Who has the hardest job in the world? Obviously God does, and He can’t get it right!:- when the fisherman wants it to be fine it rains and the farmer is happy but he is not. Even with God it is a case of pleasing some of the people all the time, all the people some of the time, but never all the people all the time. This is not to say He doesn’t do what is exactly right on every occasion. Oh, the burden of leadership. Would you like to be Jesus with all authority (Matt.28:18)?
How many requests does God have in a day? What does he do with them all? How does he cope? We ought to not go down that road too far because , after all, He’s God and is anything too hard for the Lord? But by way of comparison a mother can get awfully frazzled with just one child on the hip and another tugging on her skirt.
God answers some requests in the affirmative and others in the negative: “Give us a sign!” – “no sign shall be given”: “Speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me!” – “Who made me a divider over you?”. But if Jesus asks the question of a blind man as found in Mark 10:46-52 “What will you have me do?”, it would be wise for us to ponder “Why?”. To ask (what we may reasonably call the obvious), makes us focus on what we really need or want. (Isn’t this the same as prayer where God knows what we have “need of” – and what we “want”?) What do you really want? Riches? Really? He had to focus the younger brother’s thinking (the one who wanted the older brother to split the inheritance with him). Many a rich person has said, “I’d trade it all to be happy”. Many a wife has said, “I don’t want his overtime bonus, I want him”.
How does He treat the multitude of requests the human throng make of Him? It is instructive to note that most of the requests in the ministry of Jesus were ‘selfish’ in nature:- nobody asked that he solve world hunger, establish world peace etc. Nobody asked to be able to learn from affliction. Some asked for the loved one to be returned from the grave but for whose benefit? It’s not always easy to die, and when Lazarus had successfully accomplished his sickness and death he is brought back for his sisters’ sakes, knowing that he would have to do it all over again sometime. We cannot understand all, but in Jesus we see His attitude to human requests, narrow and selfish though they be. He can give good gifts. What is a gift? – something unearned.
Can Jesus do everything? Even so, would you get sick of people coming to you with requests? In Mark 10:36 He asks James and John “What is it you want me to do for you?” They said they wanted the two chief seats beside His throne. Jesus tells them that such was not His to give (v.40). Is this indicative of powerlessness on His part? Not at all. It’s just that we can ask for things that we have no right asking for. A little later in that chapter blind Bartimaeus is asked by Jesus “What do you want me to do for you?” The answer is exactly as we might imagine – he’s blind so naturally he would want to see. But does it naturally follow? Some people, particularly born blind, have no problem with being blind. They don’t know any different and are quite comfortable with it. Sight would be just a curiosity rather than something they desperately missed. Millions of other creatures live their whole lives in darkness. I have a friend who has been in a wheel chair for over forty years. I asked him one day if there was an operation that could allow him to walk again would he have it? He said he wouldn’t! I was a little surprised but as he explained, the wheelchair had become his persona. A young man, who had been confined so long with a diseased limb, and was near death, said to a friend, “What a precious treasure this affliction has been to me! It saved me from the vanity and folly of youth; it made me cleave to God as my only portion, and the eternal glory as my only hope”. It wasn’t his first choice, but Paul learned that lesson after a time (2 Cor. 12:7-10).
Unless we understand this we might presume that Jesus’ question of the blind man is nonsensical, or even cruel:- like asking a thirsty man if he wants something to drink. (I had an uncle who had a way of answering a silly question for a thirsty man on a hot day – “Want a drink of water, Dick?” “Nah, had one yesterday!”) Note in John 5:5,6 Jesus asks a man “Will you be made whole?” Notice he had had an infirmity for 38 years. That’s a long time and don’t you know you could get used to something after 38 years – that you would have gotten a lifestyle in accordance with the limitations of the affliction, with a network and infrastructure to help. You can dig a rut anywhere
To be made whole would bring wholesale changes, and perhaps he had thought about it – perhaps not. It would mean getting a job and being self-reliant, for one thing. Perhaps one would rather deal with the infirmity than deal with retraining and the pressures of the world of work. Legion are those who prefer dealing with boredom and welfare than dealing with work. For many there is security in the welfare system that is preferable to the challenges and uncertainty of the labour market. The world is geared to sickness and what if all the sick got well and the hospitals were emptied? What of the doctors and nurses? When the pigs are drowned what of the owners?
