Healing Hands: Become Known Mark 6:13-16
Text: 13 They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.14 King Herod heard about this, for Jesus’ name had become well known. Some were saying, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.” 15 Others said, “He is Elijah.” And still others claimed, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of long ago.” 16 But when Herod heard this, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised from the dead!”
Notes:
- Recap: In this series, we’ve been talking about becoming healing hands. Two weeks ago we said that the Church can serve as the hem of Jesus’ garment. If the world can touch the Spirit-filled Church and be touched by the Spirit-filled Church, they can be ushered into the presence of the living God. Last week, we said the Spirit-filled Church moves to the rhythm of gathering and going out as we are sent forth to preach repentance, or the changing of one’s mind or worldview. This week I want to talk about how important it is that we be known to the community as a Church that offers healing hands, one that provides mercy, grace and healing in the name of Jesus Christ to the community. Becoming known as a place of mercy, grace and healing is critical for us as a Church to carry out our kingdom mission.
- They say the only difference between a rat and a squirrel is good public relations. The main point I want to make today is that a Church that is a Church of healing hands does not need good PR. The Church only needs to carry out its mission of being a people of mercy, grace and healing in the name of Jesus and we will become known to the community as a people of love.
- Illustration: Last week Shari McCutcheon spoke at our Committee on Missions meeting about the Pure Initiative, an abstinence-based education program in southern Indiana for young people that teaches sexual integrity. She said she is becoming known for her work in the Pure Initiative program. A teenager recently approached her at a store and asked her if she was a teacher. She said no but that she was a guest speaker from time to time. The young student replied, “That’s right. You’re the sex talk woman.”
- Illustration: My step-father was somewhat of a celebrity in the county in which he lived back in his day. He was a county agricultural agent in a farming community, which are in high demand local celebrities, in some regards. He spent his days visiting farmers and offering advice about crops and livestock, advice on which the farmers’ livelihoods depended. He spoke to farmers groups and at Farm Bureau meetings, and he had a regular radio program on WHIC which stood for Hardinsburg, Irvington and Cloverport, but which the locals called HIC (i.e. country “hick”) radio. But if you really knew my stepfather, more than anything you knew him as a follower of Jesus. He exemplified Christian kindness and compassion like no man I have ever met. He would tell you he was a Sunday School teacher and Church moderator before he would tell you about his career, he felt so strongly about his Church.
- Mark tells us that Jesus had become known in Galilee and through Judea. What was he known for? A growing number of people knew him because of stories of the demons he had driven out and of his healings. This was accurate enough, as Jesus himself said in John 10:10, “…I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Still others gossiped about him, saying he was a sinner, a drunkard and a visitor of prostitutes.
- King Herod had his own opinions of who Jesus was. As Jesus’ message and the witness of his disciples began to spread across the land, King Herod became worried. He was worried because people were saying that Jesus was John the Baptist raised from the dead. This was worrisome to Herod, because Herod, you may recall, had ordered John Baptist decapitated and his head served on a platter. Herod was afraid that Jesus was the ghost of John the Baptist come back to haunt him and do him harm.
- Just as Herod and everyone else was wondering who this Jesus is, so today people are forming opinions about who Jesus is and what His Church is all about. What is the Church? What are we about? What are we up to? How do we measure up as a Church in relation to the needs of the community we are called to serve with healing hands?
- I think it is completely fair for the Church to be judged based on how Jesus said we should all be measured. He said in Matthew 7:16-20: 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.” A church makes an impact when its members bear spiritual fruit by being attuned to and responding to the Holy Spirit.
- We have an uphill battle in becoming known to the community, because in this post-Christian culture that we live in, more and more people see the Church as a relic, as a quaint pleasant memory from their childhood but no longer find the Church relevant to their lives. Others see the Church as an object of derision and mockery, making fun of its belief in God and Spirit in this scientific, technological age. Still, others harbor ill feelings against the Church because they see it as judgmental, holier-than-thou and hypocritical. If we are going to be the Church that reaches the community and world for Jesus Christ than we must bear witness to the grace, power, love and salvation of Jesus Christ. Each one of us.
- Where do we begin? Let’s begin with the simple words of John the Baptist. He said in Matthew 3:8, “Produce fruit worthy of repentance.” We should bear fruit worthy of metanoia, which, as we discussed last week, means a changed mind, a changed worldview. If we are truly a people of repentance, saved by the blood of Jesus, we are a new creation, and we should live with a new worldview that is nothing like the old way we used to think and live.
- There is a worldview that brings life and fullness, and there is a worldview that brings death and emptiness. The worldview that brings death and emptiness. Paul writes in Galatians 5 describes clearly for us what these two worldviews entail: 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” A person who trusts his life in the hands of God, a person of faith, will bear this kind of fruit.
- In contrast, Paul says in Galatians 5, a person with a worldview of unbelief will live according to the way of the flesh. Now that word flesh comes from the Greek word sarx, and the closest thing we have to that word sarx today, according to Franciscan monk and teacher Richard Rohr, is the word “ego.” So anytime Paul uses the word flesh, it is helpful to translate it as ego. Listen to Paul describe the way a person with a fleshly or ego worldview lives: “19The acts of the flesh (ego) are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Now I don’t suppose a whole lot of Church folk are practicing voodoo witchcraft these days in Jeffersonville, but I do know is that if you have hatred, discord, jealously, fits of rage, selfish ambition, envy, drunkenness, dissensions and factions in your life, you are living in the ego, with the old worldview. You need metanoia, repentance, a new way of thinking, the mind of Christ, to transform you into a new creation.
- In the end, Church, it doesn’t matter how many likes you have on Facebook, what kind of marketing you have done for your image, what kind of car you drive, how shiny your shoes are, how hip your blue jeans, the depth and width of your bank account. It matters if you are all in. Are you all in in the way of Jesus. If you have changed your mind, if you have experienced metanoia/repentance, and, as John said, if you are producing fruit worthy of this changed mind.
- What matters is that you give your life to Jesus. He will mold you and make you after his will. He will transform the ugly life that Paul speaks of in Galatians and make it something beautiful, something good. And as you are going onto salvation, growing in holiness, becoming sanctified, the Lord will use you and your brothers and sisters in Christ at New Chapel UMC in a powerful way. He will give us hands that in the name of Jesus offer grace, mercy and healing.
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