There is a stack of rocks about eight feet tall on the outskirts of a small Georgia town. It has been there for well over a hundred years and everyone knows by the way it was stacked, it is probably a monument of some kind. But, the exact reason for this monument has been kept silent for so long that nobody remembers what it was.
You have heard about Stonehenge in England. It was also a monument of some sort for somebody, but again, the reason has been lost throughout the generations. We can appreciate it as a feat of man’s ability to build things, but we will never be able to understand the mystery behind it.
Many more mysteries intrigue us, such as the serpentine Indian mounds in Chillicothe, Ohio, or the pyramids of ancient Egypt, but that is all they will do; intrigue us, as their exact meanings have disappeared permanently from the face of the earth.
The Bible has mysteries of its own, and one of them is found in LUKE 22:47-51.
‘While He was still speaking, a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss Him, but Jesus asked him, ‘Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?’
When Jesus’ followers saw what was going to happen, they said, ‘Lord, should we strike with our swords?’ And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting of his right ear. But Jesus answered, ‘No more of this!’ And he touched the man’s ear and healed him.’
In JOHN 18:10, it says the one who sliced off the ear was Simon Peter. One of the mysteries in this passage is revealed in MATTHEW 26:48-50. It says that after Judas kissed Jesus (as a signal that this was the One who they were to arrest), Jesus referred to Judas as ‘friend.’ I would be hard pressed to call anyone who was betraying me to death a friend; but Jesus did. Is the answer in this mystery to be found in the love Jesus had for Judas?
Another mystery is that in the middle of all the chaos, Jesus took the time to reach over and heal a man who had been hurt. That in itself is a kind of monument to the character and attributes of our Lord. Let’s see if we can’t unravel the mystery behind the healing of Malchus’ ear.
What purpose do you think Jesus had in healing him?
1. JESUS’ PURPOSE WAS TO FINISH WHAT HE STARTED
I have always been drawn to Peter. He was the one who always had to say something, whether it made sense or not. Remember on the Mount of Transfiguration when he suggested they build shelters for everyone and just stay there? To me, Peter seems to be the average everyday person who makes his share of blunders, but because of his great faith, he comes out ahead at the end. I relate to that. I have also made my share of blunders and have said many things that later I regretted, but through God’s great glory, He has still allowed me to work for Jesus.
But Peter sometimes seemed to lack a solid understanding of Christ and His mission. In MATTHEW 16:21, we find Jesus telling His disciples that He had to go to Jerusalem and suffer, and that He would be killed and be raised up on the third day. In the next verse, Peter takes Jesus aside and actually tries to rebuke Him! Peter was not alone in this, however. The other disciples also had a problem understanding things in the way Jesus wanted them to. The disciples argued amongst themselves about who was the most important. I have pictures in my mind of Jesus throwing up His hands and rolling His eyes at some of their actions and comments, but I also see Jesus having the love necessary to put up with them and continue teaching them.
But when the men came that night to get Jesus, Peter was very aware of what the stakes were, and he was ready for whatever happened – or so he thought. He was ready to go to war and kill the enemy, but we find that Jesus rebuked him. Jesus knew that this was not a war to be fought with knives and swords. It was a spiritual war in every sense of the word.
Paul reminds us of that in EPHESIANS 6:12 –
‘For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the Heavenly realms.’
Today, we also find ourselves needing to be reminded of this. Some believers today are just like Peter was. They want to fight a physical warfare. We battle with our Christian brothers and sisters, our church leaders, other denominations, and society in general. We must remember that our battle is a spiritual one. Malchus was in charge of this mob, and was working on behalf of the High Priest himself. If Jesus ever had an enemy in the human sense, this was it. He had every ‘human’ right to let Peter do what he wanted to do. But Jesus knew this was spiritual. He showed only love and compassion to one who meant Him great harm.
