Witness by Loving

Psalm 71:1-6                     Hebrews 12:18-29                             Luke 13:10-17

Witness by Loving

A friend recently sent me a video clip of a street preacher in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It was a disturbing video to watch. The red-faced, angry man was ranting and raving over a megaphone so loudly that his yelling was on the verge of distortion. But the most distressing part of his performance for me was the content of his message. With every sentence, he rained down on those who walked by, hellfire and brimstone, destruction and damnation, judgement and condemnation. 

Now, don’t get me wrong. I have absolutely nothing against street preachers. A good friend of mine is a street preacher…but his approach is ever so different. No megaphone…no shouting…no hell and damnation message. Instead, he loves on passers-by…he does not thrust himself on unsuspecting pedestrians…yes, he will attempt to engage them in conversation and if they have time, he will chat with them about whatever they want to talk about…he will offer to pray with folks…he loves on the homeless and the destitute and the marginalised. So many people have met Jesus through this man’s gentle, loving ministry. 

Both these street preachers would claim to be speaking for God, but their approach and their style and their message and, dare I say, their hearts are very different.

The man in Chattanooga reminded me of rather painful event in my childhood. When we were little, my brother and I would bathe together in our bathtub. This particular evening, as children will be children, we got a little too active in the water and soon some of it – well, quite a bit of it – was on the floor and slowly trickling out under the door. Our fun stopped quite abruptly when my father burst through the door, grabbed both of us by the hair, and literally dragged us by our hair to our bedroom. He ripped off his belt and proceeded to beat us on our naked bodies with the buckle. He beat and he beat and he beat until he could beat no more. He only stopped once he was completely exhausted. And then he left. But the saddest part of it all was that my father felt quite justified for what he had done. 

The funny thing is this traumatic event resurfaced in my mind while I was listening to the Chattanooga street preacher. I can’t help wondering if his words did not feel like being struck over and over and over again with a belt buckle. 

Now, as I read our Gospel lesson for today, I saw a similar contrast between two men both claiming to represent God. Luke tells us that while Jesus was teaching in a Synagogue on the Sabbath day, a crippled women who was so bent over that she could not stand up straight, was present. Jesus called her forward and then he healed her. In response, she gave glory to God.

What would your response have been had you witnessed this miracle? Would you be happy for her? Would you praise God with her? 

Surprisingly, the leader of synagogue responded in anger. Jesus had broken an unwritten cultural code of ethics. According to the Oral Law, you were not allowed to heal anyone on the Sabbath, unless the person’s life was threatened, which was clearly not the case with this woman. That was the way it had been done since the Jews returned from Exile and this leader was not about to allow things to change!

You know, it never ceases to amaze me how angry people can get when things are not done the way they have always been done! Even some of the most trivial things can become quite explosive and divisive. Nicky Gumbel once said that he had heard of one man who had been a churchwarden in the same church for forty-six years. Someone said to him: ‘Over those forty-six years you must have seen so many changes.’ ‘Yes, I have,’ the churchwarden replied, ‘and I have resisted every single one of them.’ Nicky then went on to tell another story of a vicar who wanted to move his piano from one side of the church to the other side, and he knew there’d be a lot of resistance. So, he decided to do it gradually. He moved it one foot every week until it was the other side of the church in a year’s time!

The leader of the synagogue was certainly not about to let Jesus change tradition, miracle or no miracle. His response was swift, angry, and accusing. Be healed on any other day, but not the Sabbath.

Now, I want you to try to imagine the woman’s thoughts at this point…Luke doesn’t tell us how she responded, but I think it is important for us to think about it. Her initial response was to praise God. Do you think she was still praising God after being yelled at? Can you imagine the self-doubt and the confusion in her mind? She hadn’t asked for this healing. Jesus had freely given it to her. But if what she had received was wrong in the eyes of God, according to the synagogue leader, then was her joy an appropriate response? Should she not perhaps have felt guilt and shame for breaking the tradition of the elders?

I don’t want to skip past this too quickly because I want you to make the connection between this synagogue leader and the Chattanooga street preacher. I think that both these men truly believed that their words and actions were righteous…that they were pleasing God in what they said and did. 

Their focus was on the principle.

But Jesus’ focus was on the person. 

So, which one of these men represented the biblical God? 

The glee that some folks like our synagogue leader and our Chattanooga street preacher feel when chiding, correcting, and condemning people to hell is in stark contrast with the God of the Scriptures, who does not wish one person to be lost. The message of the Old Testament is one of collective human failure. Even the best human being couldn’t live a godly and holy life…even the wisest of them all made some grave mistakes. As such, the Law by itself was terrifying. 

