The Miracles of Jesus ~ Healing an Outsider

Today’s miracle took place in the region of Tyre and Sidon which is in Lebanon not Israel, which means I don’t have any pictures of that area, but I do have these.  This is where the pools of Bethesda were located in Jesus’ day.

Pools of Bethseda

The pools were known for their healing power and in John 5 there is a story of Jesus visiting these pools and healing a man who had been an invalid for 38 years.  These pools were not only sacred places for the Jewish people but known throughout the region for their healing power among all people.  Many histories of this area talk about an asclepieion which is a temple or pool where people would seek healing from the Greek god Asclepius - the god of healing and medicine.

The woman in the miracle we are going to look at today may have visited this place with her daughter to find healing, we don’t know, but she probably did visit other places of healing, or other asclepieions, trying to help her daughter

Just a few comments about these pools before we look at today’s miracle.  These pools were not discovered until the 19th century so many people wondered about the authenticity of the miracle of healing found in John 5.

 Because of all the battles and transfers of power in and around Jerusalem, much of the archeological evidence to support the Bible is difficult if not impossible to find, but then a discover like these pools takes place and gives weight and power to the truth of the Bible.

The other interesting thing about these pools is that it is one place in Jerusalem that really allows you to see the larger history of the city.

As you look from the pools up to the rooflines you see several layers of history.  Each new ruler of Jerusalem would tear down and then build up and more recently they have just built up on what is already there.  You can see several different time periods in Jerusalem’s history as you look up into the city.  Pictures like this are a great reminder of the amazing history of Jerusalem.

So again, it was at these pools where Jesus met a man who had been an invalid for 38 years.  We don’t know how often this man came to the pools looking for healing, but we do know it had been for some time and he appears to have given up hope which is why Jesus asked him – do you want to get well?  At first this sounds like a foolish question because he was at the pools where people gathered to be healed, but it seems as if he had stopped trying to get into the water.

He told Jesus that he was never able to be the first one into pool when the waters were stirred up, which was when people thought they would receive the healing, so he just sat on the sidelines and watched.  Like many of us, when the answer to his prayer didn’t come in the way, place and time he wanted – he began to lose his faith and trust.

Jesus said to the man, Get up, and it says that at once this invalid, this man who hadn’t walked in 38 years, got up and began to walk.  Jesus healed him not through the waters of the pool but with just a word.  In the miracle we are going to look at today Jesus also heals with just a word, but the difference in the people receiving the miracle couldn’t be more striking.  Today’s miracle comes from Matthew 15:21-28.

This story is one of the most controversial stories in the New Testament because it not only seems like Jesus is turning this woman away, he seems to be critical of her - even putting her down and Jesus just didn’t do that.  This story does not fit our image and understanding of Jesus.  Jesus reached out to all those people that no one else cared about.  He forgave and healed prostitutes, lepers and tax collectors.  He cared for women and welcomed children and ate and drank with sinners, so what is he doing here?

What is Jesus doing here?  To answer this we need to look at the larger context of Matthew’s gospel.  The two miracles we talked about last week, Jesus feeding the 5,000 (or 20,000) and Jesus walking on water took place just before this and in those miracles Jesus was trying to help the disciples and the crowds understand exactly who he was.  He was like Moses who provided bread in the wilderness but he is greater than Moses.  When Jesus walked on the water and identified himself as “I AM”, he was saying that he was God.  So those miracles were Jesus’ way of helping the disciples understand who he was and what he had come for.  Jesus was trying to lead and teach the disciples so that they would be able to teach and lead others once he was gone.  Remember, Jesus knows that he is not going to be in this world as a physical human leader forever.

So after those miracles, Jesus retreated to Tyre and Sidon which is a non-Jewish region and he goes there looking for some rest and reflection which he can’t seem to find anywhere in Israel.  While Jesus might think he can get away from people here, we see that he can’t.  The word about Jesus power to heal and drive out demons and overcome all things has spread all through the region and so even outside of Israel, a woman cries out and asks Jesus to heal her daughter.

At first, it says Jesus said nothing.  Look at Matthew 15:23, Jesus did not answer a word.  Now because Jesus didn’t answer this woman, the disciples stepped in and said something.  I wonder if Jesus didn’t say a word but turned to his disciples with a look that said, “What do you think we should do?”  Was Jesus using this as a teachable moment?  Not that long ago when the crowds were in need the disciples wanted Jesus to send them away, but Jesus didn’t, he helped them and when he helped them he was teaching the disciples that he didn’t come to turn people but to offer help

It’s the same situation all over again.   Someone is coming to Jesus in need and I wonder if Jesus turns to the disciples to see what their response would be.  Had they learned anything?  Were they learning that Jesus had come to help all people?  Were they learning that God’s power was for everyone and that Jesus had come to rescue people?  I think Jesus doesn’t say a word in order to see how his disciples respond and what they have learned.  Their response is just as it was with the crowds – send her away.  It doesn’t seem like they have learned anything.

But notice Jesus didn’t send her away, but he did tell her that he didn’t come for the gentiles but only for God’s chosen people.  That’s what Jesus means when he says in Matthew 15: 26, It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.  Let’s be clear that Jesus is not calling this woman a dog, but he is saying that the prevailing idea at this time is that God’s blessing, the bread, is only for God’s people.  Now we know Jesus doesn’t mean this because he has healed gentile people elsewhere and offered grace to non-Jews, so why does he say it here?  I think he says it to once again help teach his disciples what it means to have compassion and to show them that his power is for all people in all places.  

For those of you who are parents, have you ever tried to show your children how wrong their attitudes, words and actions are by mirroring what you see and hear in them?  I know this is going to date me a little bit, but there are couple episodes of the old Andy Griffith show where Andy does this to help show Opie how selfish and unkind he is being.  When Opie sees those words and actions in Barney and in his father, it helps him see that his own attitude and actions needs to change.  I think that is what Jesus is doing here.  Before Jesus taught them by telling them directly to feed the people, he gave them clear instructions.  Here Jesus is teaching them by helping them hear how unkind and selfish their attitude is.

So Jesus basically tells her that he did not come for the Gentile people and that he was not going to give the bread of heaven, God’s blessing, to those who were outside the family of God.  But the woman didn’t give up and she was so desperate for her daughter to be healed that she grabbed for whatever hope she could find.  Her response to Jesus was, Yes, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the table.   The woman understands that Jesus is compassionate and that God’s blessing is for everyone.  She has more faith than the disciples.  What she has heard about Jesus informs her to see God as one who will bless those outside the people of Israel and that all she needs is just a crumb from the table in order to experience the blessing of God.

And she is right.  Jesus says that she has great faith.  Unlike the disciples who Jesus had just accused of being dull – she is sharp and her request is granted.  So if we look at this miracle beyond what we read in these few verses, we see that what Jesus is saying to his disciples and to everyone else who hears about this miracle is that God’s power to bring healing and wholeness to people is not just for the Holy Land and for God’s holy or chosen people it is for all people in all lands.  God’s power is not bound by location or nationality it is available to everyone who simply has faith in Jesus to bring God’s power.

This woman not only had faith but she was bold, courageous and persistent.  She didn’t give up and she didn’t allow Jesus or his disciples to push her away.  She kept at it.  Unlike the man by the pools of Bethesda who seemed to give up on healing, this woman persisted and boldly asked Jesus for the healing she wanted and believed God wanted for her daughter.  While Jesus healed both people, the question it raises for us is who would we rather look like: the man by the pools of Bethesda who gave up easily or the woman who wouldn’t take no for an answer?

