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[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching from God's Word you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to Him. If you're ever in the Madison, Alabama area, we'd love for you to worship with us on Sundays at 8:30 or 10:30am if you have any other questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, find [email protected] Be sure to also check out our Bible Study Podcast, Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies thanks again for stopping by.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: Good morning, delighted to be with you this morning and appreciate this opportunity of bringing the lesson at this early morning service.
Our lesson today begins in Matthew, chapter 12.
Jesus was teaching in the area of Galilee, preaching in teaching in the synagogues on the Sabbath day.
And he went into one of the synagogues, and the scribes and Pharisees had laid a trap for him. They had a man there that was with a withered hand, and they wanted to see whether or not Jesus would violate the Sabbath and heal that man's hand.
And so he came in. The scribes and Pharisees said, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?
And Jesus said, which one of you, if you had a sheep and it fell into a hole, would not go and lift it up on the Sabbath? And a man is far is worth far more than a sheep. Yes, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. And he told the man, stretch forth your hand. He did so, and was healed. And then the scribes and Pharaohs went out to see how they might destroy him. Christ then left that place, went about in the region, preaching. And here the Spirit inspired Matthew to insert a passage From Isaiah, chapter 13, a passage regarding the Messiah.
And the Lord said, my servant, in whom I'm well pleased, he will bring justice to the Gentiles. He will not cry aloud, his voice will not be heard in the streets, and a bruised reed he will not break and smoking flax he will not quench.
You know, the very impression of a reed is that of weakness. Remember in Luke or In Matthew, chapter 11, verse 7, after John's disciples, two of them had come to ask whether or not he was actually the Christ, or they looked for another.
And when they had gone, Jesus turned to the multitude and said, what went you out in the wilderness to see a reed shaken by the wind?
Obviously John the Baptist was not that. He was more like a towering oak than A reed shaken by the wind. And then, of course, a bruised reed would be even weaker than that.
And then flax was used as a wick for their lamps. And a smoking flax would indicate that the oil had given out.
And that smoking flax, that flame there, he would not quench, but with love and acceptance would replenish the oil and bring it back to life again.
The Jews had three primary gripes against Christ.
First of all, their objection was that he claimed to be God.
In John 20:31 beginning, the scribes and Pharisees picked up stones to stone him.
And Jesus said, now you know, I've shown you many mighty works or wonderful good works from my Father.
Now let me know which one of these are you stoning me for.
And they said, not for any good work, but for blasphemy, that you, a mere man, claim to be God.
Second objection regarded the violation of the Sabbath, as we've seen in this text that we read.
And Also in John 5, a man, that crippled man, had been healed, told to take up his bed and walk. And the Jews saw him and said, this is not lawful. Well, he that healed me told me to do this. And then John adds in verse 17 that for these reasons the Jews sought to persecute him, and so violating the Sabbath.
And then the third reason was that he associated with what they would regard as the low life. In Luke chapter 15, verse 2, they said, why, this man receives sinners and eats with them. And this certainly was true. In fact, our Lord's life was filled with many of what was regarded in that day as the low Life.
In John 4, Jesus left Judea because his life was in danger there. To go to Galilee, had to pass through Samaria, came to Jacob's well, located there at the foot of Mount Gerizim, and the village of Sychar, built on the bottom slopes of that mountain.
And he was tired. At noonday, the disciples went into the city to buy bread. Christ sat down by the well. Samaritan woman came out, drew water. And Jesus said, give me to drink.
And the woman was startled by this. How is it that you, a Jew, would ask of me, a Gentile, for a drink of water?
And Jesus said, if you knew who was talking to you, you would ask me, and I would give you living water. Those that drink this water will thirst again. But the water that I give will spring up into a living water within you, a well, a spring within.
Woman said, give me this water that I can not have to come out here to draw anymore. Jesus said, well, go tell your husband.
She said, I don't have a husband.
