in the first half of the gospel we see seven miracles, or âsignsâ, that point to important revelations of who Jesus is and designate the authorâs divisions of thought: water into wine, healing the centurionâs son, healing a paralyzed man, feeding the 5000, healing a man blind from birth, and raising Lazarus from the dead. And peppered throughout the whole book are two sets of seven âI amâ statements from Jesus, where He either make a claim about Himself, or simply uses the divine name that God gave to Moses, YHWH, as His own name. As I said before, thereâs a lot of intricate story weaving in this book.
In the first four chapters (our chapters, not Johnâs), which weâve already covered, we see Jesus interacting with five different types of people: a small gathering of Jewish people at a wedding, a larger gathering of people and Jewish leaders at the Temple, a one-on-one talk with a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin, a one-on-one talk with a Samaritan woman at a well, and then Jesus talks to all of them while talking to a gentile, Roman centurion, about healings and signs.
In each of these interactions, Jesus shows something important about Himself. At the wedding, Jesus is inaugurating His Kingdom, kicking off His earthly ministry with a celebration, generosity, and all the symbolism that comes along with wine (which we talked about already). At the temple Jesus reveals that He is the true âtemple of Godâ where heaven and earth meet, and declares Himself to be the Son of God, Messiah, and King. When meeting with the Rabbi in the middle of the night, He declares that He is the One sent by God to be a sacrifice for sin, and anyone who believes in Him must give up their religious hypocrisy and be born again with a new heart, through faith in Him alone. And then, all of those revelations come crashing together as he tells the most unlikely person, a sinful, socially rejected, Samaritan woman, that He is the Living Water, the Source of Eternal Life, the Perfect Rabbi, the Messiah and Christ â and she runs into town sharing Jesus claims with the other Samaritans and many are saved.
Last week, we moved into another sort of division where John shows us another sign, with more subdivisions. The sign, the miracle that designates the change in the story is the healing of the lame man at the Sheep Gate pool, but the subdivisions this time arenât about connecting with people groups, but interacting with the important Jewish celebrations and religious feasts. And now, instead of Jesus going from place to place being accepted and followed â like the first four interactions were all about â now we see a whole bunch of rejection. The same groups that accepted him during the first section of the book all start to turn away until everyone is arguing about Jesus, the Jewish leaders do everything in their power to arrest, stone, and kill Jesus, and the only people left following Him are the twelve disciples. In fact, the opposition gets so fierce that right before the final miracle of the seven, the raising of Lazarus, as Jesus is about to walk back into Judea, the Apostle Thomas is so convinced their walking into an antagonistic hornetâs nest, says to the rest of the disciples, âLet us also go, that we may die with him.â (11:16) And the story of Lazarus leads directly into the second half of the book, all about Passion Week, the last seven days before Jesus was crucified.
Jesus, the Sabbath, and the Pharisees
So, as we turn back to the story we are looking at today, the healing of the man at the Sheep Gate Pool, we have to ask ourselves, âWhat does this say â what are we meant to see â what is the sign pointing to â about Jesus?â and âWhat is this saying to us?â
Last week we covered the miracle. Jesus walks into the Sheep Gate, sees a superstitious, hopeless, old man who has been an invalid for thirty-eight years, heals Him, and says in verse 8, âGet up, take up your bed, and walk.â (5:8) Thatâs critically important. Verse 9 says, âAnd at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.â
The next line reveals what this story is all about. Not only is the miracle a chapter division, but John here reveals that his subdivision theme is changing too. Weâve already been introduced to âthe Jewsâ (which in John always means the âJewish Ruling Classâ), but now we see an other critical piece of information that leaps off the page. âNow that day was the Sabbath.â
That would be an âoooooohhhhâŚâ moment for anyone reading. The Sabbath was a pretty famous Jewish peculiarity. No other people in the world took a whole day off â including their servants and slaves â to stop working, selling, cooking, farming⌠just to worship and rest. Everyone else had a 7 day work week. But for the Jews, everything stopped on Friday night and didnât start again until the appearance of at least three stars in the sky on Saturday night.[1]
If you recall the story of Nehemiah rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, youâll remember in Chapter 13, after the walls and gates had been rebuilt, when the Sabbath came around, Nehemiah commanded that all the gates of the city be shut and locked until after the Sabbath. All the merchants and sellers from all over the land came up to the doors, and for the first time in decades, couldnât get through. Let me read that portion to you, because itâs great:
âAs soon as it began to grow dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut and gave orders that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. And I stationed some of my servants at the gates, that no load might be brought in on the Sabbath day. Then the merchants and sellers of all kinds of wares lodged outside Jerusalem once or twice. But I warned them and said to them, âWhy do you lodge outside the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you.â From that time on they did not come on the Sabbath. Then I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves and come and guard the gates, to keep the Sabbath day holy.â (Nehemiah 13:19â22)
If you think thatâs serious, then fast-forward a few hundred years to the birth of an extremist group called the âPhariseesâ, or âthe separatistsâ, the âseparated onesâ. Essentially the âweâre better than everyone else and God love sus moreâ group.
By the time of Jesus there were three different groups that were in charge of the Jewish people. John summarizes them by just calling them âthe Jewsâ, but heâs referring to the Jewish Ruling class: the Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes. Essentially these groups were the lawmakers, police, and lawyers of the time, and therefore pretty much everything in Jewish society â except for what their Roman government dictated â ran through them.
And this group took it upon themselves to decide not only that everyone had to keep the Sabbath or get in trouble â but exactly how the Sabbath was to be kept. So they made and enforced a whole bunch of extra laws that make sure no one would ever break the Sabbath again. No planting, or plowing, or reaping, or sorting, or chopping vegetables, or mixing anything together, or cooking, or laundry, or tying knots, or untying knots, or hunting, or smoothing, or chopping, or writing, or erasing, or making things, no starting a fire, or putting out a fire even if your house is going to burn down, and definitely no carrying things outside â or âtransferring anything between domainsâ, and especially not âtransferring anything through a public thoroughfareâ. Well, technically, if you absolutely had to move something, you were allowed to move it 4 cubits (or 6 feet).[2]
Remember, none of this was in the Old Testament Law, it was all invented by the Pharisees as a way to make sure everyone âkept the Sabbathâ. God had created a day for His people where they could rest, worship, enjoy each other⌠where they werenât expected to produce anything, but just had to remember that God was their provider, God had everything under control, and the whole point of existence wasnât to do work, make money, produce things⌠but to connect with God and be with the people you care about.
But the Pharisees had taken the God-given gift of the Sabbath and turned it into a huge burden. Now people dreaded the Sabbath because they couldnât do anything. It wasnât enjoyable. Now, around every corner was a Pharisee watching to see if youâd pick anything up, make yourself a snack, write a note, smooth out a wrinkle, or â you know â prevent your house from burning down. It was awful. But the Pharisees had a huge amount of power. If you broke their laws, you could be kicked out of the synagogue, shunned by your community, arrested, beaten, even threatened with death.
Thatâs what makes verses 8-9 such a critical part of the story. Jesus commands the man to break the Pharisees Sabbath rules, and then sends him to walk through a public thoroughfare with his bed under his arm. You can imagine how that would be received.
Well, as per usual, thereâs a Pharisee lurking around somewhere nearby and the man takes, probably, like 20 steps, and some Jewish Officials jump out and say, âIt is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.â (5:10)
The man, quickly dodges the accusation and deflects the blame, âHey, it wasnât my idea, someone came up to me after being a hopeless invalid for thirty-eight years and healed me. Then he said, âtake up your bed, and walkâ. I wasnât about to argue with a guy that powerful!â
The Jewish Officialâs eyes get all squinty and aggressive, ready to come down like a sack of hammers on that guy, ask â âWho is the man who said to you, âTake up your bed and walkâ?â
Pause there for a second and notice that question. Do you see anything missing? The miracle, right? It wasnât, âShow us the one who had the power to heal you from decades of hopeless pain and misery⌠weâre very interested in a person like thatâŚâ. No, all they could think about was âSomeone told you to break our rules!? How dare they! We need to get this guy! Arrest Him! Make an example out of Him! Heâs a lawbreaker, sinner, and heâs spreading His evil among these poor, unfortunate, sick people! Heâs making them break the Sabbath!â How crazy is it that a guy who had been lying around for almost 40 years, finally gets up and walks, and is told to lie right back down by the most religious, supposedly godly people in town?
Now, Jesus hadnât told the man who He was and had already left, so there was nothing for these guys to go on, but then Jesus does something really interesting. He finds the man he healed to introduce Himself properly. âHi, Iâm Jesus, the guy who healed you. I have already demonstrated that I have divine power, and you have already demonstrated faith and obedience toward me. Look at yourself! You are well! I healed you. But I have a further message for you. I didnât simply heal you so you can go back to a sinful life. I, your new master, the source of your new hope and new life, want more for you. I not only want you free from worldly misery, but from the misery of sin. So âsin nor more, that nothing worse may happen to you.ââ The implication there is that the manâs condition may have been a result of his own foolishness and sin getting him into trouble.