But God knew that and he wanted to make sure we knew that. We have 39 books all telling us the same thing…if God was not gracious, loving, kind, merciful, forgiving, and compassionate, we would be hopelessly lost as we are completely unable to measure up to our manufacturing standards.

All have sinned…all have fallen short…no one seeks after God…no one does what is right…no, not one…that is the message of the Scriptures. But for the mercy of God, but for the compassion of God, but for the forgiveness of God, but for the grace of God, there go I. An impenetrable wall stands between humanity and God – our sin has built a barrier between us and God – but God, in his infinite love, has come to break down that wall of separation.

God loves the world – he loves it enough to give his only Son to take the penalty for sin upon himself. And Jesus did not come into the world to condemn it – he came to save it. 

The author of the book of Hebrews tells us that we have a mediator whose shed blood cries out for reconciliation not for vengeance as did the blood of Abel. He has removed the wall, effectively opening to all who believe in him the very portals of heaven. Through him we can now enter the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. Through him we can stand in the presence of thousands of angels in the joyful assembly. Through him our names are written in heaven. 

Our method of witness should therefore not focus on the negative but on the positive. Jesus came to seek the lost, to heal the sick, to restore the rejected, and to welcome the discarded. He did not come to condemn but to save. Why do we think we…we who are as imperfect as the next person…why do we think that we are on a higher moral ground? Who are we to condemn fellow sinners? 

Now, before you label me a heretic, allow me to say that I do not hold to a universalist position. I do believe that Jesus is the only way, the only truth, and the only source of life and that no one can be saved except through him. I do believe that there is a literal hell and I weep with God for those who stubbornly resist his call to salvation. 

But what I am objecting to here is the method used when telling others about our faith. Like the cripple woman in the synagogue, most people are well aware that something is wrong with them. We know this because we see their unhappiness is spelled out in their behaviour…all seek to fill a void with something, be that something money, material things, a pursuit of pleasure or any other thing used in the quest for meaning and fulfilment. 

Augustine once admitted that he spent years looking for God in things outside of himself…that he threw himself upon the beautiful things that God had made…and yet his heart remained restless until it found its rest in God. People still do the same. They look for fulfilment because they know that they are empty. We don’t need to tell them that.

What we do need to tell them is that in spite of their refusal to turn to God, his love for them never changes. It was God’s love that brought me into the kingdom…not his anger. It was at a Youth for Christ rally where a man sang a song entitled “Rise Again”. The words of the second verse hit me like a freight train. “Go ahead and mock my name, my love for you is still the same.” I knew there was something wrong with my life. Life had screamed that into me. I was miserable and looking in all the wrong places for something to heal my fractured soul. Until someone dared to tell me that God loves me.

The man who sang the song and subsequently prayed with me and for me, knew who I was. People had already told him what I was and what I had done. I’d also met him earlier that day and had tried everything in my power to make him lose his temper. Once he shouted at me, I could easily write him off as a hypocrite. But he did not get angry with me, and I found this intriguing. I can imagine that this must have been the same kind of fascination that drew people like the tax-collectors, sinners, and other outcastes to Jesus. He was not like the other righteous people who shunned them, No, rather he accepted them…he talked to them…he touched them…he loved them…all the while never condoning their behaviour or dismissing their need for repentance and forgiveness. This ought to make us ask ourselves the question: “Why focus on the badness and sinfulness of humanity when there’s so much more one can talk about when it comes to the goodness and the greatness of God?”

There is a world of difference between the method used by the synagogue leader on the one hand and the method used by our Lord on the other. Just like there is a world of difference between the method used by the Chattanooga street preacher and my street preacher friend. The one attracts and the other repels. The one instils fear while the other invokes praise. 

So, tell me, how do you speak to others about God? Now I don’t think any of you would yell at people, or, at least, I would hope not, but one can also shout through your actions. A look, a glare, a turning away…our “body language”…there are many ways to show disapproval. 

Or do you model the living Word in a way that would encourage others to follow Jesus? Do you love those people around you that do not know Jesus? Do you love them enough to walk a journey with them and to show them the heart of the Father through the way you live your life? 

Yes, words are very helpful when we need to explain our faith to others…certain methods can also help us organise those words so that our presentation of the Gospel is comprehensive and clear. 

But there is nothing quite so powerful as a life that demonstrates both a love for God as well as a love for people. There’s nothing quite so attractive as a life that points people to the awesomeness of God.

Shall we pray?

© Johannes w H van der Bijl 2022