Accessible power
This week's study is on Luke 6:17-19:
These verses are beautiful because of how accessible Jesus is. In some other verses, he's separated from the people on a mountaintop or in a boat, but here he's standing on a level place among his disciples and people who are new to seeing him. People with demonic spirits were cured of diseases, and anyone who touched him was healed. It's simple, low-budget, and effective.
How much Christian work today really takes place on a level place? More often than not, the minister is up on a stage or platform. His voice is amplified through a sound system. He might as well be broadcasting over the airwaves to a TV. Sometimes he is. And yet here Jesus has his toes dirty in the dirt with everyone else, eye to eye, man to man, among us in every meaningful sense of the word.
Even those afflicted by demons are cured. How often do we see that in a modern church? Would someone in a bad spiritual state of health be allowed to come near the preacher? Would those embarrassing outbursts or strange behaviors be tolerated? In the modern day you'd expect to read "those troubled by impure spirits were escorted out by the ushers," but here they get what they need. There's nobody who is too dirty, too embarrassing, or too difficult for Jesus.
Everyone tried to touch Jesus. Does that even happen nowadays? Is there anyone who so exemplifies Jesus that even touching them causes sickness to flee? You hear rare cases of that sort of thing happening, but it's certainly not the norm, and even then they don't go and stand in the middle of a dirty crowd. And yet power was coming out of Jesus and healing everyone. No catechism class as a prerequisite, no shows for the cameras. Just "sick people + Jesus = healthy people."
Think about this for a moment. Jesus is on the level. Not hung from high on the wall on a too-perfect cross, writhing to grimace at you with a guilt-inducing stare. Not wired for sound, painted with foundation, and stuck in front of a camera and blinding lights. Not high on a stage, far from the edge, where you couldn't even reach him if he was your only hope, even if you leaped like your life depended on it. Jesus was on the level where anyone could just walk up or shove their way to arms reach.
And Jesus was there in the flesh, but there was nothing ordinary about it. Where on earth is the eviction of demonic spirits ordinary? And where on earth, even in the most advanced hospitals, is the cure rate one hundred percent, let alone all patients accepted, no payment required, and no follow-up visits needed? There's nothing we can offer up to compare it to, but in Jesus' kingdom we are his adopted brothers, and there is no toleration of demonic bullying, and no sickness.
Around the Christmas season, Jesus is very much glorified, but it's important to remember how accessible he is too. It is a very big deal that he came into our world with his world in tow. But we can't forget that it is our world that he came into before inviting us into his. It wasn't an invitation given through a bullhorn, or from behind a wall of mediators and bodyguards. He was truly among us in every sense that matters, physically and relationally. If we're going to represent Jesus, we should really see how he represented himself.
He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by impure spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.
These verses are beautiful because of how accessible Jesus is. In some other verses, he's separated from the people on a mountaintop or in a boat, but here he's standing on a level place among his disciples and people who are new to seeing him. People with demonic spirits were cured of diseases, and anyone who touched him was healed. It's simple, low-budget, and effective.
How much Christian work today really takes place on a level place? More often than not, the minister is up on a stage or platform. His voice is amplified through a sound system. He might as well be broadcasting over the airwaves to a TV. Sometimes he is. And yet here Jesus has his toes dirty in the dirt with everyone else, eye to eye, man to man, among us in every meaningful sense of the word.
Even those afflicted by demons are cured. How often do we see that in a modern church? Would someone in a bad spiritual state of health be allowed to come near the preacher? Would those embarrassing outbursts or strange behaviors be tolerated? In the modern day you'd expect to read "those troubled by impure spirits were escorted out by the ushers," but here they get what they need. There's nobody who is too dirty, too embarrassing, or too difficult for Jesus.
Everyone tried to touch Jesus. Does that even happen nowadays? Is there anyone who so exemplifies Jesus that even touching them causes sickness to flee? You hear rare cases of that sort of thing happening, but it's certainly not the norm, and even then they don't go and stand in the middle of a dirty crowd. And yet power was coming out of Jesus and healing everyone. No catechism class as a prerequisite, no shows for the cameras. Just "sick people + Jesus = healthy people."
Think about this for a moment. Jesus is on the level. Not hung from high on the wall on a too-perfect cross, writhing to grimace at you with a guilt-inducing stare. Not wired for sound, painted with foundation, and stuck in front of a camera and blinding lights. Not high on a stage, far from the edge, where you couldn't even reach him if he was your only hope, even if you leaped like your life depended on it. Jesus was on the level where anyone could just walk up or shove their way to arms reach.
And Jesus was there in the flesh, but there was nothing ordinary about it. Where on earth is the eviction of demonic spirits ordinary? And where on earth, even in the most advanced hospitals, is the cure rate one hundred percent, let alone all patients accepted, no payment required, and no follow-up visits needed? There's nothing we can offer up to compare it to, but in Jesus' kingdom we are his adopted brothers, and there is no toleration of demonic bullying, and no sickness.
Around the Christmas season, Jesus is very much glorified, but it's important to remember how accessible he is too. It is a very big deal that he came into our world with his world in tow. But we can't forget that it is our world that he came into before inviting us into his. It wasn't an invitation given through a bullhorn, or from behind a wall of mediators and bodyguards. He was truly among us in every sense that matters, physically and relationally. If we're going to represent Jesus, we should really see how he represented himself.
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