To modernize it, imagine a semi-religious man, goes to church Christmas and Easter, is a kind of ok guy. One day he drives drunk, gets into an accident, and wrecks himself. Snaps his spine and ends up in a wheelchair. Heâs in that chair for almost 40 years. Over that time everyone in his life has abandoned him, heâs tried every kind of remedy, spent all his money on treatments and pills, and now spends all day watching tv, and decides to put his hope into one of those health-and-wealth, false gospel, televangelists. He sends his last few dollars, gets kicked out of his apartment, and ends up in some kind of hostel. Jesus comes in, asks if He wants to be well, heals him, and then tells him, âOk, Iâve healed your body, but thatâs not your real problem is it? Your real problem is guilt, shame, fear, anger, betrayal, and selfishness that led you into sin, that caused this to happen, and has driven you into more and more misery, right? Your problem is sin. Now, Iâve healed you. But, I didnât heal you so you can go back to drinking and foolishness â go live rightly, godly, as a follower of mine. Change your heart, repent of sin, put your hope in me, and live my way â or the misery that will come to you will make these last forty years look like a picnic â because you will end up in Hell. Now, go, live as a Christian.â
What is this manâs response? Well, as soon as He obeys Jesus, by picking up his mat and walking, He immediately gets into trouble. Now, I figure one of two things is happening here. Either heâs obeying Jesus by making sure He submits to the Jewish Ruling Authorities and does what heâs told â or heâs slipped back into his former pattern of self-centredness, blaming others for his problems (like he did at the pool), and immediately throwing Jesus under the bus.
We donât know. But the application is the same here. Peopleâs response to Jesusâ grace is often surprising. Some people are thankful, others arenât. Some respond with obedience, others donât. Some meet Jesus and follow Him, others just go back to their old lives. Itâs amazing that Jesusâ grace doesnât come with strings â instead it comes with an invitation.
Thatâs the man, but letâs get back to the Jewish Rulers. Look at whatâs going on here, because itâs really ironic. A man who has been unable to move, or work, or mix, or tie or untie anything, who has probably been technically keeping the Sabbath perfectly for 40 years because He was unable to move, meets Jesus, the rightful King of the Jews, the one who gave the law to Moses, the perfect Rabbi, the Messiah, the true temple of God, the source of Eternal life â and completely heals this guy and sends him out on a mission. Did Jesus do anything wrong? No. Did He have the right to tell that man to âtake up his bed and walkâ? Absolutely! Did Jesus know how the Sabbath works? Yes, it was His idea in the first place.
But Jesus sets up this confrontation on purpose so that He can reveal something about Himself to all these people, especially the Pharisees. Look at the titles of the next sections and youâll see what. In the ESV they are, âJesus is Equal with Godâ and âThe Authority of the Sonâ.
He took that man from invalid to missionary in an instant. Then He offered to save the manâs soul. And then, after demonstrating His power, and declaring His authority, He confronts the Jewish leaders with a huge speech about who He really is: Look down to verse 39-40, âYou search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.â
Jesus set up a confrontation where He said, in no uncertain terms, that He is the Lawgiver, the Perfect interpreter, the Son of God, and equal to God Himself. That He alone has the right to pass judgment and decide who lives and dies â not them! He is the perfect interpreter of Godâs will â not them! That He is the real Jewish Ruler â not them. And they should be bowing down and obeying Him, not everyone bowing down and obeying them.
He says, âYou guys think you know so much about the Bible â but God Himself is standing in front of you and you canât even see it. Instead you reject and persecute me.â And he gives them, in much more detail, the same message He gave the man he healed, âSin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.â
Again, Jesus gives grace. He doesnât judge and condemn them immediately but gives them the truth and then some time to accept it. And again, that grace is presented with an invitation â this time to the Pharisees. âRepent, submit, be healed, or be damned.â Needless to say, that didnât go over too well.
Application
Letâs leave it there this week, but draw out a couple applications.
The first application is that Jesus is gracious and kind, giving favour to everyone on earth. Matthew 5:45 says, âHe makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.â But that miracle, that grace, comes with an invitation and a warning: Deal with your sin before the worst possible thing happens to you. The first application is a reminder that Hell is real and Jesusâ invitation is urgent. If you arenât a Christian today, then you must realize that you are living on borrowed time, that every moment youâve been alive has been an act of undeserved grace, and that it can end at any time. You are alive today because Jesus keeps you alive and is giving you time to repent, deal with your sin, and turn to Him as your Lord. You donât know when that grace will end, so you must take your spiritual reality, the condition and destination of your soul, seriously.
The second application is that many of us make the same mistake as the Pharisees do. Some of us, because weâre stuck in our own ways, rules, religion, mindset, tradition, or whatever, look at someone who is obeying Jesus, and because theyâre not doing things our way, not following our path, not doing things the way theyâre supposed to be done, we judge, condemn, and persecute that person.
Some of you here have looked at Godâs perfect will, His design and plan for someone elseâs life, and you have judged it as wrong. You condemned that person, and therefore condemned God. When confronted with your reasoning for why you disliked, judged, attacked and reviled that person, you talked about your feelings and then twisted Godâs word to fit your conclusion â and in doing so, condemned Godâs will, harmed a follower of God, and did Satanâs work for him. And just like the Pharisees, you need to repent and ask forgiveness of God and the person you wrongly judged.
And the third application, which leads from the previous, is that Jesus is Lord, Jesus is God, and Jesus is the one who gets to interpret scripture â not us. In other words, you cannot expect to come away from a Bible study, class, or personal bible-reading time, with the right interpretation and application of scripture without having first repented of sin, humbled yourself before Jesus, invited the Holy Spirit to show you the truth, and then submitting your interpretation to the counsel of godly Christian elders, teachers and mentors.
Reading the bible alone, in a vacuum, prayerlessly and/or without asking a diversity of more mature, trained believers to help you, is spiritually foolish and dangerous. You will be led astray by your feelings, and turn into either a judgmental, hyper-religious Pharisee, or into a false teacher who accepts sin and error, leading others â and encouraging others â towards sin, idolatry, and licentiousness.
The Drug of Self-Deception (Gospel of John Series)
**Sorry, no audio this week**
âSo the Jews said to him, âWhat sign do you show us for doing these things?â Jesus answered them, âDestroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.â The Jews then said, âIt has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?â But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.â (John 2:18â25)
We talked last week about the cleansing of the temple and how important that event was â and how itâs connected to the miracle of water to wine during the wedding in Cana â but we never got to the response from the people. In John, the miracles of Jesus, whether it was water to wine, healing the sick, or raising the dead, are called âsignsâ. âSignsâ are meant to point to something greater than themselves. So when Jesus does a miracle itâs never just about the thing He was doing â itâs a sign that points to more. Weâve talked about that a lot over the past few sermons, so I wonât belabour that further, but it is important to remember.
This whole section here is about how people are responding to the signs Jesus was giving them â the nature of their belief. After inaugurating His Kingdom at the Wedding in Cana, Jesus travels to Jerusalem with a few of his disciples and walks into the temple with a whip and starts flipping over tables, releasing the animals from their pens and cages, and telling people to stop turning His Fatherâs house, the place where the nations were to come and meet Him, into a shopping mall that exploits the pilgrims. It offends God on a deep level and Jesus demonstrates that in no uncertain terms.
âThe Jewsâ, meaning the religious authorities like the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the Sanhedrin, were obviously offended by this because the whole shopping mall was their idea. So they demand that Jesus demonstrate His authority to tell people to take the things away and call the temple His âFatherâs Houseâ by showing them some kind of spectacular miracle that would convince them that He was a prophet. Jesus refuses. From the context, and the rest of the gospels, we know that it wouldnât have worked anyway. Whenever Jesus did a miracle, the Jewish Authorities never responded with faith and humility, but instead more hatred and another plan to try to kill him.
His response, âDestroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it upâ was a multifaceted answer that required a lot of digging and interpretation.
First, it was Jesus saying that He knew exactly what the Jews were planning to do with Him. He would spend the next couple years demonstrating in no uncertain terms that He was God in the flesh, and they would respond by murdering Him. They would never accept His authority.
Second, it was an indictment against their religious corruption, implying that the temple and their whole religious structure was so corrupt that it needed to be torn down completely and that He was the only one who could rebuild it the way God had intended it.
Third, it actually was a declaration of His power and authority. They demanded a sign that would prove He had the right to cleans the temple â He basically said that He doesnât just have authority over matters like these, but in fact has authority over life and death itself.