He said, well, you've rightly spoken, because you've had five and are living with a man that is not your husband.
You want to get rid of that subject quickly. Said, I perceive you a prophet. Now. It said that by my folks that in this mountain in Garrison where we're supposed to worship, but you Jews say, in Jerusalem. And then Jesus said, neither one. But time is coming when people will worship God in spirit, because God is spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
And then the woman said, I know that when Christ comes, he'll tell us all things. And for the first time recorded that Jesus ever confessed that he was the Christ was to this woman he said, I that speak unto thee am he. And she was so excited, she went into the village and there told the people, come and here are men that told me everything they ever did.
They came out, heard Jesus and asked him to stay for two days. And in those two days, many of the Samaritans came to believe.
So here was this bruised reed that Christ dealt gently with. And as a result, many in that village believed on him.
Have another case in John 8, where a woman was brought to Jesus, pushed down at his feet and said, we caught this woman in the very act of adultery. Moses said, stoner, what do you say?
And Jesus just roped in the sand. They kept pressing him. He raised up and looked at him and said, let him that is without sin cast the first stone.
Then he went back to his writing in the sand.
After a bit, he looked up. No one there but the woman.
He said, woman, did no one accused thee? Nay, Lord said, well, neither do I accuse thee, but go your way and sin no more.
This broken or bruised reed he did not break, but tried to bind her up to do better. We have another case in Luke, chapter 7. Beginning there, in about verse 37, Jesus had been invited to the house of Simon the Pharisee. Why he invited him, I don't know. Because he neglected all of the customary honors that you would show to a guest.
You know, in those days they ate around a low table and had a couch or cushions. And they would be their head at the table, their feet sticking out from the table, lean on the elbow while they ate.
Sinful woman in that village or city heard that he was there in the house of Simon. And screwing up her courage, she came in and stood at the feet of Jesus and began to cry such copious tears that they wet her feet. His feet. And he took her hair. She took her hair and wiped his feet.
Then she had the alabaster with ointment in it. She poured that on his feet and then began to kiss his feet.
Well, Simon the Pharisee within himself was saying, hmm, if this man were a prophet, he'd know what kind of woman she is.
Jesus, reading Simon's mind, said to Simon, I have something to say to you. He said, say on.
There was a master, had two servants. One owed him 500 to Nera, one owed 50. Neither could pay. He forgave both. Which do you think love the more?
He said, well, I suppose he to whom more was forgiven, Jesus said, you've answered right.
Let me tell you something.
When I came into your house, you didn't give me any water to wash my feet. This woman has washed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. You didn't give me a kiss. She's continuously kissed my feet. You didn't put any ointment on my head. She has anointed my feet, I tell you. Her sins, which are many, will be forgiven. And she loves much because she has been forgiven much.
Again we have a bruised reed, not broken, but one that was encouraged to do better. You know, the Lord is more interested in what we can be and want to be than what we have been.
One other case, this one found in John 5 there at the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem, where all kinds of sick folks around that pool. Because the legend was that at certain times an angel came down and troubled the waters. And when they saw the waters begin to wave, the first one in would be healed. Well, Jesus came there, saw this crippled man, and he said, do you want to be healed?
He said, lord, when the waters trouble, another gets in before mine, for I do, I have no one to help me.
And Jesus said, arise, take up your bed and walk.
And the man immediately received strength, got up and rolled up his bed and began to carry it. And some of the Jews said, you can't do that. This is the Sabbath day.
And he said, well, he that healed me said to do this. Well, who was it? And he said, I don't know. But later, down in verse 14, Jesus found the man and said, go your way and leave this sinful life, or else something worse will come upon you. Again, bruised reed, not broken, but tried to nourish it back to health.
This was the action of Jesus.
Peter says in 1st Peter 2:21, Here unto you were you called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps.
Follow Jesus.
We need to be careful in our lives that when we come across a bruised reed, we don't break it, but we bind it up and try to make it better.
