Streets, Shorelines, and Celebrations
Notes
Transcript
Later, as Jesus left the town, he saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Levi got up, left everything, and followed him.
Later, Levi held a banquet in his home with Jesus as the guest of honor. Many of Levi’s fellow tax collectors and other guests also ate with them. But the Pharisees and their teachers of religious law complained bitterly to Jesus’ disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with such scum?”
Jesus answered them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.”
What's happened?
Back story...
Calling fishermen with a miraculous catch of fish
Healing a leper with a touch
Forgiving a Paralytic and Healing him
Who was at the party?
Tax collectors
Others (fishermen, former lepers,
Other sinners
Who's in that group? Think
Why's that a problem? Why did people complain?
That’s the group/groups of people tleh religios people avoided, and they instructed other people to avoid so that they would avoid “contamination.”
What was Jesus' response?
Jesus goes to the sick!
Why? Wouldn't it be easier if Jesus stayed in one place and the sick came to him?
Wouldn’t it be easiser if Jesus “set up shop” somewhere and invited people to come to him there…?
A rock
Well, under a shade tree,
Well, how about a building?
Or an office in the building with a desk and a swivel chair...
Wouldn't that be easier? = Maybe
Why NOT do that…?
But, sometimes the sick do not know how sick they are until the physician comes. They think, I can get better on my own... but, then the physician comes and heals them and they realize how sick they were.
And, or, they think they are too sick to receive help. They are so far messed up that NO ONE can help them. So, they stop trying. And then, the physician shows up and they realize there is no situation too hopeless for this healer.
And, or, sometimes they have no way to get to the physician. They don't have the friends who will carry them to the physician. They have no ability to ask the physician to come and help them.
So, Jesus, the Great Physician, who came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10) is willing to roam the streets, the shorelines, and the celebrations SEEKING those who are SPIRITUALLY sick.
And, in doing this, Jesus highlights how sick the "healthy" actually are.
Jesus highlights our disease of sterilization, sanitization, and separation. Jesus highlights that we too are sick and we too need the spiritual healing.
We have sterilized and sanitized our relationship with Christ a d made it about us versus them.
We've said, "Yeah, Jesus came to heal all sinners and to forgive them and provide them new life. But, if they want it they can come here to us."
We do the EXACT OPPOSITE of Jesus!
So, we say, let's sit on a rock by the road
Well, we need shade, so let's pick a shade tree to sit under
Well, let's build a building. Let's make it comfortable and attractive so the sick feel welcomed in it
Oh, and let's put an office in that building with a desk and swivel chair. That way, when the sick come they can have a place to talk with someone.
Oh, and I guess we'll need to have someone here for the sick to talk to when they do come.
So, I guess we better pay someone to sit in the office.
Someone who is like a good representative of Jesus, the Great Physician.
And, we'll pay that person to counsel us and shows us Jesus's ways and teach us Jesus stuff.
But, that person will need to sit in that swivel chair, in that office, in that building, by that busy road ALL DAY EVERYDAY in case the sick come and need the healing Jesus provides.
And we forget that it was Jesus who walked the streets, shorelines, and celebrations in order to meet and heal the sick - and we are called to imitate HIM!
SALT AND LIGHT!
13 “You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. 14 “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. 15 No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.
How unhealthy we who are "healthy" have become! We've sanitized and sterilized the Gospel!
Yeah, we need to gather and to worship (so I'm not fully downplaying the building) but, the point of this building is to heal the healthy so we can go out and encounter the sick.
But, instead we build buildings and say, "The sick can come here if they want. They know how to get here. We'll even drive them here if they ask."
But, then when we gather here, we use this place to slander the sick, and to gossip, and to shame those in our world who are sick. No wonder they don't come... they realize that we claim to be healthy, but really, we're just as sick as them - like the Pharisees!
But, we, like the Pharisees, create rules, regulations, and rituals that separate us from them - so that we are quarantined from their sickness and their cuties won't rub off on us...
Ultimately, we have forgotten that WE are the church. WE are the temple of the lord - the place where God is known.
All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.
Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
So, Jesus highlights that we all need His healing.
He highlights why the "healthy" still need His Spirit to search us and seek us and heal is from our sicknesses.
And then, Jesus highlights that those who are healed are then sent into the streets, shorelines, and celebrations to interact with the sick in our world and point them to the healing Jesus provides.
We can't sit and live in our sterilized, sanitized, environments we have tried to create and expect the unhealthy to get healthy. We must take the healer with us to our world!
As long as I am your pastor I will seek to model that.
This is why I go to coffee shops, restaurants, parties, basketball games, elementary schools and even substitute music classes (and other classes), volunteer to help in teh community, and be visible in teh community. In order that, with my willingness to go where the sick are, the Spirit of Christ who is in me, can have the ability to interact with the sick and show them the healing the Great Physician can and does provide. But, Jesus challenges us ALL to do this!
Christ didn't dwell in a building and neither should our relationship with him.
So, are you healthy, or are you sick?
Are you willing to take Christ with you to teh streets, shorelines, and celebrations of our world? Or, would you prefer to hang out in your holy huddle, and in effect, quarantine the Gospel from the world that needs it...