Of course, the Jews didnât want to hear any of that â they couldnât hear any of that. Their hearts were so hard that the only thing they could hear was the absolute surface meaning of what Jesus had said. Sin had so overcome their hearts, their hearts had become so calcified through their false religion and hypocrisy, that the deeper meaning of Jesusâ words just bounced off without having any effect. Notice that later, Jesusâ true followers thought back to this moment and were able to begin to grasp the deeper meaning. But for the Jews, Jesusâ true meaning was impenetrable.
He Had No Faith in Their Faith
And thatâs what this whole section is really about â especially from 23-25 â about how people perceived Jesus, what they believed, and the depth and substance of that belief. Itâs a sort of summary of what had happened in Jerusalem over the course of Passover, and acts as an introduction to the stories that will come next.
The disciples see the sign of water to wine and believe. The Jews see Jesus cleanse the temple and refuse to believe. But Jesus performs some more signs among the people and many of them believe. But then, if you notice the next story, Jesus meets with the Pharisee Nicodemus â perhaps one of the men who had challenged Him at the temple, but certainly one who knew what Jesus had done there. Nicodemus is given a long teaching about the importance of being âborn againâ, of rejecting everything he thinks he knows about religion and instead of being utterly changed from the inside out by the power of God, and throughout the gospel, we see Nicodemus slowly coming to faith (7:50; 19:39). Then, in chapter 4, Jesus meets the Samaritan woman, who is also given a long dialogue about who Jesus really is, the âliving waterâ (4:10) who offers âa spring of water welling up to eternal lifeâ (4:14)Â and she and many fellow townspeople believed in Jesus as âsaviour of the worldâ (4:42).
We go from the Jewish Pharisee Nicodemus believing in Jesus, to the Samaritan Woman believing in Jesus, to the final story in this section in John 4:46-54, about a Gentile Centurion in the service of Herod, coming to Jesus for a miracle, and then believing in Jesus.
Jews, Samaritans, and Romans. Religious experts, ignorant sinners, and desperate pagans. Men and women, young and old, teachers and wives and government workers, all meeting Jesus and believing.
Thatâs what makes this section in 2:23-25 such an important transition. Jesus is at the very beginning of His earthly ministry and is standing in Jerusalem at Passover and every type of person is there. Jews, gentiles, men, women, young, old, believers, unbelievers, religious, atheist, pagan, all there in Jerusalem with many witnessing His signs and âbelievingâ.
But the undercurrent of this section is that we need to be very careful about how we read the word âbelieveâ. The disciples believe Nicodemus believes, some ordinary Jews believe, the Samaritans believe, the Roman official believes. But what is the substance of that belief?
Do these Jews at the Passover, and all the others from then on, after witnessing the signs, believe that Jesus Christ is the true Messiah, the Son of God, the saviour of their souls who would have to die on a cross for their sins to be atoned for? Had they given their lives to Him? Was He their Lord and Saviour? Would they follow Him to the end?
Look at what it says,
âNow when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.â (2:23-25).
Thereâs a bit of wordplay here in this section. It basically says that even though people entrusted themselves to Him, He didnât entrust Himself to them. They believed in Jesus, but He didnât believe in them. He had no faith in their faith.
Why? Because as God, as our creator, as One with divine omniscience, He knew exactly what was going on inside of peopleâs heads and hearts â and knew how the story ended. He knew the Jews that demanded a sign werenât going to believe it even if they saw it. He knew that Nicodemus didnât really need a rabbinical debate about what Jesus did at the temple, but needed to be born again through faith in Him. He knew that the Samaritan woman at the well didnât just need water, but needed acceptance and compassion and conviction and hope â and when she tried to dodge Him confronting her sins and struggles, He didnât fall for it. He knows peopleâs hearts and knows exactly how to clear away the smokescreen to get to their true needs.
Jesus isnât fooled by us. He knows all our secrets, motives, reasons, and excuses. He knows how fickle we are and how easily we can deceive ourselves. He knows how squirmy we can be when confronted with our sin, or told to submit to His will, and knows how great we are at denial and self-deception. He wrote Jeremiah 17:9 which says, âThe heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?â Not us! Only Jesus understands it.
Self-Deception
We should be very thankful for this. No one is better at lying to us than we are. Self-deception is a hallmark of what it means to be human. And couple that with our natural tendencies toward believing whatever we want to believe regardless of the truth and rejecting authority even if theyâre right, and weâve got a recipe for trouble.
Consider yourself for a moment, and how many times you have lied to yourself or winningly believed a lie because itâs easier. I googled examples of ways that we lie to ourselves and found a really interesting article on Psychology Today that outlined a few of them. See if any of these apply to you.
The first way that we lie to ourselves is to convince ourselves that âignorance is blissâ. âStrategic ignoranceâ for the sake of not getting burdened with reality. Doing things like avoiding information sources that give differing opinions or refusing to study something too much because youâre worried youâll learn something you donât like. Do you do that? Only listen to news sources and podcasts you agree with? Only read books that tell you what you want to hear? Only hang around people that share your worldview? Have you ever refused to learn more about something, even something theological or mechanical or personal, because learning more means more responsibility, so you prefer not to know? âDonât tell me how to add washer fluid to my car because then Iâll have to do it!â
The second was called âreality denialâ. And it simply means rejecting information you donât like so you can build a false sense of security. Someone gives you bad news and you just ignore it. An addict insisting they donât have problem and can stop anytime. An abuser telling themselves that itâs the fault of the person their abusing. Ignoring your bank and credit card balance and heading to the store, hoping that the debit machine will work.
Another way we lie to ourselves is âoverconfidenceâ, believing we are stronger than we really are â while another was the opposite, called âself-handicappingâ, where we are afraid to see what weâre really capable of, or are afraid to fail, so we never really try.
Other ways were doing things like, excusing our own faults while judging others harshly for the same ones. Or âcherry-picking dataâ that supports our own preconceived beliefs. Another was our tendency towards âsour grapesâ where we see something we want, but when we find out we canât have it, say that it wasnât probably that good after all.
The quote at the bottom of the article was really interesting. It said,
âSelf-deception can be like a drug, numbing you from harsh realityâŚâ
This was a secular article â but how much more should Christians, who know that âthe heart is deceitful⌠and desperately sickâ, understand our human tendency towards self-deception? And yet we keep falling for it. Take a moment to consider how many times youâve lied to yourself, just this week!
Or if thatâs too uncomfortable, consider how many times youâve tried to convince someone else of the truth but they simply wouldnât hear it. You could get the Bible, the dictionary, the encyclopedia, three peer-reviewed studies, and ten testimonies that all agree with what youâre saying â but if they donât want to believe it, they just wonât. Instead, they react with argument, anger, rejection, running away. Why? They want to believe the lie because the truth is too inconvenient or difficult. They prefer the drug of self-deception. Thatâs human nature, and thatâs what Jesus knew.
He knew that almost every single one of the people that claimed belief in Him, from the disciples who travelled with Him to the desperate Jews looking for a saviour from the Romans, to all the variety of gentiles, would reject Him in the end. Jesusâ could not count on them to carry Him through to the end of His mission. It was not He who needed them to surround Him with love and support and help â it was they who needed His love, support, and help. They were the walking dead, He is the life bringer. They are those trapped in darkness, He is the source of light. They were the ones who had fallen to temptation, He was the One who proved He never would. They were the blind fools, He was the only one with His eyes open, and who had the power to make them see. Jesus is the doctor, we are the sick. Jesus is the righteous one, we are the unrighteous. Jesus is the curse-breaker, we are the cursed. Jesus doesnât need to believe in us â we need to believe in Jesus.
Conclusion
What conclusion can we draw from this section of scripture? I supposed it is twofold.
First, that we recognize our tendency towards self-deception, toward believing what we want to believe, toward rejecting truth because itâs difficult or requires us to humble ourselves and say we were wrong. If we can recognize that we are capable of being deceived, that not everything we think is right, that not all our feelings are accurate, that not everything we think about ourselves and others is true â we go a long way towards having a teachable spirit that God can infuse with truth and light. So long as we believe everything we think and feel is right we make ourselves an easy target for the enemy because He traffics in lies and is happy to tell us whatever we want to hear so we will remain steeped in sin and error. Then He can manipulate us into hurting ourselves and others â and weâll think weâre right for doing it! Satan wants us to continue to believe lies because when we live in lies, we reject God â because God only speaks truth (John 17:17).
And second, once we humble ourselves to realize that we are easily deceived, that we need to pursue truth. Jesus prayed for us in John 17:17,
âSanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.â
He wants us steeped in truth because the more we know the truth, love the truth, and learn the truth, the more we will be free from evil and live in the presence of God.
