Mark 1 41-42 41 Jesus
was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he
said. “Be clean!” 42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.
– St. Mark
When I read this today, I thought, now wait a minute, I
thought Jesus was filled with compassion for this man and reached out and
healed him. So, I looked up the passage in a printed Bible (I tend to use an
electronic version these days) and sure enough, it read: “Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man…”
So, I thought: why the need for
indignation? What’s up with that!?
I read also today, the account of the quail in Numbers 11
where the people grumble to Moses that they are sick and tired of manna, and
they want some meat. They don’t just want,
they crave some meat. God was
indignant. And God was insulted that they had rejected His miraculous provision
of manna and were demanding other food.
I think we prefer a Jesus meek and mild. By, meek, I
think we mean weak. A tame Jesus is more palatable to our modern western minds.
Don’t rock the boat Jesus, You’ll offend
people! A tame Jesus is a lame Jesus. Of course he was indignant with the
man’s request for healing!! Jesus expected them to recognize His messiahship,
and they were like us: O Lord, we are so
unworthy! If You could find it in Your busy schedule to help us, that’d be
great. They came to God wanting Him to do something but not expecting Him
to respond.
Most, today, prayer in fear. We say we hope God hears us, but our use of the
word hope betrays an expectation He won’t. For some reason, we pray timid
prayers (if we even pray at all) because we fear God – not in respect, but in
fear that He is indifferent to who we are and the struggles we have. Why demand
quail? Because of fear manna wasn’t good enough. It’s one thing to fear God; it’s
another to be afraid of Him.
And there are those who teach us to cower before God. If
we’re to do that why does He invite us to come to Him? Why does He even speak
to and with us? If God is some celestial meanie, why bother? It’s because we’ve
been taught that God will put up with our arrogance that He is too busy or
otherwise unconcerned or unable to help us.
The God of the Old Testament and the God of the New are
the same God. God dealt with the
Jewish nation in the Old Testament to rid them of their Egyptianity. God showed Himself worthy of their praise AND
thanksgiving! But they believed that He was somehow not good enough because
there was no meat. The same people, centuries later, complained of the same
thing believing Jesus to be just one more in the crowd of a corrupt priesthood
that cared more about their perks than their people.
Can we insult God? Perhaps. Can we come to God with
doubting, fearful hearts and expect Him to receive it well? Perhaps not. Without faith it is impossible to please
Him, for he that comes to God must believe that He is and He is a rewarder of
those who diligently seek Him, Hebrews 11.6.
Father God, Create in me a pure heart, and renew a
steadfast spirit within me. Do not indignantly cast me from your presence or
take your Holy Spirit from me because of my unfounded and phony fear of You.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to
sustain me. Amen
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