We are being attacked on all sides by those who do not understand the spiritual purpose of Jesus. We might have family members or close friends who are unsaved and they question our commitment. They might even ridicule us for our devotion to Jesus. They accuse us of "going overboard" as we devote our finances, our time and our worship to Christ. Our rewards will be in the hereafter. Our payoff is coming. As we see Christ healing Malchus’ ear, let us remember that our warfare is a spiritual one.
Jesus could not have accomplished what He did had he left things unfinished. Leaving things unfinished is something most of us are familiar with. Diana has reminded me from time to time that I tend to have unfinished projects waiting for completion. I have a couple at home right now that I need to finish, too.
But throughout His life, Jesus was thorough and complete. In JOHN, Jesus tells the disciples that His purpose is to do the will of the One who sent Him, and to finish His work.
There was a man who had a hobby of fixing up cars. He would see one that was all but a pile of junk, and he would buy it for a few dollars and then like an eager beaver, he would start fixing it up as good as new. The problem was that he was forever getting them “almost done”, and then he would see another old clunker and he would buy it, just to forget about the first car while he started on this new project.
We need to finish what we start. Remember that every beginning should have an ending. The problem is that since we are human, we strive to finish first. We think that if we finish first, we win. That is the way it is with many endings, but when looking at the end of our Christian walk, it isn’t who comes in first; it is just crossing the finishing line. The ancients Greeks had a very unique race in their Olympics. The winner wasn’t the one who came in first, it was the one who finished with his torch still lit. That is how I want to finish my Christian walk with Jesus. I want to finish it with my torch still lit. I want to keep the passion in my heart burning for Him until I am actually with Him. I don’t want to let the fire die out and simply ’assume’ that I am going to finish the race. If my fire goes out, will my walk with the Lord just be another unfinished project – left on some forgotten workbench?
You’d be surprised at how many Christians live their Christianity that way. They start out vowing to read their Bibles daily, only to get sidetracked doing something else instead. People have started ministries within their churches, only to give them up when the going gets a little rough. I heard a saying when I was a young boy in my teens, and that has stuck with me all these years. “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
You and I need to put the Lord first in our lives, and stop getting sidetracked on worldly things. You might have all the good intentions in the world, but if you don’t have Jesus in your heart, you will not get to Heaven.
As Jesus bowed His head on the cross, His last words were, "It is finished.” He left a legacy of finishing what He started. He could have allowed Himself to be taken by the mob without healing Malchus’ ear. But that was not His way. Sometimes we call others “perfectionists”, but Jesus was the only true perfectionist. He was perfect. And He finished everything He started. He left no loose ends.
2. JESUS SHOWED HIS POWER - BY NOT SHOWING IT
We are living in the age of technology, and because of the rapid advancement of this technology, we are used to seeing miracles appear every day. We see miracle drugs, miracle cures and much more. But, as amazing as some of these things are, they are not miracles. Miracles are things that happen for our benefit that have no natural explanation. We have no power to produce miracles. They only come from God.
The unsaved look at the death of Christ with sadness or with disdain. The true Christian looks at the death of Christ and sees the miracle of all ages; the miracle of eternal love and glory; the miracle of God’s salvation. The Christian sees the miracle of mercy and faith.
For the true believer, mercy will close the door to hell and faith will open the door to Heaven. If that isn’t a miracle, I don’t know what is. We who have come to Christ are not only able to see God’s unexplained power in the words of our Bible, we also recognize His great love for us.
He withheld His great power for our benefit. Some may think that if Jesus was so powerful, He could have saved himself. Jesus was powerful enough to save Himself, but if He had saved himself from the cross, then we would be suffering for it. You see, Jesus went to the cross willingly to take our place so we wouldn’t have to go. He took all of our sins upon Him and suffered the punishment for those sins – our sins and our punishment. Could Jesus have saved Himself? Yes, He could have. But He withheld His great power for our sakes. And by not showing His power, He showed just how powerful He was.
3. JESUS’ COMPASSION IS GIVEN INDIVIDUALLY
Jesus felt compassion. I wanted to know exactly what the word ‘compassion’ meant, so I looked it up in the dictionary. There were several definitions, but all were a version of this one:
“the human quality of understanding the suffering of others and wanting to do something about it.”