This is why Godâs word says things like, if you have something against someone, go and talk to them, and seek truth and reconciliation (Matt 5:23; 18:15-20). Satan wants us sitting at home concocting stories and having imaginary arguments. God says, âGo and seek the truth.â
This is why Jesus says in John 8:31â32,
âIf you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.â
Keep reading my word, stay in it every day, study it, listen to it read and preached and taught, because then you wonât be deceived. Satan wants you to read a verse or two and then come up with your own ideas, your own interpretations, your own conclusions about God and His will. He wants you captive to guessing and uncertainty and confusion and fighting with others based on your confident ignorance. God wants you to know the truth, because ignorance and self-deception is a prison, and truth is the path to freedom. Doing this takes work and humility thoughâŚ
This is why God says go to church and submit to those more mature than you â those who are more steeped in the truth. Consider what it says in Ephesians 4,
âAnd he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.â (Ephesians 4:11-14)
We keep ourselves from being tossed around by lies by submitting to Christians that are more mature than us.
And this is why God warns us over and over not to trust our own feelings. says,
âWhoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.â (Proverbs 28:26)
âThere is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.â (Proverbs 14:12)
âTrust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.â (Proverbs. 3:5)
Turn to Romans 7:15â25 and see what the Apostle Paul, a godly man who loved Jesus, said.
âFor I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hateâŚ. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!â
Jesus is Always Faithful (Even When We’re Not)
And so what is the ultimate conclusion â to realize our weakness, that God doesnât need us, that Jesus doesnât âcount on usâ or âbelieve in usâ, but loves us anyway.
It should amaze us that Jesus knows the wickedness of our hearts and loves us anyway. When we are unfaithful, He is faithful. Consider the words of 2 Timothy 2:11â13,
âThe saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithfulâ for he cannot deny himself.â
What an amazing saviour! That even when we are âfaithlessâ, even when we have a momentary lapse in trusting Jesus, a momentary fall into temptation, Jesus doesnât reject us. He remains faithful because He has so totally identified with us, has so completely saved us, has so totally changed us, that we become like Himself. He found us when we were lost, forgave us when we were enemies, and adopted us when we had completely rejected Him. Thatâs the miracle of the cross â our sin exchanged for His holiness, our imperfection exchanged for His imperfection, which has allowed us to become brothers and sisters to Christ and children of God. We never lose our salvation â not because we are so faithful â but because Jesus is faithful to us.
He’s faithful even though He knows what’s in our hearts. Even though we keep failing, keep falling, keep fighting, keep sinning, keep trying to wrestle power back from Him â He remains faithful to us anyway. Thatâs one, big reason that we love Jesus so much and try to live in the light of His truth. We are easily deceived, but He is not. And therefore, we need His light, His life, His word, His Spirit, His mind, to overtake our own so we can rightly perceive the truth and by that truth know Jesus and be set free.
The Greater Meanings of Jesus Turning Water to Wine (Gospel of John Series)
Please turn to John 2:1â12 and letâs read it together.
âOn the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, âThey have no wine.â And Jesus said to her, âWoman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.â His mother said to the servants, âDo whatever he tells you.â
Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, âFill the jars with water.â And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, âNow draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.â So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, âEveryone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.â This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.â
The First Sign Ripples Out
This is the very first âsignâ of the seven miraculous signs of the Gospel of John. John calls them âsignsâ because they are not meant to stand alone, but to point to something greater. Like a road sign that points to a city or a store, the miracles of Jesus arenât singular events for one person at one time but are meant to be a big arrow pointing us to something special about Jesus, His mission, His character, and His person.
When youâre reading the Gospel of John itâs quite helpful to use these miracles as sort of chapter divisions. As Iâve said before, there are more ways to divide up the book because itâs such an intricate tapestry of stories and themes, but using the signs is perhaps the most straightforward. Let me tell you what I mean:
This first sign, the first miracle Jesus ever performed, was Jesus turning water to wine at a wedding in Cana in Galilee. Itâs rich with symbolism. It is an inaugural miracle not only displaying Godâs mercy to the people who ran out of wine but as a way for Jesus to inaugurate the Kingdom of God on earth and tell us something special about Himself.
Two key phrases to look at here are when Jesus says, âMy hour has not yet comeâ and at the end when it says Jesus âmanifested his gloryâ and his âdisciples believedâ.
In the Gospel of John, the âhourâ always refers to the time of Jesusâ crucifixion, resurrection and glorification when he would receive his true position and sit at Godâs right hand. The hour where He accomplishes His greatest work in being an atoning death for all who believe, conquering death by resurrection, and then claiming victory in His ascension and giving of the Holy Spirit. But at this point in His ministry, especially since most people didnât understand what the Messiah was really going to be like, it wasnât the right time for Him to reveal Himself openly as Israelâs Messiah. He was telling His mother in no uncertain terms that her timeline was not His, that she didnât have the right to demand things of Him, and that He was going about His heavenly Fatherâs business, not hers. Her response is to give control of the situation over to Him, âDo whatever He tells you.â and to step back.
After all, this was only the âthird dayâ of His ministry. Heâd gone about 10 Kilometers out of Nazareth, had just gotten the baton from John the Baptist, hadnât gathered all the apostles yet, and had some things to do. But there He stands, His mother having requested help, the servants waiting for a command, the wedding party embarrassed⌠and He acts out of grace. But he takes that seemingly small miracle and makes it something huge. At that moment, by Godâs appointment and His power, He uses that miracle to inaugurate His Kingdom in a very special way.
And that first sign ripples out all the way to chapter 4:42 â because in this first sign Jesus âmanifested His gloryâ or âdisplayedâ or âshowed who He really is by demonstrating His sovereignty over the whole of the material universe and nature itself.â And that power, that demonstration, ripples out. Because Jesus didnât just make wine â He showed people a âsignâ of who He really is.
Wine is a powerful biblical symbol representing things like joy, happiness, conversion, and life itself. It was used in Jewish worship rituals and given as a sacrificial offering to God. It represented Godâs covenant with Israel, which He would withhold for disobedience. It was served at times of celebration and to cheer hearts, and given to help the weak and sick as a source of healing and life.[1]
Israel at the time of Jesus was, in a sense, all out of wine and only had dirty water[2] left over. There was no celebration in the land because they were under great oppression from Rome and their religion had been almost thoroughly corrupted by the oppression of the Pharisees and the rest of the wicked Sanhedrin. For Israel, just like the wedding guests, the wine had run out, and all they were left with was dirty water. They needed a miracle.
And so, in this first miracle, Jesus inaugurates the His kingdom, declares his intention, and shows His power, by making wine. He is the wine-giver, the celebration maker, the life bringer, the healer of bodies and souls. But, in a way very typical of Jesus, this multidimensional, world-changing miracle was done in a very small place with very few people. Heâs in the town of Cana, at a private party, and only a few disciples. It was a small inauguration but it rippled out.
Consider that Jesusâ next act was to cleanse the temple in Jerusalem. From little Cana to big Jerusalem. Jesus has just inaugurated His Kingdom, turned dirty water into choice wine, and comes into the temple as a warrior prince, defending His fatherâs castle, demanding they remove the corruption from His kingdom. Just as He had miraculously turned a bunch of dirty washbasins into the best wine anyone had ever tasted, He would also miraculously remove the corruption of sin from peopleâs hearts and flood it with His own presence and power, so everyone could see what real prayer, real worship, real faith looks like. Just as He purified the water, so He would purify His People and their worship.
Then in chapter 3, Jesus meets Nicodemus, a Pharisee and teacher of Israel, and says that the only way people can be part of His newly inaugurated Kingdom is to be miraculously born again. The Pharisee thought it had to do with obedience and strictness to the law â and Jesus says thatâs impossible â and that the change must be far more dramatic. More than simply going through religious motions, a personâs whole being must be radically transformed. He says, âThe only way to please God, the only way to enter His Kingdom is if you are completely renewed, reborn, changed from within, born of water and the spirit.â
Just as Jesus turned ordinary water into the best of wine, miraculously overcoming the laws of nature, so He would use His power to cause people to be reborn from worldly beings into spiritual beings. He would make the impossible possible. Just as itâs impossible to convince people that dirty water is amazing wine, so it is impossible for a dirty, corrupt soul to please God. No matter how much you stir or heat or cool or add to that dirty water â itâs going to taste like dirty water. No matter how many good deeds or religious actions you do, no matter how many donations you make or volunteer hours you work, no matter how bad you feel about your wrong or how much you try to ignore it, youâll never make your soul palatable to God. You need a miracle of transformation.
And so, just like Jesus made dirty water into the best wine, so He takes dead spirits and corrupt souls, and makes them alive, and good, and holy, and acceptable to God. He takes sinners and makes them saints. How? It says at the end of the story with Nicodemus. Just as Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in the wilderness so that any of the cursed people who looked upon it would be saved from the poisonous snakes, so anyone who would look upon the Christ who was lifted on the cross for their salvation would be saved. They would turn from water to wine the moment they looked to Christ for salvation.
