The Great Physician
Luke 4:14-21
Jesus stands up in the synagogue in His home town of Nazareth to announce the good news. As the prophets have predicted, the Messiah, Redeemer and eternal King has arrived and is present with His people. (See Isa. 61:1-3) He simply restates the promise and purpose of His mission, message and ministry among them. Without hesitation, He clearly and candidly lays claim to deity and divinity; confirming that He is the Christ, the Anointed One of Israel.
If we are to clearly and correctly comprehend the meaning and message of this passage, we should, as is always the case, consider the context and the simple and logical rules of Bible analysis and exegesis. This is the long awaited and anticipated promised Messiah of Israel. He is speaking in the fullness of time to a chosen nation composed of God's precious, peculiar and particular people. His message must be understood in the light of the Law that has long been the rule of faith and practice for these people. The law had been, and remained, their tutor and schoolmaster. Its primary purpose and function was to lead people to the knowledge of their sin and its wages of eternal death. It had not been given to give life, but death. Paul clearly points this out again and again. He acknowledges that he would not have known life eternal if he had not faced death eternal by being spiritually slain by the law.
He calls the law the ministration of death and condemnation. (See II Cor. 3:6- 11, Ro. 3-7, Gal. 3 etc.)
To fully and freely feel the impact His message must have had upon His hearers; we must understand who they really were. It is reasonable and logical to assume they were a microcosm of the wider population of the nation. Such sects as the Pharisees, Sadducees, and even Zealots, would probably have been represented. Although they held widely divergent and conflicting theologies, philosophies and practices, their uniform response would ultimately be negative. They were not prepared to repent or turn from their preconceived notions about their law and their own special understanding of it. Jesus later defined their position in these words, "Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching [for] doctrines the commandments of men." (Mark 7:7) "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." (John 5:39)
The one common thread woven in the fabric of the philosophy of each group was the concept of the law being the means and method of obtaining eternal life. Jesus focused upon this during His ministry. The record of His encounters with and response to those such as the lawyer, the rich young ruler and the Pharisees, confirms the commonality and centrality of their problem. His stories and parables about such people as the Pharisee and Publican are clearly designed to convince His hearers of the fallacy and futility of trusting in the law and their imagined good works for salvation. But they would not accept that their law made them horribly and irreversibly guilty and condemned before God; leaving them without hope or life. In the end their consistent rejection of the message of repentance preached by both John and Jesus would lead to John's decapitation and Jesus' crucifixion.
The message of hope and salvation found in this passage was spoken to those who, if they had taken the Law seriously and understood its message, were spiritually broken and burdened down with the weight of their sin. Their case is clearly stated by Paul, "For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed [is] every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, [it is] evident: for, The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed [is] every one that hangeth on a tree:"
(Gal. 3:10-13) It is only the promised sacrifice of the Kinsman Redeemer, fulfilling all the types, figures, shadows and sacrifices of their Law, that can give them life and hope.
It is important for those today who are sinners before God to also realize the seriousness of their transgression. Man must know his utter lostness before he will approach God in true repentance and faith. To truly understand this he must also be spiritually slain by God's holy and eternal law. Many preach an easy-believism gospel today that aids and abets man in his propensity to reject and misunderstand this. It is a positive gospel that implies man is really good and that if he will just believe and receive, all his problems will be solved and he will feel better. Then he will be borne to heaven on beds of flowery ease. The eternal law of God is ignored and there is no real challenge to become guilty before God.
I once worked as an analytical chemist. One of my tasks was to analyze the chemical composition of a particular liquid used in our production line. The results of my analysis indicated the deficiencies of the mixture and the kinds and quantities of the compounds to be added. The analysis only determined what was wrong. It did not remedy the situation at all. Later, an electronic instrument was installed that not only determined the deficiencies, but automatically controlled the exact addition of the proper amounts of chemicals to correct the situation. This illustrates the function of the law and the difference in the law and grace. The law can only show and convict a man of his sins. The instrument of grace must be added to save man and correct his deficiencies.
