Chapter Five

Chapter Five

Choosing the apostles was one of the most important things that Jesus could do for His lasting ministry. If the apostles were characterized as super heroes, instead of flawed humans, they would have had little impact on us. These chosen followers of Jesus fell asleep when He asked them to stay awake, jumped to judgement when it was improper to do so, made blow hard promises and didn't back them up, watched miracle after miracle while in the company of Christ and when given the same power by Him had great doubt in themselves and who Jesus was failed them miserably. To top it all off, they all ran away and hid in fear when Jesus was murdered and the critics of the bible attack from the standpoint of saying that 50, 60 or even 90 years passed between the events happening in the new testament and when it was written down. If the apostles were depicted as all knowing and righteous believers who did nothing wrong, making them into perfect intercessors, I would say that such criticism could be valid. Instead, the writers who had all of that time to edit the story of what happened gave us frail people described in the previous sentences. Just who these followers of Jesus were makes a big impact on us and our present day faith.

At the beginning of chapter five, Jesus is preaching on the shore and the crowds were pressing in on Him so that they could hear better. Jesus sees two empty boats and notices that the boats owner, Simon is washing his nets nearby. Now, Simon had to remember that Jesus came to his house and healed his wife's mother, so when Jesus asked him to push the boat out a little so that He could teach to the crowd, he complied. After speaking to the crowds, Jesus told Simon to go out a little further and to lower his fishing nets. Simon responded that he and his crew had been out all night and caught nothing, inside his head he was probably thinking, look - I took you out so that you could speak, I appreciate what you did for my mother-in-law, I'm tired and I want to go to bed after I finish cleaning my nets, but I can't do that because I am out here on a boat with you! That may have been in his head, but what came out of his mouth was compliance as he dropped the nets over the side and found that they were full of fish to the point of breaking.

Fisherman in this period of time were true entrepreneurs who took high risks in their business every day. There were no guarantees of income and all it took was a failure of equipment, manpower or bad weather to ruin your business as there were no government loans designed to bail you out. To purchase boats, nets and other fishing equipment, took money. To hire employees to help you do the business meant that you better be good at what you do or you will go broke. I have always felt that it was and is important that the first people Jesus built his ministry with were business people. He didn't go out and find the lowest person on the social ladder to start with, He began with those who knew how to raise capital, take risks and to get things done all with the eye on them being able to help the less fortunate with their success. The first message He gave them was one of accomplishment and prosperity by filling their fishing nets. We can share that faith daily by having the confidence to take Jesus at His word and lower our nets and expect that they will be full when we pull them up. In the case of the apostles, Simon fell to his knees before Jesus and thanked Him for the bounty and confessed his unworthiness to receive it. We, myself included, receive equal and more than this in our lives and we can't wait to take credit for the skill and cunning it took to accumulate it, bypassing the relation of blessings from God, with that prosperity.

When the business partners of Simon saw the size of their catch they were also amazed. Jesus then told the men that they were going to be part of His ministry and Jesus used the reference of catching men, not fish in the future. With that, the bible says that when they got back to land, they left everything and followed Jesus. As I study this event, I am struck with the realization that those men were just doing their job and along comes a popular preacher who needs their help for a moment and even though they were tired they probably thought that it was pretty cool to have a "back stage" look at what the commotion was all about with this guy. As Jesus was speaking to the crowds from their boat, they were probably thinking, "blah, blah, blah.... boy I can't wait to go home and go to sleep after a lousy night of fishing". Then Jesus tells them that they should drop their nets and they were probably thinking how little this guy knows about fishing and then to their surprise, their nets are full. They could have chocked it up to good luck, said goodbye to the preacher and made plans to sell their catch for the most amount of money and moved on. If this were to happen today, these guys would have bought television and radio time in the middle of the night to sell their " How To Make Millions, Fishing Our Way" DVD's. If they had, Jesus would have probably moved on to another fisherman and these men would have missed the opportunity. Something I would have probably done in that situation would have been to assume that since God gave me this miracle of success that He must want me to be a successful and rich business man and to serve His kingdom in that capacity. Instead, these men chose the day of their greatest material success, a day where all of their positioning and hard work had placed them to catch more fish than they had probably ever caught, they chose that day to leave it all behind and follow Jesus. The lesson that we can take from this example is that we do our job and live our life and the opportunity will come to serve God. It's our duty to recognize the opportunity and do something with it.

The word "leprosy" is derived from the ancient Greek words lepros, a scale, and lepein, to peel. The word came into the English language via Latin and early French. In the Middle Ages, people with Leprosy, would walk along with a bell or a clapper announcing their approach so that others could scatter or give a charitable contribution to the poor unfortunate soul who was afflicted. Those who had leprosy during that time were considered by some to be going through Purgatory on Earth and had somewhat of a spiritual connotation applied to their fate. An effective way to contain the disease was for the isolation of the infected, away from those not afflicted in the form of leper colonies. In terms of the bible's description of leprosy it is possible that it was different from the aforementioned, more modern one and it may have had different symptoms like dry, rough, scaly skin. The term Tzaraath, from the Hebrew bible was, erroneously translated as leprosy and the symptoms were unlike the more modern ailment known as Hansen's disease. In any case, what was translated in the Septuagint as lepra, was probably a bad case of psoriasis, very dry skin or could be describing any disease that produces sores or eruptions on the skin.

