Inconvenience is a ‘given’ in a fallen world. But a nasty reaction to inconvenience
shouldn’t be a ‘given’ for a Christian. “An Inconvenient Miracle” was preached by Pastor Pamela on Sunday 16th June 2024.
Sermon Transcript
Inconvenience. Everyone resists it, whether a large or small matter. Your computer is down, the phone is broken, you miss the bus, there’s a traffic jam, someone sends you an important file you can’t open, or all the work you’ve just completed on your computer has suddenly disappeared! You know how it feels; the frustration that arises. You sense that things are not going your way and it puts you in a bad mood. Stack up enough inconvenience and you might even have the desire to quit whatever you’re doing to throw a tantrum or go have a good cry.
No-one escapes inconvenience especially if you have children! As far as I’m concerned, the word ‘child’ must mean inconvenient! I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard someone say that they’re late for church because their baby did a poopy nappy just before they stepped out the door.
Inconvenience is a given in a fallen world.
But a nasty reaction to inconvenience shouldn’t be a given for a Christian.
A nasty reaction to inconvenience shouldn’t be a given for a Christian.
If we’re not careful, our Christian witness can really lose ground when we react badly to inconvenience.
As always, I think it’s good for us to take a look at the man Jesus. To see how He reacted to a great inconvenience. Jesus is our role model. We need to do what Jesus did.
Several years ago, often Christian youth would wear a colourful string around their wrist with the letters WWJD on beads.
What would Jesus Do!? This is a great question. What would Jesus Do!?
We should be asking ourselves this question on a regular basis.
And if your answer is – Not what I am doing! Then it’s time to make some changes!!!
What Would Jesus Do!? This week’s sermon is focusing on an incredibly inconvenient miracle that Jesus performed.
This miracle put Him out tremendously and literally, but His love for an individual rang out loud and clear. His love is what we should endeavour to replicate in our own life throughout ALL our inconvenient circumstances.
The title of this sermon is
An Inconvenient Miracle.
An Inconvenient Miracle.
I read this miracle for the umpteenth time the other week and it grabbed my attention, like never before, and made me think, ‘What an earth is going on there?’ Why is Jesus indignant? What’s causing His concern right in the middle of performing an amazing miracle.
Now out of the WHOLE BIBLE, the miracle that impresses me THE most, is the fact that the CREATOR of the universe, the invisible GOD who is Omni present, EVERYWHERE. Omniscient, ALL KNOWING and, Omnipotent, ALL POWERFUL.
THIS GOD somehow confined Himself to the limitations of His own creation.
He became MAN.
Jesus was GOD in the flesh.
The Bible says, God made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
He emptied Himself of all the privileges of being God. He became fully human.
He even subjected Himself to the cruelty of mankind out of love for us.
Please keep all this in mind as I relay the account of The Inconvenient Miracle.
Because this, once again, demonstrates His love for the individual.
Let’s read the very first chapter of Mark, right at the beginning of the ministry of Jesus, reading from verse 14 (as these events immediately precede the inconvenient miracle…)
14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” He said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and His brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17 “Come, follow Me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 18 At once they left their nets and followed Him.
19 When He had gone a little farther, He saw James son of Zebedee and His brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20 Without delay He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed Him.
21 They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22 The people were amazed at His teaching, because He taught them as One who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. 23 Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, 24 “What do You want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”
25 “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” 26 The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.
27 The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits, and they obey Him.” 28 News about Jesus spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.
29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. 30 Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. 31 So He went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her, and she began to wait on them.
(So, we have a person being set free from demonic possession and Simon’s mother-in-law being healed)
32 That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon possessed. 33 The whole town gathered at the door, 34 and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but He would not let the demons speak because they knew who He was.
35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where He prayed. 36 Simon and His companions went to look for Him, 37 and when they found Him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for You!”
38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” 39 So he travelled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.
Okay, so this is the lead up to the Inconvenient Miracle.
Word got out pretty quickly that Jesus had the ability to heal the sick. As soon as the word was out, the sick came by the droves… Every sick person wanted to be touched by Jesus to receive an immediate healing. It says, the whole town of people gathered at the front door of Peter’s house. People wanted to be healed and people wanted to SEE people being healed. And they kept on coming and coming and coming. Everyone was looking for Him. They were even looking for Him as soon as daylight broke! It got so bad that Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Let’s go somewhere else.’
Jesus said, ‘Let’s go somewhere else.’
It’s interesting to note that there were sick people at His door, He hadn’t healed everyone, but Jesus is saying,
‘Let’s go somewhere else.’
Why? Why did He need to go somewhere else? People needed Him where He was, they needed physical healing!
The simple truth is, He wanted to go somewhere else, so He could preach the Word of God.