While I often look more like the man at Bethesda who wants God to do things my way and in my time and when it doesn’t happen I sit back and whine, I want to look more like this woman.  I want a faith that is bold and courageous and persistent and I want a faith that looks to God to do what everyone else thinks is impossible.  So I asked myself this week, what does this kind of faith look like?  What does it look like to be persistent and bold?

First I think it means that we never stop praying.  We never stop asking God for what we need and what we know others need and we never stop sharing with God the desires of our heart.  Too many times I will pray about something for a day or two and when the answer doesn’t come in my way and in my time – I give up.  When I don’t see the change or the answers come quickly, I’m quick to give up and sit on the sidelines.  What we need to learn is to keep going.  We need to learn to pray in all circumstances and to pray without ceasing as it says in I Thessalonians 5:17.  This does not mean we pray with arrogance but with confidence.  This woman was not arrogant in her request; she was humble and said all she needed were some crumbs from the table.  There is no arrogance here, just confidence and boldness as she kept on going.

Persistence and boldness also calls for learning more about Jesus.  This woman was confident because of all that she had heard about Jesus.  We don’t know how she heard about Jesus, maybe she had been at the pools in Bethesda when Jesus healed the invalid or maybe she just asked a lot of questions when she heard that this miracle worker was in town, we don’t know.  What we do know is that she had taken the time to listen and learn about Jesus.  She knew enough to call him Son of David.  She knew he could drive out demons and provide the healing her daughter needed and she knew he could heal from a distance because she didn’t have her daughter with her.  Because of all she did know about Jesus, she was bold in asking for help.  The more we know of Jesus and the more we understand of his power, grace and love, the more we will pray and the more confident we will be in asking for help.

This is one reason we encourage people to be part of Bible Studies, Sunday School classes and small groups and this is why we encourage people read and reflect on God’s word.  Growing up I had a very casual understanding of God but when I started reading the Bible for myself I learned so much more and the more I learned the more I was able to pray and come to God and boldly ask for things I never thought to ask for before.  I could boldly ask for forgiveness again and again and again because I learned that God desires to forgive us and that his love is unconditional.  I learned that God is able to heal so I asked for healing and strength for myself and for others and at times I have seen that healing come in this world and at times I haven’t, but I have learned that just because healing doesn’t come the way we want it to and in the time and place we want it to doesn’t mean it doesn’t come.  God has made us for eternity and sometimes the healing God brings is divine and eternal.

I have also learned that God’s work isn’t to take all the problems and injustice of the world away but to try and redeem the world through those things.  That is the symbol and story of the cross.  The cross of Jesus was a huge injustice – Jesus didn’t deserve to die and while God could have taken that cross away – he didn’t.  Instead God used that cross to redeem the world.  God doesn’t always take our problems and pain away but if we will be bold and courageous and keep on walking with God, he will redeem those situations in his way and in his time.  

If we want a faith that is bold, courageous and persistent than we need to study and learn in any and every way we can.  That is what I think Jesus wanted for his disciples here, to learn something.  He wanted them to learn that his love and grace is for everyone who comes to him with faith and trust.  It doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, it doesn’t matter if you are sick or well, rich or poor, faithful or sinful, clean or unclean, a success or failure – God’s grace is for everyone who simply comes to Jesus with faith and trust.  Are you seeing the common theme in all these miracles?  God rescues those who come to him for help because God’s grace and power and love is for everyone.  It is for me and it is for you if we will just not give up.



Next Steps
The Miracles of Jesus ~ A Faithful Outsider

1.  Since Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, this Canaanite woman (a non-Jew) would have been considered an outsider and beyond the reach of God’s blessing and grace.  Who today might you consider beyond the reach of God’s blessing and grace?  How does this story challenge that view?

2.  Like Jesus, who can we boldly offer God’s blessing to, trusting that it will bring a miracle of hope, healing and life?

3.  When have you cried out to God for help and felt like he wasn’t answering or sending you away empty?  Did you persist or give up?  Why?  What could you have done differently?

4.  The Canaanite woman persisted and Jesus healed her daughter.  What does it look like for you to persevere in prayer and faith?
• What step can you take today to persevere in prayer?
• What step can you take today to know Jesus better so you can be bold and courageous in asking for help?


For Further Study: Read Matthew 15:1-20 and John 6:25-59.
What insight do these teachings of Jesus give to this miracle?


“Jesus is willing to reach out to those who are beyond the pale so that the least, the last, and the lost might become the first, the most, and the found.”   Ben Witherington III

The Miracles of Jesus ~ Feeding the 5,000 and Walking on the Water

There are many names given to Jesus in the New Testament.  He is called Rabbi which means teacher, he is called a friend of sinners., Messiah, Christ, Emmanuel, the good shepherd, Son of God, Son of Man, the Word of God, and literally dozens and dozens more  With all these different titles and names given to Jesus and with a lot of different ideas about who the Messiah was going to be and what kind of leader he was going to be, there was a lot of confusion among the crowds and among the disciples about exactly who Jesus was.  We see this uncertainty and Jesus trying to clarify things in the two miracles we are going to look at today.  The first miracle is the feeding of the 5,000 and it is the only miracle recorded in all 4 gospels.  The second miracle took place just a few hours later and it is Jesus walking on the water.

These 2 miracles took place in an area along the Sea of Galilee called Tabgha.  We visited Tabgha on our first day in Israel and it is an area where many well known events in Jesus’ life took place.  It was here that Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount,

Location of the Sermon on the Mount

it was along the shores here that Jesus met Peter and the disciples after his resurrection

The shores of the Sea of Galilee 

and it is here that we believe Jesus multiplied the loaves and fish because of this mosaic floor.

This floor is located in a church that was rebuilt in the 1980’s, 

The Church of the Multiplication at Tabgah

Church Courtyard and Olive Tree

The rock where Jesus stood to feed the 5,000

but these floors date back to 480 AD.  This mosaic is located directly behind a rock and most people believe that they built the original church around this rock because it is where Jesus stood when he distributed the 5 loaves and 2 fish that fed not 5,000 people but as many as 20,000 people once you include the women and children.

While this miracle shows us the compassion Jesus had for people and the power He had to provide what people needed, there is a symbolic statement in this miracle that the people clearly understood or I should say misunderstood.  In the book of Jeremiah there is a story about the prophet dictating the word of God to his scribe Baruch and the writings of Baruch became revered among the Jewish people.  These writings talk about the coming of the Messiah and how when that time comes all those who are hungry will enjoy themselves and they will, moreover, see marvels every day and it will happen at that time that the treasury of manna will come down again from on high, and they will eat of it in those years because these are they who will have arrived at the consummation of time.  (From the book of Baruch)

In other words, when the Messiah came there would be a miracle where all those who were hungry would be fed by bread from heaven.  Jesus has just provided bread for over as many as 20,000 people – he has opened the treasury of manna and so the people begin thinking that the time has arrived and the Messiah has come.  Jesus is the king who was going to lead God’s people into freedom and it was political –national freedom that the people wanted.

The people were looking for a Messiah who would help them overthrow the oppression of Rome and lead them into establishing their own kingdom – God’s kingdom.  They were looking for a warrior king like David and there were many leaders who claimed to be this kind of King or Messiah that surfaced in the years before Jesus.  One of these leaders was a man named Simon.  Simon gathered a group of followers and began to fight against the Romans in the wilderness near Jericho.  While Simon was eventually killed by the Romans in 4 BC, his message and rebellion stirred the hearts of the people for a Messiah who would come and lead them in an armed revolt against Rome.  When Jesus started teaching and preaching about the kingdom of God and when people saw him do miracles that the Messiah was going to do and now when he provides manna for the people, the crowds saw in Jesus another Simon, another leader who would lead a rebellion.

