So, I was just listening to Francis Chan this morning. Dangerous, I know. He mentioned how a certain passage of Scripture has always bothered him:
"He (Jesus) said also to the man who had invited him, 'When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.' " Luke 14
Well...shoot. I can see why that would bother Francis, because now it's bothering me. Jesus straight up told this guy who invited him into his home for dinner, "Hey, when you throw a party, you shouldn't actually invite your friends or family...you should go get the people from the homeless shelter, the people living on the street, and the people who can't do anything for themselves and don't have any help. Bring those people for the very purpose of not getting anything in return from them. Then you'll have a reward in heaven."
That should be pretty hard to hear, even for people who can't throw full-on banquets. However, I've heard plenty of Jesus' hard words get molded into spiritual metaphors in order to make them more "do-able." Just recently, for example, I heard a sermon on Mark 7:31-37 and 8:22-26. These passages are two separate times when Jesus healed blind men. Sure, if you read those passages (which you should do before going on) you could probably see how there are some spiritual applications. It's just amusing to me how often I hear sermons on passages like this which totally ignore the fact that Jesus (or His disciples at times) physically healed people. It's easier for us to put a hyper-spiritual spin on things rather than deal with certain other issues like, "Well, Jesus said to do this, but I don't see any Christians doing it," or, "Why doesn't God actually heal people anymore?" (FYI, He does...a better question might be, 'Why don't we see it around here?')
I realised the other day that I've been doing things wrong for a while. I've been slowly boxing in God, trying to make Him a part of my life instead of making myself a part of His life. It hurts, but I love those moments when I realise how much I've been missing out on, how much I can learn from God's Word, how totally He can guide my life if I let Him. When those moments arrive, I can run back to His arms, knowing He still loves me and wants to use me in His plan.
"He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak."
Peace.
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Maybe I'm just blessed to have never over-spiritualized those passages but it never did occur to me to think of Jesus healing those men as anything other than Jesus dealing with a person's physical needs before dealing with their spirit. Or maybe it was simultaneously since Jesus was well aware that both needs are important and never told anyone to go ascetic on everyone.
I know though that I've fallen into that same thing many times, thinking that God only works one way only to be shaken out of it when He moves in a way not in my restricting little box. It's taken years for me to get it, and many overheard arguments over how He does work, when the simple answer is that God works the way He works and human minds will never get it fully.
YAY GROWTH!
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