Then, in 3:22-36 the miracle ripples from Cana to Jerusalem to all of Judea. Jesus is on the Judean countryside John the Baptist declares Jesus to be the source of eternal life. Just as the wine was used for ceremony and sacrifice, celebration and healing, and became a symbol of a good and blessed life â so Jesus would show Himself to be the perfected source of sacrifice, celebration, healing, and eternal life. Jesus was the life-giving wine-maker.
Then the ripples of the first miracle move out further, from the town of Cana in Galilee to the big city of Jerusalem, to the whole of the province of Judea, to world of unbelievers as represented by Samaria. And the similarities of the story of the woman at the well and the wedding in Cana are too obvious not to be a thematic echo of the first story.
Consider that both stories start with needing a drink and have water in jars. The first takes place at a wedding, the other is about a woman with many weddings and was currently living with someone out of wedlock. For those at the wedding Jesus provides wine, showing He is the life-giver, and for the Samaritan woman who came for water at the well, He says He is Living Water. At the wedding, He says, âMy hour has not yet comeâ and then inaugurates His Kingdom but to the woman at the well He fully declares Himself to be the Messiah. At the wedding the disciples see the sign and believe, at the well, the Samaritans hear the gospel and believe.
The first four chapters of the Gospel of John all point back to that first sign, and use story after story, interaction after interaction to show Jesus declaring Himself to be the saviour, showing His power, inaugurating the coming of the kingdom of God, and then spreading that kingdom from a few people to the city, to the province, to the world. From insiders, like the few disciples and Jesusâ mother, to the outsiders like Pharisees and Samaritans.
So many people get caught up in arguments about what kind of wine Jesus made and how alcoholic it was (or wasnât). They get caught up on Jesus calling his mother âwomanâ and wondering if Jesus was being rude to her or not â He wasnât. They get caught up on these minor details that they completely miss what the âsignâ, the âmiracleâ was pointing to! That Jesus is the King, Healer, Life-Giver, Reason for Celebration, and Lamb of God whoâs precious blood will be poured out as a sacrifice for people who wouldnât understand, consumed by people who donât deserve it, just as that unique and amazing wine Jesus made was poured out to the unsuspecting wedding guests in an act of grace.
Conclusion
There are two points I would like to pull out of this story as an application today.
The first is that things like this are why you need to study your bible. Not just read it devotionally, not just pick out favourite verses, not stick in your favourite books, but to actually study your Bibles. Stories like this one are like onions where you see the first layer and think you understand whatâs going on â but then as you connect the story to the Old Testament, the sacrificial system, the imagery of wine, the timing of the story, the locations within, the authorâs intention and themes â then the story really comes to life and starts to teach you about Jesus.
Itâs one thing to know that Jesus is gracious enough to provide wine to people who needed it, itâs another to understand that this whole section is about the inauguration of the Kingdom of God, the promise of Eternal Life, of the picture of Jesus as not only the wine-giver but the sacrificial wine itself. Of watching that miracle rippling out from town to city to province to the world, and thereby seeing that Jesus’ love isnât merely for the individuals at the party, or the few disciples that saw and believed â but his love extends to those who do not understand what He did, who drank the best wine not knowing where it came from. It extends to the Jewish people who rejected Him, to the Pharisees who kept challenging Him and made themselves His enemies, and then that to every other person in the world.
He gave His new-wine, His blood, His gift of eternal life to ordinary tradesmen, to his neighbours and friends, to the self-righteous hypocrites, the social rejects, the ones who worship wrong and reject His laws, those steeped in sexual-immorality, the abused, the anguished, the ones who donât even understand how God or love or sacrifice works. He gives that wine, that grace, that love, that living water, the fruits of His sacrifice, to everyone.
But you canât see all that unless you study!
Second, I want you to notice that this story speaks to us today.
Consider how this story should inspire us to celebrate our connection to Jesus and His love for us. Dirty water to wine, Repentance to Faith, being confronted by our sin and then offered forgiveness and eternal life from the hands of Jesus, should cause us to celebrate. When life is dark or difficult, the knowledge being part of Jesus’ Kingdom because He chose you from the beginning of time, is something to be thankful for. Knowing He is victorious and has destroyed death is always and ever something to motivate worship. When you are down or sad or afraid, take a minute to consider this story from John.
Jesus loved the disciples enough to show them His glory. Has Jesus shown you His glory? In your life have you witnessed His power?
Jesus loved the wedding guests by providing that which they did not deserve at a quality that astounded them. Have you seen Jesusâ hand of provision giving you undeserved grace? Have you ever gotten something from Jesus that was of such quality, such a gift, that you know it was a miracle? During difficult times, itâs helpful to recall the list of things Jesus has done in the past â for His people and for you.
Jesus loved His mother by reminding her that everything happens by His will and on His timeline. Has Jesus ever set you straight and told you to be patient? Have you ever jumped the gun on His will and ended up regretting it? Sometimes the love of God is shown in making us wait, or sternly reminding us to trust His will.
Jesus loved the Pharisee who kept making excuses and arguments by telling Him the truth and refusing to compromise. Jesus is the way, truth, and life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him. The Pharisee made excuses, and Jesus told him there was only one way. Have you been trying to argue with Jesus about how you should get into heaven, how He should operate in this world, how the church should go, how your future should be? Is He loving you right now by reminding you that He is Lord, He is the Way, He is the wine-maker, the life-giver, the living-water, and you are not? Is He showing you love by demanding you submit to Him and Him alone?
Jesus loved the woman at the well by â well, everything. He spoke to her when custom said not to. He indulged her arguments. He gently confronted her sin. He acknowledged her pain and fear. He worked with her wrong religious beliefs. He gave her forgiveness when, maybe, the whole community, and certainly a Jewish rabbi, wouldnât. Then He used her, the social reject, as His vessel to carry his Living Water, His New Wine, to a whole bunch of people from her neighbourhood, changing their lives forever. All in the span of a few hours!
Has Jesus been confronting your sin, your wrong beliefs, your pain, and telling you to submit to Him as saviour and Lord, to forgive and be forgiven? Has He been gently reminding you of His love, entering into your pain, sitting through your arguments, telling you the truth, and then inviting you to give it all to Him? Has He shown you grace and is now offering to use you, one who went from dirty water to new wine, to help carry His gospel to your friends?
Thereâs a lot going on in this story â but it doesnât just stay on the page. How is Jesus using this story in your life today? Heâs still the wine-maker, the living-water, the grace-giver, for you today. My prayer is that you would discover Him in His word, in your prayers, and in your service to His Kingdom.
[1] https://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Topical.show/RTD/cgg/ID/3831/Wine-Symbolism-of-.htm
Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). Cana. In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 1, p. 405). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.
[2] https://drivethruhistoryadventures.com/stone-jars-ritual-washing-water-wine-miracle-cana/
Miracles, Healings & Personal Experiences (Carnivore Theology Ep. 102C)
Part three answering listener questions from Tim about whether or not faithful Christians should expect to be healed by Jesus from all their diseases. This time we concentrate on the danger of filtering our faith through personal experience.
How Can You Help Carnivore Theology?
1. Pray for us!
2. Record a question in your voice on our SpeakPipe page! (We love this the most!) Or send a question or comment through Facebook, Twitter, or E-mail!
3. Subscribe to and rate us on iTunes and watch us on YouTube!! (If you donât have iTunes use one of these FeedBurner links)
4.  Send a donation to help us pay the bills.
5. Share www.CarnivoreTheology.com and our Media Kit with your friends and church. Sharing is caring!
Miracles, Healings and the Gospel (Carnivore Theology Ep. 102B)
Part two answering listener questions from Tim about whether or not faithful Christians should expect to be healed by Jesus from all their diseases. This time we concentrate on whether miracles should be a normal part of gospel preaching.
Podcast Audio:
How Can You Help Carnivore Theology?
1. Pray for us!
2. Record a question in your voice on our SpeakPipe page! (We love this the most!) Or send a question or comment through Facebook, Twitter, or E-mail!
3. Subscribe to and rate us on iTunes and watch us on YouTube!! (If you donât have iTunes use one of these FeedBurner links)
4.  Send a donation to help us pay the bills.
5. Share www.CarnivoreTheology.com and our Media Kit with your friends and church. Sharing is caring!
Miracles, Healings & Bethel Redding (Carnivore Theology Ep. 102A)
We answer a listener question from Tim about the claims coming from the popular Bethel Redding church and whether or not faithful Christians should expect to be healed by Jesus from all their diseases.
Podcast Audio:
How Can You Help Carnivore Theology?
1. Pray for us!
2. Record a question in your voice on our SpeakPipe page! (We love this the most!) Or send a question or comment through Facebook, Twitter, or E-mail!
