THE SILENCE

Jodi and Connor

 

By Jodi Hawkins                                                                    

Mark 3:1-6

Now He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a paralyzed hand.  In order to accuse Him, they were watching him closely to see whether He would heal him on the Sabbath.  He told the man with the paralyzed hand, “Stand before us.”  Then He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?”  But they were SILENT.  After looking around at them with anger and sorrow at the hardness of their hearts, He told the man, “Stretch out your hand.”  So he stretched out it out, and his hand was restored.  Immediately the Pharisees went out and started plotting with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him.

OK. So once again I stand on the threshold of mind-blowingness at the Holy Word of God.  I know that mind-blowingness is not a word, but there isn’t a word in the language currently that describes this indescribable overwhelming realization of how very big God is, how amazingly the Holy Spirit opens up eyes and ears to read pages printed on a piece of paper and then your whole world can become the highest supersonic high-def you could ever dare to envision.

Thankfully as disturbing as it is to my perceived human reality, He chooses to still blow up these pages for me…and by the way, there is nothing special about me.  If you ask, He will do the same for you.  He is mind-blowing like that.

So, this morning as I read these –literally– six sentences, I realized the irony of some things.  Like, why would you even need to ask someone which is better, to kill or to save, let alone, men of God?  Is this for real? These guys Jesus is speaking to are not just some people hanging out at the synagogue. They are keepers of the law; they know it inside and out. They eat, live and breathe the LAW.  Ah, but you see, here’s where it gets tricky.  They know the books, they know the statutes, they know what’s acceptable in that particular church society.  I mean, it was handed down to them from God. 

Adherence to Law over Love.  Sound familiar?

So, why can’t they answer a question that my son could at 10?  Good question. 

Note their silence.  Do you suppose they are quiet because it is one of the laws not to heal on the Sabbath?  Maybe they are posing the word heal instead of work at their discretion.  And since when did healing someone or helping someone –if you have the means and the power– become work?  Put the brakes on. Maybe they just don’t like the fact that this guy, Jesus, is doing things they could never dream of doing (side note:  He is not reaping the benefits of the human affluence and opulence that these men of God are) and so they are intimidated. Of course, we know this is what Jesus came for, to bring truth to earth so that we might be put back into right standing with our heavenly Father since the fall in the garden –but mind you, people still make their own decisions, and many up to this very moment are dangerously wielding the freedom that Jesus died to give them. I pray we wield it carefully.

So they are indignant and silent.  This angers and sorrows Jesus.  Remember these are the same people for whom he’s going to suffer much anguish, mental, physical and spiritual pain.  Because He suffered for ALL people to have the same opportunity of freedom from death, if they accept it (that’s the important part).  Okay, so Jesus heals the man and IMMEDIATELY the Pharisees head out to start plotting his demise.

Do you see the hardness of their hearts and why Jesus is so angered and sorrowful?  They follow the law but have no love.  They can recite the whole Law from memory, yet they have no compassion for those who are hurting.  They are hypocrites.  They are misrepresenting God and for Jesus this is a HUGE problem. As it should be for us today.

So as I am digesting these verses this morning, I had earlier read a post on Facebook on some stats of the “church”:

Why does the church in the West retain 90+% of God's resources for itself?

Why does the church in the West share only the leftovers with the Nations?

Why do the unengaged and unreached people groups today still lack even minimal access to the gospel?

Why is the bulk of sacrificial offerings directed toward buildings, staff salaries, and educational materials for those already in the Kingdom?

These stats are taken from a book, The Insanity of Obedience by Nik Ripken.  A book I would highly recommend to anyone who is interested in understanding what we as Christians need to be focused on (not just a few chosen by the way, this is a mandate to anyone who claims to follow Jesus).  It’s the same thing Jesus was and is focused on, the commission to go to the Nations and spread the gospel to the ends of the earth. Whether in your own neighborhood or across the world, in some way.

Okay, so with that Facebook post reeling in my head as I am reading this scripture, this one thing kept popping up in my mind: “Are we any different, us Christians?” Are we all bound up in the law so much, church traditions, and our own ideals of what it means to be “Christian,” that we forget to love?  Well, then if we are it’s no wonder the world doesn’t notice us, no wonder they can’t tell us apart from everyone else, no wonder they don’t see us as different, no wonder all this time has passed since Jesus suffered and died on that cross and there are still people who haven’t even heard his name in our neighborhood, let alone in the Nations.

I don’t know if what I am trying to say is getting through.  I pray it does.  I don’t have any theological training, as you can tell, but I do have the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t make me an expert in conveying this. It makes me a sinner like anyone who is reading this, a sinner who is allowing God to work out her own salvation, as Paul puts it, with fear and trembling.  And I tell you this one is going to be important.  I’d say imperative.

So please, wake up Church –myself not excluded. Stop worrying about raising more money for a better sound system when there are people who have never heard the name of Jesus Christ or know the sole purpose of his life and death.  Stop planning church picnics and potlucks when people in your neighborhood are suffering physically for lack of resources and spiritually for need of the gospel.  Stop worrying about church rules and rhetoric and do the thing that Jesus wants us to do. To love, the rest will follow.

Please Father God I pray that we wake up.  I pray that we don’t stand silently by in our churchness while only a stone’s throw away people suffer for lack of the truth that Jesus lived and died to bring.  I pray when Jesus asks us if it’s lawful on the Sabbath to save life or to kill, we respond with the right answer, the right action. If you’re not sure what that right action or word is, just look at the cross again. As a matter of fact, don’t take your eyes off it, church.   

Too much is at stake.

I pray that those who have eyes would see and those who have ears would hear. 

Jodi Hawkins is: Wife and mother

                              Follower of Jesus Christ

                              Intercessor

                              Missionary