People were getting distracted by the physical healings and not listening to the Word He was preaching which had the power to heal their souls. After all, that is why Jesus came, to preach the Good News. To set those, who are enslaved by sin, free for eternity!
So off they went to the nearby villages. Preaching in the synagogues around Galilee, it was a much quieter and controlled scene. It was great…
But then, but then in verse 40 most inconveniently it says, A man with leprosy came to Jesus and begged Him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”
In Jesus’ day, the word leprosy was used for a broad range of skin conditions, to include diseases such as boils and ringworm. Many of these diseases had no known cure and were greatly feared. Some were highly contagious, so lepers were required to live in isolation.
The lepers were considered to be ritually unclean. They were required to live alone and to maintain a distance of fifty paces from other people. If the leper touched another person or was touched by them, the other person was considered to be diseased and ritually unclean until examined by a priest and pronounced clean. The leper was unable to work and was consequently reduced to begging. Most likely their family was also reduced to begging. The medical problem of leprosy was terrible, but the other consequences added crushing weight to an already awful situation.
So, in verse 40 we have a man with leprosy who broke the fifty paces rule by running to Jesus and begging Him on his knees, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.”
In Verse 41 it says,
Jesus was indignant (He was annoyed). He reached out His hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” 42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.
One touch from Jesus, he was totally healed!
In verse 43 it states, Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning:
Verse 43 is a very stern verse. But you don’t ‘get’ how stern it is when it is read in English. The original Greek reveals much more about the inconvenience of this miracle.
Where it says, “Jesus sent him away at once”, in the original Greek, it’s implying He’s driving the man away or casting him out with force… “Go, get away from Me as quick as you can… GO ON GET!”
Jesus sent him away at once WITH A STRONG WARNING.
Now the Greek word used for strong warning is also used to describe a horse snorting. When used of people like Jesus, it conveys anger, displeasure or indignation. Jesus is delivering a strong warning sternly, and with urgency, to the man He’s just healed. In verse 44 he warns,
“See that you don’t tell this to anyone. In other words, ‘Keep My secret! Don’t blow My cover! Don’t tell anyone’ But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”
Jesus was telling him to go and do what you need to do so you can live a normal life again.
I don’t think that’s too much to ask from this man who’s just received this amazing miracle of healing, do you? Verse 45.. and this is sooo typical of humanity…
45 Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to Him from everywhere.
God in the flesh wanted the simple luxury of preaching the Good News in the synagogues and in the cosy villages, but He couldn’t, He was inconveniently restricted by a man’s inability to keep his mouth shut.
Jesus was most agitated throughout this account, because He knew that in healing the leper, He risked attracting people who will be interested in Him only for His ‘miraculous’ powers. People were drawn to Him for His healing miracles and often failed to see His deeper spiritual dimension.
They failed to see that He was the source of eternal life.
There are at least four points of irony in this Inconvenient Miracle:
• A disobedient man is among the first to preach the good news about Jesus.
• Jesus’ fame hampers rather than enhances His ministry.
• This story began with the leper forced to live “outside the camp” and ends with his restoration to community life. The story begins with Jesus moving freely among villages and ends with him forced to live “out in the country” (v. 45). The two men have traded places. Jesus finds himself suffering a leper’s isolation.
• “An ability of Jesus, namely His power to heal (1:40), has now become the cause of His inability to move about.
Jesus knew that healing this leper was going to make life difficult. That’s why He was forceful throughout the whole episode. This inconvenient miracle was going to make it hard for Him to preach the all-important Word of God in the places it needed to be preached!
But once again, His compassion for the individual controlled His actions! What a wonderful God we have!
Jesus knew people well and
people haven’t changed much over the centuries have they?
If I had the gifts of healing, this church would be full today of people wanting a miracle and people wanting to see a miracle happen.
Have you ever considered the fact that there would have been people healed of terrible sicknesses by Jesus, but they still ended up going to hell? Not everyone Jesus physically healed would have been destined for heaven.
I’d dare say that some of those He healed would have later called for Him to be crucified. They would, I know this because people are fickle.
Come on, the man Jesus healed of leprosy couldn’t obey Him immediately after his miraculous healing!
2000 years ago, people searched Jesus out for the temporary physical healing that may have lasted 70, 80, 90 years at the most but in the end if their souls weren’t healed, they were going to go to a lost eternity. They were going to experience eternal separation from God.
The everlasting healing is in the GOOD NEWS, it’s in the word of GOD.
Jesus couldn’t help but heal people because He had compassion for them, healing virtue flowed through His earthly body. BUT the real healing comes through listening and being obedient to the WORD!
Jesus came to preach the good news first and foremost
Jesus is the WORD of GOD and He is the source of eternal life.