Like Jesus - A Transformer

Introduction

My life has been marked by shame.

As many of you know, it would be very difficult to tell my story without talking about shame. For those that haven’t heard my story, let me tell you just a short part today to illustrate how Jesus has transformed my shame into something better.

When I was around 13/14 years old my parents divorced and it crushed me. It was the first of many really hard things I would go through in my life.

I was crushed. I made a vow that I would never go through that again. So when I got married to a girl I met in college, I had no intentions of ever getting divorced. I was determined to work it out, no matter what.

But how many of you know that we don’t always get what we want? Or maybe a little more aptly, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

At 23 years old, I found myself getting a divorce. My ex had left me for another man, so there I was doing the very thing I had vowed I would never do.

And it was at that point, I was introduced to a large dose of shame. I was ashamed. I felt like I had failed and there was nothing I could do to fix it.

I carried that shame with me through the next 15-20 years of my life. I was like a whipped dog. I was miserable deep down in my soul and I had no idea of how to overcome that shame.

But then God came and lifted that shame off of me. Through his grace and me being willing to confess my shame, God broke through and freed me from it. I was transformed.

I gave God my shame and he gave me a healed heart.

It was the opposite of what I thought I was should do. My way of dealing with shame was to avoid talking about it. I didn’t talk about it with God and I didn’t share it with others. It was a like a scab that never really healed.

Occasionally someone would mention it and it would start bleeding again and I would do my best to stop the bleeding. God wanted to transform me and it took me being willing to admit that I was broken for him to heal me. And that healing came the most when I admitted it not just to God but others - my Christian brothers and sisters.

Today, we are continuing our series called “Like Jesus” where we are looking at Jesus and his invitation to true discipleship. What would it look like for us to live our lives Like Jesus?

Today we are going to talk about how Jesus takes whatever we give him and transforms it into something beautiful and how He calls us to do the same thing.

Let’s look at Luke 6, the words will be on the screen and the words are loaded into your app.

Main Text

Luke 6:6–11 ESV

On another Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered. And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him. But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” And he rose and stood there. And Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” And after looking around at them all he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored. But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.

Let’s talk a little about the context of this passage. The theme is a question - what is lawful on the sabbath? What can you do on the Sabbath and not be breaking the law? That’s the question.

Jesus shows up at the synagogue on the Sabbath and it’s a showdown. He’s going against the normative teaching of the day. During this time period, Sabbath teaching was very strict. You couldn’t start a fire or extinguish a fire. You could wear a jacket, but you couldn’t carry one.

Generally speaking if someone was dying, you could work to try and save them. That was the prohibition on healing. Everything else, no matter how big or small had to wait until the next day.

Jesus is going to challenge that thinking. These were interpretations, not what the law actually said. They were adding to the law in their interpretation of it and Jesus was not going to stand for that, so we get this showdown in the synagogue. Jesus confronts them on this.

The Withered Hand - Let’s talk about this real quickly. While we don’t have many details about this man’s issue, here’s what we can tell from the greek word used, his hand was likely paralyzed or stuck in a position. It was likely shriveled up from years of lack of use. It likely looked terrible and painful, but there is no indication in the text that it actually hurt, it just looked bad.

In this confrontation, Jesus heals this man who had a physical problem, but it was not a life-threatening problem. This is the crux of the issue. Had the man been dying, the Pharisees likely would have backed down, but this was not that kind of problem. It was a functional problem, a aesthetic problem, but not a life-threatening problem.

Jesus makes one big point in his actions and the question he poses. He demonstrates that doing good to others on the Sabbath is not only acceptable, it’s expected. In parallel passages he asks about what they would do if their sheep fell into a pit, would they not rescue it? His point is this, doing good is not a violation of the law.

So he heals this man and it sets off a firestorm. The Pharisees are filled with fury and they plot to kill Jesus. Seems a bit overboard to me, but as many of you know, the Pharisees were so zealous for the law, that they were willing harm people to maintain the dignity of the law.

Now that you have the context, I want to take a few minutes today and look at what actually happens and what this teaches us about Jesus.

Whatever We Give To Jesus, He Transforms

The first thing we see is that whatever we give to Jesus, this man stretched out his hand, Jesus transforms. Jesus took this man’s withered hand and transforms it into a completely healthy and restored hand.

In other words, this man had a hand that was paralyzed, it was dead, it was not functional at all and he could do nothing with it and Jesus transforms it, he brings it to life.

This is exactly the character of God. He takes what we consider weak, helpless, broken, hurt, and worthless and transforms it into something new.

Whatever we give to Jesus, He transforms. It’s who He is. It’s in his character. Let me explain this a little more. A few weeks ago, I talked about Jesus being missional. He was on mission. He had a purpose. And I believe that purpose is found in Isaiah 61, because he says as much in Luke 4 when he starts his ministry.

