Sabbath Healing

Summary

Church should be a place that people work together to show the love of God. Don't let power structures and cultural "norms" be a way to keep people away from God.

Transcript

One of the things that is so apparent for me, and I truly do not understand how we can justify this, but if there is somebody who you think is in need of grace, if there is somebody who comes to your mind when you think that the place where you should want them to be the most is at church, the church should be the most radically welcoming place on the planet because it is through the church that Jesus can, by his spirit, impact a person's life. And so, without question, without any hesitation, the church should welcome all who Jesus calls to himself.

We have been over the last couple of weeks using an illustration of the posture of our body, thinking about a closed fist as a posture that's rooted in brokenness. It's a posture that grabs and holds tightly onto whatever is the pursuit. It's a posture that actually ends up isolating us from one another. It creates animosity towards one another, fear towards one another, judgment towards one another. It creates scarcity towards our neighbors. And in comparison to that, the kingdom of God is like living with an open hand. And the open hand is a posture of receiving that the only thing that we can do with the kingdom of God is to receive it and to allow it to shape and form our lives. It replaces the mentality of scarcity, of animosity, of selfishness with that of goodness and the kingdom of God with the abundance of the kingdom of God.

And we learn to live with our hands, open with our minds, bodies and hearts open to the presence of Jesus. So the last week, and then this week, we are talking about everybody's favorite J word. And no, it's not Jonathan, which is a good J word. It is the word judgment. Anybody just love to be judged? Anybody? Anybody? No. Right. No one likes to be judged, especially people from the United States of America, especially people from Texas. We don't want to be judged. Judgment is almost a dirty word, but as we talk about the scriptures, you cannot escape the fact that judgment is in the Bible. It is a very common and persistent theme that we have to deal with. We have to wrestle with whether we like it or not. Sometimes churches, pastors, Christians will choose to ignore the common theme of judgment, but we don't like to ignore things that are in the Bible around here.

So we wrestle with it. We struggle to understand and how we fit within it and how it fits within our lives as we pursue the way of Jesus. And so a couple of things that I have sort of learned through my wrestling with judgment first and foremost is that judgment belongs to God and God alone. One of the things that Jesus says most often is that his followers are not to judge. We're not to judge one another. We're not to judge our neighbor. We're not to judge people who aren't like us. We're not to judge anyone. It is beyond our pay grade to pass judgment on others. So judgment solely belongs to God. The other thing that I have experienced personally is that there is a difference. One of the things that I try to teach my kids, they oftentimes will say, that's not fair.

And my response to that is always, well, I don't care about fair. And because fair is not real fair doesn't really exist God's judgment. Hear me for a moment. God's judgment is not fair. God's judgment is mercy and grace. And so where that has led me to understand is that God judging in mercy and judging in grace, that whatever judgment God passes, whether I think it's fair or not, whether it aligns with my understanding or not, it is the most true and real reality that is possible that exists. So however, God judges it is true and right and just and good, and that is where we leave it with God and allow God to do his work of grace and mercy through judgment. But also in the scriptures, judgment represents an invitation. It's never about destruction. It's never about consequence. It is always about invitation, but it's an invitation to, what is it an invitation to?

It's an invitation to repentance. One of the funny things about the church today is that oftentimes we find judgment passages like what we read last week, and we pass it along to people we disagree with. We will look at a direct passage of Jesus and we'll say You over there that don't like us, act like us, think like us, believe like us, behave like us. Listen to what Jesus is saying to you. And we use it as a tool to put people in their place, but that's not at all how judgment is represented in the scriptures. It comes to the people of God first, and it's for the people of God to wrestle with and to shape our lives because it is an invitation to the kingdom of God. And so repentance is the proper response for judgment. Repentance is not a one-time thing. Sometimes the church teaches that repent at one point and then you journey on into bliss.

But repentance is a way of life. It is an understanding and admitting of wrong, but also it is a turning away from that which is wrong and it moves us to a place to where in our lives our roots are planted in and brokenness. The roots of our lives are planted in brokenness. And repentance allows those roots to be pulled out of the soil of brokenness planted into the soil of the kingdom of heaven being nourished by the spirit. Then the brokenness, the greed, the hate, the envy, the bitterness, all of that begins to be filled with the spirit and removed from our lives and replaced with the fruit then of the kingdom of God. So repentance is like the garden times that breaks up the hard claws of soil that keeps us trapped in patterns of brokenness and it opens up the opportunity for God to nourish the roots of our lives in the ways of the kingdom of heaven.

