Lazy Religion: Harmful to the Transgender Community; Harmful Throughout History

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1st Samuel 21, Acts 10, Acts 15, anything goes, Bible, Bible Study, Blacks, Boaz, Christ, Christian, church, circumcision, condemnation, Cornelius, dead orthodoxy, death, faith, flesh, gender confirming surgery, Gentiles, God, good works, Gospel of Matthew, grace, healing, Holy Spirit, hormones, hypocrisy, Israelites, Jericho, Jesus, Jew, Jewish, Jewish leaders, King David, lazy religion, legalism, letter of the law, life, literal interpretation, loveless legalism, mercy, Messiah, messianic identity, miracles, Mosaic Law, New Testament, Peter, Pharisees, Promised Land, prophets, Rahab, Ruth, Sabbath, Sadducees, salvation, saved, scribes, Scripture, segregation, showbread, silly sentimentality, spirit, spirit of the law, Testimony, Transgender, truth

I sometimes hear negative comments about Christians who interpret the Bible literally.  My reply takes them by surprise at first until I explain.  The problem is not belief that the Bible is literally true.  It’s that those Christians who disparage the transgender community don’t read the Bible carefully enough and apply all of it as it is written.

Jesus never rebuked anyone for using too much scripture or taking it literally. He did accuse the Sadducees of not knowing the scriptures (or the power of God) when they asked Him about the woman who was widowed in succession by each one of seven brothers (Matthew 22:23-32).  He challenged the Jewish leadership by comparing scripture verses that would point to His identity as the Son of God (e.g. that the Messiah is the Son of David, but David calls Him Lord: Matthew 22:42-45 referring to Psalm 110).  He accuses the scribes and Pharisees of hypocrisy for being preoccupied with minutiae and ignoring more important matters: judgment, mercy and faith (Matthew 23, especially verses 23 and 24).

He accused them of ignoring the judgment of the prophet Hosea on their forefathers: For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. – Hosea 6:6.  He accused them of not understanding the message in the story of David and his starving soldiers when the priests fed them the hallowed showbread that only the priests were permitted to eat under the Law.  (1^st Samuel 21:1-6; Jesus’ teaching reported in Matthew 12, Mark 2 and Luke 6).

Jesus was grieved that the religious leaders in His time did not understand that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath: that His disciples did not deserve condemnation for plucking and eating a few grains from stalks in the field on the Sabbath; nor did He deserve condemnation for doing good works on the Sabbath, such as His healing of the sick or infirmed and casting out demons (often by only speaking a word and using no physical activity at all).  Most grievous of all was the fact that the ministry and messianic identity of Jesus was confirmed by far greater miracles than displayed by Elijah and Elisha.  Yet the scribes, Pharisees and teachers of the Law, who venerated those prophets from centuries earlier, did not accept the message of Jesus for the sake of His good works.

What if legalism had stopped Boaz from marrying a foreign woman?  Then he would have never married Ruth, the Moabitess, the great-grandmother of King David.  Fortunately, the testimony about Ruth, her goodness towards her mother-in-law, her love of God and her faith and trust in the Lord, was more important to Boaz.

What if legalism had stopped the two men sent by Joshua to spy on Jericho from lodging with a prostitute.  Then those men would not have received protection from Rahab, they would have been captured by the people of that land and another generation of the children of Israel probably would have been discouraged from entering the Promised Land.  Fortunately for the Israelites, those two men were more concerned with their mission, and they also believed it when Rahab testified her belief that the God of Israel is the only God in heaven and earth.  Both the faith (Hebrews 11:31) and works (James 2:25) of this common harlot are praised in the New Testament.

For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. – John 1:17.  Human nature makes it difficult to have both grace and truth in our hearts. We tend to tilt towards one or the other since at first glance they seem incompatible.  But what is impossible for man is made possible by God.  So our Christian walk requires us to do what God enables us to do: that we so walk as to keep the two in balance at all times.  For if we heavily emphasize grace, the result is silly sentimentality and an attitude that anything goes.  But if we heavily emphasize truth, the result is dead orthodoxy and loveless legalism, driving away people from God by beating them over the head with scripture.

But don’t ever think that grace is weaker than truth.  (Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. – 2^nd Timothy 2:1.)  Now that’s even stronger than Ajax!

