SERMON: HE HEALED THEM ALL
Scripture Matt 12:9-15
9-10 When Jesus left the field, He entered their meeting place. There was a man there with a crippled hand. They said to Jesus, “Is it legal to heal on the Sabbath?” They were baiting Him.
11-14 He replied, “Is there a person here who, finding one of your lambs fallen into a ravine, wouldn’t, even though it was a Sabbath, pull it out? Surely kindness to people is as legal as kindness to animals!” Then He said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” He held it out and it was healed. The Pharisees walked out furious, sputtering about how they were going to ruin Jesus.
15-21 Jesus, knowing they were out to get Him, moved on. A lot of people followed Him, and He healed them all.
The very short text, HE HEALED THEM ALL, refers to Jesus healing all the people who had any difficulty whatever.
Can you picture the scene? There are hundred of people, THOUSANDS of people, milling around waiting for their turn to be healed. Some are quietly waiting, others are getting irritated with the wait. Some are down in the mouth, poor me types, who just know something will go off the rails before it is their turn to stand before the Son of God and be cured of their leprosy, or their cancer, or their tuberculosis, or their kidney failure. Others have broken limbs, curved backs, hunched backs, and deformed fingers and hands. More than likely, in such a situation, most every debilitating condition known to man is afflicting someone in that vast crowd. But, Jesus healed them all.
Now, I am one who believes that many physical conditions are the result of mental attitudes, mental thoughts, and the hardness of hearts of so many.
I have no idea how many folks have said to me, about someone else ... "I hope he dies today." Or, "I hope she has a car wreck." Or, "If I could give him cancer, I would do it, in a heart beat." But, to Jesus, it wouldn't matter what their condition was ... He would just handle it, with no more problem than sipping a cup of lemonade on the streets of Bluefield when the temperature hits 90 degrees.
If you are reading this, far away from Bluefield, you need to know a bit of our history .... since 1939, when the temperature hits 90 degrees, the Chamber of Commerce and other businesses pass out FREE LEMONADE on the sidewalks. Some years it never gets that hot, leading to the saying that Bluefield is Nature's air-conditioned city.
Well, this morning, I want to examine some of the problems of the head and of the heart that Jesus could heal, WOULD HEAL, in you ... if you would only, as the old song says, "Trust and Obey!" After all, there is no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust, and obey.
1. The first one I want to discuss is that old, "asking why and what" situation that we all encounter, sooner of later. "Why did this happen to me?" "What did I do to deserve this?"
When we ask those two questions, or some form of them, we generally get even more down, because there are seldom any answers. A lady gets lung cancer who has never taken a single puff of a cigarette. A man gets cirrhosis of the liver, and has never had a drop of alcohol in his life. Why do bad things happen to good people. Where is the answer to those situations? I frankly do know.
And, we may get to the end of our lives and simply not know. Why did my daughter, Marilyn, develop Multiple Sclerosis at age 17, and has lived in a wheel chair for the last 22 years of her life? She is now 60, and I still do not don't know.
The problem with asking the big WHY is that there IS no answer that will satisfy us. It's like one day Jesus was talking with His disciples and He was talking about the fields being white and ready for harvest ... and He said, "Pray for workers that the field may be harvested," simply meaning, SOME FOLKS NEED A PRAYER MINISTRY .... and if you are lying on a bed, or sitting in a rolling chair 16 hours a day, you have time to be one of God's great prayer warriors.
When you ask "why," you will always lose, and no one wants to be a loser. A few years ago, one of the soda pop companies had a contest going on .... prizes were listed on the inside of the lid of the bottle ... sometimes they would say, "You have won a free soda," or some other prize ... but the far most of them had just one word ..."LOSER." The company soon learned that people don't want to be called LOSER, when their sales dropped dramatically. So they changed it to read, "Not a winner." To me, that was just as bad.
Jesus can heal the poor me attitude!
2. The second attitude that causes many folks serious problem is that one of NOT WANTING TO LET GO.
Life does happen. We might lose a deal that we were hoping would net us thousands of dollar. We might be betrayed by someone we thought was a friend. We might have had a car mess up, and get ruined .... like a 1968 Lincoln we had when I was much younger. A little hole appeared in the radiator, and every few days, we had to add fluid to keep the car running properly. We didn't have the money to get it fixed right .... and then, one day, I had the good fortune to sell something, and suddenly we had the money. Took the car to the garage ... they fixed it, and the wife was driving it home ... when it developed another, bigger hole. All the fluid blew out, and it made her so angry that she just drove it on home, anyway .... And of course, that heat cracked the engine block, and the car was ruined. She would not let go of the idea that the car should have been fixed.
I know some people who hold onto ideas of hatred for years ... and they won't let go. Some slight, some harsh word, some hateful look on someone's face ... and they can't seem to forget it.