That the people wanted to make Jesus a king is clear when we look at this miracle in the gospel of John.
After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.  (John 6:14-15)  After Jesus fed the people they began talking about his power and they saw in his miracle this sign of manna from heaven so want to make him King.  While Jesus is king, he did not come to be that kind of king.   The people wanted someone to help them overthrow Rome.  Many of the people were looking for someone like Simon who would lead an armed attack so when they saw the power of Jesus to do miracles they wanted to crown him king and go to war, but this was not what Jesus wanted.  Jesus did not come to be this kind of king so the first thing he did was send his disciples away and then he dismissed the crowds.

It wasn’t until our Men’s Bible Study looked at this passage that this detail jumped out.  Jesus sends the disciples away first and then he dismissed the crowds which tells us that Jesus didn’t want the disciples around when he confronted the crowds about their desire to make him king.  I think Jesus is trying to keep the disciples from getting the wrong idea about what it meant for him to be the Messiah.  The disciples already believed that Jesus was the son of God, they had already seen his power but they were struggling to figure out what it all meant.  Was Jesus going to be a political leader and organize a rebellion or was he a spiritual leader and teacher?  The disciples were having a difficult time understanding it all so to make sure they don’t get swept away with the crowds desire for Jesus to be crowned a king Jesus sends them away and then confronts and dismisses the people.

So the miracle of the loaves and fishes does show us the power of God to care for a provide for his people and it shows us that Jesus can open that treasury of manna and do another miracle of bread which the prophets proclaimed, but by dismissing the crowds Jesus is also saying that he did not come to be a political leader and set up an earthly kingdom.  Being the Messiah means something different for Jesus and so Jesus retreats to not only rest but to refocus his heart and mind on who God has called him to be.  There must have been a temptation for Jesus to follow the excitement of the crowd – but that is not what God has called him to do.

After spending some time in prayer in the hills overlooking the Sea of Galilee,

Hills overlooking the Sea of Galilee

Jesus sees the boat with the disciples in it struggling in a storm.  Now the day we were on the Sea of Galilee it was perfectly calm,

Sea of Galilee the day we were there.  Very Calm

but because of the topography in this part of Israel, storms are very common and can come up very quickly.  The Sea of Galilee is the second lowest lake at 500 feet below sea level but the hills around the sea can rise quickly up to 3,000 feet.

Hills surrounding the Sea of Galilee

So winds come off the Mediterranean Sea which is only 48 miles away and sweep across the hot valley and then after rising up the mountains there is a sudden drop off to the cool waters of the sea.  This quick drop and cooler temperatures creates sudden changes in air pressure which creates strong winds on the sea.   The Sea of Galilee is also relatively shallow at only 200 feet deep so the water cannot absorb all that energy which means the waves can get very high and rough.  This is what happened the night as Jesus was off praying.

After watching the disciples struggling Jesus walks out to them on the water and when the disciples see someone approaching it says they are filled with fear because they assume it is some kind of ghost – who else would be walking on the water and approaching them in a fierce storm.  In response to their fear Jesus says, it is I – but a better translation of that would be I AM, which was the name God had given to himself in the Old Testament.  When Moses stood at the burning bush and asked God what he was supposed to say to the people of Israel when he asked who had sent him as their leader, God told Moses to tell the people that I AM sent me.  That is now the name Jesus has given to his disciples.

Think about the similarities here.  In the midst of the storm of fire swirling around a bush but not consuming it came the name I AM and now in the midst of a storm of water, winds and waves swirling around a person but consumed not consuming him comes the name I AM.  Jesus is clearly saying to the disciples that He is God.  Jesus is the same God who spoke to Moses in the burning bush and Jesus is the same God who provided manna in the wilderness.  He is not a just a king and ruler, he is not just a teacher or rabbi and he is not just a healer and miracle worker he is all of that and more.  Jesus is God.  Just like we saw in the miracle of water to wine last week, Jesus is helping his disciples understand exactly who he is and that is part of what the miracles were all about – showing people that Jesus really is the son of God and God in the flesh, the one who can feed the hungry and has power over the water, wind and waves.

We know that the disciples slowly begin to understand all of this because of Peter’s response.  Peter says, Lord if it is really you and if you are really God and have this power, then let me walk on the water with you, and Jesus says, Come.  So Peter gets out of the boat and begins to walk on the water.  Peter walking on the water is a sign that he and the rest of the disciples are beginning to get it.  They are slowly beginning to understand that Jesus didn’t come to lead a political party but to demonstrate God’s power to overcome the problems of this world.  He has come to feed the hungry and heal the sick and forgive the sinner and offer people God’s peace and power in the midst of the storm.  Peter is slowly getting it, but he’s not fully there yet because he takes his eyes off of Jesus and re-focuses on the problems - the wind and waves – and then begins to sink.  He’s just not there yet, he doesn’t fully understand and have faith enough to trust Jesus, but Jesus doesn’t let him sink – he reaches out and rescues Peter.  Once again we see that Jesus as the Messiah rescues those in need.  He rescued those who needed hope and healing, he rescued those who faced embarrassment and shame and today he rescues those who struggle to believe in him.

Now before we look at that in more detail, let me say something about Peter.  We always give Peter a hard time for taking his eyes off of Jesus or not having enough faith, but I look at it this way – he was the only one who had enough faith and courage to get out of the boat.  We sailed on the Sea of Galilee on a perfectly calm day

A calm Sea of Galilee

and there was no way I would have gotten out of the boat and tried walking on the water even if Jesus was standing right there

I can't imagine walking on this water!

and there is no way I would have done it in the midst of the storm far from shore.  It took a lot of courage for Peter to do what he did and it took a lot of faith for the disciples to work through all that Jesus was teaching them.  This is not an easy road for them.  They are still getting to know Jesus, they are wrestling with his teaching and trying to make sense out of his miracles and all around them there are some saying he should be king and others saying he is crazy and even others saying he is dangerous and should be killed, so this is not an easy time for the disciples and yet what this miracle shows us is that Jesus has compassion for them.

First Jesus sent them away to protect them from getting caught up in the crowd wanting to make Jesus a king.  He wanted to keep them from wrong ideas that would tempt them and lead them astray.  He was leading them from temptation.  Then he revealed his divine power over nature by walking on the water in a storm and then he claimed to be God by saying he is I AM.  Jesus then invited his disciples to test him and his power by inviting Peter to walk on the water and then has compassion on them when they struggle to believe.  Jesus then gets into the boat with them and the storm dies down and it is then that they worship him and Jesus accepts their worship.  What both these miracles show us is that Jesus is patient with his disciples as they grow in their faith and trust and God is patient with us as we grow in our faith.

The truth is that we often find ourselves in situations similar to the disciples in these two miracles.  God may call us to step out in faith and do something like help feed the hungry or trust Him when storms are raging around us and if and when we do step out in faith we may not always understand what God is doing, we may not see everything clearly and we may even fail – but God is patient with us.  God doesn’t give up on us.  God simply steps into our lives and keeps going with us.

As I have shared before, I spent a summer working in Yellowstone National Park.

Old Faithful in Yellowstone NP

It was a huge step of faith for me to go there and I went to serve God through a ministry called ACMNP.  God opened many doors for me to get there and God placed me exactly where he wanted me – working in a kitchen, but I wasn’t content.

The Marina Restaurant at Grant Village in YNP.

