Bumping Into Jesus

In Luke 8, we read about the the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years without stop. You know the story: Jesus is walking among a huge crowd on the way to help a synagogue leader with his ill daughter. In the midst of all the jostling and bumping this crowd is causing, Jesus stops cold and says ‘Somebody touched me’.

The disciples must have been wondering if Jesus was joking. Imagine you are leaving a huge sports event through a narrow gate, squeezing yourself through the crowd, almost being smooshed, then suddenly shouting “Hey - who just touched me?”

The disciples are like ‘Um, Jesus, it’s kinda crowded.”

But then Jesus says this: ”Someone deliberately touched me, for I felt healing power go out from me.” (Luke 8:46)

This is amazing to me. I have no doubt that every person in that crowd has something going on in their life, some issue where they could really use the power of God. Why else would they be swarming him unless they had needs which needed to be met?

But the people who inadvertently bumped into Jesus didn’t receive a blessing from him. It was the woman who, out of faith, touched Jesus with a purpose in mind.

In Velvet Elvis, Rob Bell discusses Malachi 4:2: “…the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings…” He points out that the ‘wings’ discussed here are the tassels at the end of a prayer shawl.

This woman didn’t happen to touch the edges of Jesus’ robe. She knew exactly what she was doing. She had a specific purpose in what she was doing. Her touching Jesus wasn’t on accident and it wasn’t haphazard. She set her sights on the edge of his robe because she believed he was Messiah.

I see people who go to church on Sunday, but who don’t actually follow God as being people who are bumping into Jesus. Every Sunday for a couple hours, they’re like ‘hey! Jesus! How have you been? Nice to see you! Well you take it easy for the rest of the week now, you hear?’

You don’t get anything out of accidentally bumping into Jesus.

But when you reach for him with purpose and with all your mind, strength, spirit and soul; you’re going to receive the blessing of his presence in your life. Notice that Jesus doesn’t bestow a blessing on her. It happens automatically due to her faith.

Let us in the Christian community stop being part of the mob that’s kind of going around spectating what Jesus does, occasionally bumping into him, and let’s instead set our target on connecting with him and receiving the healing and blessing he wants us to have.

Stop bumping into Jesus and start grabbing hold of him, even if it’s just the strands of clothing at the very fringe of his presence.

The God of Here and Now

There is no yesterday for God. There is no tomorrow. There is here and now.

God created time. It doesn’t limit him.

There’s a reason the Bible says ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever’ (Hebrews 13:8). It’s because he can’t change from one minute to the next. He simply exists.

For God, each moment is infinite, yet he also exists across all of time in a moment. (2 Peter 3:8)

He is right now at the creation of the world. Right now at the end of this age. Right now at your birth. Right now he is pouring his wrath out on Jesus at the cross.

Now this is the point when the whole ‘how can I really have free will if God already knows what I’m going to do’ debate comes up.

Here’s where I stand on it: God is able to know what you’ll decide without interfering with your free will. He’s God. He can do things we can’t even fathom.

God is not surprised when we get sick. Or when we sin. Or when our car breaks down.

He’s the God who is here and now. As we make our way through life, we do well to remember that we are anchored to the one who is above and beyond everything we are dealing with.

There’s no tomorrow for him. There’s now.

God's Cooking

I think God works more like a crock pot than a microwave.

When you cook with a crock pot, you put in some base ingredients and let the juices of the ingredients mingle together and slowly absorb into the vegetables and meat and beans and whatever else you throw in there. Occasionally, you may open it briefly to add a new ingredient during the process.

But by and large, you give it everything it needs, then you apply heat and you wait. It simmers and slowly swirls around, enhancing flavor and texture over the course of a half a day.m cook slowly over the course of time. You let the juices of the ingredients mingle together and slowly absorb into the vegetables and meat and beans and whatever else you throw in there. Occasionally, you may open it briefly to add a new ingredient during the process.

A microwave? It just makes things really hot, really fast.

You can cook stuff in the microwave, sure. But it’s not going to taste anywhere near as good as the crockpot. Also, you’ll have to do a lot of preparation before the microwave if you want stuff to come out tasty in the end. The microwave doesn’t do anything to enhance flavor, and not a whole lot to enhance texture unless you get it ready for that intense burst of heat.

Crock pot cooking doesn’t need a lot of preparation. You just put the right ingredients in and close the lid.

We live in a microwave society. We want it all and we want it now. If I want chili, I don’t want it in 4 hours, I want it in 10 minutes. So I’m going to open a can of slop and nuke it. It’s not very good, but it’s good enough…I guess.

I don’t think God is a “good enough” God. He does it the right way instead of the easy way. He’s willing to take a longer process to get a better result.

God once told me ‘be more worried about who you are than where you are’. The journey, the process isn’t an inconvenience to him. It’s just as (if not more) important than the end result.

I read “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years” by Donald Miller this week and it really opened my eyes to this. God is telling a story in our lives. If you went to a movie and it was over in 5 minutes, you’d be ticked. If I said “But you saw the results!”, it wouldn’t satisfy you. You go to a movie to see the story start, and develop and then finish. You’re paying to go on a journey, not just to arrive at a destination.

So as you simmer and stew sometimes in life, don’t try to force God to rush. Half stewed potatoes aren’t very good.