Consequential Strangers
Matthew 12 / Mark 3
October 20, 2013
I want you to think about the many people you have met this week. I’m not talking about the friends you talked to, I’m talking about the many acquaintances and strangers you met this past week. Maybe it was the waiter or waitress; the doctor, nurse or medical personnel, the mechanic, the sales clerk, and that list could go on.
In 2009, there was a book written which took a look at these seemingly unremarkable encounters. The authors concluded, these meetings can have a profound effect on our health, happiness, and success. The book is entitled, Consequential Strangers: The Power of People Who Don't Seem to Matter … But Really Do. The author writes about the fact that a friendly greeting can change our outlook on the day, a simple service someone offers can improve the quality of our lives, how a casual conversation can lead to a new job or romance, how a fender bender can prompt a next step on a spiritual journey.
In today's passage, we're going to meet someone who didn’t really seem to matter. We might say he was inconsequential, yet he was really a consequential stranger. He was someone who didn't seem to matter to anyone, except Jesus.
Before I read this passage, think about some people you’ve met this past week. Maybe they’re part of your everyday world who you don't really know. Let's learn from Jesus what it might mean to "do good" to people like that, and what impact it might have on their lives, and ours.
I’ve combined part of the passage from Mark 3:1-6 and Matthew 12 ~
1 Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there.
2 Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched Him closely to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath.
3 Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.”
4 Then Jesus asked the accusers, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent.
11 Jesus said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? (Matthew 12)
12 How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12)
5 Jesus looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.
6 Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.
In order to appreciate this story, we have to understand that keeping the Sabbath was at the top of the list for the Jewish people. Of all the spiritual activities a devout Jew might engage in — prayer, giving, fasting, observing the holy days — honoring the Sabbath was most obvious. It was a day for worship and rest — for being, not doing. No work was allowed. And even in modern days, observant Jews don’t work, drive cars, use the oven, or even turn on lights. So as the story opens, Jesus is doing what every devout Jew would be doing ~ going to worship.
We’re also told there was a man with a withered hand in the synagogue. He was probably there every Sabbath. This was a local synagogue in a small community. It would have been the same people, sitting in the same seats, week after week.
We don’t know if he had the withered hand since birth or if it was because of an accident or injury. But his condition wasn’t a secret to anyone. People were used to seeing this man, and they didn't even notice him anymore.
We're also told that Jesus' critics were present. The religious leaders were looking for something to pin on Him. They were hoping Jesus would heal this man so they could accuse Him of breaking the Sabbath. The Pharisees believed that healing was work, and work wasn’t allowed on the Sabbath. The Law allowed for exceptions in cases of emergency, but this wasn’t an emergency. The man certainly could live with it for another day. When Jesus asked this man to stand up, these leaders must have been licking their chops. He had fallen right into their trap.
Jesus asked this man to stand up because He wanted people to see the man differently. Not just to see him, but to look at him, to pay attention to him, to think about his condition. The truth is, they probably didn't want to notice him. He made them uncomfortable. They thought his condition was the result of some sin that he or his parents committed. Good religious people trained themselves not to look at people like him. He was a distraction from worship, not to mention, a sinner.
But Jesus wanted them to see what He saw, so He had the man stand up in front of everyone. And Jesus saw two things. First, he saw the man's problem – the withered hand. It made it more difficult for him to make a living. It would have limited some of his activities at home and with his family. And because of social and spiritual stigmas, it made him more of an outcast. While most people were looking the other way, Jesus looked deeper, thinking about this man's life.
The second thing Jesus saw was the man's potential. He recognized this man was created in the image of God — to glorify God. That's not immediately obvious in this passage, but if we read Matthew's account, he tells us — Jesus said: 11 “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out?
12 How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
Do you hear that? These people, these righteous religious rulers would rather save and tend to a sheep than bring healing to another person! Jesus can see through their hypocrisy. And He reminds them of that and reminds us we are worth so much to God. He loves us and He was willing to send His Son to die for us, because of His love for you.
Jesus saw everything this man was meant to be, and he wanted him to be able to do those things. When Jesus looked at people, He looked long enough to see their problem and their potential — what life was like, and what it could be like.
On a very practical level, doing good begins right there: seeing people as Jesus sees them. Doing good is not really about deeds; rather, it's about people. Doing good is not about following rules; it's about relating to people in Christ-like ways. And that begins with seeing people as Jesus does!
Firefighters / police officers
The truth is everyone we meet has a name. Every person has a story. Every human being has talent and dignity and worth. There are no inconsequential strangers — everyone matters. They matter to God, and they should matter to us, if we take the time to see them as a child of God and to see their potential.
This is not about feeling sorry for people. And it's not just about down-and-outers. Take this man with the withered hand. There's no indication that his life was miserable or unhappy. He's not a beggar. He's able to worship with the community.
Because of society, his life was just not all it could be, and Jesus wanted to do something about that. Seeing people as Jesus sees them simply means thinking about what life is like for them and what it could be like if the kingdom were to come to them. And you are the kingdom!