I took my eyes off of Jesus and kept going after other jobs, first in an ice cream shop, then in the dining room – I just wasn’t content where God put me and I was having a hard time trusting God to lead me.  At one point during that summer I started to sink because I went after what I wanted and just like with Peter, God didn’t let me sink, he rescued me and then said, you of little faith – why did you doubt?

I wasn’t where I wanted to be in my faith, I’m still not.  There are still times I hear God say, Andy, why do you doubt?  I simply say, I don’t know God.  You have revealed your power and glory so many times in my life.  I have seen you provide for me in so many ways and I know your hand leads and guides me, but I struggle at times to believe and fully trust you.  But God is still there.  Jesus is with me in life, he’s in my boat, and he’s in yours too.  We all struggle to believe.  We all struggle to understand what it means to call Jesus savior and lord, we struggle at times to understand what it means to call Jesus God with us, or Emmanuel, and we struggle to understand how he is King and brings to us God’s kingdom.  We struggle.  We sink.  We don’t think we have what it takes.  But God doesn’t let us go.  God is patient and allows us to work through things.

The disciples struggled for several hours on the water – but Jesus was watching out over them and when things got too hard for them he walked out to them.  Jesus was there.  And Jesus is here.  Jesus is here to watch over us, care for us, provide for us, show us who he is and patiently wait for us to step out to him in faith.  May today be the day that we take one more step with Jesus.  It may be a courageous step out of the boat or a comforting step back into the boat – either way, let’s just take that step.


Next Steps
The Miracles of Jesus ~  Feeding the 5,000 and Walking on Water

1. The miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000 is the only miracle recorded in all 4 gospels.  Read it in each of the gospels to see what similarities and difference are found:
• Matthew 14:15-33
• Mark 6:30-52
• Luke 9:10-17
• John 6:1-24 (Read verses 25-71 as well)

2.  Jesus invited the disciples to be part of the miracle.  What miracle can you be part of this week?  How can you help feed the hungry or meet the needs you see in people around you?

3.  Can you identify a time when you stepped out in faith to trust and follow Jesus?  What happened?  Did you walk or sink?

4. How and where is Jesus calling you to trust him today?  What does it mean for you to get out of the boat and walk on water?  What storms and fears does God want to calm?

The Miracles of Jesus ~ Water to Wine

For us to really understand the power of this miracle we first need to understand how symbolic weddings and wine were for the Jewish people.  Weddings were not one day events in Jesus’ day, the wedding ceremony and banquet could go on for days and it wasn’t just a time for the family and friends to come together, it was an event for the entire village or community.  Because so much food and drink were needed to take care of the wedding guests for several days, the extended family of the bride and groom would come together to help provide all that was needed.  So some people believe that when Mary asked Jesus to help provide the wine it was because the wedding was for someone in Jesus’ family. It could have been a brother or sister or a cousin of Jesus, but because Mary asked Jesus to get involved it seems to indicate that Mary and Jesus were in some way related to the bride or groom and so had some responsibility for providing what was needed.

There is also no indication that when Mary asked Jesus to do something that she was thinking he would do a miracle.  John says this was the first miracle Jesus did so it seems unlikely that Mary was thinking that Jesus would turn water into wine when she asked him to help, she probably just wanted Jesus and his disciples to go and buy more wine for the guests and tell the servants where to pick it up, but what Jesus thought was that this would be the best time and place to do his first miracle and begin to reveal to his disciples exactly who he was.

Now the reason a wedding was the perfect place for Jesus to do his first miracle is because wedding banquets were often seen as a symbol of the coming kingdom of God – the kingdom Jesus had come to bring into the world.  The clearest example of this comes from the prophet Isaiah.  Let’s look at Isaiah 25:6-9.  So the kingdom of God is seen as a great feast or banquet where there is an abundance of food and wine and since weddings were the largest and greatest banquets that people had, the wedding banquet became symbolic of God’s kingdom.  Jesus used this image when he told the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22:2.  Jesus said, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.  So the idea of a wedding banquet being a symbol of God’s kingdom was well known and by choosing to do his first miracle at a wedding banquet, Jesus was making a statement that would have been understood by those who knew of the miracle.  Jesus was saying to them that he had the power to bring God’s kingdom into this world because he was the son of God, the messiah.  As it says in John 2, Jesus revealed to his disciples his power and glory.

But it wasn’t just any miracle Jesus did at this wedding; he provided wine – lots and lots of wine.  If we go back to Isaiah 25 it says that the coming kingdom of God was going to be a banquet with aged wine which would have been the best wine and that is exactly what Jesus provided.  According to the master of the banquet the wine Jesus provided was the best which was surprising because most people would serve the best wine first and then after a day or so it wouldn’t matter to people what you served.

So Jesus fulfills the prophet’s words by not only providing the finest wine but by providing it in abundance.  It says that there were 6 stone water jars and each jar would have held 20-30 gallons of water so what Jesus has just provided the wedding guests is about 150 gallons of wine, that’s 2-3 barrels or 900 bottles of wine given at the end of the feast.  Jesus has provided an abundance of wine which again was what the prophets predicted.  The prophet Amos talked about the coming kingdom of God and said that new wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills.  Jesus has certainly provided new wine and in such abundance that it does almost flow from the hills.

And it was in the hills that the miracle took place which is a detail we should not overlook.  Jesus performed this miracle at a wedding in Cana of Galilee which is a very hilly region.

Cana of Galilee

We didn’t stop in Cana so I wasn’t able to get any good pictures there but what I did notice about the area was how hilly it was.  In fact, when people have asked me about my general impressions of the Holy Land my first response is always that it is more hilly or mountainous then I imagined.  While there are large valleys throughout Israel, they end abruptly at foothills and mountains that are rugged and steep and it was in that region where Jesus did this miracle.  It wasn’t along the shores in Capernaum or in the city of Jerusalem or in the valleys that Jesus traveled through it was in Cana, it was in the mountainous region of Galilee.  So again, the words of Amos have been fulfilled, new wine drips from the mountains and flows from the hills.  Every detail of this first miracle is important and symbolic and they all point to Jesus being the Messiah who has the power to bring in the kingdom of God.

But there is something else we need to notice here, the wine Jesus provided was for everyone and as Isaiah said, the coming kingdom of God was going to be for everyone - all nations and all people.  God’s original purpose in calling Abraham was for him to be a father of many nations and Israel was to be a light to the people and God’s choice of the promised land itself was intentional because it was the crossroads of the world at that time and it was the only place where the message of God could spread to everyone.

Jesus is clearly saying a lot in this one miracle, but there is one more important statement we need to hear.  While Jesus could have chosen any number of vessels to fill with water for his miracle, he chose the stone jars that would have held the water for ceremonial washing. 

Stone Jar at Mosada 

These jars would have been used during the days of the wedding feast to wash the hands of the people.  Cleanliness was very important for the Jewish people, both physically and spiritually, and there were many laws written about how to become clean and stay clean and when to do it.  The law required people to wash their hands before they ate which wasn’t so much to get physically clean but spiritually clean.  More rigorous religious communities went so far as to make people immerse themselves in water completely before each meal and one such community was the Essenes, which both John the Baptist and Jesus may have been part of at different points in their life

We visited an Essene community and one of the things we saw everywhere were Mikvah’s or baths that people used to become clean.

Mikvah at Qumran

 A person would walk into the water and then come forth spiritually clean.  While the Essene community practiced this ritual before every meal, most Jewish people just washed their hands or poured water over the hands to become clean and that practice is still used today.  When we visited the Wailing Wall there were hand washing stations and this was not to get our hands clean physically because there was no soap there, this was more of a spiritual cleansing.

Hand washing station at the Western Wall

At the stations you would turn on the water and allow the water to run over your hands and then you would allow them to air dry and then you made your way to the wall to pray.

