Sermon Title: Going Deeper
Scripture Reading: Luke 13:22-30
Introduction
What do I want you to know?
It is God’s way to use earthly affliction as a catalyst
to cure our deeper problem of sin.
The Leper
Leprosy was a highly contagious disease which sentenced
to leper to isolation (2 Kings 7:3). Lepers were isolated not only due to fear
of infection, but also because they were ceremonially unclean (Leviticus
13:45-46). Leprosy was second only to contact with a dead body in terms of
defilement.[2]
Think of what it would mean to wake up one day with some
distinguishing marks on your skin and say goodbye to your wife and children
forever. Think about what that would mean to you, to your children, and to your
wife.
“Those three little words, I am willing,” deserve special
notice. They are a deep mine, rich in comfort for heavy-laden souls. They show
us the mind of Christ toward sinners. They exhibit his willingness to do good
to the sons of men and his readiness to show compassion” (J.C. Ryle).[1]
“For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and
abundant in loving kindness to all who call upon you” (Psalm 86:5). Like our
sin, Jesus was able to touch the leper and heal his infirmities without being
infected.
Again, we see Jesus honoring the proper protocol for
declaring a leper clean and reorienting him into society as dictated by the Law
(Leviticus 14:1-20). This was done to fulfill the Law, but also as a witness to
the priests of Jesus’ authority.
Nobody was in higher demand. Nobody was busier. Nobody
had more important things to do. Knowing He was going to die at 33, nobody was under
more pressure to accomplish so much in so little time. That is exactly why
Jesus spent so much time in prayer. To sustain His grace-given power for
preaching and ministry, in His humanity, Jesus needed communion with the
Father.
The Paralytic
The narrative regarding the paralytic marks a major
turning point in Jesus’ ministry as Jesus’ claim to forgive sins is introduced.
This is the first reference in Luke’s gospel to the
Pharisees. Their name likely derives from a Hebrew verb meaning “to separate.”
The Pharisees were known for their adherence to the Mosaic Law and the
traditions which they added to it (Matthew 15:2-6; Mark 7:8-13).
The teachers of the law were also present. The lawyers or
Scribes were professional scholars specializing in the interpretation and
application of the law.
Those who adopt the “Let go and let God” approach to
Christianity may be left out of the Kingdom.
Let us notice, first, in this passage what lengths people
will go when they are in earnest.
This Scriptures often refer to aggressive pursuit as
striving or violence. We have seen this earnestness this morning in the case of
the leper who desperately violated rabbinic law by approaching Jesus imploring
or begging him and now the paralytic who violently pursued the presence of
Christ at all cost.
- “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matthew 11:12-13).
- "The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it” (Luke 16:16).
- “He went on his way through the towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. And someone said to him, ‘Lord, will those who are saved be few?’ And he said to them, ‘Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able’” (Luke 13:22-24).
Right here (Luke 5:20-22) the Pharisees and lawyers were
forced to make a decision about what to “do” with Jesus.
Right now, this morning, you are forced to make the same
decision the Pharisees and lawyers struggled so deeply with.
By claiming the authority to forgive sins, Jesus was
either God, or a blasphemer. There is no middle ground; Jesus could not have
been merely a good man, a true prophet, or a teacher of morality and ethics, if
He were a blasphemer of God.
As C.S. Lewis once said, Jesus is a liar, a lunatic, or
Lord. You cannot “do” anything else with Jesus. Jesus forces all men to make a
choice. Would a liar have disciples who lived with Him and died for Him without
any historical record of ever recanting their beliefs? Would a lunatic have
taught so eloquently as to astonish the theological experts? What will you “do”
with Jesus?
On the surface it seems a precarious statement, “Which is
easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? (v.
23). It would have been easier to say, ‘your sins are forgiven’ because there
was no way to tangibly confirm or deny it. However, it would have been obvious
to all whether or not he actually got up and walked. Jesus exercised His
authority over sickness to prove his authority over sin. The purpose of the
healing was to validate Jesus’ claim about the extent of His authority.
Going Deeper
Luke moves from the horrible disease of leprosy to the
worse physical condition of paralysis. Jesus prioritized forgiveness of sins
over the healing of paralysis. Why? To illustrate that we all have a deeper
problem than the most horrific physical handicap: sin.
Like the leper and the paralytic, we are all undoubtedly
tempted to think to ourselves, “If I could only be healed and see my family
again…If I could only walk…If I could only get a raise…If I could only have a
child…If I could only retire…If I could only have a spouse…If I could only… … …
“I think when God wants to play a really rotten practical
joke on you, he grants your deepest wish” (Cynthia Heimel).
The greatest judgment God can declare on man is to give
him what he really wants.
Often times we make our wishes into our saviors and
because our motives and desires are so convoluted, Jesus has to go deeper – so
deep it hurts.
The Example of Eustace
“One of my favorite passages from C.S. Lewis' book,
"The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" has been weighing on my mind these
last couple of days. To give you some background to the passage Eustace is the
character that you love to hate, he's selfish, greedy, whiney, spoiled and
complains constantly. He ends up in Narnia with his cousins Lucy and Edmund,
who have been to Narnia before, and is taken aboard a ship with Prince Caspian,
who is searching for seven (I believe) lost knights. The ship stops at several
islands, one of which Eustace gets himself into a pickle. He wanders away from
the crew and happens upon a cave, where he witnesses the death of a dragon.