It is against this dark background that our blessed Saviour arises and announces to His people and the waiting world that He has come to make that sacrifice and bring spiritual healing and life to all who will repent and believe. In the beautiful and poetic language of the prophet He HOLDS OUT SPIRITUAL HELP FOR THE HELPLESS, HOPE FOR THE HOPELESS, HEALING FOR THE HURTING AND HEA VEN FOR THE HELL BOUND.
This is also truly a message for our day and our time. The symptoms of spiritual decay and death surround and overwhelm us. We are daily bombarded with a cacophony of voices confirming the crisis of corruption afflicting the world in which we live.
The fabric of our Judeo-Christian culture is torn into tatters and shredded beyond recognition, as we flounder in a morass of perversion and evil. We see our world descending into a dark abyss of decay, decadency, obscenity and indecency. Pornography, incest, child abuse, licentiousness, sexual promiscuity and perversions, are just some of the swollen streams feeding the rising flood of immorality threaten- ing to inundate and engulf our world. The conditions predicted by the Old and New Testament prophets are surely upon us. Our world cries out for spiritual help and healing.
Man has made great strides in medical science. The discoveries of men like Lister, Pastuer, and Salk have brought about a revolution in the treatment of dread diseases that have been a scourge of mankind for centuries. Developments such as sterilization, anesthesia, antibiotics, microsurgery, organ transplants and immunology have been God's merciful gifts to mankind in recent years. But there are still no simple solutions or permanent panaceas that will heal the spiritual ills of a world gone mad with sin and its wages of eternal death.
But there is a Balm in Gilead that will make the sinner whole.
JESUS OFFERS HELP TO THE HELPLESS. He is one who really cares for His creation and creatures. The right physician - patient relationship is tremendously important in the healing process. The patient needs to know and trust his physician. He needs to sense and know that he cares and has compassion. In his time of illness and helplessness, he needs to know that his physician is dedicated to the task of helping the helpless.
The greatest objection to socialized medicine is not its inefficiencies. Nor the long lines waiting for months and years to be treated. Even though this is a great problem. This problem was confirmed not too long ago in the life and experience of one of our friends. Being in considerable pain, she went to the emergency room of our publicly funded hospital. She waited nine painful hours before she was able to see a physician. No diagnostic tests were performed. After a bit of probing and poking, an emergency appendectomy was performed. A painful week passed and then she was told her appendix did not need to be removed. She was released, still in some pain. She was told they still had not identified her illness. But the greatest problem is the lack of relationship with a real family physician. Patients become just numbers in a computer or fees in a ledger to be treated in a heartless and impersonal manner.
Our Savior seeks to bring help to the lost and helpless through a deep and personal relationship. One of His most easily demonstrated characteristics is compassion. The spiritual help given the woman at the well and the woman caught in adultery are just two examples of His caring. He wept for Lazarus
and his grieving relatives. He wept over Jerusalem. Many times the scriptures tell us He was moved with compassion. But the greatest confirmation of His care and help for the helpless is the cross. "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Ro. 5:8) Even as He was dying there He cried out in compassion, "Father forgive them, they know not what they do."
Jesus cares enough to bring help to His helpless people as well. David expressed the feeling of us all at times when he said, "I cried unto the LORD with my voice; with my voice unto the LORD did I make my supplication. I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my trouble. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. In the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me. I looked on [my] right hand, and beheld, but [there was] no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul." (Psalm 142:1-4) But as he was hiding in that cave in the depth of his despair he discovered that his Rock and refuge was the Lord. Our Lord really cared.
Do you remember the verses of the old hymn, "Does Jesus Care?" The verses ask the question, naming and enumerating the conditions of afflic- tions. Then the chorus responds with a resounding response, "Oh Yes, He cares, I know He cares, His heart is touched with my grief. Though the days grow dreary and the long nights weary, I know my Savior cares.”
