The crowds… followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing. – LUKE 9:11

The world is full of duo’s necessarily bound together for all of time. In fact, so common are the pairing of many things, you only need one to be aware of know the other:
– Peanut butter and _______.
– Macaroni and _______.
– To quote the erudite rap trio of my youth, the Beastie Boys:
“I like my sugar with coffee and _________.” (cream).

Clearly, I’ve been on a bit of health kick at the outset of this year. As such, all of the above pairings are presently prohibited. But, you get the idea. Whether it’s Batman and Robin, Ross and Rachel, thunder and lightning, or shake and bake, there is another famous pairing often overlooked in the Bible. It’s a pairing critical to understanding Jesus’ message.

The ministry of Jesus can be characterized by the dual components of announcing or, to use a more Christian-y sounding word, “proclaiming” something called the Kingdom of God and secondarily demonstrating what that Kingdom message actually looks like. So, throughout the accounts of Jesus’ ministry there is a consistent pattern: proclamation and demonstration.

For most contemporary followers of Jesus, we are fine with Kingdom proclamation, so long as it’s accomplished with some measure of skill and tact. But, we’re a little more resistant to any demonstration of that kingdom. Sure, we want it to be real and somehow tangible. But we don’t want a few things that may go with it.  After all, we don’t want to believe something that may not be true — because something miraculous, by definition, has to fly in the face of the plausible outcomes. We live in a world of rational thought, medical experts, data, and causes and effects. Additionally, we don’t want to associate ourselves with anything that may fall into the category of side-show circus chicanery at the hands of church illusionists who pray on the simple minded. And… we’re highly private people who don’t want to admit that the pressure on us to seem perfect is often greater than our very real and glaringly imperfect pain.

But, we do need God’s intervention into our lives in pointed and real ways. We have giant needs for our marriages, our physical health, our mental health, our addictions, our past wounds, and our secret lives — all of which are always inching closer and closer to that place where they can no longer be managed or smoothed over. So, despite all of our reservations, despite how foolish it might seem to us and to everyone else, we do the most honest thing we know how to do: we ask God for help. We fearfully, and faithfully look to God to powerfully re-link the dynamic duo of His Word with His deeds in us. We need healing for our brokenness.

This week, we’ll ask God to do one thing we desperately want but are afraid to publicly seek — healing. There will be no illusions. There will be no circus. There will be no fake exaggerations and made-up stories. But, we will boldly ask God to heal us with His power. In so doing, we will seek God to UNLEASH the IMPOSSIBLE in us.

See you Sunday,
Jeff