I imagine it happening like this; one day she's fine, the
next day she feels a little sore. A
little voice in her head starts to speak, "this is the age your mother
started to lose her mobility you know, it won't be long for you now
either." She develops a pit in her
stomach. Fear takes over. By the end of
the month she is moving noticeably slower. By the next month, she is totally
bent over physically, but more so in her mind and in her
Spirit. She has lost her sense of health
and mobility to a Spirit of infirmity. A
terrible thing to happen to a daughter of Abraham. In her heart she wonders "Where is the
God of my Fathers? Where is the God of
Abraham Isaac and Jacob?"
Meanwhile in Jerusalem a 12 year old Jesus is sitting in the
midst of the Teachers both hearing them and asking them questions. There is something about him.... so different
from the "normal" children his age.
Clearly he has a zeal for God, but he is so... strange. He talks about God like he is his very own
Father. It's not that there is just
something different about him, it seems that there is something different IN
him; a presence, a Spirit that seems so familiar, yet so foreign to them all at
once. His parents burst into the temple and they are quite upset. It appears the young Rabbi-to-be neglected to
inform his parents of his whereabouts so they issue a stern word of correction
to him. He goes with them, subject to
them, but the boy continues to grow.
The years pass by. She becomes more resigned to her condition
with each passing year. She continues
to go to the synagogue. She doesn't
understand her condition, but she finds great solace in the story of Job. Jesus grows into a fine young man. He learns his "father's" trade.
He develops a reputation for honesty and integrity in the community. Truly he grows in favor with both God and
man, but there is still that
something... that strange look he gets when he see a sick person, the way his
gaze turns to steel in the presence of injustice.
As he nears 30 he starts to do strange things. He seems less interested in the family
business, and he talks more about this "Father" than ever, no matter
how often he's warned of how improper that is. Eventually he ends up at the
River Jordan being baptized with the rest of the religious zealots.
That's when everything Changed forever.
The Heavens open the Spirit descend on him and a thundering
voice is heard "You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased."
Not much later this woman and this Jesus Collide:
10 Now He was teaching in one of
the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And behold, there was a woman who had a
spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise
herself up.12 But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her,
“Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.” 13 And He laid His hands on her,
and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.
When they tried to challenge him of the prudence of his
actions, of healing on the Sabbath this was his response:
16 So ought not this woman, being a
daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be
loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?” 17 And when He said these things, all
His adversaries were put to shame; and all the multitude rejoiced for all the
glorious things that were done by Him.
This is the phrase that grips me and the reason for this
post that one phrase; So ought not this woman, being a daughter of
Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from
this bond on the Sabbath?
Think of it - 18 years. I think it's wonderful that Jesus finally
healed her, but again - think of it - 18 years.
where was God for those 18 years? What kind of a God allows 18 years of
suffering?
Hebrews tell us that Jesus is the express image of the
Father, that the Father was speaking to us In Jesus. What I conclude from this
is that every act of Jesus reveals the Heart of the Father for the recipient of
said act as well as for humanity in general.
So why did the Father decide to heal her that day, at that time, and not
18 years ago?
These are valid questions if you believe in a
"Sovereign God" who is "in Control." Maybe you even have some scripture to back up
your idea that he is in fact "working all things together for Good." I would propose to you a different
understanding of this situation. God
does in fact work all things together for our good, but God for his own reason
and by his own sovereign choice has decided to work through men; through our
hands and through our prayers.
I believe the Father
felt that woman's pain and suffering from day 1 and he continued to feel it for
18 years. For 18 years he WANTED to heal
her, but in that first day when the sickness attacked his daughter his Father
heart was trapped, halfway across Israel in Jerusalem, living on the inside of
a 12 year old Jewish boy. A boy still
learning who he was and growing into who he was to become.
In my life I have prayed for sick people, and seen them
healed. I have also prayed for people
and seen them remain sick; sometimes die.
That makes me sad. Sometimes I
may even be tempted to be angry at God.
I wonder why he would entrust this creation to creatures as fickle as
us. What I never do, what I refuse to
do, and what I want to exhort you to do, is to never question his heart. The Father is the one who fashioned you for
his own pleasure, made you to be adored and numbered the very hairs on your
head. Don't let disappointment cloud out
what you know to be true of the Father.
He's Good. He loves you, and he
was there in that dark hour, seeing what you saw feeling what you felt, and
WANTING to help. That is what I want you
to take away from this post, that God's father heart has always been there,
even when we don't understand what is going on and aren't able to see what is
happening behind the scenes.
I believe we are coming to a day when we grow up and learn
to be more like Jesus, to represent him better.
I believe we are learning to let the Father who lives in us leak out
of us. I believe that we as his temple
are learning to release his presence. In
the mean time, there are things we don't understand, do over's we wish we could
have, but may never get. In spite of all
of this, the Father is still the Father.
Don't let anything tell you otherwise.