Repentance takes our roots out of the soil of brokenness and plants it in the soil of love, and then our lives become nourished by the good soil of love. I was thinking about this this week as time went by and one of my goals in life is to have a center that is calm and peaceful. So regardless of what is going on around me, regardless of what's happening in the world around me, my desire is to approach it with a center of calm, with a center of peace, to be able to respond peacefully to whatever comes my way. The time that I am tried the most move from peace to frustration is with my children. Now, I love my children, but they know how to push my buttons. All those who are parents say amen. Right? Children learn how to push their parents' buttons and they push it and they push it and they push it.

And it can take even the most calm parents to the brink of frustration and way over the brink of frustration into the abyss of frustration. And those moments happen for us, right? No matter how much we want them to or how little we want them to happen, they happen and we have a choice at that point, right? When we have crossed a line, we can say to our children, it is your fault, right? You pushed my buttons and you pushed me to that point or tempted to say that. But that for me anyway, violates what I teach my children is I try to teach my children that they are in control of themselves. It's not about what somebody is doing to you, it's how you respond to that. The reason why I teach my children, that is because that's what Jesus teaches us. Everybody's favorite passage in the scripture of somebody slaps you on the cheek, turn and offer them the other one, right?

Jesus talks about control and self-control in our lives. So the only proper response of a parent to their children when they have responded to their kids' button pushing with frustration is to respond to that by saying, you know what? I was wrong. It was wrong of me to boil over into frustration to be impulsive instead of responding to you from a place of calm. And we have to turn towards that. Now, here's the thing. Life is a journey. Sometimes we want to have everything right now to the fullest extent that we can possibly have it, but very little comes that way. Much anything that is good and worthwhile takes time to grow and to develop. And it's the same way with our journey and faith and journey in the ways of the kingdom of God and our journey and the fruit of the spirit is that it takes time and rather than just being a up into the right process throughout our lives, if you were to chart it out on a whiteboard, probably what our journey and the ways of Jesus would look like is squiggles everywhere, right?

Ups and downs and lefts and rights and peaks and valleys, the way that life works. And so we have to have grace for ourselves and we have to understand that regardless of how we feel in a moment, that we can't be perfect, right? There will be moments even for the most calm person where you are brought to frustration, and that's where repentance becomes a lifestyle. We admit, we know that we are wrong and we turn from that as often as it comes up in our lives. And then the more the roots of our lives are nourished and the soil of love, the more evident is the fruit of the spirit. And so you say, what does it mean then for our lives to be rooted in love? Well, here are a couple of snapshots for us. It says in Corinthians, love is patient. Love is kind.

It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It does not dishonor others. It is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrong. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Then and Galatians, we read about the fruit of the spirit being love, and that's represented in joy, peace, forbearance, which sometimes is translated as patience or long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. And against these things there is no law. So we are seeking to plant the roots of our lives in the kingdom of God, to be nourished by the spirit producing the fruit of the kingdom of God in us. And so we come to this passage in Luke chapter 13, where Jesus is teaching in a synagogue, which is a common thing for him before what we are going to read.

Jesus makes a statement where he says, repent or perish, admit that you are wrong, turn from it or it is going to eat you. Alive is the paraphrase to offer for us today. And just after his teaching comes this story. So let's pay attention to what is happening here. The opposite of repentance, I suppose, is not repenting, but for our purposes today, we're going to call it self-righteousness, right? The opposite of repentance is self-righteousness. So here is this story from the life of Jesus on the Sabbath. Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for 18 years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, woman, you are set free from your infirmity. Then he put his hands on her and immediately she straightened up and praised God indignant, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath.

The synagogue leader said to the people, there are six days for work, so come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath. Didn't see that response coming. The Lord answered him, you hypocrites, doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, who Satan has kept bound for 18 long years be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her when he said this, all of his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things that he was doing. Can you imagine this scenario as it plays out? And I want to approach it kind of backwards. I want to begin by talking about the synagogue leader, right? I mean, this is an incredible happening that he is witnessing here.

The synagogue leader is similar to a pastor or a person who's kind of in charge of the order of worship and the way that things are going in a time of worship. And so his response to what has unfolded is absolutely mind boggling, but we might have a little bit more commonality to it than we would like to admit. The synagogue leader here, I think is challenged. He's indignant because Jesus heals this woman, which by the way, Sabbath, if you're not familiar with that term, is an ancient practice. Since the very beginning of time, God has commanded his people to have Sabbath rest. And the whole purpose of the Sabbath is healing, right? It's restful healing. It's resetting the patterns of our lives and setting them according to the patterns of God. And there is rest and there is healing on the Sabbath. On the seventh day, God rested and creation is restored and renewed through the practice of Sabbath.

