GRINDIT podcast

John the Baptizer was born with a purpose given to him by God Himself. He leaped in the womb when Mary came to visit Elizabeth; he had preached the kingdom of God and baptized hundreds of people for the forgiveness of sins; he had baptized Jesus and saw the Holy Spirit descend from heaven and land on Jesus signifying he was the One, the Messiah; John had heard the voice of God come down from heaven saying “This is my son”…and yet John begins to have doubts and fear creeps in. He is in prison and doesn’t know if he’ll ever see the light of day again and he begins to question everything he knows to be true. It happens to all of us, no matter how much faith we have. Doubt and fear are two of the greatest tools the enemy has to use against us to discourage us from putting our faith in Jesus.

Jesus hand picked 12 men to be his closest disciples and in Matthew 10, we learn their names. Not only that, but we see Jesus giving them the authority to heal the sick and cast out demons as they go to the villages nearby and preach the kingdom of God has come. Up until this point they have been spectators but now they get to be participators! Jesus tells therm the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. Nothing much has changed 2000 years later. The harvest is still ready and the workers are still few and far between. Let's get to work!

As Jesus was leaving Jairus’ house after raising his 12 year old daughter from the dead, wo blind men followed him, shouting at him, “Son of David have mercy on us!” Jesus ignored them…he kept walking not paying them any attention. In fact, he goes to someone’s house where he will be staying for a bit. The two blind men keep on their journey until they reach the house where he was staying and they burst right on in having no regard to whose house it is or who is inside. They wanted their healing and they knew Jesus was the only one who could give them sight. Why did Jesus ignore the two blind men? It was about the pursuit. Jesus is not a condom. He isn’t something we keep and use it when we need protection, then discard it. He wants a relationship and in any relationship, there is the pursuit, there is the hunt. Didn’t Jesus tell his disciples, “Keep on seeking and you will find?”

Jesus was having a conversation with some of John the Baptizer’s disciples when they were interrupted by a leader from the synagogue named Jairus. His 12 year old daughter was dying and he knew his only hope was to find Jesus and have him come to his house and lay his hands on her so he could heal her sickness before she died. Everything was going great until a woman with an issue of blood interrupted the mission. She had been bleeding for 12 years and was instantly healed when she touched Jesus’ clothes. He stops to have a conversation with the woman and while they were talking, Jairus gets news that his daughter died. He had lost all hope but Jesus tells him to not be afraid and to have faith. When they arrive at the house Jesus tells the paid mourners that the girl is asleep and they laugh at him to his face. He sends them out, then raises Jairus’ daughter back to life! Who’s laughing now?

It’s the old comparison game. John’s disciples say, “We fast like the religious leaders, so why do your disciples not fast?” It’s almost as if they are asking, “Since you are the Messiah as John has told us, since you are the standard of righteousness and holiness, then why are you not teaching or making your disciples fast?” as if fasting was a standard of holiness and to some, like the religious leaders, it was. They made a huge ordeal when they were fasting and how often they fasted. But what they didn’t know is there is a bigger picture, one they don’t see nor understand. Jesus uses a Jewish wedding to paint them the picture and how he has everything under control. He lets them know there is a new covenant coming soon that he will usher in!

Jesus is run out of Gadarene after casting demons out of the two men who lived in the graveyard and he crosses the lake with his disciples and arrives in his hometown. There, some people bring him a man who is paralyzed and they want Jesus to heal him. The religious leaders, along with the disciples and the crowd, are watching Jesus to see what is going to happen. Jesus sees their faith and tells the man, “Your sins are forgiven.” The religious leaders think to themselves, “This is blasphemy…only God can forgive sins!” So to prove to everybody watching that he is the Messiah, that he is God, that he does have the authority to forgive sins, he tells the man, “Get up, take your mat, and go home.” The man leaps to his feet and heads home. He has exposed the evil hearts of the religious leaders. Then Jesus meets Matthew, a tax collector, and asks him to join his team. Matthew invites Jesus to eat with a bunch of his tax collector friends and the religious leaders have a fit, “Who would eat with such scum?” The Messiah, the Savior of the world, that is who eats with scum.

Jesus and his disciples get in a boat and head to Gadarene where they are confronted by two demon possessed men as they get to the shore. There are shepherds who have a herd of pigs nearby who are watching the show; they are waiting to see these strangers get run out of town like everyone who has come near this graveyard but that’s not what they see. Instead, they see the two men bowing before one of the strangers as they scream at the top of their voice calling him the Son of God. Something the disciples haven’t heard up until this point. Jesus casts he demons into the herd of pigs, the shepherds run to the nearby village and tell the people what they saw. The entire village came to meet Jesus but when they do, they tell him to go back where he came from.

The disciples have listened to Jesus’ teachings while he was on the mountainside, they have watched him touch a leper and heal him as he was coming down the mountain, they have watched him have a conversation with a roman soldier and heal his servant, they saw Jesus heal Peter’s mother-in-law from a fever, they saw him cast out demons and heal people from all kinds of sickness, but they had never experienced Jesus for themselves…that is until they couldn’t control the boat in the storm and they woke Jesus up from his nap and he calmed the storm immediately. Several of these men were experienced on the water, they had been on this lake fishing their whole lives, but they were full of fear because this was out of their control and they thought they were about to die. Out of fear and desperation, they turn to Jesus and ask him to save them. For some people, no matter how much they have seen and heard about Jesus, it will take a storm. It will take them losing control of their situation and a moment of desperation before they will turn to Jesus.

The Roman soldier goes on a journey on behalf of the paralyzed servant, finds Jesus, tells him what was going on, Jesus wanted to come to the soldier’s house to heal the servant, the soldier shows humility, and because he did all of this, the servant was healed. Not only was the servant healed, he was healed instantly. He was healed as soon as Jesus proclaimed the healing. In Luke’s version of this story, we find out the servant was at the point of death. Evidently, this Roman soldier really cared about this servant. And for him to go to all this trouble to seek for Jesus and find him, asking him to heal this servant, also shows us the heart of this soldier. Even though he was high in ranks, battle tested, a manly man, strong and brae, he had a heart of compassion for his people, he cared for them, and Jesus saw this in the Roman soldier which is why he healed his servant. It all comes down to the heart. What about your heart? What does it show about you?

As Jesus is coming down the mountain after teaching his disciples about being righteous, he is encountered by a leper. This leper should have been in quarantine, living in a leper colony but he does something bold...he went against God's laws in order to get to Jesus. He pops out of nowhere, kneels before Jesus stopping him in his tracks, and calls him Lord. I can't help but wonder if there were people in the crowd freaking out over the leper being near them and talking with Jesus but the leper didn't care; he knew Jesus was his only option for a normal life, Jesus was his hope, and he did what he had to in order to get to Jesus. What about you? When are you going to realize Jesus is your only hope? Sure, you may be able to do many things on your own, but you can't save yourself! It takes the blood of a sacrifice, the blood of THE sacrifice, Jesus.