If we who are God's people are going to emulate our Savior we must walk as He walked and talk as he talked. As His ambassadors we must act in His stead demonstrating His love, caring and compassion to the world around us.
If there is one characteristic clearly revealed in the ministry of our Savior, it is His caring and compassion. Because He cared He went about the country doing good; healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, making the lame to walk again, comforting the brokenhearted, and most of all, giving spiritual healing to the lost and condemned sinner. Because He cared he went to the cross and cried out in His agony, "Father forgive them.." He ultimately paid a terrible price just because He cared.
Jesus said we should count the cost before taking up a cross to follow Him. Because it will cost to care. It is more natural and easy, especially in our materialistic culture of selfish acquisition, to look out for number one. We all have too many problems of our own without borrowing someone else's.
We are constantly bombarded by the media with tales of insoluble human suffering on a massive scale. So much so, that we constantly run the risk of becoming desensitized to the real needs of those around us. Especially to the greatest need of all, the eternal salvation of untold millions in our world without Jesus Christ.
But Jesus truly cared for the souls of men. The more we become like Him and walk as He walked, the more we will demonstrate a Christ-like compassion. A compassionless Christian is a contradiction in concepts. Like a round square or a dry raindrop. Our very spiritual health and existence depends upon caring. It is a spiritual life and growth principle. We must care. We dare not, we must not, insulate and isolate ourselves from the real needs of those around us. If we do we will dry up and stagnate.
The Sea of Galilee is a fresh and beautiful lake. It is an active sea, receiving the waters of the Jordan River and streams flowing into it and giving out these waters at its lower end. In contrast, the stagnant and putrid Dead Sea is dead and inactive. It takes in water but does not give any out. We are only truly alive in Christ, and our care and compassion is only made meaningful, as we allow the love and concern of Christ to flow through us and express itself in sharing with and caring for those around us, especially those who need the good news of eternal salvation.
Perhaps it would be good to take a spiritual inventory and ask ourselves if we really care. Yes, we Christians go to church, pray, read our Bibles from time to time, but do we really care? Is it even possible that these good and commendable activities may become substitutes for real caring? Can Christian activity become an excuse for noninvolvement in reaching out into the lives of people who have real spiritual needs?
The cost of caring entails taking the time to apprise ourselves of the spiritual need of the world around us. What we don't know could hurt us. What we don't know about car maintenance could wreck and ruin our car. What we don't know about preventative medicine could lead us to an early grave. What we don't know about God's Word could stunt our spiritual growth. What we don't know about witnessing opportunities could rob us of great blessings. When is the last time you really agonized over a lost soul and sought God's help in sharing Christ with that person, and then determined to do so no matter what it might cost to care?
JESUS BRINGS HOPE TO THE HOPELESS. The hopelessness of man's earthly existence without the spiritual healing and eternal help of the eternal healer is highlighted in this passage. Man's increasing feeling of personal isolation, utter abandonment and hopeless, is one of the great paradoxes of our time. At a time when it would seem all the great advances in science, communication, medicine and technology, have brought us to a level of comfortable existence that would have been inconceivable to our forefathers, it is evident that all is not well with mankind.
Every negative indicator of discontent and discouragement is on the increase. Our world of selfish materialistic acquisition is characterized by a crisis of cruelty and crime; causing critics to forecast an ultimate cultural collapse. An alarming increase in heartless assaults upon the elderly, youth suicides, school yard slaughters, and mass murders, are just of a few of the common catastrophes that clearly confirm the concern of critics; to say nothing of the current barbarism of ethnic cleansing and genocide. Man looks around at the deluge of decay, decadency, doom and disaster, dropping down all around him and in his hopelessness cries out, "Is this all there is?" "Surely there must be more to life than this?"