So why do I call legalism ”lazy religion”?  Because it is much easier to justify one’s position by pointing to cold, hard facts in scripture, especially the “thou shalt not(s)”.  It takes more work to temper truth with grace, to practice speaking grace seasoned with salt instead of the other way around, and to understand the spirit of the law in addition to the letter of the law.

Those Christians who pursue legalism and the letter of the law need to heed these verses:

But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God. – Romans 2:29 (In the same chapter, Paul warns the Church to leave condemning judgment to God because we will all be judged by Him.)

But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. – Romans 7:6

Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. – 2^nd Corinthians 3:6

That sure grabs my attention.  I can minister life to people by the spirit of the law, but death to people by the letter.  Why would I want to minister death to people?  Jesus came to save the world, not condemn it (John 3:17).  He came so that we would not only have life, but abundant life. (John 10:10)

In my Christian walk, I have the same choice that God told Moses to proclaim to the children of Israel: I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: – Deuteronomy 30:19

Therefore, it is a joy when I find another scripture passage that illuminates both the letter and spirit of the word; both the grace and truth of Christ: especially as relates to God’s mercy towards those people who are transgender; those of us who were born that way.

I recently came across some passages in Acts (which I have read dozens of times) during the Women’s Bible Study that I attend at my church.  The topic was the importance of evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the first Gentile converts so that they would be welcomed into the body of Christ.  It starts in Acts 10 when the Lord sent visions to the centurion Cornelius and the Apostle Peter to bring them together.  Peter was the one who needed convincing.  Had he been stuck in legalism, he would have refused to go to the house of a Gentile (Acts 10:28).  But once there, Peter preached the Gospel to Cornelius, his family and close friends who eagerly desired to hear about God.  And to the surprise of the Jewish followers of Christ who accompanied Peter, they saw strong evidence of the Holy Spirit being poured out on those who had gathered to hear Peter, similar to what had happened a decade earlier at Pentecost to Christ’s disciples.

But that didn’t end the matter.  Now Peter had to go back to Jerusalem and defend his actions to those who want to know why he visited these Gentiles (and even ate with them!) contrary to the Law.  Fortunately, Peter was able to recount the whole story and convinced those who originally opposed what he had done that they would also be opposing God if they did not accept that the Lord had chosen Gentiles to be part of the body of believers in Christ.

Then people like Paul and Barnabas journeyed to preach the Gospel in the synagogues in more distant cities where Jews have settled and also to the Gentiles there.  From both groups, some believed and some did not.  And with these new Christians, both Jew and Gentile, new churches were planted.

But as reported in Acts 15, a new dispute arose.  Some legalistic Jewish Christians (mostly Pharisees) came behind the evangelistic work being done and told the new Gentile believers that they could not be saved unless they were circumcised according to Mosaic Law.  So now the early Church had to deal with legalism in relation to the Gentiles once again.  Those who were bound in the dead letter of the law instead of the living spirit of the law refused to believe that these Gentiles were already saved.

So now a new meeting of the early Church leaders was convened.  From the Bible’s “minutes” of that meeting:

And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they. – Acts 15:7-11

The bottom line is that because of the words of Peter, Barnabas, Paul and James, it was recognized that circumcision was not required for a Gentile to be considered saved and part of the Church.  They realized that they were requiring something (circumcision as adults) that they would not have been able to handle themselves.  They saw that the presence of the Holy Spirit in a person was what counted, not the particulars of their body.  For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love. – Galatians 5:6

But if legalists had their way, Gentiles would have been barred from becoming part of the Church; at the very least, they would have been required to be circumcised and even then they still might have been made to remain separated from the Jewish Christians.  This is very similar to how legalist preachers, misinterpreting scripture, tried to justify the continuance of enslaving Blacks.  Fortunately, they also did not prevail; nor did those who tried to justify segregation of the races in all walks of life.  And yet, many Christians today, almost all of whom would be considered Gentiles (and more than a few of whom are Black), misuse scripture and ignore mounting evidence, thereby forbidding transgender people the right to be something that they could not bear: denying their own identity.

Can someone get a nose job, or breast reconstruction after a mastectomy, or a cleft palate repaired and still be saved?  Yes!  Can someone take hormones to treat menopause or prostate cancer and still be saved?  Yes!  Can someone have gender confirming surgery or take hormones to treat transgender issues and still be saved?  Yes!  It’s what’s in your heart, your mind and your spirit that matters, not your flesh.  And if it applies to one’s standing as a Christian, it certainly applies to one’s standing in the human race.