When he is sure the dragon is dead, he enters the cave and discovers that it is
one huge treasure chest. Eustace begins loading his pockets with the treasure.
You hear his thoughts as he does so, and he is trying to figure out how to get
the treasure on board the ship without anyone else finding out about it, for he
has no desire to share the wealth. He ends up falling asleep on the treasure
only to wake up and find that he has turned into a dragon himself. He is
miserable and lonely. He finally succeeds in communicating to his ship-mates
what had happened to him, and he realizes he is stuck forever in this
predicament.
It is here that Aslan enters the picture and Eustace
realizes that Aslan wants him to follow him. They end up at a bubbling well
with marble steps going down into it.”
Eustace said, "The water was as clear as anything
and I thought if I could get in there and bathe it would ease the pain in my
leg, but the lion told me I must undress first. Mind you, I don’t know if he
said any words out loud or not.
I was just going to say that I couldn't undress because I
hadn't any clothes on when I suddenly thought that dragons are snaky sort of
things and snakes can cast their skins. Oh, of course, thought I, that's what
the lion means. So I started scratching myself and my scales began coming off
all over the place. And then I scratched a little deeper and, instead of just scales coming off here and
there, my whole skin started peeling off beautifully, like it does after an
illness, or as if I was a banana. In a minute or two I just stepped out of it.
I could see it lying there beside me, looking rather nasty. It was a most
lovely feeling. So I started to go down into the well for my bathe.
But just as I was going to put my feet into the water I
looked down and saw that they were all hard and rough and wrinkled and scaly
just as they had been before. Oh, that's all right, said I, it only means I had
another smaller suit on underneath the first one, and I'll have to get out of
it too. So I scratched and tore again and this under skin peeled off
beautifully and out I stepped and left it lying beside the other one and went
down to the well for my bathe.
Well, exactly the same thing happened again. And I
thought to myself, oh dear, how ever many skins have I got to take off? For I
was longing to bathe my leg. So I scratched away for the third time and got off
a third skin, just like the two others, and stepped out of it. But as soon as I
looked at myself in the water I knew it had been no good.
Then the lion said - but I don't know if it spoke - 'You
will have to let me undress you.' I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you,
but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to
let him do it.
The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it
had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt
worse than anything I've ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it
was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. You know - if you've ever
picked the scab of a sore place. It hurts like billy-oh but it is such fun to
see it coming away.
Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off - just as I
thought I'd done it myself the other three times, only they hadn't hurt - and
there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and
more knobby-looking than the others had been. And there was as smooth and soft
as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me - I
didn't like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I'd no skin on
- and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment.
After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and
splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why.
I'd turned into a boy again. You'd think me simply phony if I told you how I
felt about my own arms. I know they've no muscle and are pretty moldy compared
with Caspian's, but I was so glad to see them.
After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me - (with
his paws?) - Well, I don't exactly remember that bit. But he did somehow or
other: in new clothes - the same I've got on now, as a matter of fact and then
suddenly I was back here, which is what makes me think it must have been a
dream."
The Example of Baby Jessica McClure
Baby Jessic McClure, born March, 26, 1986, became famous
at the age of 18 months after falling into a well. Rescuers worked for 58 hours
to free baby Jessica from the eight-inch-wide well 22 feet below the ground. After digging a
parallel well to then dig horizontally across to save baby Jessica, the rescuer
yelled, “We are going to have to break her to save her.” Consequently, she has
had 15 surgeries over the years, but survived almost certain death.
What have we learned?
It is God’s way to use earthly affliction as a catalyst
to cure our deeper problem of sin.
In a well-known passage from chapter six of The Problem
of Pain, C.S. Lewis describes the way that God uses affliction—the type which
Eustace and baby Jessica are faced with -- as an instrument in our
salvation. Lewis observes that as long
as all seems to be well, we will not surrender our self-will, and that the
deeper sin and error are “the less their victim suspects their existence.” Lewis continues:
But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world…. Now God, who has made us, knows what we are and that our happiness lies in Him. Yet we will not seek it in Him as long as He leaves us any other resort where it can even plausibly be looked for. While what we call “our own life” remains agreeable we will not surrender it to Him. What then can God do in our interests but make “our own life” less agreeable to us?[5]
What should we do because of what we have learned?
“The leper’s approach to Jesus graphically illustrates
the repentant sinners’ approach to Him.
- They come in desperation, casting aside their self-righteous efforts to save themselves as the filthy garments that they are (Isaiah 64:6).
- They come in reverence, affirming Jesus as Lord (Romans 10:9), God (John 8:24), and the only Savior (Acts 4:12).
- They come with a sense of urgency knowing that ‘now is the acceptable time…now is the day of salvation’ (2 Corinthians 6:2).
- They come in humility, poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3), deserving nothing from the sovereign and knowing they have nothing to commend themselves.
- Finally, they come trusting, because, ‘to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness’ (Romans 4:5)” (John MacArthur).[2]
- Ryle, J.C. Luke. Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1997.
- MacArthur, John. The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Luke 1-5. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2009.
- Reprinted in Cynthia Heimel, If You Can’t Live Without Me, Why Aren’t You Dead Yet? (New York: Grove, 1991), pp. 13-14.
- http://kezzie-kez.blogspot.com/2007/04/eustace-dragon-meets-aslan.html
- Lewis, C.S. The Problem of Pain. HarperCollins Publishers, 2001.
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