How Was Your Day Today?

            At the end of any given day, when my husband walks through the door, I ask “How was your day today?” What follows is usually a conversation about meetings, conversations, phone calls and projects. He then normally returns the favor. Then, we have a discussion about bonbons, soap operas, luncheons with friends and other things I might have liked to do that day but instead, I relate how I worked, cleaned the house and did a load of laundry.

            Imagine, for a moment, if the legacy of your day was this: Your name here went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 

            What if it was the legacy of your life? That would be quite an epitaph.

            In Matthew 9:18-34 there is a short section in which is described four different, back to back miracles that Jesus did. It reads somewhat like a day in the life of Jesus. 

¹⁸ While he was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” ¹⁹ Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.

²⁰ Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. ²¹ She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”

²² Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.

²³ When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, ²⁴ he said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. ²⁵ After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. ²⁶ News of this spread through all that region.

²⁷ As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”

²⁸ When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”

“Yes, Lord,” they replied.

²⁹ Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you”; ³⁰ and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.” ³¹ But they went out and spread the news about him all over that region.

³² While they were going out, a man who was demon-possessed and could not talk was brought to Jesus. ³³ And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowd was amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”

            Picture the disciples trotting along behind Jesus as he walked through a village. It isn’t clear what village or town it as, but it was big enough to have plenty of sick and needy people. On that day, there were at least four people in need as recounted in Matthew’s Gospel.

Request number one. Jesus was called upon by a synagogue leader (named Jairus in other Gospels) to raise his dead daughter to life. Jairus is an important man with some clout, after all he is a synagogue leader. Nonetheless, he does not command Jesus to come to his house and raise his daughter from the dead; kneeling before Jesus, Jairus says “if you put your hand on her, she will live.” That is not an ordinary, run of the mill request. As a disciple, watching this, I think “whoa, that’s a big request.”  But, they all trot off to Jairus’ house to see what Jesus is going to do.

As they are walking to Jairus’ house, along comes request number two: the woman with the issue of blood. We aren’t talking about a cold or a virus for a couple of days. This woman had suffered for twelve years at the hands of many doctors. No one could figure it out, so most likely, she was just seen as a woman under a curse who should be shunned and not touched-she was unclean. Imagine, not being touched for twelve years, no hugs, no hand upon the shoulder, no embrace, no kiss. Just abject aloneness and loneliness. This woman crawled along the ground, moving with the crowd, trying hard not to stand out, with one objective, one simple, insignificant, but forbidden objective- to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment. As soon as she does, power goes out from Jesus, and she is healed. He says, pausing just long enough to turn around and look her in the  eye, “your faith has healed you.”  No rebuke, no castigation, no “ew, yuck” from Jesus- just commendation and healing.

Back to request number one. Jesus and Jairus finally get to Jairus house and the mourners are already gathering, doing what mourners do, mourning the dead daughter. Jesus tells them to go away and lifts her by her hand, giving her back to Jairus. The Bible, in classic understated phrases says “news of this spread through all that region.” No doubt.  For the disciples, the day was getting curiouser and curiouser. 

Request number 3:  As soon as Jesus leaves Jairus’ house, along come two blind men who do not ask to be given sight; instead they ask for mercy. Maybe the request is implied. Maybe they don’t know what to ask. Perhaps the two blind men are afraid to ask. Nonetheless, Jesus, the two blind men and presumably, the disciples, who are still obediently following along, go inside. Judging from the response Jesus got at Jairus’ house and what he said to the blind men after he gave them sight-“See that no one hears about this.”-he didn’t want everyone in the village watching. Jesus asks the blind men a simple question “do you believe that I can do this?” Only the Messiah could give sight to the blind and make the lame walk. Jesus was not asking whether they thought he had power to do it, he was asking whether the blind men believed he was the Messiah with authority to heal them. It was a much bigger question.  They say yes, and boom, Jesus tells them “your faith has healed you.”

Request number 4: while they were going out, a man who was demon possessed was brought to Jesus. Jesus drives out the demon that had caused the man to be mute and the formerly possessed man speaks. People said “whoa, nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.” 

One day, four miracles, five people healed, Pharisees ticked off-all in one day. That was one day in the life of Jesus. 

It might have been even more amazing except that it wasn’t just one day. It was every day. That is the way the life of Jesus was described, not just one day. 

As a disciple of Jesus, I read these things and think, this is amazing. If I were Peter, James, John or Judas, I might have watched and thought: "This is cool. Look at Jesus doing all those God things." Until the day that Jesus, seeing a crowd of people, all coming wanting something (and the disciples are still obediently and happily trotting along beside him or after him), coming for healing, deliverance, food. Jesus does not send them away. Instead, he feels compassion for the crowd. Jesus says to the disciples, “the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

To do what Jesus? To do these God things? To do what you are doing? Heal? Teach? Deliver? Raise the dead? Are you kidding? “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name. so that the Son might bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”  (John 14:12-14)

Amazing, impossible, unfathomable and outrageous as the invitation was, the disciples must have responded yes to the invitation-not only the invitation to pray for laborers, but to be laborers. Matthew 10:1 says “He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness… and sent them out with instructions.” In Matthew 20:7, Jesus says to a group of people, "You also go and work in my vineyard."