Having seen this man with the withered hand, Jesus couldn't just walk away. He wanted to do something to help the man — not just for the man's sake, but for the people's sake. He wanted the people to understand what it really meant to be God's people in the world and what God is looking for from people who call themselves His followers. So Jesus asked a provocative question.
There's something you need to know about Jesus: He's a radical and a troublemaker! He didn't have to perform the healing right there and then. It wasn't a life or death situation. It certainly could have waited until sundown, when there would have been no controversy. But Jesus couldn't resist this teachable moment. So after making the man stand up, he posed a question to the congregation and to his critics in particular: "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" (Mark 3:4).
Jesus is challenging the Pharisees' understanding, not just of what the Sabbath is all about, but of what God is all about. The Sabbath was God's day, so they figured they ought to be about the things that God cares about, like prayer, worship, and keeping the rules.
I read a story about a little girl who was at camp and she was going to breakfast with her counselor and she saw the miniature golf course was closed. So she asked, “Why is the mini-golf course closed?” The counselor said, “Because it's the Lord's Day.” The little girl didn't say anything, but you wonder if she was thinking - I wonder why the Lord doesn't like mini-golf. (I think the Lord loves watching kids play mini-golf, but that's a subject for another sermon!)
The point is — these people thought they knew what God cared about — religious things like prayer, Bible reading, and worship attendance. So that's what they determined the Sabbath was supposed to be about. But Jesus wants them to understand that the thing God really cares about is people and their well-being — their happiness and their wholeness. That's why God gave them the Sabbath in the first place! So of course it's lawful to do good on the Sabbath. In fact, doing good is what the Sabbath is all about!
There's an important lesson here for us, not about what we can do or not do on Sundays, but about what God wants from His people, about what it means to be a Christ follower. God doesn’t just want a lot of religious activity. He wants us to be about his work in the world. He wants us to care about the things He cares about, so that we can be His hands and feet to strangers and friends. Doing good is one of the most Christ-like, God-honoring things we can do, even though it may not always look very "spiritual."
There's a church in New Jersey called The Liquid Church. Liquid Church found themselves disturbed by the fact that thousands of people, mainly children, die every day because they don't have clean drinking water. They believed God cared about that, so they decided to do something about it. One of the things they decided to do was to cancel church on Sunday. Not "cancel" church exactly, but do church differently.
Instead of holding services in the church building, they worshiped by holding a race called the Superhero 5K in order to raise money for water in Africa and Central America. On May 2, over 2,000 runners participated. They did it on a Sunday morning because they knew that's when people would most likely participate. To date, they’ve raised over $750,000, which will save 1,000s of lives.
What do you think about that? Which is lawful on Sunday? To hold services, or to hold a race? To be religious, or to do good?
Our good deeds don't have to look exactly like what Liquid Church chose to do. The point is – we need to take a fresh look at what it means to be God's people in the world. We need to ask ourselves what it is that we want to be known for. We need to start seeing people and the world the way Jesus sees people and the world, and then do for them the kinds of things Jesus would do, even if those things don't look very "religious." In James 1, we read ~ 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
Do you hear the call for our lives. It’s not just to be religious people on Sunday mornings, it’s to be in the world helping people who are hurting and at the same time not allowing the demands of the world lead us away from Christ. Maybe that’s how we should view people when we talk about goodness. Not necessarily church attendance, but the difference they made in the world
Now, Jesus pushes the envelope! He said, "Stretch out your hand." And the man stretched it out, and it was completely healed" (Mark 3:5). The man stretches out his arm, and he’s healed, and his life will forever change. Remember, this wasn't a life or death situation. But when Jesus saw the man, He couldn't resist doing something good for him — something that would bless him. Remember doing good means we see the person for who they are — as Jesus sees them and find a way to bless them.
Blessing someone sounds really churchy — like "narthex" or "unction." But, to BLESS someone really means to improve a person's lot in life. So let’s bless people, because blessing people is something we can all do.
We're not Jesus. We can't heal people when they're sick. But we can bless them by bringing over a hot meal or driving them to the doctor. We can't bring back someone's loved one, but we can bless them with a listening ear and grace and compassionate words. We can't multiply loaves and fishes, but we can bless someone with a bag of groceries, we may not be able to build buildings, but we can help someone fix something within their homes.
We can't save people or fix people or undo people's foolish decisions. But we can bless them, in all sorts of ways, if we'll take the time to see them and think about them. We can find ways to make someone's life easier, happier, and closer to what God has in mind for them.
You don't have to quit your job to do good. In fact, you'll probably have more opportunities to do good on the job than you would ever have as a pastor. You don't need to know your Bible inside-out to do good. You don't have to have a lot of money to give away. You don't have to be an extrovert. All you have to do is open your eyes to the people and situations around you. Take the time to see what Jesus sees, and then get creative. Find a way to bless people, and leave the rest to God.
