Tuesday 10th March - Jesus stops his teaching

DAILY BYTE

The story of Jesus healing the crippled woman is fascinating and awe-inspiring because of what Jesus did – but also because of what Jesus did not do.
Jesus was teaching in a synagogue, and what could be more crucial than the Son of God, himself, teaching people about God and the scriptures? But, someone appears who stands out in the crowd - not for her intellectual prowess or biblical wisdom, but for the fact that she was clearly in pain. And when Jesus sees this person, he does a shocking thing. He stops his teaching. He cancels his regularly scheduled programme and focuses all his attention upon one small person in front of him who needs help. He changes direction.

How often do we become so absorbed in sorting out our own issues, so attached to one life direction, so engaged in one calling, so enslaved to one particular understanding of how our life has been therefore how it must continue to be in the future – that we forget to see the hopeful new possibilities of the future that are right in front of us?

The woman in the story didn’t ask Jesus to stop and pay attention to her. He simply had the eyes to see her, and the heart to know that at that given moment, it was time to change direction and turn his attention toward someone else.

I know that often when I am doing work or am absorbed in a great scene of a movie, or am going for a certain goal, I act as though wild horses could stampede through, and I wouldn’t notice them. Similarly, when we confront issues of illness, grief, and other baggage and problems of our lives, we can allow ourselves to be consumed by them. We become slaves to them and often forget that freedom and healing are even possibilties.

This is not to say that we should ignore our problems and brush through them as though they don’t exist, thereby never truly addressing them on a journey to healing. And this is not to say that we should live lives that are totally free of healthy boundaries so that we take on a martyr or a messiah complex and allow all the problems of the world to come crashing down on our own shoulders.

But, this is to say that even Jesus allowed himself to be interrupted by people and key moments in life that were kingdom moments. When he allowed himself to stop for a moment and change direction, he ushered into the world a greater understanding of healing and wholeness.

As you pursue your daily callings and address daily problems, do you allow yourself to be interrupted by moments of surprising healing? Or do you plow through life, failing to allow yourself to regain your true life’s direction and notice opportunities to bring freedom to yourself and others?

PRAY AS YOU GO

Holy God – in this precious hour, we pause and gather to hear your word – to do so, we break from our responsibilities and from our play fantasies; we move from our fears that overwhelm and from our ambitions that are too strong. Free us in these moments from every distraction, that we may focus to listen, that we may hear, that we may change. Amen.
- That we may change from Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann

FOCUS VERSE

Psalm 143:8

Let me hear of your steadfast love in the morning, for in you I put my trust. Teach me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.