But modern man is not the first to know and feel such hopelessness. It was Job who spoke of man's hopeless without the help of the perfect physician some four thousand years ago, "What [is] my strength, that I should hope? and what [is] mine end, that I should prolong my life?" "My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope." (Job 6:11, 7:6) Job lamented the fact that on the surface even the natural and materialistic world has more hope than man without God. He said, "For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease." (Job 14:7) It was the weeping prophet who reiterated this theme nearly a three thousand years ago when he said, "And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart." (Jer. 18:12)
But in the narrative of the chosen nation of Israel that is at the core of the eternal drama of the redemption of mankind, the day that the Hope of Israel stood up in the synagogue of His home town and proclaimed that He had arrived to give hope to the hopeless, is a tremendously significant event. Even Job was able ultimately to prophetically anticipate the reality of the eventuality of the coming of the Hope of Israel. He said, "For I know [that] my redeemer liveth, and [that] he shall stand at the latter [day] upon the earth: And [though] after my skin [worms] destroy this [body], yet in my flesh shall I see God:" (Job 19:25-26) The Psalmist was also given divine insight when he said, "Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD [there is] mercy, and with him [is] plenteous redemption." (Psalm 130:7) "Let Israel hope in the LORD from henceforth and for ever." (Psalm 131:3) The implication of that long awaited day was not lost upon a later prophet either, "The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD [will be] the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel." (Joel 3:16)
All of this confirms and emphasizes the obvious: hope is absolutely essential if man is to have a meaningful and fulfilling life on earth and an enduring effective ending of his temporal existence. There must be the prospect of brighter days tomorrow. There must be some light at the end of life's tunnel. There must be some evidence that the future holds hope. It is the opinion of some that the most cruel of all punishments is life imprisonment without hope of release. The early history of our country indicates that there was a terrible isolation and hopelessness associated with transport of the early convicts half a world away to live out the rest of their lives without hope of ever returning again to old England to see those they loved and left behind there. Only an enduring and eternal hope can keep the heart healthy and heal the hopelessness of life.
The good news that our Savior proclaimed that day put paid to the proposition that man had to live his life hopelessly without hope for a brighter tomorrow. Our Savior said, ". . .I am come that they might have life, and that they might have [it] more abundantly." (John 10:9b) He also said, " . . . be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33b) The need of man to know the Hope of Israel is shown in the hopelessness found in the answers some have given to the question of the meaning of life:
"A little work, a little sleep, a little love and it's all over!" (Rhinehart) "This life is a hollow bubble." (Edmound Cooke)
"We never live; we are always in the expectation of living." (Voltaire) "Life is a jailer of the soul in this filthy prison, and it only deliverer is
death." (Colton)
"Live is an empty dream." (Browning)
"Life is a walking shadow." (Shakespeare)
"Life is a dusty corridor, shut at both ends." (R. Campbell)
"Life is reasoning on the past, complaining of the present, and trembling
for the future!" (Rivarol)
These pathetic and self-pitying poutings portray the pure hopelessness of man without Christ. They stand in graphic contrast with the enduring hope and eternal dimension He can bring to the sad and lonely heart. The fulfillment and reality of His tremendous promise to bring hope to the hopeless is what really makes life worthwhile. Is it any wonder Paul said for all of those who would accept that promise, "For me to live is Christ - and to die is gain."
JESUS BRINGS HEALING FOR THE HURTING. We live in a world burdened down with the effects of sin. A world that is overwhelmed with the hurt of broken relationships and shattered dreams. A world that cries out for spiritual healing. A world that is captive and in bondage to Satan. A world that is spiritually imprisoned. The great physician came to set man free. Jesus fearlessly and forcefully addressed this subject. He said these words to his disciples in the presence of those religious charlatans who had criticized him for freeing the woman caught in adultery from her sins, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:32) He then pointed out to His critics that even though they were proud of their heritage and connection with Abraham, they were really the sons of Satan, their master. In this context He makes the unequivocally and undeniable assertion, "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." (John 8:36)
If there is one common remedy and healing for the malaise and maladies afflicting and hurting man today, it is the forgiveness of sin and the redemption of his soul. Though the freedom and eternal benefits our Savior offers are clearly spiritual, even psychologists seem to agree upon the present, practical and positive therapeutic effect of a real sense of forgiveness and reconciliation. But man seeks such healing from the wrong sources and in the wrong way.