God bless,

Lois

My favorite sights

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Acadia National Park, Adirondack Mountains, basketball, Cornell, Croatan Sound, Gallatin River Valley, Gospel of John, Hail Mary pass, Hearst Castle, intramurals, Jesus, Louisiana bayous, Mackinac Bridge, miracle shot, miracles, moonset, Neil Armstrong, Outer Banks, Pacific Coast Highway, pickup game, Rocky Mountains, Telstar, Tony Taylor, Virgin River Gorge, Wrigley Field

Over my six decades of life, I have witnessed many wonderful events and scenes.  Some of these were watched by me on television.  The ones I remember the most were all connected with the space program, and all of them occurred in the 1960’s.  I remember being in school and watching one of the first Mercury space launches while we debated whether or not the Russians had already made it into space with manned flights.  At the other end of the decade, my parents, my brother and I stayed up late to watch Neil Armstrong take “a giant leap for mankind” on the moon.

In between, the television pictures were quite mundane.  It was the way we were receiving them which was quite extraordinary.  For the first time, television pictures were being beamed from and to locations around the world by space satellite.  The satellite was named Telstar and it was one of the rare times that a major event began early.  So instead of remarks by President Kennedy, I remember as if it happened yesterday instead of the summer of 1962, Tony Taylor batting for the Phillies in Wrigley Field.  I also remember a picture in the newspaper the next day: someone in Italy watching live action of an American baseball game.

Photo of Hearst Castle outdoor pool (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For these events, I was one of millions who witnessed these events on television.  Other wonderful images were experienced by me alone or with one passenger.  It matters not if my testimony about these experiences is believed, because they have meaning for me and most likely no one else.  They were the times I drove along some of the most scenic highways in the United States.  They include Acadia National Park in Maine; the Adirondack Mountains of New York; crossing Roanoke Island and Croatan Sound on U.S. 64 from the Outer Banks to the North Carolina mainland; rounding a bend and coming out of a forest on I-75 and seeing the golden towers of the Mackinac Bridge looming three miles ahead (more majestic than the Golden Gate in my opinion, which I have also seen); driving through the bayous of Louisiana on I-10, with small fishing boats in the water between the directions of traffic, houses on stilts in the swamps and power lines stretching as far as the eye could see along Lake Pontchartrain; the Gallatin River Valley on U.S. 91 along the west side of Yellowstone National Park; Virgin River Gorge on I-15 from the Utah border to Littlefield in Arizona (the most spectacular road I have ridden on by far); my list wouldn’t be complete without the Pacific Coast Highway from San Francisco to San Luis Obispo in California (with a stop at Hearst Castle in San Simeon).

From my apartment, I have a lovely view that I almost take for granted as I lived here over 28 years, nearly half my life.  Looking into the woods that buffer me from nearby buildings, the sights range from the stark monochromatic beauty right after a major snow storm, to the brilliant reds and yellows of autumn that reflect the afternoon sun through my window from trees a football field away.

And one of my favorite views is the moonset over the Rocky Mountains near Pikes Peak shortly after sunrise.  The picture I took of that scene is my choice for my desktop wallpaper.

At the end of June, I posted about a number of exciting moments is sports that I witnessed.  Because of the length of that post, I held one back.  It was one I accomplished myself.  But as I describe that brief moment of accomplishment, you will see that the way I witnessed it was as unusual as the accomplishment itself.

I was a student at Cornell at the time.  Quite frankly, I am not sure which year, but based on the guys I was with, it was probably freshman or sophomore year.  Somehow, I got asked to go with three or four guys I knew to Teagle Gym to play some basketball.  It may have been connected with the fact that my name was added to round out the roster of an intramural team that they were part of, even though I was rarely available to play because I was the head manager for the indoor track team.  The must have needed a certain minimum number of players to qualify as a team.  I only recall playing a few minutes in one intramural game.

But this wasn’t a scheduled game.  It was just a practice session and only a handful of all the team members were available.  So this time I was on the floor for the entire practice.

Between the fact I am only about 5’4” and that my general athletic skills don’t extend in that direction, basketball is one of my worst sports.  My friends had to be pretty desperate to meet their roster quota to ask me to be part of the team.  So it is somewhat ironic that my single most outstanding moment as an athlete came during basketball.