How was your day today?

May I Borrow Your House

          Jesus did not have a lot of possessions; probably because of the life he lived. He didn’t have a way to get around, so he walked everywhere. When it came time to enter Jerusalem, to celebrate His last Passover on this earth, he had to borrow a colt for His triumphant entry. If he wanted to cross the Sea of Galilee, he had to borrow Peter’s boat. In fact, he didn’t even have a permanent home. When he lived with Mary and Joseph, he lived in Nazareth. Once he started his ministry, he didn’t have a place to put his pillow. When he wanted to stay in Bethany, he stayed at the home of Martha, Mary and Lazarus. If he was visiting with Peter, he hung his robe there. Of course, as we know, he was laid to rest in a borrowed tomb. One time, when he was in Capernaum for a while, he stayed with me.

          I was delighted that he wanted to stay with me. When he taught, people came from all over. They flocked to hear him, including the teachers of the law. So many people came to my home that day, there was standing room only.  I was so proud that Jesus had come to my house. I was delighted that He had chosen my house to not only stay, but from which to teach. There, he even taught the teachers of the law.

          Then it happened. It started while he was teaching. First, it was just the sounds from the roof. That was bad enough. I didn’t want anything to distract people from Jesus’ teaching. But the sounds above were unmistakable. Scratching at first, and then clawing. Second, the dust and the dirt started to fall all around us as we sat and stood inside the room. I was really hoping Jesus would not notice. I would have to check it later. Frankly I was so embarrassed that there was something wrong with my roof. I didn’t want Jesus to think I had not taken care of everything for him to stay with me. Then the volume of the sound increased, the unmistakable sound of someone digging through my roof. People were starting to not only get distracted from what Jesus was teaching, they were looking up, dirt falling on their heads. I looked apologetically at Jesus, mortified that my home was no longer the perfect setting for his words of wisdom and truth. He kept right on teaching, as if not noticing that the roof was falling in on him. Paralyzed from the sheer embarrassment, and the inability of knowing quite what to do, I just kept pretending to listen, trying to focus, but every few moments I found myself inadvertently glancing upward.

          It did become a little difficult to ignore when through the roof came a mat, with a man lying on it. By this time, all eyes were on the man on the mat. People had cleared a space for the man on the mat to rest on the floor, followed by four more men who had apparently lowered him into my house. I am not sure which of us was more befuddled, the man on the mat or myself. He didn’t get up. Apparently, he couldn’t get up and walk. It was now too great a disturbance and too much of an intrusion to the teaching of Jesus to ignore. Jesus had stopped teaching. Now, everyone’s eyes were on Jesus. That was fortunate. I didn’t want them looking at me. Jesus was not looking at me either. That was also good because I didn’t want him to be upset with me that my house was now a full blown mess, totally unfit for Jesus, and totally unsuitable for a rabbi. It was as if everyone in the room stopped breathing for just a moment. I know it was only a moment because Jesus immediately assessed the entire situation: hole in my roof, mess on the floor, paralyzed man and four friends staring at Him. He “said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” I thought, Jesus was probably as annoyed with the man on the mat as I was, interrupting Jesus’ teaching, let alone destroying my house. Ah, I was so relieved. He wasn’t angry with me for my roof falling in. Jesus saw the obvious error of the man on the mat’s sin of barging into my home and interrupting his teaching. So I thought.

          Those teachers of the law who had also come to hear Jesus-they were not happy with what had just happened. They weren’t saying it out loud. But their annoyance with Jesus was as obvious as my relief that he wasn’t mad at me.

          “Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? ⁹ Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? ¹⁰ But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, ¹¹ “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” ¹² He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

          Jesus eventually stopped teaching and people went home.  Later that day, as Jesus and I cleaned up the mess from the hole in my roof, we talked about that hole and the mess in my house. We laughed about it and I had to admit to him, that had he told me about the mess to come when he asked to stay with me, I am not so sure I would have said yes. Sure, I loved having Jesus stay with me in my house. I really loved when he was teaching and people would come and hear him. But that mess.

          On that day, he did something more than teach and preach in my house. He stopped the clucking tongues and accusations of the teachers of the law. He healed a man.  He answered the prayers of four men whose friend lived his life on a mat. It required a hole in my roof. It required a temporary mess in my house.

          That night, as we sat down to eat a simple meal, I thanked him for coming to stay with me, and together, we blessed the mess.