What Would I Have Done?

On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. 12 And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance 13 and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” 14 When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.”And as they went they were cleansed. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; 16 and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” Luke 17:11-19

There’s one thing about this story that has always piqued my curiosity. When Jesus asks about the other nine and why they didn’t return to praise God, what if one or more of them didn’t return because they were doing what Jesus had told them to do? 

That may sound silly, but I was raised to be obedient; in our family, you did what you were told (“Because I said so.”) and that is deeply ingrained in me. As I think about this story and ask myself what I would have done in their place, I honestly don’t know the answer. I can imagine myself thinking that I really needed to go straight to the priest because that was what I was told to do! It wouldn’t necessarily mean that I was any less ovecome with gratitude. 

So, that makes me wonder: Can obedience be a stumbling block? Can I get too concerned with doing the expected thing that I don’t turn around and do the right thing? What does authentic obedience look like?

As a child, I obeyed my parents so I wouldn’t get in trouble. To this day, that is behind my motives and decisions - do the right thing and you won’t get in trouble. This familiar verse from 1 John is often quoted, “perfect love casts out fear”. But there’s so much more to that verse! Read 1 John 4:18 in its entirety: There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.  Obedience that is motivated by love paints a completely different picture than obedience motivated by fear of punishment. It’s the obedience Jesus modeled on this earth - obedience to the Father, in perfect union and harmony with the Father. Jesus did only what he saw the Father doing and at the same time was completely faithful to the will of the Father: not my will, but yours, be done (Luke 22:42). That kind of obedience is in response to, and, I believe, in the power of, the “perfect love” of God.

So getting back to the nine lepers and picturing myself among them — perhaps the Lord has revealed another area that needs his loving touch - a little spot of “leprosy”, in keeping with my theme. As I look at my Father’s love for me and his will for my life, am I following obediently out of a full response to his love or is there still a remnant of that child who wants to be a good little girl so she doesn’t get in trouble? 

My earthly father loved me and was a good father and I didn’t want to disappoint him and I certainly didn’t want to be grounded or sent to my room when I did something wrong. My heavenly Father loves me and is the perfect father and made sure that, when I did something wrong, the punishment for that was taken care of. Rather than being sent away from my Father, he made sure I could always remain in his presence by nailing my sin to the cross. I’m forgiven and loved. Like the lepers, my “uncleanness” has been healed - completely taken away. 

This blog is entitled “Through the Eyes of Love” because that is how we are looked upon by our God, through eyes of love - love that is personified in the person of Jesus who lived to show us the love of our Father and died and rose again to bring us into that love. John 15:9 says, As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. Abide in LOVE. Live in LOVE. Dwell in LOVE. Live, move and have our being in LOVE. That is life where there is no fear, where our hearts are quick to respond to our Lord with thanksgiving and praise.

So, as those ten men walked away from Jesus to go to the priest and suddenly realized that they had been healed, had I been among them, I want to imagine myself stopping in my tracks, turning around and running back to Jesus. That is the most obedient response to offer our Lord - thanksgiving and praise for his love, healing, and grace! 

Waiting and Trusting

“This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (John 6:29)
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. (John 6:35)
So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” (John 6:41)
"Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (John 6:47-51)

John 6:35-59 is the "I am the bread of life" passage. As I read those verses this morning - such a familiar passage - I experienced it from the perspective of the hearers in the synagogue. What a hard message to understand! Taken at face value, anyone would think the man speaking those words was crazy! I asked myself if I would have been one of the ones that abandoned Jesus, thinking I was doing the right thing because, who in their right mind would believe such a thing!? Obviously, not all of his hearers turned away as a result of this teaching; there was that seed of faith that allowed them to continue walking the road with Jesus, listening, watching and learning from the Lord even though they didn't understand everything they were seeing and hearing. 

I thought through the 'rest of the story'. Those that continued to follow Jesus, even after hearing the words that day in the synagogue, walked with him through other teachings and experiences that were hard to understand but were also witnesses to the amazing miracles, to the day to day life of our Lord as he lovingly ministered to his people. I suppose they would have put those hard sayings on the 'back burner' hoping that, one day, they would understand.

Continuing to walk with Jesus led them through his suffering and death on the cross and the myriad of questions and doubts those days must have created in their minds; but it also led them to the glorious truth that Jesus was and is exactly who he claimed to be when he rose from the dead and walked among them again - teaching, eating with them, cooking for them, just being with them - in the flesh! Imagine being the disciples who encountered Jesus on the road to Emmaus and their eyes were opened to the true Bread of Life as the Lord blessed the bread he was invited to share with them. Then there were those followers who witnessed his ascension - I can't even imagine what that must have been like. I certainly would have been the one standing there with my mouth hanging open wondering what in the world had just happened! 

Prior to his ascension, Jesus' disciples had been instructed to wait for the power from on high. They gathered together to pray and wait not knowing exactly what they were waiting for or how long they would have to wait - more questions without the full understanding of Jesus' words and instructions. But then the Holy Spirit came on that first Pentecost and their minds were opened, their eyes and hearts and ears were opened. They got it! They KNEW deep down in the hearts that what Jesus said was true and their lack of understanding became knowledge. As a friend once said, they knew it down deep in their 'knower'.

We're not that different from those men and women 2000+ years ago. I asked myself this morning: What is it that the Lord is showing me today that I don't fully grasp? What am I being taught that doesn't make sense to me yet? I am walking a path where I don't see clearly where I'm being led. I'm in a season of new directions and new discoveries and even though I don't understand fully, I'm getting glimpses into what the Lord's purposes are and am learning new truths about who he is in my life and in the lives of others. I'm trusting that my time of fuller understanding is coming and in the meantime, I want to be prayerful and waiting - watching for the Holy Spirit as he reveals more of what the Lord has been preparing me for. It's certainly not as momentous an event as that first Pentecost, but I realized this morning that as we grow in our faith and are confronted with things we don't yet understand, we really are like those first disciples. We wonder what in the world is going on but keep on walking and waiting and watching and praying. The time will come when our minds and hearts will be opened to fuller understanding and a refreshed and renewed life in the power of the Spirit.