In the annals of man's great escape attempts, the story is told of a prisoner who was unusually persistent in his continuing attempts to break out of prison. Once he spent months laboriously digging a tunnel under the wall. Finally the day to break out came, and when he removed the last few inches of the remaining soil he found he had tunnelled into a perimeter area just inside the wall. Of course, he was recaptured. He tried again and the next time he broke through in the warden's private recreation area. Years were added to his sentence each time. Man sometimes seems like that. He is persistent in his effort to break free of Satan clutches through his own plans and own efforts. Each cleverly devised plan only ends in failure and increased bondage. Only the perfect physician can bring eternal healing for those who are hurting under the burden of Satan's bondage of sin.
JESUS OFFERS HEAVEN TO THE HELL BOUND. Of all of man's needs, this is the greatest. His destiny outside Christ is eternally sealed. It is as Paul said, "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." (I Cor. 15:19) Man's eternal quest for immortality outside Christ confirms his innate awareness of his dilemma. What a tragedy man faces as he lives in the valley and shadow of death facing a future devoid of meaning or fulfillment. Or, worst still, he is condemned to the torment of eternal separation from God and all that is good.
But the great physician offers eternal hope to those without hope in eternity. It was the Psalmist who assured us not only of the immediate benefits of the healing He can bring, of the absolute efficacy and permanency of the eternal spiritual healing of the great physician, when he said, "Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; . ." (Psalm 103:2-4)
It often seems difficult for some to understand the need of such eternal healing. I was sharing with a lost person this week the need to understand the real result of the breaking of God's law and the terrible wages of sin. To illustrate the matter, I spoke of the blessing of modern diagnostic tools. How recent techniques of detecting diseases have revolutionized man's ability to diagnose and determine the nature and extent of terrible diseases such as cancer. I pointed out that it is necessary to know what is wrong in order to determine the proper treatment and remedy. But more importantly, only those who are convinced of the severity and terminal nature of the disease, will submit to the radical remedy that is often required. The spiritual application is obvious. I do believe this person understood and responded to the need to really repent and truly believe in order to gain entrance into heaven.
Those of us who have the Great Physician as our "family" doctor, praise the Lord for the certainty with which we can face the future. We know our healing is permanent and that there is no possibility of a relapse or of contracting a new affliction that could separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus or hinder us in reaching that heavenly shore. I shared the following old story recently at the funeral of an very elderly saint of God whom I had known and loved in the Lord for some twenty-five years:
"
An elderly pastor lay critically ill. In the opinion of his doctor he could live only a few more days. His wife put through a long-distance call to their son, who was also a pastor and who served a congregation in a small town three hundred miles away. Within a few hours the son was at the father's bedside, and the two men prayed together. Saturday came, and there was no change to the elderly man's condition. Calling his son to his bedside, he spoke in a weak and faltering voice: 'Go back to your congregation, son, and preach tomorrow. If I should slip away while you are gone, you'll know where to find me.”
What a wonderful thing, when a father can speak thus to his children. What a wonderful thing at the sunset of life, to know just where we will be at eternity's dawn - in our Father's house, in the company of our Saviour who has gone ahead to prepare a place for us. And what a wonderful thing for a father who is taking leave of his children to know where he is going; and that they, too, by God's grace, will share a mansion in the Father's house above.
You'll know where to find me!' Let those of us who are fathers and mothers ask ourselves; have we arrived at that spiritual certainty which enables us to say: 'I know where I am going'? And have we passed on this knowledge and this faith to our children so that we can say confidently to them: "You'll know where to find me!'
We can do both if, by God's grace, we root our faith - our own and that of our children - firmly in Him who died for us and who even now is awaiting our arrival in His Father's house above."