On May 3rd, 1999 Pastor Troy Withey and his wife Trina, were moving into their new parsonage. He had just become pastor of the First Baptist Church of Mulhall, Oklahoma. They had spent the day moving in: unpacking boxes, placing furniture, and getting to know their new home. Late that evening, as they prepared to shower and get ready for bed, they found that they had no hot water. The water heater had been working during the day, but had suddenly quit just about sundown.
They called a deacon and he invited them to his house for the night. They accepted his invitation. He had a big day the next day, as it was Sunday and he was preaching his first sermon as the pastor. While at the deacon’s house, a TV bulletin informed them that a massive thunderstorm with tornadoes was heading directly for them. They took shelter in the deacon’s basement and waited the storm out.
An hour later, they came upstairs to survey the damage. There were trees and power lines down. Anxious to find out about their own new home, Troy and Trina drove the 3 miles to the parsonage. When they arrived, they found that the parsonage was completely gone, nothing left but a cement foundation. You could say, "What bad luck! Why didn’t God take care of His preacher?" But if you ask Pastor Troy and Trina, they will tell you that God took care of them. They would say that had it not been for the broken water heater, which had just suddenly quit working, they would still have been in the house when it was hit by a tornado. They would say that the Lord had compassion for them.
Have you ever had a time when something suddenly happened that was unexpected and caused you to take a different action; only to find that different action was somehow a blessing to you whereas staying where you were would have meant catastrophe? There are no coincidences, so the only other alternative is that, through God’s mighty power, He is still taking care of us even in the small or unexpected things, because His heart is filled with compassion for each one of us.
Jesus never turned anybody away when they were in need. When Jesus found suffering, He relieved it! When He found sickness, He healed it! No, Jesus never turned a person away who was in need and called to Him, and He will never turn you away when you call to Him, either!
In LUKE 5, we read where a leper came to Him and said, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean." Jesus’ answer to him illustrated His whole ministry: "I am willing”, He said. “Be clean.” He healed the sick, He raised the dead, and He did those miracle on an individual basis!
So when Peter cuts off the ear of Malchus, Jesus works one more miracle. He simply picks up the severed ear and places it back on Malchus’ head. There is a children’s’ Hymn that says, "Jesus loves me, this I know; For the Bible tells me so." And Jesus does love us – each and every one of us – individually and totally. We have seen the proof in the Bible.
I knew a man in Arizona who never put his arm around his son and told the boy he loved him. He said that was the wife’s job. His son has tried several times to take his life and has even been hospitalized to receive help. That is not the kind of help he needs, however. The boy needs to know that his daddy loves him; that he accepts the boy; and that he is worthy of His father’s love. The boy needs to feel his father’s compassion.
And that is exactly what we need, too. We need to know that we are loved; that we are acceptable; and that we are worthy. I am here to tell you right now, that no matter what your age, you need to know these things deep within your heart. In JOHN 3:16, God says He loves you; if God loves you, He accepts you; and you are very, very worthy. The only thing we need to know these things for sure, is to put down all the walls and barriers and simply ask Jesus to come into your heart. Ask Jesus to straighten out the life you may have made a mess of. And then you will find the love of your life waiting to show you how acceptable you really are and how very much you are worth.
You may have heard the name of Jesus many times in your life. You may have seen many movies about Him. You may have sat through a ton of sermons in your life, and all this may add up that you know a lot about Jesus. But knowing about Him is not the same thing as knowing Him. The disciples walked with Jesus daily for over three years, and they knew a lot about Him, but sometimes they didn’t seem to really know Him. And there are times when we don’t seem to understand who Jesus really is or what He means to us,.
There are some who feel they are ‘less than’ and not as worthy as everyone around them. This feeling was put in your head by the devil, not by Jesus. You are worth every bit as much as anyone else around you. They may have accomplished more, but it might be that your time has not arrived yet.
