Luke 9:35-41
A voice came from the cloud,
saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” 36 When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The
disciples kept this to themselves, and told no one at that time what they had
seen.
37 The next day, when they came down
from the mountain, a large crowd met him. 38 A man in the crowd called out,
“Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. 39 A spirit seizes him and he
suddenly screams; it throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth.
It scarcely ever leaves him and is destroying him. 40 I begged your disciples to drive
it out, but they could not.”
41 “O unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay
with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.”
I absolutely love this passage of
scripture because we see Jesus in kind of a strange place. We’re used to seeing
him in miracle mode or teacher mode, but this story finds him in between those places.
He’s just come from the Mount of Transfiguration. I suppose you could consider this
a spiritual sabbatical of sorts. Just prior to this he had been teaching, healing,
calming storms, raising the dead…a busy season of ministry to say the least (and
you thought Christmas time was rough). So he took some time away. He went up to
the mountain to pray and refocus and get away from the crowds and even most of his
disciples. He has this amazing time on the mountain communicating with some old
buddies (i.e. Moses and Elijah). He comes back down the mountain refreshed…and here
are the people waiting for him, unchanged and needy.
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| Adam West is easily the greatest Batman of all time...sorry Christian Bale |
Like I said, I love this passage
of scripture. My yearly Bible plan takes me through it at least once and I usually
read it more than that in a year. Every time I come away with something different
and today I saw something amazing…Jesus was frustrated! Even the Lord of
all Creation was frustrated! There it is! Holy Frustration! The divine mandate for
my curmudgeon ministry!
I don’t believe he was frustrated that the people had needs, but in
their lack of spiritual maturity. Meaning, it’s not about the disciples healing
this kid, it’s about the power of God.
The fact that even Jesus got a little frustrated says a lot about me, and you, and about ministry in general. Here are two new things I took away from this passage:
1.
Jesus got frustrated…but never sinned.
a.
It’s
easy to cloak the cause of sin in frustration. Don’t let yourself get away with
saying, “I’m sorry, I only said that (or looked at you that way or treated you badly
or threw you under the bus to a church member) because I was frustrated.” Always
choose your words carefully!
i.
“The
good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the
evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of
the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.”[1]
2.
The Kid Really Was Possessed!
a.
Just
because the people were not where He might have wanted them to be spiritually doesn't mean they were just being needy…the kid was really possessed! The point here is
that Jesus, despite his frustration perhaps even to the point of disappointment,
still happily worked to meet the need. A
wise minister I worked for advised me to always love people where they are even
if that’s not where you hoped they would be.
i. “If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm
and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?”[2]
Jesus, help us to be like you. Help us to be sinless in frustration
and to love people where they are.
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