3. Send a donation to help us pay the bills.
4. Subscribe to and rate us on iTunes and watch us on YouTube!! (If you donât have iTunes use one of these FeedBurner links)
5. Share www.CarnivoreTheology.com and our Media Kit with your friends and church. Sharing is caring!
How to Deal with Doubts and Unbelief (Mark 7:31-8:33)
Today we’re going to study Mark 7:31-8:33. At first these stories are going to seem disconnected, but as we read them, hopefully you will see a theme developing. I also want you to listen for similar phrases and events. Itâs set up as a sort of sandwich where we see a couple of similar events, and then something different, and then a couple of similar events.
Top of the Sandwich: Ears to Hear
âThen he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, âEphphatha,â that is, âBe opened.â And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, âHe has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.ââ (Mark 7:31-37)
So thereâs the first section. What did we see? Jesus goes somewhere, meets someone in need, Jesus looks to heaven to pray, heals that person with a sigh at the hard heartedness of the people and the effects of sin on humanity, and tells them to keep it quiet after performing the miracle. Letâs move on to the next event, which happens a few days later.
âIn those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, âI have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.â And his disciples answered him, âHow can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?â And he asked them, âHow many loaves do you have?â They said, âSeven.â And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. And there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away.â (Mark 8:1-9)
Ok, so what do we see there? Another display of power. This time Jesus goes somewhere, sees the need (rather than having the need brought to him), deals with the unbelief and sin of the disciples (I wonder if he sighed here too), prays, and works the miracle. Thatâs section one. Two displays of power a similar and simple theme: Jesus can work amazing miracles.
The Middle of the Sandwich: Deaf Ears and Blind Eyes
Now we move to section two, the middle of the sandwich â the bacon of the sandwich, the reason for the existence of the sandwich!
âAnd immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha. The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, âWhy does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.â And he left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other side.â (Mark 8:10-13)
So here, Jesus goes somewhere and comes across a group with hard hearts and no faith. This group of Pharisees likely wasnât around for the previous miracles, but they had heard of Jesusâ reputation and came to âargueâ with, and request miracles from Jesus. âShow us! Let us see with our own eyesâ they demand. Now, with that in our minds, letâs read the next section:
âNow they [that is, the disciples] had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And he cautioned them, saying, âWatch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.â And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, âWhy are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?â They said to him, âTwelve.â âAnd the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?â And they said to him, âSeven.â And he said to them, âDo you not yet understand?ââ (Mark 8:14-21)
Do you see similarities? Jesus goes somewhere, but this time the group that has hard hearts and low faith are his disciples. Unlike the Pharisees, they had witnessed the miracles, and yet still didnât understand the truth about Jesus. Our Key Verse for this whole section is found in verses 17-18, and they shine light on the rest of the whole section: âDo you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember?â Do you not see? Do you not hear? Do you not understand? Hopefully youâre seeing the connection. If not, you will after we read the next section.
The Bottom of the Sandwich: Jesus Gives Sight
âAnd they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, âDo you see anything?â And he looked up and said, âI see people, but they look like trees, walking.â Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. And he sent him to his home, saying, âDo not even enter the village.â” (Mark 8:22-26)
Jesus performs another miracle where he takes someone who has a blockage of perception â before it was hearing, now itâs sight â and performs a miracle so they can see. And He goes through a similar pattern as with the deaf/mute, though this time it takes two steps.
Now, from the context, weâre beginning to see that Jesus healing the deaf and the blind is about far deeper than merely restoring earing and eyesight. This blind man is a picture of what Jesus wants to do for His disciples, and for all of us. He wants His followers to see â but, like the man, though they have been touched by Jesus, at first, they are only seeing dimly⌠blurrily⌠a little bit of light, but not enough to understand whatâs really going on.
And how do we know that? Because of the final section:
âAnd Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, âWho do people say that I am?â And they told him, âJohn the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.â And he asked them, âBut who do you say that I am?â Peter answered him, âYou are the Christ.â And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him. And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, âGet behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.ââ (Mark 8:27-33)
Peter is our great example here. Peter was like the blind man, unable to see. Then He met Jesus, and began to see something⌠that Jesus was the Christ⌠but Peter wasnât seeing clearly yet. How do we know? Because of what Peter did next â he rebukes Jesus for talking about his crucifixion! âYouâre the Christ, Jesus! Youâll never suffer! Youâll conquer!â
Like the blind man, Peter saw a little light about Jesus, but his spiritual vision was still blurry. He needed more from Jesus in order to understand the rest of the truth about Jesus. And that would come after the Crucifixion and Resurrection, on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the disciples and they finally understood all that Jesus said.
Two Blind Groups
Hopefully Iâve explained well enough the connections throughout this section. Deaf and Blind people meeting Jesus and needing healing. But itâs more than physical blindness and deafness that Jesus has come to heal â itâs spiritual blindness and deafness. Jesus shows He has the supernatural power to overcome any kind of perception problem, and goes even farther to show He can provide food out of thin air for thousands of people.
But then, in the middle of these stories of healing, we see two groups that are both presented with Jesusâ claims and evidence of His power — but who react very differently to them: The Disciples and the Pharisees.
The Disciples saw miracle after miracle, had heard message after message, and had seen bread come out of nowhere to feed thousands â and yet, as they sat in the boat, when Jesus began to teach them in a parable saying, âBeware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.â They completely missed it. They thought they were in trouble for forgetting to bring lunch. They thought Jesus was hungry and wanted food. They showed their complete lack of ability to perceive spiritual things â they were stuck in the physical realm.
Jesus rebukes them:
“Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember?â (Mark 8:17-18)
âGuys! I just miraculously provided thousands of people with bread, and you were left with baskets and baskets of it! Do you really think that Iâm mad at you for not bringing enough lunch? Do you really think Iâm telling you to beware of the actual, physical bread that the Pharisees make?!?!â
Theyâd seen so much, but theyâd forgotten and couldnât see the truth about Jesus. Were they really unwilling to believe that Jesus would provide bread to them? Their shortsighted, small minded, easily forgetful ways, showed they were like the deaf man â unable to hear what Jesus was saying. They were just like the blind man â unable to see what was happening right before their eyes. At least the deaf man knew he was deaf and needed Jesus to help him hear.
Jesus kept His disciples around, showing them miracle after miracle, sharing teaching after teaching, giving them example after example, answering question after question⌠training them to have faith in Him. They wrestled with unbelief for years as they walked with Jesus⌠but eventually, after they had walked with Him for a while, witnessed His Resurrection, and were touched by His Holy Spirit, they became men of strong faith.
The other group, however, didnât. The other group that we see in the bacon of these stories is the Pharisees. Like the Disciples, they are also deaf and blind â but they donât know it. Theyâre bumbling around, unable to see spiritual truths, hurting themselves and others in their ignorance. Like a deaf person, they shout out unintelligible nonsense that sounds right to them, but is just noise. They are presented with the same evidences, the same Jesus, the same claims, and are given the same opportunity to follow.
The Pharisees had heard of Jesusâ reputation, and may have even witnessed some miracles â at the very least they knew of Jesusâ reputation from many witnesses â but they didnât come to seek light and truth or to ask questions and listen to Jesus. Why did they come? 8:11 says, âThe Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him.â
The difference is their attitude. No matter what Jesus would have said, they hadnât come to listen, they came to talk. They were deaf. No matter what Jesus would have shown them, they wouldnât have seen it, because they had their blinders on.
It reminds me of when the Deacon Stephen was martyred by this same group of people. These are the last words of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, and they are addressed to the Sanhedrin:
ââYou stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.â”
[Now look at their reaction.]
âNow when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, âBehold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.â But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him.” (Acts 7:51-58)
They, like the Pharisees who had come to Jesus that day, werenât there to listen, but to argue, make demands, condemn and test. They put themselves above Jesus, as His judges. He needed to prove Himself to them! They were the experts. They were the holy ones. They were the ones who knew God â and they expected Jesus to toe the line.
How to Deal with Unbelief
We all struggle with doubts and unbelief at times â some more than others. Even the most faithful Christian has moments when they wonder about what God is doing. We all ask questions like, âGod, do you still love me? Are you in control of this? Will you help me? Do you hate me? Is this in your plan? Where are you? Can I trust you with this difficult thing? Are you worthy of putting my faith in, or will you let me down? â We all have moments of doubt.
The question is how we respond. The difference between the Disciples and the Pharisees, though they both struggled with blindness and deafness, was that one group had a relationship with Jesus and the other didnât. One had been chosen by Jesus and was willing to stick with Him. They kept walking with Him, paying attention to Him, seeking after Him, waiting for Him, asking Him questions, talking to Him. And their wiliness to do that meant they continued to see miracles, hear from Jesus, and were mightily used by God.
The Pharisees didnât walk with Jesus. They came to argue with and test Jesus. They wanted Him to submit to them. They wanted God to bend to them â and therefore, even after meeting Jesus, they still walked away blind.