So I want to highlight a verse from that passage.

Isaiah 61:3 KJV 1900

To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, To give unto them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they might be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.

Listen to what God says the messiah will transform.

Beauty for ashes.

Oil of joy for mourning.

A garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.

Jesus takes what we give him, our ashes, our mourning and our spirit of heaviness and he transforms them into beauty, joy and praise.

Real joy is sorrow accepted and transformed.

Hannah Hurnard

What are the ashes or the sorrow of your life? In what parts of your life do you feel heavy? In what areas are you mourning? Jesus wants you to stretch out those things to him.

Stretch out your hand! What is in your hand that he can transform? In our passage today…

Jesus Transforms Shame Into Wholeness

Imagine being this man. He felt nothing but shame about this hand. Not only were people who were physically disabled shunned a bit in society, they were also blamed for their problem.

This man must have sinned in some way in order to have his hand deformed like this. In fact, we see this happen in 1 Kings 13 to King Jereboam. He goes against the Lord and points at the prophet to have him apprehended and his hand is withered right then and there.

So here we have a man, that was likely carrying guilt and shame. There’s no telling how long he had lived like this, but one thing we can tell from the text is this…others knew about it.

When we are carrying shame, we might try to hide it. I’m sure this man had a long sleeved robe on to try and cover his hand. We try to cover the things in our life that we are ashamed of. We try to cover our past, our sins, our hurts, our disappointments.

And as much as we try to hide these things, others can see it. They see the shame we carry. The see the shell of a man that we have become. Guilt and shame bind us up. We try to hide it…

But God asks us to stretch out our hand. He asks us to bring into the light the things that we are ashamed of. He asks us to stretch out before him the areas where we are hurting, where we are mourning, where we are disappointed.

Christ has transformed all our sunsets into dawn.

Clement of Alexandria

He wants to heal us. He wants us to give that to him, because whatever we give to Jesus he transforms. He wants your ashes because he wants to give you beauty for them.

One final thought before moving to this last section. This man is caught in the middle of this Sabbath showdown. He was probably like some of you. He may have looked at his need as small compared to others. Why would Jesus heal him on the Sabbath? Jesus was demonstrating his love for this man. This man’s ashes may have been a small thing, but God cares about those things as well.

We Are Called To Transform What Others Give To Us

Jesus gave us an example to live by. When we see him take beauty for ashes, joy for mourning and praise in the place of a spirit of heaviness, we should be inspired to do the same.

But what does that look like? I think it’s this…whatever other people give us, we try to transform it into something better. Here’s some examples.

When we are given hate, we transform it into love and give it back.

When we are given bitterness, we transform it into forgiveness and give it back.

When we are given anger, we transform it into kindness and give it back.

When we are given sadness, we transform it into joy.

When we are given fear, we transform it into contempt, we give them acceptance.

When we are given guilt, we give grace.

When we are given death, we give life.

A little story on how this looks in the real world…

In The Grace of Giving, Stephen Olford tells of a Baptist pastor during the American Revolution, Peter Miller, who lived in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, and enjoyed the friendship of George Washington. In Ephrata also lived Michael Wittman, an evil-minded sort who did all he could to oppose and humiliate the pastor. One day Michael Wittman was arrested for treason and sentenced to die. Peter Miller traveled seventy miles on foot to Philadelphia to plead for the life of the traitor. "No, Peter," General Washington said. "I cannot grant you the life of your friend." "My friend!" exclaimed the old preacher. "He's the bitterest enemy I have." "What?" cried Washington. "You've walked seventy miles to save the life of an enemy? That puts the matter in different light. I'll grant your pardon." And he did. Peter Miller took Michael Wittman back home to Ephrata--no longer an enemy but a friend.

Or to quote Jesus on this, he tells us…

Luke 6:27–31 NIV

“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

In other words, whatever negative thing you receive from others, give something positive back to them. Don’t repay negative actions with negative actions. When someone does you wrong, do them right.

Conclusion

Let’s stand.

Today I want to invite you to respond to this message.

Perhaps you are here and you are in need of some transformation in your life. You look at where you are and you are full of shame, hate, guilt, bitterness, doubt, hurting and alone. You have a withered hand that needs Jesus to touch it. Here’s what I want you to do, I want you to come forward today for prayer and stretch out your hand. Give it to Jesus. He will heal you.

Or perhaps today you feel like the man with the withered hand, there are more important people here who need prayer. My problem is small compared to theirs. I can hide my issues a little bit longer. Let me invite you to come. If there is one thing this story tells us, it’s this, God sees you and he wants to heal you, no matter how big or small your problem may be. So invite you to come and stretch out your hand.

Finally, perhaps you are here and you have been returning hate with hate and bitterness with bitterness. It’s time to stop the cycle. It’s time to be a transformer like Jesus. I’m inviting you to come forward to receive prayer as well.

Let’s sing.