You know, we live in a tough world.
And to those that are bruised, Jesus says, come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.
We should do the same to those bruised, those bruised reed or spoken flax that we come in Contact with.
Hebrews 10:24. We are told to encourage one another unto love and good works. 1st Thessalonians 4:18. Comfort ye one another with these words. 1st Thessalonians 5, 11. Build each other up and strengthen, encourage each other. And then in Galatians, chapter 6, verse 2, bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.
I hope that we will learn that from Christ's action regarding these bruised reeds.
Now I want you to shift your mind 180 degrees.
I want to talk about some other bruised reeds. Not bruised morally.
Not bruised because of sin in their lives.
Not bruised because they're violators of God's law, but bruised because we live in a blemished, tarnished world and have weakened bodies that often get sick.
We have a lot of those bruised reeds here in our congregation.
When you think about cancer, Parkinson's, Lou Gehrig's heart failure, broken bones, and so many others, you think about these bruised reeds.
Some time ago, I came across an article written by Tony Ash.
You may remember, Tony was a conservative reporter for Fox News, and President George W. Bush selected him to be there or to be his press secretary. And he continued in this office about six months and then was diagnosed with cancer and ultimately died at the age of 53.
But a year or two before he died, he wrote something entitled, tony Snow Faces Death.
And I don't usually read anything this long, but I've heard through the first part in order that I might have time to read this, because it speaks to us. It speaks to our bruised reeds.
Because he certainly was a bruised reed.
I quote him, blessings arrive in unexpected packages.
In my case, cancer.
Those of us with potentially fatal diseases, and there are millions in America today, find ourselves in the odd position of coping with our mortality while trying to fathom God's will.
Although it would be the height of presumption to declare with confidence what it all means, Scripture provides powerful hints and consolations.
The first is that we shouldn't spend too much time trying to answer the why questions. Why me? Why must people suffer? Why can't someone else get sick? We can't answer such things, and the questions themselves often are designed more to express our anguish than to solicit an answer. I don't know why I have cancer and I don't much care. It's what it is, a plain and indisputable fact.
Yet even while staring into the mirror darkly, great and stunning truths began to take shape.
Our maladies defined a central feature of our existence. We are fallen, we are imperfect, Our bodies give out. But despite this, or because of it, God offers the possibility of salvation and grace.
We don't know how the narrative of our lives will end, but we get to choose how to face the interval between now and the moment we meet our Creator face to face.
Second, we need to get past the anxiety.
The mere thought of dying can send adrenaline flooding through your system. A dizzy, unfocused panic seizes you. Your heart thumps, your head swims. You think of nothingness and swoon.
You fear partings. You fear about the impact on family and friends.
You fidget and get nowhere to regain footing. Remember that you were born not into death, but into life, and that the journey continues after we have finished our days on this earth. We accept this on faith, but that faith is nourished by a conviction that stirs even within many non believing hearts. An intuition that the gift of life, once given, cannot be taken away.
Those who have been stricken enjoy the special privilege of being able to fight with their might. Main in faith, to live fully, richly, exuberantly, no matter how their days may be numbered.
Third, we can open our eyes and hearts. God relishes surprises. We want our lives simple, predictable ease, smooth, even trails as far as the eye can see. But God likes to go off road.
He provokes us with twists and turns. He places us in predicaments that seem to defy our endurance and comprehension and yet don't.
By his love and grace we persevere. The challenges that make our hearts leap and stomachs churn invariably strengthen our faith and grant measure of wisdom and joy. We will not experience otherwise.
You have been called.
Picture yourself in a hospital bed.
The fog of anesthesia has begun to wear away.
A doctor stands at your feet. A loved one holds your hand at your side.
It's cancer, the healer announces.
The natural reaction is to turn to God and ask him to serve as a cosmic Santa. Dear God, make it go away, make everything simpler.
But another voice whispers, you have been called.