When we got to the gym, we found that there weren’t any courts available.  But we did find one that also had only a handful of guys.  So we ended up playing them in a half-court pickup game.  Cornell was a pretty big school even then, so it was no surprise that we knew none of these guys.  That is an important fact to keep in mind as you read the story.

There was nothing remarkable about most of the game.  It was a typical pickup game between two groups of guys that found themselves on the same court at the same time.  And the groups were fairly evenly matched, as I recall.  We had a couple of good athletes with size, including one who was an offensive lineman for the varsity football team.  I think we led for a while, then the lead see-sawed, and then they went up by a couple of baskets.  That was the situation when THE play happened.

We had the ball and one of our players attempted a shot.  I was over on the left side, more out on the wing than in the back court.  One of their players had been guarding me, but when the shot was taken, he took a couple of steps towards the basket in anticipation of a rebound.

And as it turned out, our player missed and the ball hit the left side of the hoop and bounced far away from the basket toward the left corner, moving fairly quickly.  It bounced strongly enough that it got past the player who was guarding me.  Now I am the closest player to the ball, but it is heading fairly quickly toward the corner.  If it goes out it will be the other team’s ball, as we were the last team to touch the ball.

The player that had been guarding me was three or four steps further away.  He had recovered and reversed direction, but he had no chance to get to it.  But he also had no incentive to, because from his vantage point, it was going to go out as it appeared I had no chance to save it.  When it went out, it would be their ball.

What he didn’t realize was the agility and reflexes I possessed.  I had developed into a pretty fair hockey goalie in high school, and stopped many a puck because these abilities allowed me to recover when it appeared I was beaten.  Often, that meant diving from one side of the goal to the other to make the save.

And that was my only chance here.  I had to dive to make the save.  And so I dove.  And while I was in the air, inches off the ground, I spread out my arms and managed to reach the ball just before it was going out of bounds.  I got my hands under the ball, and I flung it in the general direction of the basket, a Hail Mary pass of sorts in the hopes that one of my teammates would get to it first.

No sooner did I launch the ball that I hit the wood floor and slid across the polished surface.  The courts for pickup games and practice were separated by heavy canvas curtains that were hung from the ceiling and reached within a few inches of the floor.  When I slid, I ended up slightly under the end of that canvas curtain.  And if the game was being played in an arena with spectators, I would have been looking in the direction of the seats in the corner of the arena.  I was not looking anywhere near the direction of the basket, and even if I had been, the curtain would have blocked my view of the hoop.

As I am getting to my feet to get back onto the court and into the game, I notice that it sounds very quiet.  There’s no team chatter, guys asking to be passed the ball and so on.  In fact, the first thing I notice is that the guys on both teams are just standing around.  So I asked, “Did I throw the ball out of bounds?”

One of my teammates replied, “You scored.  It went in the basket.”

“What?” I replied.  “Not only did it go in,” my teammate continued, “you swished it.”  The guys on the other team nodded in agreement.  And I believed that it happened.  First of all the game was close enough that the other team would be unlikely to give up a portion of their lead to play a practical joke.  Also, the looks on their faces was one of astonishment, not amusement.  There’s no way an entire group of college age men could all keep a straight face under those circumstances.

If such a play happened today and someone was recording, it might go viral on YouTube.  Instead, only a handful of guys know what happened that day on that basketball court in Teagle Gym, and who knows how many even remember it.  After all, they didn’t make the shot.

For me, the memory is bittersweet.  It was an amazing, unconscious, one in a billion shot.  I clearly remember the event.  And I saw it unfold.  But I didn’t see it go in.  I took the guys’ word for it.  It’s up to you if you want to take my word for it.

It is the closest thing to a miracle that I have done in my life.  And it is the only one.  Jesus, on the other hand, performed a multitude of them.

This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true.  And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen. – John 21:24-25

God bless,

Lois

 

 

The Witness of Miracles

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1st Kings 17, ascension, Bible, Elijah, faith, God, healing, Jesus, Mark 6, ministry, miracles, Moses, New Testament, raise the dead, resurrection, Supernatural, witness

Another area where the effects of the “hand of God” are clearly seen is the existence of miracles: those events that cannot be explained by natural phenomenon or trickery.  In a previous post, I have already explored the miracle of manna and the difficulty of explaining it in any way other than as a miracle.