I know that letting go of some things is very hard .... but if we want to progress in life, it is something that we must do. We pray each Sunday, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." Said another way, "Lord, if I don't forgive those who trespass against me, then You should not forgve me of my own sins.
Just a very few days ago, a man said to me, "I'm learning to let things go, and for the most part, I'm doing a good job." And then, he added, "but some things I just cannot let go, not yet."
Jesus can heal him, and us, of that kind of attitude ... if we will let Him do His work in us!
3. Let's talk about winning arguments. One of the things I learned in my life is that most of us don't really hear what is being said to us, because we are thinking of how we should reply.
Most folks do not engage in an argument, seeking truth. They enter to win. It is unfortunate that we simply have a problem with listening!
Jesus asked, several times, when talking to people, "“Are you listening to this? Really listening?” (Luke 14:35, EG) I counted these questions at least 7 times in the gospels
It is an old saying that we have two ears and one mouth, meaning, we should listen twice as much as we speak. Generally, however, we get it backwards!
It seems to me that there are three basic reasons for arguing .... one is to get someone to do something.... one is to convince someone that we are right, when they think they are right .... and the third one is to argue just for fun. We have all known people like that, I'm sure, and I will say to you this morning, you are looking at one who will argue for the fun of it.
We all need healing from these attitudes ...
I mean, what happens when two people meet, both of whom know the techniques of arguning in order to win .... and the one who generally wins is the one who has the most strength! That is not a good basis, you know.
Jesus can heal us of our wanting to argue, needlessly, if we will only let Him do so.
4. I think we, every last one of us, need Jesus to heal us of our arrogance. Most of our arguning comes from our arrogance. We think we know it all, know what's best for others, and frequently tell others what to do .... and when they don't do what we tell them, we just tell then go go jump in the lake, or give them directions as to where else they can go, for all we care.
Arrogance is displayed in many ways. I first think of the giant, Goliath, as he confronted the armies of Israel ... the story is old and well known.
Goliath was a Philistine. The armies of Israel were on one side of a mountain, and the enemy armies were on the other side of the valley. Each day, Goliath would come forth and ridicule the Israelite army .... let me share the Message version of his speech ...
"4-7 A giant nearly ten feet tall stepped out from the Philistine line into the open, Goliath from Gath. He had a bronze helmet on his head and was dressed in armor—126 pounds of it! He wore bronze shin guards and carried a bronze sword. His spear was like a fence rail—the spear tip alone weighed over fifteen pounds. His shield bearer walked ahead of him.
8-10 Goliath stood there and called out to the Israelite troops, “Why bother using your whole army? Am I not Philistine enough for you? And you’re all committed to Saul, aren’t you? So pick your best fighter and pit him against me. If he gets the upper hand and kills me, the Philistines will all become your slaves. But if I get the upper hand and kill him, you’ll all become our slaves and serve us. I challenge the troops of Israel this day. Give me a man. Let us fight it out together!”
11 When Saul and his troops heard the Philistine’s challenge, they were terrified and lost all hope.
Enter a mere shepherd boy .... about seventeen years old.
While they were talking together, the Philistine champion, Goliath of Gath, stepped out from the front lines of the Philistines, and gave his usual challenge. David heard him.
24-25 The Israelites, to a man, fell back the moment they saw the giant—totally frightened. The talk among the troops was, “Have you ever seen anything like this, this man openly and defiantly challenging Israel? The man who kills the giant will have it made. The king will give him a huge reward, offer his daughter as a bride, and give his entire family a free ride.”
32 “Master,” said David, “don’t give up hope. I’m ready to go and fight this Philistine.”
41-42 As the Philistine paced back and forth, his shield bearer in front of him, he noticed David. He took one look down on him and sneered—a mere boy, apple-cheeked and peach-fuzzed.
43 The Philistine ridiculed David. “Am I a dog that you come after me with a stick?”
Can you see and hear the arrogance of the Philistine?
44 “Come on,” said the Philistine. “I’ll make roadkill of you for the buzzards. I’ll turn you into a tasty morsel for the field mice.”
45-47 David answered, “You come at me with a sword and a spear and a battle-ax. I come at you in the name of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.....
When truth meets arrogance, arrogance has to take a back seat, if it can find any seat at all. David brought truth to that giant, and that giant crumpled under the weigh of a smooth pebble David had chosen from the nearby brook.
And my friends, I am here to tell you this morning, that when the truth of God comes to us, our arrogance also crumbles. Yes, Jesus can, indeed, heal us of our arrogance and our pride, and our know-it-all attitudes.
Four things Jesus can heal us from .... 1. our self pity .. "Why did this happen to me?"
2. Our refusal to let things go ... which festers in us until we are consumed with the fires of hatred.
3. Our arguments that generally prevent us from seeing the truth of the matter ...
4. Our arrogance that insists on having our own way ...
Jesus can and will heal us of these, and many other things .... let's give Him a chance to do so. Amen.
