Diseases are painful and problematic. However, Yancey rightly indicates that physical disease is much less problematic than spiritual dis-ease:
Jesus knew that spiritual dis-ease has a more devastating effect than any mere physical ailment. Every healed person ultimately dies — then what?
He had not come primarily to heal the world’s cells, but to heal its souls.
–Philip Yancey
If we obey God it is going to cost other people more than it costs us, and that is where the sting comes in. If we are in love with our Lord, obedience does not cost us anything, it is a delight, but it costs those who do not love Him a good deal. If we obey God it will mean that other people’s plans are upset, and they will ridicule us with it — “You call this Christianity?”
We can prevent the suffering; but if we are going to obey God, we must not prevent it, we must let the cost be paid.
–Oswald Chambers
To obey Christ will cost you your life. Take up your cross, deny yourself, die to yourself, and follow Jesus. But when you willingly choose to do so, it becomes a pleasure and a delight to obey and serve this great One who offers abundant life in the midst of self-death. But… those around you who haven’t made that same decision will also be affected by your decision and it will cost them something as well. As Chambers tells us, though it pains them, it is beneficial (even if they can’t see it) because it is through that pain that God may open some of their eyes to their need for Him. Live for Him today (and this weekend) in such a way that it makes a difference not only in your life, but also in the lives of others.
Jesus turned upside down the accepted wisdom of the day. Pharisees believed that touching an unclean person polluted the one who touched. But when Jesus touched a person with leprosy, Jesus did not become soiled — the leprous became clean. When an immoral woman washed Jesus’ feet, she went away forgiven and transformed. When he defied custom to enter a pagan’s house, the pagan’s servant was healed. In word and in deed Jesus was proclaiming a radically new gospel of grace: to get clean a person did not have to journey to Jerusalem, offer sacrifices, and undergo purification rituals. All a person had to do was follow Jesus.
–Philip Yancey
God’s wisdom is not, and never was, pledged to keep a fallen world happy, or to make ungodliness comfortable. Not even to Christians has He promised a trouble-free life; rather the reverse. He has other ends in view for life in this world than simply to make it easy for everyone.
–J. I. Packer
Wow. Great insight.
God is not all about health, wealth, and prosperity for His followers. Instead, God is all about glory being ascribed to His Holy Name. And that takes place when we follow the example of Job and praise God even when we are in the midst of the storm.
And when we do that, we will be in the center of His will and we will experience the abundant life of living in His presence, which is so much better than having health, wealth, or worldly prosperity!
In those days, foot washing was considered so degrading that a master could not require it of a Jewish slave. Peter blanched at the provocation. The scene of the foot washing stands out to author M. Scott Peck as one of the most significant events of Jesus’ life: “Until that moment the whole point of things had been for someone to get on top, and once he had gotten on top to stay on top or else attempt to get farther up. But here this man already on top — who was rabbi, teacher, master — suddenly got down on the bottom and began to wash the feet of his followers. In that one act Jesus symbolically overturned the whole social order. Hardly comprehending what was happening, even his own disciples were almost horrified by his behavior.”
–Philip Yancey
And yet, we are also called to get down on the bottom and “wash the feet” of others – to serve them, instead of choosing to be served.
A hard mindset to embrace.
How well are you following Jesus’ servant leadership example?