There are times when God performs the miracle directly as He did when He sent the manna.  For example, to help Israel be victorious in a battle, He caused the sun to stand still until the battle was won (Joshua 10).

On other occasions, God anoints certain people with the power to perform miracles to prove to others that He has sent them as prophets or for some other purpose.  In 1 Kings 17, Elijah is sent by God to a widow and her son who had only enough food left for one more meal.  The woman expects that this will be their last meal, and then they will die.  Elijah persuades her to divide that remnant of food three ways so he may eat also.  He explains to her that God will cause this tiny remnant of food to last for “many days”.  And indeed it is so, apparently until a natural source of food comes along and the supernatural is no longer required.

Yet this alone was not enough evidence for the woman.  For when her son falls ill and dies, she rebukes Elijah that as a man of God, he is responsible for killing her son as a judgment against her for her sins.  Elijah takes the son aside and prays to God to revive the son.  The Lord hears the prayer and the son came back to life.  Here is the testimony of the mother in response:

And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in thy mouth is truth. – 1 Kings 17:24

In the New Testament, the ministries of the Apostles and Jesus Himself are accompanied by miracles.  In my post about God approving of the healing of birth defects, we saw how Peter healed a man unable to walk from birth.  Paul raises two people from the dead.  And at Pentecost, at the beginning of the Apostle’s ministry after the ascension of Jesus, everyone who heard them speak heard them in them in their own (the listener’s) language.

The ministry of Jesus is filled with miracle after miracle.  In previous posts, I have already talked about the feeding of thousands with a small amount of food, the healing of a man born blind, a woman hemorrhaging for many years, and the raising from the dead of a 12-year old girl.  There were others raised from the dead, many others healed, storms calmed, walking on water, demons cast out, minds read, and Moses and Elijah temporarily brought back to life while Jesus is transfigured.  The ultimate miracles are the resurrection and ascension of Jesus.

Are there other supernatural forces that can do miracles?  According to the Bible, yes.  For example, when God gives Moses the power to bring miraculous plagues upon Egypt to prove that Moses was sent to Pharaoh by God, Pharaoh’s magicians are able to replicate the first few plagues.  But compared to the power of God, this supernatural power is limited.  They could not replicate the fourth plague or any of the others thereafter.  Furthermore, the Bible strictly warns us against using any such powers because if it is not from God, the source is evil.

By count, healing was the most frequently performed type of miracle by Jesus.  This may be due in part to the relatively primitive nature of medical care at that time, but it also is an allegory for the spiritual healing that every person needs.

It is not surprising, therefore, that this is the area that frauds and charlatans use to attempt to validate themselves.  Sadly, many do this in the name of the Lord, and there are even some who even claim to believe that this is condoned by God as long as people who witness such events are saved.  Unfortunately, no lie is of the truth, and the truth has a way of coming to light.  When the fraud is revealed, it is likely that those who began to draw near based on these so-called miracles will turn away from God.

There are a number of common tactics among the phony faith healers.  At most meetings, the only people healed are people planted in the audience, people who no one else has ever seen before or since.  They claim easily faked ailments, like being stooped over or coming up front in a wheelchair; then suddenly with the work of the faith healer, they straighten up or leap out of the wheelchair, supposedly healed.  Another typical indicator is that more miraculous healings, the type that would be difficult or impossible to fake, only happen in certain third world countries where there is no one around to record or give independent corroboration of these miracles.  (It will be interesting to see what happens to the reports of these miracles in the next few years as technology spreads to even the poorest regions of the world and everyone becomes capable of posting videos on sites like Facebook and You Tube.)  Of course, these perpetrators claim that those who weren’t healed didn’t have enough faith and that there is greater faith found among the people in these poor countries.

Jesus didn’t need to plant people in the crowds.  He didn’t hold special healing meetings advertised in advance.  In fact, after some of the more dramatic healings, He even told the person who was healed to not tell others.  It is reported that most of them did not listen and spread the word anyway.

Furthermore, most of these healings occurred in front of many witnesses, including those who opposed Jesus and accused Him (among other things) because He healed on the Sabbath.  Their very accusation is confirmation that the healing occurred.