You can imagine how much water it would take with all the people coming to the wall at all times of the day and night and it would also have taken a lot of water at the wedding banquet Jesus attended.  During the celebration which could have been going on for days, there would have been a lot of meals which means there was a lot of hand washing which meant you needed to have a lot of water on hand which is why there were so many jars.  Since it was late into the feast, many of those jars now stood empty, but Jesus didn’t use those jars because they were convenient – he used them to make a point.

By using the jars that held ceremonial water that made people clean to provide the new wine, Jesus is saying that the old way of making people clean has been replaced by something new and better.  The old rules are now gone, the old regulations are not what make people clean, there is a new covenant, new wine, and what makes people clean isn’t pouring water over your hands but believing in the son of God.  Jesus doesn’t have to say this because again this was proclaimed by the prophet Isaiah.  Let’s go back Isaiah 25:9.  So it is trusting in God that brings salvation.  The old way of connecting with God was by following the rules and regulations –washing your hands – but the new way was going to be through faith and trust in God and the one God sent as his Messiah, Jesus Christ.


So Jesus is saying a lot in this miracle and the disciples seem to understand some of it because it says they believed in him, they put their faith and trust in Jesus.  Jesus performed this miracle to show people that he had the power to bring in the kingdom which as a call for people to place our faith and trust in him.  This first miracle is the announcement that God is starting something new and for us to experience the power of God and for us to experience the life God wants for use we don’t follow rules - we follow Jesus.  

We just spent 3 weeks talking about what it means to follow Jesus, it means sacrifice, service and salvation, but what does it mean for us to believe in him?  As we have heard before, it’s not believing in our head that Jesus is the son of God, it is believing in our hearts and allowing that belief to shape how we think and speak and live.  Believing in Jesus means trusting him with our whole being and allowing every area of our life to come under God’s control.  It means allowing God to redefine our priorities - how we spend our time, treat our family, behave at work, spend, save and invest our money and what we allow into our eyes, ears and minds through entertainment and culture.  Think of believing in Jesus as belonging to him and living as if we are actually connected to him so that whatever we are doing we are doing with him.

Belong to Jesus, doing everything I do with Jesus… I don’t know about you, but thinking about this a little unsettling because there are many thoughts I have and things I do that I would be ashamed and embarrassed if I knew Jesus was there, but Jesus is there.  There is nothing hidden from him, so he is already there in those dark places of sin and shame, but he is there not to condemn but to forgive.  Jesus is there not to pass judgment but to bring healing and the reason we know this is because at a wedding in Cana, Jesus turned water to wine.

We’ve looked at this miracle symbolically, now let’s look at it practically and personally.  There was a wedding feast and the family was about to run out of wine and while that might seem like a small thing to us, it would have been a huge embarrassment for the family.  To run out of wine at a wedding would have brought shame upon the entire family which is why Mary asked Jesus to do something in the first place.  Mary is trying to save her family from public shame and ridicule and instead of thinking that this problem was beneath him, Jesus had compassion for his family and does something.  He rescues them.

And Jesus rescues us.  This is not just a symbolic miracle announcing God is doing something new in Jesus, this is a miracle that shows us Jesus cares about what is going on in our lives no matter what the issue is.  It might be something big like we saw last week with sickness or illnesses that isolate us from others or it might be something we might think is small and inconsequential, or something even dark and personal, but if it is important to us – it is important to Jesus.  And this miracle shows us that no matter what we may be embarrassed about or ashamed of, God forgives and Jesus comes to rescues us restores us.  Jesus brings us a new life and a clean life.

I met a young man in Lewisburg who claimed the power of this miracle for his life.  He had accepted Jesus and yet he struggled to live the life of faith he wanted to and he often ended up ashamed of things he did as part of his fraternity, and he wasn’t alone.  Many Sunday’s we met college students in worship filled with regret and shame for decisions they had made the night before – but the message we always shared with them was the message of this miracle.  Jesus forgives us.  God rescues us from our shame and is willing to show us a better way to live.  

What we need to do to claim this power for living a new life is to do what Mary did, ask Jesus for help.   If we turn to Jesus we will find new life.  If we turn to Jesus when problems overwhelm us and temptation leads us astray – we will find God’s grace and the strength to live a better life, the best life God has for us.  Mary knew where to turn and this miracle shows us that Jesus really is the one to turn to for help.  So let us turn and believe in Jesus and allow God’s grace, power and priorities to reshape our lives.  



Next Steps
The Miracles of Jesus ~ Water To Wine

1. Jesus turning water to wine showed His disciples that He was the Son of God and because of this they put their faith in Him.  What does it mean for you to put your faith in Jesus?  How has your life changed because of this?

2. In what areas of your life do you need to Jesus to be in control?
• Time
• Money
• Relationships
• Job
• Health
What can you do this week to re-prioritize your life in these areas according to the principles of God’s kingdom?

3.   By providing wine for the wedding banquet, Jesus took away the shame of His family.  What shame and embarrassment do you need God to wipe away?  In what areas of your life do you need God’s cleansing and forgiveness?  Ask Him for help today.

For further study: To really understand the power of this miracle we need to understand the symbolism of weddings, wine and God’s abundance on the mountains.  Review:
• Isaiah 25:6-9
• Amos 9:11-15
• Jeremiah 31

The Miracles of Jesus - Healing the Daughters

Today we begin our series on the Miracles of Jesus and for the next 6 weeks we are going to explore the power of God seen in Jesus and we aren’t just going to look at what that power meant for the people who were touched by these miracles but what that power means for us today.  It’s important for us to understand that Jesus did miracles as a way of helping people see that he was the Messiah.  The prophet Isaiah said that the coming Messiah would be a leader who would perform great miracles like opening the eyes of the blind and making the lame to walk, Isaiah 35:5-6.  So when Jesus performed miracles like this and did things that no one else could do it helped people understand that he was the son of God.  The miracles revealed the power of God that dwelled in Jesus and because his miracles included power and authority over nature, like walking on water and turning water to wine, it helped people see that Jesus was in some way God himself.  In fact when Jesus silenced the storm the disciples asked themselves, who is this that even the wind and the waves obey him?  Who is it that has power over nature itself?  The answer of course is God, the one who created the world.

So the miracles are important because they help us understand that Jesus wasn’t just a great teacher and leader, he had the power of God at his disposal and he used it to bring in the kingdom of God.  Jesus used his power to show us what was important to God like overcoming sickness and disease, forgiving sin and overcoming death itself.  Each week as we explore a different miracle my hope is that we will open our eyes and the eyes of our heart to see that Jesus truly is the son of God and that we will allow him to have his way in our hearts and lives and bring God’s power to us.

Today we are going to look at two miracles of healing that are very similar and take place almost at the same time.  They take place in the village of Capernaum which is right along the sea of Galilee.  One of the things I am hoping to do during this series is to make these stories come alive by showing you where some of the miracles took place.  This is a picture taken in the village of Capernaum between the synagogue and Peter’s house.  If you can see the mountains at the other side of the sea – that is where Jesus drove out the demons.  The water you see is the Sea of Galilee and Capernaum is located right along the shores of the sea.  We hear the story of these miracles in Mark 5:21-34.