But what Jesus has to offer today is the healing of the soul. The charismatic movement errs when it insists that the healing of Jesus is of both body and soul. Matt.11:5 shows that the healing of the body was a sign of the Messiah’s advent, in accordance with prophecy. In Matt.8:16,17 we have Isa. 53:4 quoted and some teach that Jesus died for our sins and for bodily healing. Well, when Jesus bore the sicknesses of the people in Matt.8 it was not at Calvary the atonement was made but at Capernaum! Christ made reconciliation at the cross by His death, not at Capernaum by miraculous demonstration. If Christ’s death removes sickness in the same manner it removes sin, then sickness would have no part in the life of a faithful Christian . If our physical health was any indication of the power of the cross, what confidence could we have in the remissions of our sins?
The Holy Spirit didn’t operate willy-nilly but in accordance with God’s purpose in Christ. Jesus, empowered with the Spirit, didn’t turn stones to bread or escape a scourging or a cross. Paul, following his Master, didn’t use the power of the Spirit to take away his thorn in the flesh. He left Trophimus sick (2 Tim. 4:20) – why? Heartlessness? No, the purposes of God can be accomplished in and through sickness as well as in health. Perhaps more lessons are learned in sickness than in health. It wasn’t that Paul tried and failed to heal Trophimus, but rather the Spirit did not move him to heal him at that time.
But Jesus would come to us today asking, What would you that I should do unto you? Some would be quite content to have Jesus give them a million dollars, or a promotion, or a new house, or a healing of some disability. Others might opt for a packet of Tim Tams that never runs out and a metabolism that would result in no weight gain! Many do not see their greatest need. This is nothing new – remember in John 6 where people wanted food over eternal life? Solomon was asked by God what he wanted and He would grant it. It is interesting and refreshing to see Solomon ask for wisdom and understanding to be good servant to his people. Because he didn’t ask for riches and good health, God granted him those as well. God can do this – cf. Matt.6:33. Those things are within Christ’s power to grant, but how would you answer?
I suspect our choice would depend on our age: a young lad may want a train set but it would be replaced by some other wish when the novelty wore off or he saw some other toy. I’m convinced that for us older people we aren’t that much different. They say the difference between men and boys is the price of their toys. It’s true that as adults we can adopt child-like attributes (in fact we are asked to – 1 Cor. 14:20), but we also ought to leave some characteristics behind – 1 Cor. 13:11. But in our desires we are very child-like so often because we are very much subject to the tyranny of the immediate – that which has our attention at the moment. If Jesus came to us on the day of the funeral of a loved one we’d ask for the departed to be returned. If He came asking on a day when we had a headache we’d probably ask for the headache to go, and congratulate ourselves on how conservative, modest and ungrasping we were, when in actual fact there were better things we could have requested (cf. 1 Cor. 12:31).
But one thing that cannot date or be superceded is the promise of eternal life, and hopefully that would be our greatest wish – perhaps the difficulty is being satisfied with that – perhaps we would want not one, but three wishes and as long as we kept things in order of priority it would not be out of place, but to want purely worldly things when our greatest need is forgiveness and eternal life would be to be carnally minded and profane, betraying a misplaced order of priorities.
Jesus never took advantage of the physically sick and he doesn’t take advantage of the spiritually sick. He stands ready to help always, but He does not force (cf. Rev. 3:20). The leper wanted to be made clean (Matt.8:2,3). What was the worst thing about leprosy? It was terminal? Hey, we’re all terminal. What was worst was the separation from family, friends, and the fellowship and worship of Israel. That’s what lepers hated most about their disease and what healthy people feared most about contracting it. He did not ask to be healed, but rather to be made clean – the healing was instrumental to the cleansing which was effected when he went to the priest and was declared clean. The leper had no doubt that Jesus had the power to heal – his only doubt was whether Jesus would take an interest in him. It is a curious thing that a man often believes that he is a special case – a case that would put him beyond the reach of Jesus. But Jesus did not hesitate, or recoil in horror, but reached out and did the unexpected – touched him- and cured him. He thus proves that He not only can but wants to cleanse us.
Why do many reject the offer of Jesus to take away our sins? Perhaps for the same reason an infirm man might choose to stay with his infirmity.
“You can’t do it”. Jesus demonstrated His power and there was no doubt. Paul, who described himself as the chief of sinners, used himself as an example of Jesus power to save.
“I’d rather wallow in my sin”. Why, what profit is there in those things (Rom. 6:21)? There is pleasure in sin, but only for a season. Then what?
“I’m scared of the new life – it’s something so foreign to me. I mean there are new responsibilities, new expectations of me, and besides, what will my friends think?” Any change can be scary, but change can also be exciting and for the better.