Undoing Deformity ...

Sometimes life is cruel.  Tragedy happens.  And it leaves scars on us.  It takes what is normally formed and makes it abnormal.  The marks are visible.  The marks interfere with our normal functions, they are painful to incur, and painful to get over.  But over time we adapt to our new reality and keep moving forward, attempting to have as much life as we are able to have, given our new constraints.  Others look at this as courage, and comparatively it is.  But in truth, it is also a desire for life, showing itself without ever considering letting go.  When the marks of life and the tragedy it can bring are external, the struggle against them is obvious.  But when they occur inside of us, it is a different thing.  Disease is as cruel a master as any.  It strikes where it may not be seen, but does damage as painful to incur, and painful to get over as what might be seen on the outside.  And disease need not work alone.  Sometimes it comes in packs, or flocks, working on separate areas and functions of the body along different paths and trajectories.  In total, what looks normal on the outside, can be suffering from a whole host of problems on the inside.  To keep going in this state is private courage, or perhaps just the thirst for life once again on display, if only for the one who suffers in silence.

Then finally, there is the tragedy from which we all suffer, the tragedy within our characters.  6,000 years of bad genetics, 6,000 years of worsening environments, and our characters are not immune from the conditions that continue to degenerate.  We begin to assume what was once abnormal is now normal.  We begin to desensitize ourselves to violence, until the levels of violence we tolerate in our media, and in our watching habits would have stunned ourselves if done only 20 years ago.  Movies from decades ago seem tame, seem mild, when compared against the movies that come out today.  The same is true of our Television shows.  This phenomenon also infects our relationships, and our social thinking.  Divorce was once considered serious, tragic, and something done in only extreme cases where there was no other out.  Today, and as time moves forward, divorce is normal, natural, and done whenever two people encounter a problem they do not wish to fix.  Divorce has become so commonplace, the need for marriage and monogamy itself is questioned more and more.  What was abnormal becomes normal, until whatever lines there were, are blurred against the selfishness that lies within us all, until there are no lines.

When tragedy impacts our physiques, we see it, others see it.  But when tragedy impacts our insides, or the core of who we are, few will ever know it did, and fewer still the lasting impacts it leaves.  We choose to look in our mirrors and see ourselves as normal.  We choose to see who we are as normal, as being a good person, at least as being as good as anyone else we know.  But in truth, we are ALL deformed.  Against the ideals and vision our God has for us, we are as diseased as anyone could get, both in body, and in soul.  For some of us, the imperfections of the body are fewer.  But for all of us, the imperfections of the character are stunning.  And the imperfections of our thinking greater still.  It is as if we are all alcoholics who refuse to see the damage of our conditions.  How do we recognize good, when our idea of good today is a self-destructive thing?  How do we recognize perfect, when we are so far from perfect, we have likely never encountered it before?  Our vision must be restored, so that we can begin to see.

Matthew wrote his gospel, after he had begun to understand these things.  Matthew wanted his fellow Jews to know that there was hope and a way to reset who they were, and so in his gospel he records stories designed to perk their interest and ours.  This is not just some random set of miraculous events, it is a recollection of specific stories designed to illustrate to us … hope.  In this instance he picks up in chapter nine of his gospel beginning in verse 27 saying … “And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us.”  Jesus had just left the home of a dead girl He brought back to life.  What could ever be harder than that?  And what better illustration of what He longs to do for each of us.  Hearing it, hearing the conversations that take place, hearing the praising of God that results; the blind men now know, He MUST be able to help them too.  They cry unto Him, using a name that represents their belief that Jesus is not just a prophet, but the promised Messiah.  Son of David, who was to be the long-promised hope of Israel.  What was normal before Christ, is no longer normal after Christ.  Will He help them?

Matthew continues in verse 28 saying … “And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord.”  Jesus waits until He has come back into the house, likely Peter’s home again.  He then questions the men to see if they flatter Him, or if they really believe the words they used.  They answer yes, we believe.  Ideas about living with our pain are being shattered.  Ideas about knowing we do not see clearly are being obliterated.  We know we are blind.  We know we must learn to see differently.  And we know only Jesus will be able to restore our vision to what it should be, instead of how we use it, or refuse to use it.  In this case, the blind men may not have just had something as simple as cataracts, but perhaps something as deformed as missing organs, or badly damaged or scarred organs.  But this does not matter, to their faith, or their need.  They are blind.  They wish to see.  We are blind too.  Do we wish to see, and do we believe?

Matthew continues in verse 29 saying … “Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you. [verse 30] And their eyes were opened; and Jesus straitly charged them, saying, See that no man know it. [verse 31] But they, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame in all that country.”  Their deformity was undone.  Their blindness was obliterated.  The normality of their lives was reset from living with tragedy to living without it.  They could see.  Jesus asks them to keep this quiet.  Jesus is not looking for additional attention to the fact that He is the Messiah just yet.  He likely wants more time to teach the people, to reach them on a spiritual level.  The more He is revealed to be the Messiah, the quicker His enemies will want to kill Him.  But the blind men could not help themselves.  They spread His fame, both as healer and as Messiah, throughout the entire country.  And His enemies heard of it, and took note.

Today there are men and women aligned with the enemy of Jesus, who do not wish to have their normality reset to what it should be.  They are comfortable in their deformity, until the point where they worship it.  They would rather kill Jesus, than see Him offer hope to those who are like themselves.  They are happy when others remain as they do, and terrified and sad when others find a way to really see, what they themselves refuse to see.  These enemies of Jesus take an active stance against Him.  They work to see His followers lose hope and accept the conditions of who they are, losing hope that Jesus could ever really fix them.  They compare themselves and their own evil deeds with the past of those who seek Jesus to find a different way.  The pasts often share much in common.  But the future of those bound in Jesus look much different.  It is this future they do not wish you to see.  Misery loves company.  The enemies of Christ wish for you to be their company, now, and forever.

