I was reading in Luke and two stories stood out to me, they are very diffrent, but right next to each other in chapter 7. Which begs the question, why?
The first story is about the centurian. He was a wealthy man, revered by the elders of the Jews, so much so, that they went to Jesus and pleaded with him that he should heal this man's servant. Jesus starts on the way to the man's house when the man's friends came out and delivered a message from the man.
"Lord, don't trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. 7That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 8For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."
Jesus says to the Jews "I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel."
The servant is healed
So the next story starts with Jesus is walking into a town and as the approaches he sees a dead person being carried out. This is the only son of a widow, and he is "moved with compassion" for this woman "14Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, "Young man, I say to you, get up!"
The man gets up and starts talking.
A widow with no sons would be reduced to nothing in society, yet Jesus stops her and heals her son. A centurian without a servant would just find another servant.
The amazing thing here is really quite simple.
The Jews cared about the centurian, they wanted to make sure he was happy, heck, he helped to build the synagog. But no one pleads on behalf of the widow, she is helped becasue Jesus is filled with compassion for her.
Nothing against the centurian, he was filled with great faith, and he did help to build the synagog, but I think there is a lesson here for all of us. How often do we seek to please those who we see as in power, those who we see as a great asset to ourselves?
But this is selfish, who wouldn't help someone like that, even the world does that. The "I scratch your back..." philosophy is not Jesus' way.
Look at the widow, she doesn't even ask Jesus for help, he sees her trouble and is moved by it to the point of doing everything he can to restore her. How often do we see those around us who are in need, and we look for ways, excuses, to justify not doing anything to help them. I pray that we will be burdened to the point of exaustion for people, and not only the ones who can help us in return, but the ones who have nothing as well.
Who matters more to Jesus?
They both matter, equally.
Keep on swimming
Amanda
5 comments:
You're able to do something I have a hard time doing. You read those verses to understand them...to make meaning from them...to make a question or to study from them. I think that's awesome! A lot of times I find myself reading just to get to the next page without putting thought into what I just read. Keep up the good work!
Thanks Ron. Sometimes I read something and I feel better for having time spent in the Word, but no earth shattering truths, other times the Spirit points it out like a giant red flag. It's not me, it's Him:-)
Sorry, but I don't get "Dead Fish Swimming"?
Someone else asked about that too, and I advised them to talk to Randy, as it was technically his thing.
About 6-8 weeks ago Pastor Noel preached a sermon on surrender.
The counselor in me was cheering, and I got to talking to other praise team peolpe about how much I liked the sermon. So Randy says, in a way only Randy can "Well yeah, even a dead fish can float down stream." We're not really called to be "dead" just dead to self, thus - dead fish swimming.
oops, people
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