I guess the key word that describes that attitude is humility. Both groups were messed up. Both were blind. Both didnât understand what Jesus was doing. But only one of the groups were willing to humbly walk with Jesus as their Lord. The disciples didnât demand Jesus prove Himself, they just walked with Jesus wherever He went and saw Him in action. They got the proof, but not on their terms.
The Pharisees came at their own convenience, ordered Jesus to do things for them, and when He didnât, they walked away. One group showed humble discipleship, the other arrogant presumption.
Sometimes we hear people say things like, âIf God is real, why doesnât He just show Himself! If God wants me to believe in Him, then He can just write it in the sky. Just one little miracle and Iâll believe Him. If God wants me to follow Him, then Heâll do this one thing for me. God, Iâll make a deal with you, Iâll start praying if you work this miracle.â
God wouldnât be much of a god, if He performed like a trained seal and submitted to the whims of His creation, would He? God doesnât operate like that. He shows Himself to people who come to Him in humble faith, in need, who desire truth, and who are willing to submit to Him as their God! God doesnât submit to people who come demanding a performance.
We Experience Jesus in Different Ways
That being said, God is amazingly willing to meet us where weâre at and perform miracles for we who donât deserve it. Like in the scriptures weâve read today, different people meet Him in different ways, and God does some amazing things for them. But thereâs a common theme behind all of these folks that met Jesus.
Jesus said as much in Matthew 13:44-46 where He said:
âThe kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.â
You see, we donât create our own treasure, God does — and we all come across it a little differently. Some people are like the man who stumbles across it. The somehow come across Jesus â maybe through their parents, or a friend, or a vision, or another way they didnât go looking for â and Jesus opens their eyes, their ears and frees their tongue to worship Him.
Other people are like the man searching for pearls â they look all their life for that one, great treasure, and when they meet Jesus they completely sell out to Him. Theyâve searched and now theyâve found.
The deaf man and the blind man were brought to Jesus to be healed. They didnât get there by themselves. The treasure was found by others. And all of the 4000 people that Jesus fed that day didnât ask for it, Jesus just had compassion on them and fed them. We meet and experience Jesus in different ways.
Their healing was unique too. Many people had been brought to Jesus, but these are the only ones we read about where Jesus uses spit â and in the Gospel of John we read that he made mud from the spit â and used it to heal the person. No one seems to know why Jesus did that, but we can take away from it that â for whatever reason â Jesus uses different methods to meet different peopleâs needs.
Jesus healed the leper by laying on hands. The Centurionâs servant and the Syrophoenician womanâs daughter was healed form a distance. We donât know why, but Jesus uses different methods on different people.
Thatâs part of the lesson of humility too, isnât it? We come to Jesus, like the blind man, the deaf man, the disciples â humbly following and hoping for something â and then we allow Jesus to do it however He wants. Or, we try to come to Jesus like the Pharisees, demanding Jesus do it our way, in our time, using our methods. Jesus doesnât respond to that. He responds to humility.
Sometimes Jesus chooses to heal immediately and fully. I just heard someone tell me this week about an addiction they had that God cured like that. Boom! One minute they couldnât put it down, the next they couldnât pick it up.
Sometimes God uses a little spit and mud to get it done. We need to take the medicine, go through training, work through the suffering, get dirty, face the temptation every day, exist in that situation for a while.
Sometimes, as we learned from the blind man, Jesus heals in stages. What we might call â progressive healing. We know thatâs true spiritually. Itâs something we call âprogressive sanctificationâ the process of living our lives in such a way that we get closer to God and more like Jesus every day. 1 Corinthians 13:12 says, âFor now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.â In this world we donât really understand everything. Christians experience and understand many things we didnât before we met Jesus, but we donât know it all yet â which is why we struggle with doubt sometime. But weâre only in the first stage of healing.
Sometimes Jesus heals us in stages too. Sometimes we need to bear the burden for a little while, see dimly, and only get â what we see as â part of the miracle. The question is: Are you willing to humbly submit to following Jesus where He wants to go, do what He wants to do, in His timing, healing you as He sees fit, in the way He sees fit? Because thatâs how we experience the presence of Jesus.
Conclusion
Let me conclude with these thoughts. Weâre all deaf and blind sometimes, and we know people who are deaf and blind to the things of God â but Jesus has the power to break through that blindness and give us light. He can break through the deafness so we can hear His voice. He can unbridle our tongue so we can speak the truth.
Jesus is the only one who can break through spiritual blindness and deafness. We canât demand it of Him, but we can ask. Godâs hand of grace moves when we humble ourselves before Him. If we want God to prove Himself, trade miracles for faith, and submit Himself to our wills, we will be sorely disappointed. He doesnât play that game. Heâs God, weâre not. Satan does play that game, however. Heâs happy to give you enough rope to let you hang yourself. God doesnât want that. He wants the best for you, and He wants you to realize that He knows what is best â and He gives you the ability to choose whether you will trust Him.
If you want to experience the power of God, then come to Him in humility and faith, trusting He knows what is better, with confidence in His love, His sovereignty, His compassion and His power. Remember who you are talking to.
And Remember what He has said. He said to the disciples, âDo you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember?â
Let us be the ones who remember!
We ask, âGod do you love me?â
He responds, âOf course! Donât you remember that I sent my son to die for you?â
We ask âAre you in control?â
He responds, âYes, Iâve shown my faithfulness to you already, and Iâve proven that my thoughts are higher than your thoughts, my ways are higher than your ways. (Isaiah 55:8-9) Remember that I know what Iâm doing.â
We ask, âWill you help me?â
He responds, âYes, and I already have. Remember that Iâm with you. Iâve given you every breath youâve ever taken, and the strength for every step youâve ever made. Iâve promised never to leave you. Iâve promised to give you all you need to do everything you need to do. Just follow me and Iâll lead you where you need to be.â
Having Faith During Suffering and Crisis
Podcast Audio:
And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly, saying, âMy little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.â And he went with him.
And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, âIf I touch even his garments, I will be made well.â And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, âWho touched my garments?â And his disciples said to him, âYou see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, âWho touched me?ââ And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, âDaughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.â
While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler’s house some who said, âYour daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?â But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, âDo not fear, only believe.â And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. And when he had entered, he said to them, âWhy are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.â And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was. Taking her by the hand he said to her, âTalitha cumi,â which means, âLittle girl, I say to you, arise.â And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat. (Mark 5:21-43)
Crisis After Crisis
This was a busy time in Jesusâ life! Consider what has just been happening to him. Jesus has been crossing the sea, back and forth from crisis to crisis. And no sooner had Jesus gotten off the boat than he was presented with another catastrophe â actually two!
Think back to what weâve been reading. At the beginning of Mark 4 we see Jesus spending a bunch of time on one side of the sea teaching the people and his disciples. Then, at the end of Mark 4, he gets into the boat and is beset by a huge storm and crazed disciples who doubted Him, His power and His goodness. When He landed on the other side of the shore, the moment Jesus stepped from the boat â I mean, His feet were probably still wet â Jesus was immediately confronted with a legion of demons possessing a super-strong man. After delivering the man, everyone around there begged Him to leave.
And so, back into the boat He gets, probably with wet sandals, and heads back to the other side. On the other side, as the boat was landing, a huge crowd was gathering â waiting for more teaching and miracles. And again, as Jesus stepped out of the boatâanother crisis!
So Jesus, feet still wet, is confronted by the ruler of the synagogue who is facing an emergency⌠and moments later a woman who is in desperate need. Crisis after crises after crisis. Relentless. And yet Jesus is never phased. Never overwhelmed. And gives comfort to all around Him. He is a rock, a cornerstone, a deliver, a strong tower. He is the one to whom we come when things are out of control and messy. Heâs the one who can untangle things and deal with the billions of issues coming at us at once. He is Jesus, He is God, and we are not. And thatâs never more clear than when we are in crisis.
Dealing with Crises
How we deal with emergencies, disasters, illness and difficult times tells us a lot about ourselves and our faith. It gives us insight into how much we really trust God. It opens our eyes to how patient we are. It reveals our idols and the places where we take comfort. It tests our prayer life. Difficult times open us up to a lot of divine diagnostics.
Iâve had my own crisis over the past couple weeks. It told you last week about the morning I was hit by lightning. That was crisis that came out of the blue and created a lot of havoc. It upset my time schedule, affected my health, wrecked my car and killed my computer.
I went to the hospital and got checked out, replaced some parts in the computer, and got my van boosted and running. I thought it was all done until my van started making some weird noises and I found out that the engine is now toast. More phone calls, more dealing with insurance, more frustration. All little stuff by comparison to what many people are going through.
And as I was dealing with this, I was talking to God, and He brought me to Proverbs 21:1 which says, âThe king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD; like the rivers of water he turns it wherever he wishes.â That reminded me that Godâs in charge of whatâs going on. Heâs in charge of the mechanic, the insurance people, and everything else. He can turn things the way He wishes. Therefore the best person to talk to about it is Him. The question is whether I will have the faith and trust to let Jesus do whatever He wants with the situation.