I give you that background because the next verse in the bible tells us that Jesus met a man with a bad case of Tzaraath and the man, upon seeing Jesus, bowed down and asked for healing. Jesus healed the man and instructed him to follow Mosaic law and tradition and for him to go to priest in his temple and along with the offering required by the law, present the proof of his healing. The man, being a typical child of God, didn't follow these instructions and told everybody what had happened and pretty soon, Jesus has an enormous crowd following all of the time, listening to His sermons and asking for healing. This account says that Jesus often withdrew from the crowds and went in to the wilderness to pray.

When the man didn't do what Jesus told him to do, it created problems in the religious community and the beginnings of anger against Him by the priests and religious leaders probably started with misunderstandings such as this one. The priest probably heard about the healing through the grapevine and got offended because religious protocol wasn't followed and instead of blaming the man who was healed, for not following Jesus's instructions, they most likely jumped to the conclusion that Jesus was operating outside of the law of Moses and was the enemy. In any case, word of mouth advertising is always considered to be most effective, and now Jesus had large crowds following Him making the religious leaders more anxious as they watched their followers desert them, taking their financial security with them.

Finally, regarding the fact that Jesus would go into the wilderness to pray, it brings two important points home to the believer. The first is an indicator again as to who Jesus was and is. He is God who became human. He walked this earth as a man and ascended into heaven as a man and when we, as believers, see Him in heaven, He will still look like a man. When He took on the human form it came with all of the traits both good and bad and He gave us a perfect example of how we should live our lives. He could have come to earth with anything He wanted in the way of powers and weapons but chose to come as a simple man who only had the weapon of prayer. All through the earthly ministry of Jesus, He gave us the example of prayer to the Father as His only resource to give Himself strength to complete His ministry and this human life. Secondly, Jesus gives us an example of where to pray. He got out of Dodge so to speak and went someplace quiet and spoke to the Father and more importantly listened to what the Father had to say. I have had people tell me that they have never heard God speak to them and my answer to them is that God is probably speaking to them but they can't hear Him because of all of the noise around them. God is not going to yell over the television, radio, Ipod or stereo and we need to go someplace where things are quiet to hear Him. When we follow God's laws regarding tithing, we are to give ten per cent of what God has given us, back to God. He doesn't want what is left over, He wants the best of what we have to offer and if our day consists of fifteen hours of human activity, we should probably be prepared to give Him an hour and a half of prayer and reading time. If we do this in a quiet environment, we will hear Him speak to us.

The author goes on to say that while Jesus was teaching to the crowds, He was shadowed by religious leaders and lawyers. The bible says that they followed Him everywhere and they were undoubtedly making their case against Him based on words that Jesus said and the reaction of the crowds that followed Him. The next point to be made was that Jesus was filled with the power of the Lord and that with this power, He healed the sick and injured. This again is an example of who Jesus was and is as He did not claim to have supernatural powers as a man but instead, drew those healing powers from His Father in heaven.

The next account is that of some men carrying their paralyzed friend on a stretcher to be healed by Jesus and being unable of going through the front door, took him to the roof and lowered the man from the ceiling into the midst of the crowd and Jesus down below. I know that I am weird, but before I can wrap my brain around the concept of the miracle part of this account, I picture myself as being that man on the stretcher. First of all, he didn't have any choice but to go along for the ride and what a ride it must have been. He had to undoubtedly be tied to the litter he was on and I bet things got a little shaky for him as his friends pulled him up the vertical wall and tied rope to that same platform and started lowering him into the crowded room. I do know this, he had great friends who cared enough about him to not give up on him and were willing to do anything in their power to help him get better. The other person that I think about is the owner of the house and what he was thinking as his home is packed to the rafters with people, already giving up on any crowd control and then to his surprise, there are people on the roof taking off the tiles and lowering a paralyzed man through the opening. Try explaining that to your insurance agent.

In regards to the miracle part of this account, the bible says that Jesus saw the faith of all of those involved and He forgave their sins for their effort. He didn't just forgive the sins of the afflicted man but forgave all of his friends too. If you remember, Jesus had this group of religious leaders following Him everywhere and taking notes about everything that he said and they must have blown a gasket when Jesus forgave the sins of these men. Among themselves they were talking in hushed tones thinking that what they just heard was blasphemy, as only God could forgive sins. Jesus addressed them and asked if they thought it was easier to forgive sins or heal the man's body? And before they could answer, He turned to the man and told him to get up and go home because he was healed. Immediately, the man jumped to his feet, picked up his litter and went home praising God. The crowd was then completely freaked out by what they saw, praised God and repeatedly told everyone who would listen that they saw some freaky deaky stuff on that day. How about being a fly on the wall when those religious leaders filed their report with their bosses? There was probably a whole bunch of, He said what...?, He did what...?

