The first step is always realizing you have a problem, spiritually, emotionally, physically or physiologically. Once you're aware of your weakness you can make it the focal point in order to improve your condition and eventually find a possible solution. The reason Jesus was able to help the sick, maimed and the poor was due directly to the fact they were all aware they had a problem! And that was the first step in the process. They that are sick will pursue a physician. Knowledge, money and power puffs up, enabling us to grow immune to the real problem, which is buried under many layers of lies, self-entitlement and transparent refusal. The spiritual is always at the root. We like to blame God for the problems in the world, for allowing the sickness, pain and heartache to exist without realizing the primary cause of all of these hostile rebel forces, that they are all controlled by a very powerful source who has origins rooted in selfishness and greed. The very nature of sin is to blame God without looking inward and seeing your own actions which in our our own lives and throughout history produce a self perpetuating series of negative and harmful results.
To 'rebuke' was Jesus favorite formula for curing all ails. When the Lord spoke to the angry elements that night in a raging sea He used the same words He used to heal chronic illness and exorcise demonic forces it was "be muzzled" or in other words to "be still" or gagged as translated in the Greek. It would thus appear he spoke not to a mere force of nature but to a figure in and behind the force. As though to a maniac to be gagged. I would be willing to bet there was a sinister personality engineering that storm, alluding to Satan the author of all disorders alike in the physical and spiritual realms. More studies on the waters of the earth holding deposed evil spirits when Satan rebelled could be found, but that leads to a whole new rabbit trail of speculation. If we accept this interpretation then it is not difficult to associate the raging tempest with the Devil, whose avowed hatred for Jesus was behind his every attempt to kill him. Basically the point I am getting at is Satan and forces of darkness as well as our own sin nature are the primary reasons for all ailments in the world, we want to be our own "gods" and by that very effect we are reaping the results of that decision. Some believe the devils biggest lie was convincing the world he didn't exist but I say the devils biggest lie was making us believe are free while forcing us to put the shackles of enslavement on. Jesus spoke more on hell than heaven. Jesus merely said "abide in me" I am the vine. He left no doubt, speaking entirely in absolutes. It wasn't a matter of opinion or injustice on God's part or ours, It was as simple as stating the laws of physics, an objective reality. If only we could have the spiritual insight to see it. Like planting a 'kapok' tree in the sahara and expecting it to flourish, would be a crude yet understandable model of us not attached to the vine in whose roots provide everlasting and refreshing nourishment for us. The result of planting that tree in the dessert is it will die, and not only will it die it will not even begin to germinate. God is not unjust, human nature as a whole refuses to be rooted to the source of all knowledge and joy and instead embrace the curse and its subsequent pangs and heartache.
In reference to the Miracle of the stilling of the tempest I would like to make another comparison. After preaching to the crowd all day Jesus was exhausted, his disciples made hast to get him away for a season. "Never did a ship carry a more precious burden than that one. What a wonderful mingling of deity and humanity we have in this exhibition of supernatural power! Because of the limitations of his humanity he who now neither slumbers nor sleeps had need of rest". Due to his need his disciples never disturbed him. yet for the fishermen the danger was very real and they were afraid for themselves and their divine passenger. However he could sleep easily due to his perfect trust in his Fathers care. Yet we have his awakening with the cry of his distraught disciple "Master save us! We persish" His only instrument of power was his word however. "Is this miracle not related to the disorder, disharmony and confusion of nature in which Christ alone is the queller?" After silencing the chaos and mugging the discord of their naturalistic afflictions he turns and chastises the followers for their lack of faith, yet they were not entirely without faith they knew of his supernatural powers, yet they failed to believe that sleeping or waking made no difference to him, they should have known no storm tossed ship could possibly sink with him on board. The Titanic was deemed unsinkable by many before it set sail and met it's tragic fate through an iceberg, here nature did destroy a vessel much larger than the one Jesus was occupying, however "pride cometh before a fall" and human arrogance as been germ behind all the tragedy and ailments of our current lives now, regenerating time and again now and throughout history. The raging sea is ever an illustration of the restlessness of sin within our own hearts, never satisfied unless quenched by the voice of he who made all things. The word itself when read speaks order into our chaos, spiritual substance into the madness, and never ending disorder of our lives. The wind is the blast of persecution. The blast of wind only allows the roots to burrow deeper. The tempest driven boat is the church of christ as it sails across the ocean of the worlds history to the "other side" of life beyond the grave. As Noah and his family the kernel of the whole of humanity once contained in the ark tossed on the waters of the deluge, so the kernel of the new humanity, the new creation, christ and his apostles in this little ship, the waves of the world rage against it, yet never prevail in it, because christ is in it..
Is Jesus in your boat? Without it you may well be in the Titanic right now, crossing the Atlantic full of pompous self assertion, surrounded by wealth and materialistic possessions, yet how many of those wealthy people could be saved by their wealth when the ship began to sink beneath the watery depths? There is one name alone who can bring order to the chaos and through that name alone He speaks order to our tempestuous waves of physical, mental and emotional instability.
No comments:
Post a Comment