So Jesus is returning from the other side of the sea and when the people of Capernaum see him, a large crowd gathers.  Now let me say something about large crowds in Israel.  Personal space is a little different there than it is here.  We like to keep a certain amount space around us no matter where we are, but one of the things I noticed when we travelled is that many people in other parts of the world don’t share that same value.  When we rode the gondola up to Masada they pushed us in until we literally couldn’t move.  And there were several times in the elevators at the hotels where people would crowd in to the point where the elevator light would go off because it was overweight – I always felt bad for that last person on.  The people selling things on the street would get up close to you and even make contact with you and the streets of Jerusalem can be so crowded in certain areas that you just feel people around you everywhere.  So when we read that there was a large crowd around Jesus it would have been a mob scene with everyone touching and pushing each other to get to Jesus.

In the midst of that scene comes the synagogue ruler, Jarius.  Again, here is where the Bible started to come to life for me because we gathered in the synagogue where Jairus ruled.  This was his church, the place where he served God and most likely one of the homes around here was his home.  So Jairus comes up and falls on his knees begging Jesus to heal his daughter.  This in itself is quite a scene.  Jairus was the ruler of the synagogue and yet he saw in Jesus someone who had more power than the rules and regulations of his synagogue.  Sometimes we get critical of the religious leaders in Jesus day for not understanding who Jesus was, but Jairus got it.  He had heard about Jesus’ miraculous power to heal and he was desperate to have his daughter healed so he doesn’t come and just ask Jesus to heal her, he falls on his knees and pleads earnestly – he begs Jesus to help him and heal his daughter.
Jesus agrees and starts to make the short trip into town with Jairus as the crowd presses in all around them and in that crowd was a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years.  Like Jairus, this woman was also desperate for healing.  Her bleeding not only meant that she was physically sick and dying but her condition of constant bleeding meant that she was always considered unclean and therefore never able to be around any family or friends.  Blood was considered unclean and so anyone who came into contact with blood, their own or someone else’s, was considered unclean until a certain period of time had passed after the contact and they went through a ritual of purification.

The problem was that if you were considered unclean due to blood then not only where you unclean but so were any clothes and furniture you touched as well as any water or food.  In fact, some people thought if an unclean person just walked by a jug of open water, the water had to be dumped out and even the pot destroyed.  You also made other people unclean if you just touched their clothing.  It’s amazing to think how this woman ever made it into the crowd because if they knew who she was and that she was unclean then the people would have run away from her or driven her away.  It makes me wonder if this woman was from another village or city because she was able to hide in this crowd unnoticed, or maybe she somehow disguised herself and risked being caught and punished because she was so desperate to be healed.  No matter what, it took a lot of courage for her to be in that crowd and it says she reached out and touched Jesus cloak.  In Matthew it says she touched the edge of the cloak which would have been the tassels that hung from the corners.

The reason she reached for the tassels is because on rabbi’s these tassels were the signs of their authority.  Just another comment here on the tassels on clothing – many Jewish people today still have those tassels.  On the airplane both over to Israel and on the way back when it came time for prayer the Jewish men got up and put on their coats and hats and hanging out over their belts and pants where the tassels that looked like they were attached to their shirts or undershirts.  In Numbers 15 God told the people to put these tassels on their clothing to remind them to follow all the commandments God had given them, but through the years the tassels on the rabbis clothing became symbols of their authority and power so when this woman reaches out to the fringe of Jesus coat she is reaching out to the power and authority she believed Jesus had to heal her.

And the instant she allows those tassels to run through her hands – she is healed and Jesus knows that power has gone out from him and so asks the crowd, who touched me.  Now the disciples hear that and think it is foolish because everyone in the crowd is touching him, but Jesus is looking for the one person who touched him seeking power and strength.  The woman knows she cannot hide any longer so she steps forward and trembling with fear tells her story.  But think about this, with such a great miracle of healing that has taken place in her life, why she is terrified.  

It could be because when an unclean person touched a clean person – that person became unclean.  Remember, if a person subject to bleeding even touches the clothes of another person, that person becomes unclean so what this woman did in touching just the fringe of Jesus garment was to make Jesus unclean.  At least that is what she is thinking because the state of being clean never passes to someone who is unclean but unclean always passes to clean.  In the Jewish religion, a clean person cannot make an unclean person clean, but an unclean person always makes a clean person unclean.  So it could be that her fear is in thinking that Jesus will be angry and the crowds will turn on her because she has made this great teacher and miracle worker unclean.

But notice that with Jesus there is no criticism or condemnation of the woman.  Jesus doesn’t get angry but says to her the words she has longed to hear for at least 12 years, daughter.  As long as she was unclean she was not a daughter of Israel – she was isolated and cast out of worship.  As long as she was cut off from her family and friends she was not a daughter to anyone and yet Jesus doesn’t just heal her physically, he restores her spiritually calling her a daughter of Israel.  He lifts her up and fills her with value, dignity and life.

The power of Jesus has changed this woman’s life.  This miracle of healing opens the door for her to return to her home and community and church and once again experience the fullness and joy of life.  The power of Jesus still offers this kind of healing and hope.  If we are feeling isolated and alone for any reason, Jesus is here to call us daughter and son.  Jesus wants to restore all of our relationships and our place in the family and community and he is able to do this because he has the power of God at his disposal.  What it takes from us is to have the courage to reach out to Jesus and ask for help.  That’s what the woman does when she reaches out to grab hold of the tassels on Jesus garment – she is asking God for help and if we are willing to ask God for help – he will help us.

The power of God seen here is still the power of God at work today.  It may not bring instant healing the way it did to the womean, but it will bring healing and restoration if we will trust God with all that we have and all that we are.  This woman desperately reached out to Jesus.  She risked everything to be there and trusted with all she had that Jesus could heal her and that is the kind of faith we need when we reach out to Jesus.  We need to reach out knowing that he is the kind of Messiah who longs to call us daughter and son.  God longs to love us and heal us and share his power and love with us.

But the story isn’t done yet.  Remember that the woman was terrified when she touched Jesus because she thought that unclean always passed to clean so now Jesus was unclean.  Well, the woman isn’t the only one in the crowd who is terrified, think about how Jairus feels.  He has just seen all hope for his daughter disappear.  If Jesus is now unclean he can’t do anything to help his daughter, in fact Jesus can’t even enter Jairus house or come into contact with his daughter and for Jesus to become clean again he has to wait for a period of time and then go offer a sacrifice and by the time all that takes place his daughter could be dead.  So you can imagine the terror and fear that Jairus must be experiencing in this moment – all hope is gone.  But then the people from the village arrive and tell Jairus that all hope really is gone because his daughter is dead.  Read Mark 5:35-42

Do you see the parallels here?  The woman who had been bleeding for 12 years felt completely hopeless and was desperate to find healing and life and so with faith and courage she risked everything to reach out to Jesus and when she did, she was healed.  Jairus also feels completely hopeless when he hears that his daughter is dead and he must wonder how Jesus can do anything at this point because he is considered unclean, but in his desperation to find life for his daughter he risks everything and courageously invites Jesus into his home and allows Jesus, in his mind an unclean Jesus, to touch his daughter.  He allows Jesus to take her by the hand and when he does, once again power goes from Jesus to the little girl and not only is she raised up to life but a family is restored.

Two daughters of Israel have been healed because people were willing to reach out and grab hold of the power of God seen in Jesus.  Two daughters found new life and had all their relationships restored because people were willing to trust Jesus to bring this new life.  Jesus has the power to make whatever we consider unclean – clean.  This is not just a miracle of healing, this is a miracle that tells us that the power of God makes the unclean – clean and this power of God still makes the unclean – clean.

When we sin – God forgives.  When we fail – God brings victory.  When we are weak – God is strong.  When we are sick – God offers healing and hope and when we die – God brings life.  All that is needed for us to find this power is to reach out and grab the tassels.  All that is needed is the courage invite Jesus into the mess of our lives trusting that he will stop everything and come.  And when he comes, he brings healing and hope and raises us up to new life.