We have this vision of Jesus being meek, which He was, except when He faced evil. He undoubtedly took these religious leaders to be enemies of His ministry and showed repeatedly a willingness to confront them when necessary. One of the most important things to know about Jesus is that He never denied being God during His entire earthly ministry. In fact, in the book of John, right after Jesus performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes, He told the apostles that He was God. When they heard this, the bible says that many of them left Him, unable to accept His words. The truly amazing thing is that these people were witness to the miracles of His ministry just as those people in that house and still they couldn't accept His deity.

Another thing to think about in regards to the miracle healing of the paralyzed man is the fact that the writer says that after being told to get up, and take his stretcher and go home, he did. The paralysis was one thing but the atrophy of the muscles were quite another. We don't know how long the man was disabled, but we do know that astronauts who experience weightlessness for only a few days can develop decreased muscle tone and loss of calcium in their bodies. If this man was paralyzed for a good portion of his life, his muscles were jello and to stand was one thing and to carry his litter out of the building was quite another. God is very detailed in His miracles and it is up to us to discover and appreciate that detail as it broadens our understanding of who God is.

Moving on in the book of Luke, we read how Jesus called Levi, the tax collector, to be His disciple. Tax collectors were considered to be the lowest level of Jewish society.
In that group were the poor such as orphans and widows, the blind and the crippled as well as the mentally ill. There was another part of this lower level that included prostitutes, sexual deviants, cheats, swindlers and tax collectors. Tax collectors were held with low esteem because they collected the Roman taxes, added a little for themselves and were viewed as traitors against their own people. If you were going to write or edit a story about the messiah and want to encourage belief that He was both man and God, you would not include this account of Levi, the tax collector.

Moving on, the bible says that Jesus went to parties, dinners and banquets with these people. The Pharisees were furious because Jesus accepted these people as they were and that He didn't have dinner with them or court their favor from a social standpoint. The religious and political leaders of that day had too much to lose if they followed Jesus and later on in Luke 7:34 they called Him "a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners". It is no wonder that they were upset with Him because later in the book of Matthew 21:31, Jesus told them that "The tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of heaven ahead of you", a statement that no doubt filled them with anger and confusion. When Jesus went on to explain that He came for those who wished to turn from their sinful life and not for those who were convinced that what they were already doing was good enough for salvation, His religious enemies burned and planned how to eliminate this threat to their power and religious existence.

In the final words of chapter five, the omnipresent religious critics of Jesus and His ministry are watching and reporting not only on Him but also His apostles. It really bugged them that these followers of Jesus enjoyed being around the celebrity environment that existed where ever He went. They pointed out to Jesus that the followers of John the Baptist were solemn people who fasted and that the followers of Jesus were always partying and feasting. In Matthew 11:18, Jesus reminds His critics that when John the Baptist didn't drink wine and fasted, they called him "demon possessed" and when it came to Jesus and His disciples who would feast and drink, they were referred to as "gluttonous winebibbers" or "gluttonous drunkards". He pointed out further, that it was impossible to win the hearts of those who judged Him and His followers on a sliding, moving and adjustable scale. This advice is still valid today as we find that people trying to impose non existing religious law seems to be equal in number to the amount of people who are trying to disassemble the valid, relevant word of God.

Jesus went on to explain that the apostles were like guests at a wedding, celebrating with the groom, and that there would be plenty of time to fast after the groom was gone. He also addressed new believers and old believers and made reference to putting new wine in old wineskin or using new cloth to patch an old garment. These references required me to read them over and over so as to understand them. I believe that Jesus is saying that His message is compatible with the old message (new testament and old testament) and even though you may cling to the old, you can accept the new in a progressive manner and it is not necessary see them as some seamless entities.

God is and has been logical in His approach to man. In the old testament, God took an unruly man and put upon him a harsh training schedule, like a boot camp. When a recruit starts boot camp, they are out of step, know nothing about marching, drills or formations and must have an unbelievable set of rigid laws and commands imposed so that they become disciplined and can have a chance to survive in battle. Those rigid and defined guidelines are temporary and designed to change their way of thinking. When the trained soldier is out of boot camp and on the battle field it isn't quite as necessary to have such stringent guidelines, allowing the soldiers to be reasoned with and giving them the opportunity to take what they have learned (the old) and apply it with (the new). Critics and believers alike, apply their time lines, schedules and priorities to God, and God continues to move according to His plan and timeline, much to the consternation of the aforementioned objects of His creation. I saw a bumper sticker one time that summed this point up very well. It said, "I make plans, and God laughs".