So the function of Sabbath and the life of a person is not keeping but is healing. So what should happen here is a time of rejoicing because this lady who for 18 years had been crippled, had been healed and set free. But what is responded by the synagogue leader is him being indignant. Why it's moved my cheese moment. If you're familiar with that book, he is more concerned with his power and his rights and his authority that's most important to him. And so his response is, if you want to be healed, that's fine, but be healed on your own time. Come Sunday through Friday to be healed, not on the Sabbath day. Isn't that an incredible response to what is unfolding around him here at Journey? One of the things that we believe and operate on is that God calls us here.

We don't show up on accident. We're not here just by happenstance. There is a calling or a leading together that is offered through the Holy Spirit, but it's offered by God in our lives. In John chapter 12, Jesus says this, he says, and I, this is Him speaking. He says, when I am lifted up by the earth, we'll draw people to myself. So Jesus draws us by the Spirit. So in response to that, our desire is that whomever Jesus draws, there's only one proper response for us. And that is to welcome, welcome with open arms. Whomever Jesus draws, the church does not belong to me. The church does not belong to you. The church belongs to Jesus. And the Bible, the church is talked about as the bride of Jesus. It is that joined together with Jesus in the marriage where the church is the body of Christ, it is the bride of Christ.

It belongs to Jesus and Jesus alone. And so if Jesus is calling people to himself, then who are we to say, you are not welcome here. Could you imagine if our response to people is go Monday through Saturday, clean yourself up, act like us, look like us, think like us, believe us, and then you can come here and experience what we have going on. Could you imagine that? Well, sometimes that's exactly what happens, and we have to guard ourselves from that because we can get caught up in our self-righteousness. We can get caught up in our insulation. We can wrap a closed fist around what we have going on and end up isolating others who Jesus might be calling. One of the things that is so apparent for me, and I truly do not understand how we can justify this, but if there is somebody who you think is in need of grace, if there is somebody who comes to your mind when you think that the place where you should want them to be the most is at church, the church should be the most radically welcoming place on the planet because it is through the church that Jesus can, by his spirit, impact a person's life.

And so without question, without any hesitation, the church should welcome all who Jesus calls to himself.

But also there's a bit of a warning for us, for all of us in responding to the call of Jesus. Because if you respond to the call of Jesus, you better believe that God is going to do things in your life, things that you love and want more of, and things that you probably aren't the greatest fan of, because the work of the Holy Spirit is a pruning work to nourish the roots of our lives. And love can be a very difficult process. And so it's not just come and sit down and have fun and enjoy the rest of your life. It's come and sit down and the spirit is going to work in your lives as the spirit sees fit. So we welcome and we celebrate. Jesus says about this woman that she is a daughter of Abraham, right? This isn't a stranger. This isn't somebody who just wandered in.

They're not reading about this happening on Facebook about somebody who doesn't have a face or they don't know, right? This is a woman who is a part of their community. They should be elated in celebrating the freedom that she experienced. But that's not the case. So when we think about this woman, we can get caught up in what is her illness. And there's a lot of study about that if you want to find that afterwards. But I don't even really think that matters much, not the point. The point is that she is set free on Sabbath the day of healing. Ultimately, this story in Luke 13 is a story of the danger of self-righteousness compared to the beauty of repentance. This is a story of radical hospitality and welcome by Jesus, and a story that results in freedom and healing when the presence of Jesus is near.

And so for us today, through our way of repentance, we identify the patterns of our lives that are wrong. We turn towards them and we receive in place of that healing today, you and I can be healed. Now, I want to pause for a moment and be very clear about this, because sometimes you go into the doctor and there's an emergency procedure or a one-time procedure, and you walk away from that healed. But there are also times when you're prescribed a medication, and you might take that medication for 30 days, 90 days. Maybe you have to remain on that medication for the remainder of your life, and very similar to the way of Jesus, there are moments where God breaks into our lives and reality changes in an instant. But most often our healing is slow and steady throughout our lives. And here is one of the roots of Christian theology is that ultimately our healing is in our death because that is when we become alive to the full reality of the resurrected Jesus.

And so when we talk about healing, we might think that looks like what we want it to look like, but part of learning to trust Jesus is trusting that God is healing us no matter what our eyes tell us or no matter what others see. And so today, some of us are dealing with heavy circumstances. Some of us have situations in our lives, whether it's a relationship or an action that we have that we're trying to break, or an illness that we are experiencing or something that a loved one is going through. And we want so badly for that situation and circumstance to change, and I want that badly for you as well. But ultimately, today, the most important thing for us to do is to invite Jesus into those circumstances and to allow God by the Holy Spirit to heal us as God sees fit, and then trust that no matter if it's instantaneously buttoned up perfectly, or if it's incrementally, incrementally changed throughout our lives or healed throughout our lives, that we trust that God is doing his healing work, no matter how we interpret or understand it.