- Fred Craddock tells of an experience he once had at his home church in Oklahoma.
He was scheduled to preach at a service and part of the service was the singing of a beautiful choir. After it service was over, Craddock went around back behind the stage and ran into an elderly woman who had just finished singing. Craddock commented on how beautiful and lovely the music was. The woman looked at him and said, "Well that’s good, because that was it, I quit." Craddock said, "What do you mean you quit." She had been in the choir for decades so he thought maybe she was hanging up her robe, but that’s not what she meant. He asked again, "What do you mean you quit?" She said, "I quit." "I know what you said, but what do you mean?" She said, "All of it, church, all of it, I quit, I quit." "I look out Sunday after Sunday, I see the people singing, and talking and coming, and I quit." "Why," Craddock asked, "Why do you quit."
She simply responded, "Who cares?"
- Bum Phillips, former coach of the NFL football team, the Houston Oilers (now the Tennessee Titans) once made the comment, "There are two types of coaches in the NFL: them that have been fired, and them that are gonna be fired." His statements applies to our passage today. Because in this world, there are two types of people. Those who have been hurt, and those who will be hurt. All of us fall into one or both of those categories. If we have not been hurt, then it is only a matter of time. We can’t escape it and we can’t avoid it. And being a Christian, making a commitment to follow Christ, doesn’t mean we will have an exemption from getting hurt.
- I know that some of you here this morning are hurting. Relationships gone bad, physical ailments, financial hardships, spiritual darkness, loss of loved ones. Many of you come this morning with hurts and pains that you have kept locked up in your heart, unwilling to share it, to reveal it to anyone. Even to God. And others of you are completely unaware of the hurt that is right around the corner. Pain that is just around the bend. A week, a month, a year from now, it will happen, you will be blindsided, and you will be searching for hope.
- There are two types of people in this church: them that are hurting, and them that are gonna be hurting. Our story this morning is one for all of us. We all need it. Because in it, we see that...
1. Jesus Cares for Hurting People
- It was the Sabbath, that day that was set apart in the Ten Commandments. And as was Jesus’ custom, he was in the synagogue teaching the people. We’ve seen him there many times throughout the gospels. And often it results in fireworks. It would be no different on this particular Sabbath day.
- As he is teaching, Jesus is in the middle of his sermon and he notices a women. She is with rest of women, set apart from the men. But there is something different about her. Everyone could see what was different about her. Luke says that she was "bent over and could not straighten up." I spoke with a leading chiropractor from the city of Havana... i.e. Tony Roberts. And I asked him what this sounded like. And he said it was probably one of two things. Either she had scoliosis of the spine, where instead of her spine growing straight, it grew sideways, or at a curve. Today, there are things that could be done to help her, but in Jesus day, nothing could be done. Or she was a part of some traumatic experience. Fell off a cart, ran over by an animal, something that caused chronic, irrepairable damage to her spine. Whatever it was, and however old she was, for 18 years she had been living with this hopeless, painful, uncomfortable physical ailment. And Jesus saw her. And when he saw her, nothing else became as important as caring for that hurting woman.
- Because Jesus could not only see the physical pain that she was in. He also was able to see the spiritual pain she was suffering. And in this particular case, the cause of her ailment was none other that Satan himself. He was oppressing her. He was the one inflicting this hardship upon her. As Luke puts it, she "had been crippled by a spirit for 18 years."
- It’s important to understand at this point in the story that pain and suffering is not God’s will. It was not his intention when he created the universe, when he created man, it was never his intention for there to be pain and suffering in the world. But sin brought pain. Sin introducing suffereing and hurt. And God’s promise is that someday, we who know him and have accepted his son, will enter a new heaven and new earth, where all pain and suffering is extinguished forever.
- But until that day comes, that day we spoke of last week, there will always hurting people in the world. And wherever there are hurting people, Jesus will be there as well. Because, Jesus cares for those who are hurting. Just listen to these verses in Luke’s gospel that display the compassion of Jesus...
"When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. ’Where have you laid him?’ ’Come and see, Lord.’ Jesus wept." (John 11)
"They laughed at Jesus, knowing that she was dead. But he took her by the hand and said, ’My child, get up!"
"But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him, he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him." (Luke 15)
"But Jesus called the children to him and said, ’Let the little children come to me." (Lk 18)
"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."
"I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."
- Jesus cares for hurting people. He wants to give us hope, to give us the strength to endure. The promise is not that he will take away all of our pain and suffering, though he may choose to do so. The promise is that he will always be there with us as we go through it. The promise is that he will care for us,
- as a mother cares for her sick child
- as a doctor cares for a hurting patient
- as a father lifts his fallen son
- so Jesus will care for us.
- There are two types of people, them that are hurting, and them that are gonna be hurting. Which ever one you are, Jesus cares. And because Jesus cares, we should care as well.
2. The Church should care for hurting people
- It’s astounding to think that these religious leaders were so consumed with their laws and tradition that they failed to see the amazing miracle that had just happened. Instead of rejoicing and praising God, they would rather complain and find fault. Do you know a few people like that? Maybe you are somebody like that? Luke tells us that the ruler of this particular synagogue was "indignant." And the reason for his indignation was not because Jesus had healed the woman, but because he had healed her on the Sabbath.
- Strange State Laws of Alabama...
- Well just as Alabama has strange and burdensome laws, so the Jews had invented hundreds and hundreds of laws as to what a person could and couldn’t do on the Sabbath. All which were above and beyond the Old Testament law. And these man-made laws made the Sabbath become something it wasn’t supposed to be. As Jesus said, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." It was suppossed to be a day of rest and worship.
- And this religous leader, like many of the other religious leaders of that day, could not get passed their own traditions and man-made laws to see God at work. They were too caught up in religion to be compassionate and caring. They became focused on the wrong things. Certainly, we can be guilty of the same thing. Certainly, we can get more caught up in our traditions, that we fail to see people who are hurting. Certainly, we can become more worried about committees and ligns of authority than actually helping the helpless.
- If we were the Good Samaritan walking along that road to Jherico. We might stop, but instead of helping, instead of caring, we would probably form a committee, appoint a chairman, delegate a representative, seek congregational approval, and by the time we’ve gone through all the proper channels, the poor guy would probably be dead.
- You see Jesus, on the other hand, has established a very simple pattern. One that we must all follow. God cares for the hurting. He cares so much that he became human, died on a cross. Made it possible for all people to be healed. And now, we who are healed, the church, are to care for others the way Christ cared for us. It’s that simple. Just as Christ showed us compassionate, so we are to be compassionate. Just as Christ gave everything for us in our hour of need, so we are to give everything for others in their hour of need. Christ has paved the way. Now we must walk along the pathway of caring and compassion.
- Tell parable of the sheep and the goats...
- So which side will you be on? What words will you hear? That all depends on how you have cared for people in the time God has given you. It all depends on how you have used the resources, the time, the money, the possessions God has blessed you with.
- There are two types of people in this room... them that care for the hurting, and them that don’t. Which one are you?
-You remember the elderly lady I spoke of earlier. The one who told Craddock that she was just going to quit. Not just choir, but all of it, she told him that when she looked out Sunday after Sunday she asked herself. "Who cares?" And she determined that nobody did. She saw no caring, no kindness for one another.
- Craddock responded to her by saying, "Your wrong, you are wrong. I go to church’s all over the country. All over the world. And I see people who care for one another. Who are kind to one another."
- She said, "Really, all over." "All over." "Name one."
- And as Craddock asked the congregation he was speaking to, I now ask you a simple question in response to her simple request to, "name one." Could we give her your name?
