Jesus Heals
“Jesus went on from there and walked beside the Sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain and sat down there. And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, so that the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel.”
I want to know more about this man named Jesus. Have you ever sat and thought about reading the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and experienced a sense of anticipation and awe? There is something indescribable about coming to these words knowing that we are reading an account of the one who saved our souls.
When we come to the word, we can come strictly looking for information or help. Sometimes that is what we need. The Bible is full of practical wisdom and direction to live not just a holy life but even just a good life.
Then there are passages like this that I am so grateful to read. It’s like we get to see Jesus on a typical Saturday morning. Even in the mundane act of taking a walk by the sea and hiking up a mountain to sit down, Jesus is bringing supernatural hope.
Jesus didn’t plan his week around exciting miracles and messages. He didn’t have a PR team helping him maximize his influence. I think that’s because he didn’t want to push away those who were truly lost and needy.
I’m sure there were plenty of Rabbi conventions and events where the religious and the prestigious could come and learn God’s wisdom. But you can be sure that the blind, the lame, the mute, the poor, the stinky, the socially awkward, the broken, and the outcasts would not be invited or accepted.
So Jesus holds a healing conference on a mountainside.
It seems so strange to me that Jesus finds himself here. Aside from all the mental images we have from watching Jesus movies, it does seem a bit absurd that the one perfect man, the Son of God no less, ended up preaching and ministering to a bunch of broken people on a dirty mountainside.
Yet this is the exact picture of God’s love we need to see. Jesus could feel what it was like to sit on a rock or a log when he could have been reclining in a palace. He could smell the people who, because of their disability, couldn’t clean themselves. He didn’t make them shower before they showed up (they were outside with the wild animals anyways), yet it was a divine moment.
Many of those who gathered would have been denied a seat at “church.” They would have been exempt from worship. So it is especially beautiful that here in this moment praise and worship breaks out.
They saw the simple gospel. Instead of getting dressed up and attending the aesthetically pleasing synagogues to nod heads with the other religious figures, they were watching miracles and deliverance. They saw heaven.
Jesus, make us more hungry to encounter your simple Gospel than to fill ourselves up with religious experiences.
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