 
Next Steps
The Miracles of Jesus ~ Healing the Daughters


1. Reflect on a time when like Jairus or the bleeding woman you have been desperate and without hope.
• What were the circumstances?
• What were you looking for?
• Where did you turn?
• What was the outcome?


2. Both the bleeding woman and Jairus experienced the miracle of God’s power because they were willing to tangibly reach out to Jesus.  The woman reached out and grabbed the tassels of Jesus garment and Jairus welcomed Jesus into his home.  How can we tangibly reach out to Jesus today?  Identify one specific act you can do this week which shows God you are looking for His miraculous power in your life?


3.  One message of these two miracles is that God always makes the unclean – clean.  Who are those in our world who might be considered unclean?  What can we do to offer them hope and the power to be made clean?  In what way can Faith Church reach out to those considered unclean?


For further study:
Read all of Mark 5 and identify how the miracle of Jesus driving out the demons (Mark 5:1-20) is similar to the stories of Jesus healing the two daughters (Mark 5:21-43).  Think about how the idea of clean and unclean is found throughout this chapter as well as people coming to Jesus with great hope, desperation and fear.

Remember we are dust...

Each year as we approach Ash Wednesday I ask myself, “why do we do this?”  Why do we place ashes on our forehead and say, remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.  Now I do understand the symbolism of ashes because we find that in the Bible.  While we don’t know how or where it all started, there are several places in the Old Testament where people sat in ashes or dumped dust and ashes on their heads as a sign of their remorse and repentance.  The people who did this were sorry for what they had done and how they had turned away from God and treated others poorly and the ashes were a tangible way for them to say they were sorry and wanted to change their ways.  A classic example of this is found in the story of Jonah.  While we know the story of Jonah more for Jonah’s running away from God, when Jonah finally did go and preach to the people of Nineveh and called them to return to God, this is what happened.  Jonah 3:3-6.  

Over the course of time people gave up sitting in dust and ashes but they continued to use ashes as a symbol of remorse and a desire to repent.  As early as the 6th century we find in the guidelines for Christian worship that the placing of ashes on people’s foreheads was used as a sign of repentance and by the 11th century using ashes as a sign of remorse and a desire to return to God was common in the life of the church.  So this tradition of placing ashes on our forehead as a sign of acknowledging that we are sinners who desire to return to God may seem somewhat strange, but it is an ancient part of worship that gives us a tangible way to say that we are sorry and want to return to God  

But what about the words we say? I’ll be honest; I never really thought about where they came from until I went and looked it up and found that these words come from the end Genesis 3.  After Adam and Eve sinned and turned away from God, God pronounced judgment on them and part of the consequence of their sin was this, Genesis 3:19 by the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground since from it you were taken, for dust you are and to dust you will return.  

So the words we hear tonight are the words that Adam and Eve heard when they were confronted with the reality of their sin and the truth is that these words need to remind us not of our mortality but of our sinfulness.  Just like Adam and Eve, our sin separates us from God and from the spirit of God that brings us life so without that spirit, without being connected to God we are just dust and to dust we shall return.  The truth is that the only thing that makes us more than dust is God.  In Genesis 2:7.  The Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being.  So Adam and Eve really were just the dust of the earth and what gave them life was the spirit of God but when they sinned they separated themselves from God and God’s spirit so they were nothing more than dust.  With God they had life but without God they were just dust.   

The season of Lent needs to be a time when we acknowledge that with God there is life but without God we are just dust and to dust we shall return.  Like Adam and Eve, we are formed of the dust and like them we are frail and weak and sinful and if we try to live life on our own without God’s power and presence and love then we will just return to dust, but if we allow the spirit of God to breath into us and the love of God to forgive us then we will experience the fullness and power of life and life eternal.  So that is what we need to do in this season of Lent, allow the spirit and power of God to fill us and forgive us and the only way to do that is to first acknowledge that we need the spirit and power of God fill us.  In many ways, humility and confession really are the beginning of faith – the gospels teach us this.  

The gospels don’t start with the story of Jesus but with the ministry of John the Baptist who prepared the way for Jesus and John prepared the way by preaching about repentance.  John called people to humble themselves, confess their sin and repent which means to turn away from their sin and back to God.  Now John didn’t use dust and ashes as a symbol of repentance, he used water.  People entered into the water because they knew they needed to be forgiven and cleansed and they entered into the water to say that they wanted to die to their old way of life and rise up to live a new life.  So whether it was the ashes of the Old Testament or the waters of the New Testament, people had to acknowledge that they were sinners who needed to repent and turn back to God.  

And that is part of what we do tonight and all through this season of Lent.  We humble ourselves and confess our sin.  In a few moments we will sing and use scripture as a means of repenting and turning back to God.  We will enter into silent times of prayer and reflection where we can personally ask God to forgive us and tonight we will share in communion which will be a meal of repentance and forgiveness.  The spirit of God cannot enter into our lives if we will not confess our sin and allow God to enter in.  God doesn’t invade us – he waits for an invitation.  Jesus says he stands at the door and knocks and those who open the door are the ones that Jesus will enter into and bring life.  So we need to humble ourselves, confess our sin and allow God to enter. 

But I hope that this season of Lent we will take things a step further and open ourselves up not just to the forgiveness and grace of God but to the real power of God to transform us.  For the next several weeks we are going to be looking at the miracles Jesus performed and these miracles not only show us the power Jesus had to change people’s lives but the it shows us the desire Jesus had to change people’s lives.  Jesus didn’t perform miracles just because he could, he performed miracles because he wanted to help people.  Jesus wanted to heal people and lift them up spiritually, emotionally and physically.  Jesus wanted to bring people the fullness of life.  My hope is that as we explore these miracles and the power of Jesus we will see that Jesus still wants to do these kinds of miracles in our hearts and lives not because he can but because he loves us.  

So yes, we are dust, but we are dust loved by God.  Yes we are mortal but Jesus redeems our mortal bodies and helps us put on immortality.  Yes we are sinners, but we are sinners deeply cared for by a God who sent his son to forgive us and bring us back to him when our sin drove us away.  In Genesis 2 God breathed into the dust to create man and women because God wanted to share his life with us.  When sin cut human beings off from God returning them to dust, Jesus came to bring the world back into a relationship with God making us more than dust. When our sin cuts us off from God – the love and grace of Jesus still brings us back to Him so that we in the end we won’t have bodies of dust and ashes that will return to dust and ashes but through Christ we will become a new creation.    

In love, God breathed into the dust of the earth and created Adam and Eve and in love God continues to breath into the dust and ashes of our lives to redeem us and that is what this day is all about.  We are dust and as long as we choose to live life on our own to dust we shall return, but if we will humble ourselves, confess our sin and allow the spirit and power of God to enter into us, then we will experience the fullness of life here and now and the fullness of life eternal.  

So I invite you, in the name of Jesus Christ, to observe a holy Lent by self-examination and repentance, by prayer and fasting and by reading and reflecting on the word of God.  I invite us all to begin this season by humbling ourselves before God through a time of confession in song, word and silence where, like Adam and Eve, we can come face to face with the depth and reality of our sin and its consequences.  

Following Jesus ~ Salvation

For the last two weeks we have been looking at what it means to follow Jesus and we have seen that at its core following Jesus means sacrifice.  The disciples left the security of their jobs, the comfort of their homes and the control of their futures to follow Jesus and many times we have to sacrifice those same things.  But following Jesus doesn’t just call for sacrifice it also calls for service.  Following Jesus means we stop living for ourselves and start reaching out to others.  But is this all there is in following Jesus?  Is following Jesus just about giving up all that we may want and need and meeting the needs of others or is there something more?  The good news is that there is definitely something more because following Jesus also brings salvation.