Your quandary has drawn you closer to God, closer to those you love, closer to the issues that matter, and has dragged into insignificance the banal concerns that occupy our normal time.
There is another kind of response, though usually short lived, an inexplicable shudder of excitement, as if a clarifying moment of calamity has swept away everything trivial and tiny and placed before us the challenge of important questions.
The moment you enter the valley of the shadow of death, things change.
You discover that Christianity is not something doughty, passive, pious or soft. Faith may be the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen, but it also draws you into a world of fearful caution. The life of belief teems with thrills, boldness, dangers, shocks, reversal, triumphs, epiphanies.
There's nothing wilder than a life of humble virtue, for it is through selfishness and service that God wrings from our bodies and spirits the most we ever could give, the most we could offer, and the most we could ever do.
Finally, we let love change everything.
When Jesus was faced with the prospect of crucifixion, he grieved not for himself but for us. He cried for Jerusalem before entering the holy city. From the cross, he took on the cumulative burden of human sin and weakness and begged for forgiveness on our behalf.
We get repeated chances to learn that life is not about us, that we acquire purpose and satisfaction by sharing in God's love for others.
Sickness gets us part of the way there.
It reminds us of our limitations and dependence, but it also gives us a chance to serve the healthy. A minister friend of mine observes that people suffering grave afflictions often acquire the faith of two people, while loved ones accept the burden of two people's worries and fears.
Learning how to Live Most of us have watched friends as they drifted toward God's arms, not with resignation but with peace and hope. In so doing, they have taught us not how to die but how to live. They have emulated Christ by transmitting the power and authority of love.
I sat by my best friend's bedside a few years ago as a wasting cancer took him away. He kept at his table a worn Bible. In a 1928 edition of the Book of Common Prayer, a shattering grief disabled his family, many of his old friends, and at least one priest. Here was a humble and very good guy, someone who apologized when he winced with pain because he thought it made his guest uncomfortable.
He retained his equanimity and good humor literally until the last conscious Moment.
I'm going to try to beat this cancer, he told me several months before he died.
But if I don't, I'll see you on the other side.
His gift was to remind everyone around him that even though God doesn't promise us tomorrow, he does promise us eternity filled with love and life that we cannot comprehend. And that one can be in the throes of sickness. And one who is in the throes of sickness can point the rest of us toward timeless truths that will help us weather future storms.
Through such trials, God bids us, do we believe or do we not?
Will we be bold enough to love, daring enough to serve, humble enough to submit, strong enough to acknowledge our limitations?
Can we surrender our concern in things that don't matter so that we might devote the remaining days to things that do?
When our faith flags, he throws reminders in our way.
Think of the prayer warriors in our midst. They change things. And those of us who have been on the receiving end of their petitions and intercessions know it. It's hard to describe. There are times when suddenly the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and you feel the surge of the spirit. Somehow, you know others have chosen, while talking to the author of all creation, to lift us up, to speak of us.
This is love of a very special order.
But so is the ability to sit back and appreciate the wonder of every created thing.
The mere thought of death somehow makes every blessing vivid, every happiness more luminous and intense.
We know not how our contest with sickness will end, but we have felt the powerful touch of God.
What is men that are mindful of him.
We don't know much, but we know this.
No matter where we are, no matter what we do, no matter how bleak or frightening our prospects, each and every one of us who believe each and every day lies in the safe and impregnable place in the hollow of God's hand.
Read that many times, but I never read it without the thought that if I were in a situation where I knew that death was near or could be near, and of course, at 89, I'm getting toward that end.
I think about how I would want prayer warriors and our family to pray for me.
It may be we have some of those bruised reeds here this morning that would like to have the prayers of the congregation.
We have some powerful prayer warriors here.
In just a minute, we're going to sing our song of invitation.
If you feel the need, the desire to have this group of your brothers and sisters to pray for you, come to the front and we'll be glad to do so.
Will you come while we stand the same?