With Jesus firmly planted in our hearts, we can be in any situation and know without a doubt that we are worthy. A very short man one time attended a meeting where everyone else was taller than he was. After the meeting, one of the other men asked him if he felt different since he was so short. The man said he did. He said he felt like he was a dime among pennies. This man knew that he mattered and was worthy, didn’t he? And when we are walking with Jesus, we matter and we are worthy, too.
Yes, you may have heard the sermons and heard many things about Him, but now it is time for you to really know Him. It is time to have a place you can go to receive the healing you so badly need. It is time to drop the hardened hearts and self-sufficient attitudes you have built, and simply tell Jesus you need Him. Then and only then will you really know who He is, and then you will have a personal relationship with Him; a trusting relationship; a loving relationship; and a healing relationship.
As the head servant of the High Priest, Malchus knew ‘about’ Jesus. He knew that the leaders of the day considered Him a fake; and a charlatan. Malchus was a trusted servant and he was given a job to do. He was to take a small company of men and bring Jesus in for trial.
During the task of doing his job, he may have seen a sword; he may have ducked; and then he most likely felt a sharp intense pain on the side of his head. He probably felt his warm blood starting to flow down his neck. The Bible doesn’t record what he felt or what he thought. No doubt, he would be like we are today, in that he panicked at the thought of having an ear cut off. In the movie, ‘Passion of the Christ’, it shows him falling to his knees. He may have done that.
But I can guarantee you that he felt the touch of Jesus. But once healed, he did what every good soldier would do; he continued with his assignment, and he arrested Jesus. As time went by, did Malchus ever ponder on that experience? Did he ever come to know Christ personally? The Bible does not tell us. But we do know that Malchus was given the last glimpse of glory from the human life of Jesus. He had to have known, through the healing of a severed ear, that Jesus was God.
He was like most of the people in his day, however. He rejected Jesus and had a hand in his death, even while witnessing the miracles Jesus performed. That is like many of us today. We see changes in others around us; changes that could not normally happen. We see God healing people today, but we discount those changes to some sort of self-fulfillment course and we classify those healings as a coincidence.
Will the Victory Singers please come back on stage?
Who am I? I am a man who was raised in a Christian home. I am also a man who walked my own path for many years before I experienced the healing hand of Jesus. I have told you before that a doctor told me I was dying. That is when I turned back toward the Lord with a devoted heart. And then I felt what Malchus felt. I felt the healing hand of Jesus upon my body. There is no mistaking that feeling. And when He healed my body, He also healed my bruised and broken heart.
I am only a preacher who tries his best to tell you the word of God so you, too, can experience the wonderment that so many others have experienced. My words, by themselves have absolutely no power, but the words of God have all the power.
Jesus loves you so much, and He wants to put His arms around you and keep you comforted and protected. All you have to do is ask Him into your heart. Let me repeat what I said a few moments ago.
Your time has come this morning. You have a decision to make. It is time for you to know Him. It is time for you to have a place you can go to be healed from the hurt that is in your heart. It is time. It is time to surrender. You will find that in surrendering, you will have your victory. Victory found in Jesus will give you that worthiness that you have so longed for. You can make that decision in faith or you can make that decision in fear. What is your decision going to be today as Jesus calls you? Will you accept, or will you ignore?
We are given a wonderful promise by God Almighty. In JEREMIAH 29:11, He says,
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
God has already made specific plans for you. He knows how He wants to use you. His plans are for our benefit, not our detriment, and with those plans, He is promising to give us peace - and a future! How amazing it that?
He is calling you this morning. During our song of invitation, He wants you to come forward and receive His offer of love and comfort. Do not reject Him as Malchus and many others have done. And don’t worry about what anybody else will say. Nobody else matters in your private walk with God except you, Jesus and God. No one else, so concentrate on what God wants, not on what somebody you know wants. Just feel Him calling you, and simply respond.
As we sing, please come. Just walk up here with me and let me lead you in prayer. Let me have the privilege to show you what you have been missing in your life. Let me show you that we, in this church, will love you and cherish you through Jesus Christ.
INVITATION