As we talk this morning I want us to think about salvation as something more than eternal life after we die, that is a big part of salvation but I want us to think about salvation as a new life and full life starting right here and now.  Salvation is really the fullness and abundance of the life God wants us to experience.  In John 10:10 Jesus said, I have come so that you may have life and life abundant and it is this abundant life that I want us to call salvation and it starts when we start following Jesus.  Before we can understand this salvation, however, we first have to understand sin.

If you remember from past sermons where we talked about sin, the word sin really means missing the mark.  There is a way that God wants us to live our lives and when we wander from that path, when we miss the mark, we call that sin and the consequence of that sin is separation from God.  In Isaiah 59:2 it says, your iniquities have separated you from your God; you sins have hidden his face from you.  So sin breaks our relationship with God but it also breaks our relationship with one another.  According to the book of Galatians, the effects of sin are seen in emotions like hatred, jealousy, selfish ambition and envy and in actions that lead to immorality, impurity, discord, factions and fits of rage.  As you look at that list you begin to see that all of these things destroy our personal relationships with others and that is what sin does – it destroys all relationships.

Sin not only destroys our relationship with God and with those around us but it also creates pain and brokenness in our own lives because we aren’t living the way we want to.  Paul talks about this inner pain when he says, I do not understand what I do.  For what I want to do, I do not do but what I hate, I do.  I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out  For what I do is not the good I want to do; no the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing.  What a wretched man I am.  (Romans 7:15, 18b-19, 24)  Paul is experiencing the brokenness of sin and this is what sin does within us, it causes pain because we know we aren’t who we want to be and who God created us to be and the problem with sin is that we can’t overcome it on our own which is why Paul says, Who will rescue you from this life of death? (Romans 7:24)

Paul knew he couldn’t overcome sin on his own but that he needed a savior so he asks, who will save me?  Who will bring me salvation from sin?  But the salvation Paul is talking about isn’t eternal life in heaven but a new and faithful life right now.  Paul doesn’t want to experience this inner struggle between good and evil, he wants to live the life God has for him – he wants to experience salvation or abundant life and Paul knows that this salvation and life is found in only one place – Jesus Christ.  Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord.  (Romans 7:25.)

So sin is missing the mark which means we do not experience the fullness of life God wants for us but following Jesus helps us experience this life by working to restore all those broken relationships by first bringing us back into a right relationship with God.  God forgives our sin which brings us closer to him which in turn brings us closer to others.  So salvation is abundant life here and eternal life to come and all of this is found in following Jesus.

But unlike sacrifice and service where following Jesus means living the way Jesus lived or embracing his attitudes and actions here following Jesus means believing in him.  Jesus says in John 3:16.  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.  So salvation comes when we believe in Jesus but let’s be clear that believing in Jesus is not intellectual assent; it’s not believing that Jesus was a man who lived in Galilee 2000 years ago and died on a cross and rose again.  It’s not a matter of what we believe about Jesus it is a matter of believing in Jesus.  The word believe here means to place our confidence in Jesus and to trust and rely upon him to forgive our sin.

Following Jesus here is fundamentally different than what we have talked about the last two weeks because sacrificing and serving are things we can go out and do, but believing is something to receive and trust.  We don’t “do” anything here, we just have to receive God’s grace and forgiveness and love.  Salvation and the life God wants for us to experience are a gift.  Romans 6:23 says the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Ephesians 2:8-9 says  For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast.  We don’t earn salvation through our sacrifice and service and we don’t deserve them because we have been good or faithful, salvation and life are a gift given to us when we turn and believe in Jesus.

There are some wonderful expressions of this salvation and life that we find in the gospel stories of Jesus.  There was the woman who was caught in adultery who was brought to Jesus and instead of condemning her he forgave her.  The penalty of her sin could have brought her death and there was nothing she could do to change that, but Jesus saved her and gave her life.  A man who was paralyzed was lowered through the roof of a house so that Jesus could heal him and what Jesus did instead was to forgive his sin and then prove he could forgive sin by telling the man to get up and walk which he did.  Jesus saved him and brought him life.

As Jesus was walking into a village one day he saw a funeral procession for a young man who was a woman’s only son.  Jesus had compassion on this mother and brought her son back to life.  Jesus also raised Lazarus from the dead and he raised a little girl from the dead.  Jesus brings life after death and then on the cross Jesus turned to the thief next to him and said, today you will be with me in paradise.  This man followed Jesus not by doing anything – he couldn’t do anything – but he was saved because he believed in Jesus.  He trusted Jesus to forgive him and save him and give him the gift of eternal life.  All these people experienced life and salvation in different ways and they show us that following Jesus brings salvation and life and eternal life.

These stories also show us what following Jesus and believing in him looks like for us.  It looks like turning to Jesus and accepting the love and grace He offers.  Now I’ll be honest, this kind of acceptance is not easy.  I don’t know about you, but receiving the love and care of others can be difficult because we don’t feel worthy or we feel like we need to repay them, so following Jesus here is hard, maybe even harder than sacrifice and service – but it is the only way to experience salvation.

Believing in Jesus is also not a once and done moment in time it really is following Jesus every day, it is a way of life.  Just as sacrifice and service need to be a way of life for us, so is salvation.  Every day we need to open our hands and hearts to receive God’s grace.  Every day we need to accept the forgiveness God offers because every day we fail God and miss the mark.  Salvation isn’t something we receive once it is something we need to experience every day as we give our lives to God and open our hearts to him.

Some of the moments we experience salvation and forgiveness might be more significant and memorable than others and I think that is a good thing because those moments reminds us that God is with us in every moment.  One such moment for me was in the fall of 1982 when I sat on a cement bench beneath Beaumont Tower on the Campus of MSU.  I heard in my heart God say, "Andy, with me there is life and without me there is death, that death might come today or tomorrow or 80 years from now, but without me there is death.  The choice is yours."  I chose that day to accept salvation.  I chose to accept the forgiveness Jesus offered me and I chose to allow the spirit of God to enter into my life and bring with it real forgiveness and a peace which filled me with a joy that I had not previously known.  While there are days I struggle to follow Jesus and accept his grace and experience God’s peace and joy, remembering that day back in 1982 helps remind me that salvation and life is possible not just in the days to come or at the end of life, but today.

Salvation is possible for you today.  No matter who you are, what you’ve done, where you’ve been or where you are heading, salvation is possible today if we will simply chose to turn and follow Jesus.  Let us open our hearts to him and allow his love and grace to forgive us and heal us and bring us salvation – abundant life here and eternal life to come.


Next Steps
Following Jesus ~ Salvation

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast.  Ephesians 2:8-9

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.  John 3:16.

Salvation is a gift that is ours when we believe in Jesus.

Believing in Jesus is not a matter of our head but heart.  It is accepting the grace God offers us through Jesus Christ.

1. Acknowledge that you are a sinner:
Isaiah 53:6
Isaiah 59:1-2
Romans 3:10-18, 23
James 4:17

2. Accept God’s grace and love which forgives:
Acts 15:11
Acts 2:21
Titus 2:11
Psalm 103:12

3.  Allow God’s Spirit to fill you with life:
John 3:5-21
John 14:25-28
2 Corinthians 5:16-18
Galatians 5:16-26


In prayer, ask God to forgive your sin and then accept the forgiveness and grace God offers.  As you do this, the Spirit of God will fill you with life and life eternal – Salvation.