Contrasts
Letâs talk a little about how we react to crisis, and how Jesus deals with our problems, through the lens of these two people that came to Jesus after He got off the boat.
The Characters
First, letâs note how different these two characters, the leader of the synagogue and the woman, while at the same time noticing that they both end up at the feet of Jesus. And I want you to see yourself, your own story, or the story of your loved ones in this.
The man is a religious layman â like our elders or deacons â respected and well known in the community. We can presume the man was very well known because Mark very rarely gives names to the characters in his stories, so perhaps he did so because many reading might have known his name. The woman was his opposite. Because of her issue with constant bleeding, she would have been ceremonially unclean and therefore wasnât allowed to be in the temple or permitted to be in public without making people aware of her uncleanness. The woman would have been ostracized, considered cursed, hurting and desperately lonely.
And they both end up at the feet of Jesus. There is no one kind of person that comes to Christ. Famous, rich, spiritual, religious people — and rejected, broken, outcasts â are welcome at the feet of Jesus Christ.
Let me tell you what was going on here with this poor woman. According to ceremonial law, if she touched anyone, they would also become defiled and unclean. It was a huge risk for her to touch this popular rabbi!
So see how gently Jesus seeks out this woman. Of course He knew who touched Him, but He didnât want to call attention to her! For years and years, every time she went out in public, she had been forced to call attention to herself to tell everyone she was unclean. For years she hadnât been allowed to touch anyone. And she had dared to reach out and touch a famous rabbi â one who is on an important mission for a leader of the synagogue! How terrifying for her. So Jesus allows her to be the one to announce herself, to show her courage, and to bring testimony about her healing. He called her to tell her story, but never considered forcing her or pointing her out.
Jesus called her âDaughterâ. She was older, not a young woman, so what was this all about. It was about reminder her that God had never turned his back on her. God had never left her. She was rejected by people, removed from the temple, pushed away in her pain, suffering in fear and loneliness, but all along God still saw her as His daughter. And so Jesus addresses her as such.
Thatâs how Jesus operates with us to. What a picture of how we are all saved. We come, in faith, in fear, having no idea what is going to happen, but only knowing that getting a little bit of Jesus is going to do something! But the risk is great! Coming to Jesus has such huge consequences in our life⌠and Jesus knows this. So, when we show our faith in Him by repenting of our sins and making Him Lord of our life, He heals us, calls us His âsons and daughtersâ (1 John 3:1), and gives us a chance to tell our story. He doesnât hold us up like a trophy, but gently calls to us, drawing us out of the crowd, and gives us the chance to courageously tell our story.
The Crises
Their crises were very different when you contrast them too. The woman came for personal healing of her own problem, the man came on behalf of another. The woman had suffered for 12 years and had tried everything she could think of â spending all her money on doctors, medicines and methods â just to be well. Nothing worked, and the treatments themselves brought even more suffering.
The man had come, not because of a long-term problem, but because of an emergency. We donât know what was wrong with the little girl, but we know from the account in Luke 8 that it was his only beloved daughter, and she was twelve years old. It could have been an accident or a sudden illness. Whatever it was, it was urgent. And when a dad sees his little girl on the edge of death, he doesnât mess around with things that might help, he goes to the one he knows can help.
And they both end up at the feet of Jesus. We all have different types of crises. Some of them are long-term problems that weâve dealt with our whole lives. Some come upon us suddenly and without warning. Some are of our own doing because we have been foolish. Some are the actions of others trying to harm us. Some are just because we live in a fallen world. No one is to blame, but the danger, fear and pain is very real.
All these problems are welcome at the feet of Jesus. If we mess up, we can bring it to Jesus. If we have the same problem for years and years, we can still bring it to Jesus. If we are in an emergency, our first stop needs to be Jesus. There is nothing beyond His reach or power.
The Miracles
How each person acted out their faith, and the miracles Jesus performs have contrasts too. The man came to get Jesus to bring Him to his daughter. The woman came to see Jesus and was hoping to get away unseen. The woman was suffering for a long time and was healed instantly. The little girl died and was resurrected. The woman who was unclean reached out to touch Jesus, and Jesus reached out to touch the dead girl who, because she had died, was now unclean.
The woman pressed through the crowd, doing all she could to get to Jesus â no one was going to stop her. The man had all but given up after receiving news of his daughterâs death.
And they both experience the miraculous power and healing of Jesus. They both had faith â perhaps the woman had more since the man had almost turned away â but it was present in both. But it wasnât the measure of their faith that determined the miracle â just who they had faith in!
The woman didnât need a faith boost, so Jesus said to her âYour faith has made you wellâŚâ. However, to the man who was losing faith in what Jesus could do about the situation, He said, âDo not be afraid any longer, only believe.â
How ironic. I wonder how many people this synagogue leader had said those very words to as people in his congregation came to him with problems. How many times did he tell them, âDonât be afraid, have faith.â Â How many times had he reminded people about the power of God and the miracles in Israelâs past? How many people had he encouraged to pray for a miracle? How many people had heard him say, âDonât be afraid, have faithâ? And when it was time for him to have faith — it failed him. But that didnât stop Jesus from helping him. Jesus didnât walk away, did he?
Itâs not unheard of to have a crisis of faith during a difficult time, is it? John the Baptist had a crisis of faith when he was unjustly locked up in prison. Peter had the same when Jesus told him that He would be crucified. We all do. Emergencies, illness and disaster really let us know where our faith is.
Granted, this was a pretty big ask of Jesus. His daughter was dead â thatâs usually the end of the story. But Jesus looks at him and says, âDonât worry, donât be afraid, donât fall apart, donât quit on me. Iâm still here. I still have power, this story isnât over. When Iâm involved, death isnât ever the end of the story. It looks bad now, but Iâve got this under control. Iâm not surprised, and since Iâm here, youâre not helpless. Letâs go.â
And when Jesus and the father of this young girl got to the home, they were confronted with the mourners. Jesus told them not to worry because He was there to deal with the problem. In fact, this death was going to be so short that it was going to look like a little nap.
Different Miracles
In the same way, as these two miracles were so different, the way Jesus deals with our problems is going to look very different. Sometimes the healing will be immediate and powerful. Sometimes weâll see the physical, or financial, or emotional, or relational miracle happen before our eyes. The addiction will disappear. The cancer will go away. The money will just show up. There are times when we come to Jesus with a desperate issue and itâll just happen.
Other times, itâs not going to happen the way we think. Sometimes the miracle comes after death when we, or our loved one, sees Jesus in heaven. Sometimes the miracle isnât in the physical healing we want to see, but in the testimony this person is able to have as a result of their suffering. Sometimes the healing is spiritual, or emotional, and not physical. Instead of healing the body, Jesus does something better and heals the soul. Sometimes, God chooses to allow the suffering because it is the best way to help the person to grow stronger in their faith.
The father would never have wanted his daughter to die. But thatâs how Jesus wanted it to happen. He could have healed her from a distance, but he had a different plan for her and her family. This man needed to see something different from Jesus so his faith would grow. The presenting issue of having a dying daughter wasnât the real problem â the problem was the faith of the family, the faith of the community, the trust that they had in Jesus, and their need to see His power. And He would do it, not through healing a sick girl, but raising one from the dead.
The mourners were mocking and called Jesus foolish â and maybe even the father for bringing Jesus there at all. And weâre going to get mocked too, for having faith in Jesus, and bringing Him problems that seem impossible to solve. We are going to get mocked for having faith in Jesus, and for believing that even though He can heal us (or our loved one), Heâs choosing not to and itâs for a good reason.
Sometimes people are going to stand in our way and tell us to âstop bothering Godâ, just as the people who came from the manâs house said, âWhy trouble the teacher anymore?â. Theyâll tell us to quit praying. Itâs not working. Clearly God isnât listening. He doesnât care. But thatâs not true! There is so much that is done as we pray and trust.
And just as Iâm sure this woman with the bleeding received hundreds of pieces of advice, remedies and miracle cures, so will people tell us to try all manner of human means of fixing our problems. Theyâll tell us to take it into our own hands, manipulate the situation, compromise our integrity, just fib a little. They will be like Jobâs wife who, after seeing the suffering of her husband said, âCurse God and die!â (Job 2:9) Just quit! Give up!
Suffering Builds Us
But we believe as Christians that Jesus knows better. We do not quit praying and we trust that He knows best. If God choose to bless us with an immediate miracle â we will thank Him. If He chooses that we must suffer in this life, and that the miracle will only come when we see Him face to face, we will thank Him!
Why? Because he is faithful! He is worthy of our trust! He is wiser than us, and He knows us better that we know ourselves. And we believe Romans 5:1-5 which says,
âTherefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.â
And we agree with James 1:2-4 which says,
âConsider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be complete, not lacking anything.â