But once we begin to see differently, once we begin to value others how Jesus values them, what we say begins to change.  We stop playing church, and begin having a personal testimony of what Jesus has done for us.  What He has done for you and for me.  Each of us having something unique to say, while at the same time, having such a common theme.  Our words begin to soften.  Our tones begin to reflect a sensitivity to the heart of another, instead of apathy towards it.  The gruff, guttural language, that once infected our every other word, dissipates until it is gone entirely.  Instead we begin to speak in simple language, nothing flowery, but easy to understand.  And no longer peppered with swear words, and curses that added nothing to what we were trying to get across.  Our tongues are reset from something we never imagined was a problem, but was always heard in the ears of our listeners.  We never knew how badly we spoke.  We never knew how mute we really were.  How little others understood what we felt.  How little others understood the Jesus inside of us trying to get out, trying to reach them.  We were effectively mute for His kingdom, even when we spoke incessantly.

Matthew continues in verse 32 saying … “As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed with a devil.”  How many of us, allow the devil to influence what we say, or feel?  How often do harsh words escape our mouth because we lose patience, or hang on to the past, to the pains someone else has caused us?  This poor man had allowed that influence to occur so often, a demon actually took up residence within the man until he could no longer speak.  The man would have no tongue to call out for God, or worship Him aloud ever again.  A new normal for that man.  A deformity of constraint he would have to contend with forever.  But not while Jesus lives.  Not in his day, or in ours.

Matthew continues in verse 33 saying … “And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake: and the multitudes marvelled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel. [verse 34] But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils.”  Notice that it was the friends of this man who brought him to Jesus.  Notice the man was unable to ask for healing.  Jesus knew the situation.  Jesus knew what was needed, and what the man desired in his heart.  Even when we are unable to speak what needs to be said, our Lord is capable of resetting our new normal to something better.  The demon is forced to leave, and man is able to speak again.  The witnesses praise God.  The witnesses take note, that it has never been so in Israel since the birth of Jacob until this day.  It is the introduction of Jesus that has made these things so.  It is the introduction of Jesus that turns the impossible into the common place.  What we see becomes different after our eyes are opened.  What we say becomes different when our selfishness is removed and His glory is revealed across our tongues.  But for those who refuse to see, they cast doubt on the source of His power.  It is all the religious leadership has left, but to accuse the changes from the power of submission to Jesus, to something His enemy might do.  But they are wrong.

Then Matthew concludes this snippet revealing a power that should stun us all.  He concludes beginning in verse 35 saying … “And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. [verse 36] But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. [verse 37] Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; [verse 38] Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.” 

Jesus went about teaching in the synagogues.  Jesus remained keenly interested in the souls, in the characters of His people.  He was here, not to just reset the physical marks of life, but the invisible marks within us as well.  As evidence of this, he healed “every” sickness and “every” disease among the people.  Not just some.  Not just the easy ones.  Not just the ones where the organs were present and not functioning, but the ones where limbs were missing and had to be regenerated.  Every means every.  It is not a metaphor but a recitation of fact.  There is nothing about our abnormality that cannot be reset by the Creator who made us in the first place.  God made man on the sixth day, in a single day.  He can remake us in the time span we permit Him to do so.  If you doubt it, submit to Jesus, and watch what happens.

But the need is great.  Your need.  My need.  Our corporate need, the need of the world.  And today, as in the days of Jesus, the workers are few.  Too many modern workers have been corrupted by the introduction of self into the center of our religion.  Instead of trusting Jesus to save us from ourselves, we claim to have to do some of the work ourselves.  Then we teach others to do so too.  We ask them to drive sins out of their lives BEFORE they come to Jesus.  This is impossible.  For them, or for us, it is impossible to be rid of sin, without Jesus doing ALL the work of it.  We must see differently.  Only Jesus can open our eyes.  We must speak differently.  Only Jesus can give us something different to say, a new experience with Him we are eager to share.  On our own, our recitation of history, or how Jesus did something marvelous for someone else, is just not enough.  It is not personal enough.  For us to share a testimony of our own, we must have a testimony of our own, and only submission to Jesus will ever give us one of those.

If we are to be effective in the harvest we must have learned to ever point to the Lord of the harvest.  We must take no credit for ourselves.  We must not even be seeking credit.  We must be pointing all credit back to the Lord of the Harvest.  Fame is not our goal, anonymity is.  Spiritual leadership is not our goal, spiritual service is.  It is not power we seek, but power we avoid at all costs.  For only His power matters, and only He has it.  We may be fortunate enough to be a vessel to reflect His power, but it will never originate within us.  A prosperity gospel is not what our Lord ever offered.  What He offered was a gospel that did not concern itself with prosperity, whether we are blessed or not.  The burdens of wealth are not something that make it easier for us to be effective conduit of Jesus, they make it harder.  For us to actively seek them, is for us to ask for a more difficult burden in His service.  Jesus promises to meet the needs we have for today, and that is enough.  Learning to trust at that level, is learning to become more and more effective in His service.

Will you be a laborer in His cause?  Or are you still looking to be ministered to?  Do you have a testimony to share?  Or are you still reciting the ones of your parents or spouse or children?  Let us shed what is abnormal and embrace what Jesus calls exceptional, let us shed the meager lives we lead, and embrace lives of “life” He would provide.  Nothing is impossible, when it is Jesus who sets the new reality …