Here is one of many examples of how the people were brought to Jesus by their friends and family, people who were known to the local population to have infirmities:

And when they had passed over, they came into the land of Gennesaret, and drew to the shore.  And when they were come out of the ship, straightway they knew him, And ran through that whole region round about, and began to carry about in beds those that were sick, where they heard he was.  And whithersoever he entered, into villages, or cities, or country, they laid the sick in the streets, and besought him that they might touch if it were but the border of his garment: and as many as touched him were made whole. – Mark 6:53-56

I have personally known people who were healed in ways that their doctors could not explain.  These healings came in response to fervent prayer, sometimes accompanied by laying on of hands or anointing with oil.  But such healings are rare and those who helped bring them about give the credit to God, not themselves.

Seven years ago, my hand was professionally examined and I was told that surgery was the only remedy for my thumb locking.  It was a painful case of trigger finger that I had been experiencing for four months.  Two months later without any medical intervention, continuing only to pray for it (myself and others), the trigger finger departed and has never returned.  Praise be to God for His healing touch in answer to prayer.

In my next post, I will talk about still other types of witness to the existence of God.

God bless,

Lois

Acceptance and Rejection – Christian

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Christ, demons, healing, Isaiah 53, Jesus, Jews, leper, leprosy, Matthew 8, Matthew 9, miracles, Mosaic Law, New Testament, raising the dead, rejection, Romans, unclean

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.  Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.  But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. – Isaiah 53:3-5

I quoted this portion of Scripture when I concluded my previous post on the topic of acceptance and rejection.  They are worth repeating as they apply so well to this topic.  They are wonderful and challenging verses.

Upon hearing or reading these verses without a reference given, many people, both Gentile and Jew, guess that they are from the New Testament.  Indeed, most Christians see this passage as an accurate description of the ministry of Jesus Christ, relating both to his purpose and the reaction to him while He walked the earth.

I have chosen Matthew 8 for the primary text discussed in this post.  There are many passages that describe both acceptance and rejection of Jesus and eventually his disciples as well.  I found the ones in this chapter especially interesting.

In the first four verses of this chapter, it is Jesus who does the accepting.  In fact, it is the acceptance of a person who, under Jewish law, was despised and rejected.

A leper approaches Jesus, worships Him and declares his faith in Jesus’s ability to heal him, saying, “if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.” (v. 2)  Jesus’s response in verse three blesses the man and rewards his faith: “And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will, be thou clean.”  The leprosy departed immediately.  Jesus then tells him to show himself to the priest and as a testimony offer the gift commanded in the Mosaic Law.

This story is uplifting to read today.  But unless we are familiar with Mosaic Law and how it was applied at the time of Jesus’s ministry, we do not realize how radical this passage is.  Jesus not only accepts this man because of his faith, He touches him to heal him.

First of all, the leper is not even supposed to approach Jesus and his disciples.  He is required to keep his distance and shout “unclean” to any who might approach him.  (Leviticus 13:45)  But Jesus goes a step further by touching him.  Under the Law, that made Jesus unclean.  But Jesus, showing His power even over that which previously made a person unclean, instead heals the leper and makes him clean.

In the next chapter of Matthew, Jesus continues to show His ability to overcome uncleanness.   First, the daughter of a Jewish ruler has died.  In Luke’s account, he is identified as Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue.  Jesus goes to the man’s house, lifts the young girl by the hand and she returns to life.  Under the Law, anyone touching a dead person was unclean for seven days.  (Numbers 19:11)

Yet on His way to the ruler’s house, Jesus performs another healing.  A crowd has gathered around Jesus, pressing in on Him closely.  A woman who has no business being near Him under the Law believes by faith that she can be healed by just touching only the hem of His robe.  Her uncleanness under the Law is due to the fact that she has suffered an unabated flow of blood for many years.  She is hoping that she can go unnoticed in such a thick crowd and that even Jesus will not be able to tell that she touched His garment.  Not only does Jesus feel power going out of Him when she touches His robe, He commends her faith.  She is healed immediately, something none of the doctors were able to able to accomplish.

Not only are the accounts of these healings intermingled, there is an interesting fact related to time.  The woman who was healed suffered from the flow of blood for twelve years.  The young girl raised from the dead was twelve years old.  Much more could be written about these matters, but it would take us away from the topic of acceptance and rejection.  For now, it is important to simply show that a part of Jesus’s ministry was to take those who had previously been rejected, heal them and bring them back into fellowship with the rest of the community.

