Wilt Thou Be Made Whole?

In the last week there have been two high profile, mass shootings in the U.S.: Ft. Hood and the office building in Orlando. I was privy to a conversation where the question was posed after much expression of shock and angst: So, When is the next school shooting/campus shooting...What is the matter with this world? This is how I replied.

We live in a dark, fallen and broken world. That is the answer to your question. Now let us ask: how do we stop it? What or who will be the change, bring the hope, garner the peace? What or who can take away the anger? What or who can heal the rage and stop the impulsive drive to hurt others? Psychiatry, prescription drugs, self help books, Dr. Phil, Oprah, financial security, reformed healthcare, herbal cleansing or yoga? Who or what can change the hearts of men? 

Before any of those questions can be answered, there is one that must proceed them all. The question: Will we be made whole? If the answer is before us, will we receive it no matter what it costs us? 

We want out of the darkness but rather than turn on the light, we'd rather grope around looking for a flashlight so we don't see more than we want to see. We want help getting up but we'd rather not take the hand if it appears attached to obligations or changes that extend beyond our immediate need. We want healing for our brokenness, but not if it requires turning away from what broke us in the first place. 

So we sit in our homes and ask, what will happen next? I think the greatest question is are we willing to do what is required to change things so there won't be a "next"?

Of course if you know my heart at all, you already know the greater answer to this question is Jesus Christ, but to this person, I can not share such outright truth yet because her heart is hardened. But should she ever make it here, I pray for ears to hear, eyes to see and a heart ready to receive. 

Jesus is the answer to every question, every need, every desire. In John Chapter 6, we find the story of the man at the pool Bethesda. The man was waiting by the water for it to stir. Legend had it, the first to enter the pool after the stirring of the water, would be healed of his infirmity. Jesus came on the scene and seeing the man there, where he'd been for 38 years, He asked: Wilt thou be made whole?" (John 5:6 KJV) This question seems to have an obvious answer...afterall, he'd been sitting at the same pool of water for 38 years. In fact his answer to Jesus in Verse 7 is: “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” (NIV) Isn't it curious that he didn't say "yes" but rather, I don't have anyone to help me, for he was waiting for an answer from this world...he was waiting for a man to help him even though he was just outside the Temple of God. But Jesus, full of mercy and grace, didn't condemn him for his lack of faith or the reason for his infirmity which is later indicated as a result of sin, rather He healed him there saying: "Take up thy bed and walk" (v11 KJV). And the man, after lying there for 38 years, did just that. Later when Jesus came across him in the temple, He said to the man: "Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you." (v 14 NASB) This indicates that perhaps the man would end up right where Jesus found him if he didn't make some changes in his life and his wholeness would return to brokenness. 

Such is the way with our own lives. We can come to Jesus and ask for forgiveness but if we turn back to the same sins, we will not be whole. We will still be saved, but we will not be whole. And our lives will lack joy, good fruit and spiritual growth. Our witness to the world will be that of a hypocrite, or of no real value seen only in the change of a truly repentant sinner...repent means to turn and walk in the opposite direction. If we simply return to our sin, our testimony is corrupted. Sure we can have remorse and be forgiven, but by returning to our sin, we are putting back on the chains from which we were freed. Where is the joy in that?

Paul tells us in Romans 12:1-2 (NIV): Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.  

When we are made whole by accepting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as payment for our sins, we are no longer bound by the power of sin in this world. We are free to walk in newness and should be compelled to share this wonderful news of freedom and wholeness with others. But if we return to our sins, we are ineffective no matter how hard we try. Be transformed by the word of God and walk it it. Take up your bed and carry it away from this world and onward toward the abundant joy of eternal life. Finally, let these words encourage you in newness and let these words be the heart behind my message:

For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.

And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 (NIV)