Be God's Healing Agent In Your Community

In life we have all kinds of treasure boxes. Some boxes contain beautiful memories and others bad ones. Beautiful memories could be good encouragement words received; successes in life such as graduation, first paycheck, first house, wedding, children. Bad memories could be something in our past that was difficult to get over; or a bad word that deeply affected us; job loss; or loss of a loved one. As we live our lives, we keep adding to these treasure boxes, some of us in helpful ways and others in not so helpful ways. Jesus had sent his disciples in mission, to contribute to people’s treasure boxes in helpful ways. They were back from their mission and were happy to debrief. Jesus invited them to a quiet place for some rest and to recharge. That quietness became short-lived because they met a big crowd on the other side of the lake. Jesus saw them, was moved with pity because they were like sheep without shepherd, so he began to teach them. He did not say: I am tired, what are you doing here? He knew each one’s troubles, and how needy they were. As Christian believers, we are called to follow Christ in everything and become Christ’s healing agents in our community. Israel’s leaders were supposed to be shepherds of God’s people but they were not doing their jobs, especially in that moment at the lake. Jesus cared about the crowd and made sure they knew they were in God’s holy presence. That is true spiritual leadership! Jesus is the great shepherd who heals us. With him, there is no wants. He understands us,forgives us and restores us to health of our mind, body and soul. Don’t let anything in your treasure boxes bring you down, rather, come to Jesus and constantly surrender those burdens you were never meant to carry. When we encounter Jesus, our entire worldview is challenged, his words and actions become steps in our pathway. The crowd was seeking healing; encouragement; they were in desperate need, because life events had bruised them greatly and they had no psychiatrists or heart surgeons. These are miracles we take for granted. They were looking for God’s divine hand to heal them. Can you imagine? Knee replacements, cancer treatments... Israel’s leaders were nowhere to be found. Remember when Jesus said whatever you do to one of the least of these brothers of mine you did it to me? The leaders were missing in action here! Could we be Missing In Action too? MIA at the very heart of what God is doing because we are distracted by the center of our own lives? God’s word in Jeremiah 23 was a pointed rebuke to these leaders: “Woe to you, shepherds who scatters and destroy my flock.” It’s as if this same thing was happening here again, the leaders were nowhere to be found. The sheep were hurting and limping and yet the leaders were not doing anything. Earlier, Jesus had sent his disciples to care for the sheep, to chase out demons and proclaim the good news of salvation and forgiveness of sins. We learn that Jesus’ spiritual leadership is about love, compassion, justice and goodness. He was at the same time: a servant and King of all creation. But look at Israel’s leaders and King Herod. They were selfish. They didn’t care about God’s people. They cared about themselves and their own interests. There, we see our human impulse is to take care of ourselves: me; myself; mine and my own, but Jesus challenged his followers to be different: Not to try to get more for ourselves, but to be godly; to choose the God-like thing/ caring for others. So, what does this mean for us? What are we expected to do? You and I are appointed as agents of healing in our communities. Hurry, deposit godly things in other people’s treasure boxes in a helpful way! Pray for others, help them in any way you can! Praying for healing is not the priest’ job alone! It is the job of everyone. Ask how people are doing in real life; call and offer some help. That might not be our comfortable zone, but we need to build good relationships with each other: Friendship carry some healing! Invite someone: Come to my house! Get to know each other deeply. I bet one of us here might have an undiscovered healing gift. Come between the 2 services and allow other believers to pray for you. Jesus said: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Be God's healing agent in your community! Amen.