Returning to Matthew 8, beginning with verse 5, we see someone else approach Jesus, also someone we would not expect.  It is a Roman centurion.  A centurion was the equivalent of a sergeant.  With the same root word as century, it tells us that he commanded 100 men.

Jews stayed away from their Roman occupiers as much as possible, and the Romans had little regard for the Jews.  So why does the centurion approach?  He has a Jewish servant who is painfully afflicted with some sort of infirmity that affects his muscles.  This Roman has had little reason to know about Jesus, and even less reason to put stock in any of the stories he heard about Jesus’s miracles.  And yet here he is.

Then an even more amazing thing happens.  To perform the healing, Jesus offers to go where no Jew of His day would willingly go: to this Roman’s house.  The centurion, calling Jesus “Lord”, responds by telling Jesus that he is unworthy for Jesus to even be in his house.  I can picture jaws dropping on the faces of those standing by.  Romans simply don’t show anywhere near this sort of respect to their Jewish subjects.

But before they can recover, the officer takes it a step further.  He states that he knows Jesus can heal his servant by merely proclaiming that he has been healed.  He explains that as a soldier, he is well acquainted with authority, and that his men comply with his verbal commands.  He is acknowledging that Jesus has authority over disease.

This Gentile’s humility and faith are so astounding that even Jesus marvels at it.  Accepting this man’s faith, Jesus tells him to return to his home, for his request has been granted.  And the servant was healed that very hour.

After healing many others, Jesus and his disciples take a ship across the Sea of Galilee (verse 23).  This is the voyage during which Jesus is asleep in the ship, and after He is awakened He calms the storm.

Upon arrival, Jesus and His disciples encounter two men living among tombs. Possessed by many demons, they exhibited abundant strength and hostility, along with a wild insanity.  Confronted by Jesus, the demons protest that He, the Son of God, has come for them before their time of torment.  (An amazing aside: the demons know about their eventual eternal punishment, yet persist in their evil ways nonetheless.)

Expecting to be cast out of the men and thinking they can make a compromise with Jesus, they beg Him to put them into a herd of swine that are grazing on a hill nearby.  Jesus sends them there.  In frenzied reaction, the swine run down the hill into the sea and drown.  Matthew gives a condensed version of this event.  In other gospel accounts, we find out that those who were possessed are now in their right minds.

The herdsmen run into the city and tell the whole story to its citizens.  There is considerable debate about whether the herdsmen were Jewish.  For our purposes, it matters little because the “whole city came out to meet Jesus” (verse 34).  We know from historical accounts that this was an area settled heavily by Greeks before the Romans arrived.  But when the Jews rebelled against the Romans about 30-40 years after the time of Jesus on earth, the Romans heavily attacked this area in response.  The evidence is that this is an area of mixed population, both Jew and Gentile.

The point is that when this mixed population hears about this miracle, as soon as they see Jesus, they beg Him to leave.  Within a few hours, we have a Roman who accepts Jesus even before He performs a miracle for him, but an entire city of Jews and Gentiles who reject Him after He performs such a wonderful work in their midst.

Indeed, like the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, Jesus is well acquainted with being despised and rejected.  We see many instances in the New Testament where Jesus is accepted by the Jewish common people.  But He is generally reviled by the leaders.  The few who do accept Him do so in secret, fearful of losing their reputation and position.  Of course, the ultimate rejection of Jesus brings Him to the cross.

Once it is clear that Christ’s disciples are going to proclaim His name after His ascension, the Jewish leaders reject them as well, in part because of the very acceptance of the Gospel by many of the Jewish common people.  And when Christians begin witnessing to Roman citizens, converting many away from worshipping the Roman gods and (more importantly) the Emperor, they reject Christians even more violently.

Among the apostles whose ministry continues after the ascension (i.e., not including Judas, who rejected Jesus with betrayal), only John died by natural causes.  The rest were executed.  In 2^nd Corinthians 11, Paul recounts all the things he had suffered, whether it was from Jews, Romans or even other Christians who were jealous of him: scourging, imprisonment, beatings and stoning.

In Jesus, we have one we can turn to who knows how we suffer when we are rejected by others.

Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known … – 2^nd Timothy 4:17 (portion)

God bless,

Lois