REAL Comfort for Jesus
Andrea Mantegna, The Calvary, 1457-1459
So, we hear a lot about Jesus’ Suffering during the Passion, and we try to get our minds around it all. One aspect of His suffering that has been focused on lately is what he endured due to the apathy of all those he saw in the future, who simply wouldn’t care to know about him. All those who would never even know who he was - and there he was on Calvary - DYING for them!
We are told that one way to comfort Jesus is to imagine Him there on the cross (since God is outside of time we truly can ‘go back in time’ and comfort him), and tell Him that WE are there; and WE are thankful for His Sacrifice. WE love Him - and so we hope that gives Him comfort in His agony.
But I think we’re missing something.
Imagine this. Imagine there is a town where all the citizens are dying of disease. You discover that there is a cure; but it is being held by an evil man who wants people to die. You then plan to go and take it. You have to fight your way in, and then you fight your way out. You are beaten horrifically, you are shot, you are stabbed - but you manage nonetheless, to drag your dying body to within 100 yards of the town. You can see it; but not get to it. As you lay there dying, a sick townsperson passes by. You give her the cure and she is overjoyed. She has NEW LIFE. YOUR death will save her! But there’s one thing more. You ask her to take the cure into the town - and tell everyone, and give everyone, this saving potion. But she looks at you and says, “Gosh, people might make fun of me if I do that! They might ridicule me! How am I to know if they want the potion? They could criticize me as being judgmental to just assume they want it. Sorry, this is just too emotionally difficult.”
With your fading vision, you watch her walk away with the lifesaving potion, and do… nothing.
Your sacrifice, your death, ALL of it - comes to nothing. Because those who KNOW what you did; and who have personally BENEFITED from what you did - will not take that gift, and use it to save others…
Now imagine something else. Imagine that there were many who got the gift initially. Imagine that they began to use it to help give everyone life, and the world was set on fire with life, love and wholeness. But then time went by, and those ‘in charge’ began to think that only the ‘special ones’ (i.e. them), should be in charge of giving this gift. So that even though countless others walked around with it - they spent their entire lives doing nothing with it. All those who had been saved with this gift, just complained a lot about all the dying people around them who had no clue of its existence…
Those dying people that the saved did nothing to try to bring to life - since that was someone else’s job.
Instead, the saved just complained to each other about those around them who were dying. They expected the dying to have the same ‘good’ life that they had; the same health; the same wisdom; the same lifestyle of wholeness; the same fruits of the Spirit that they produced - even though they never tried to give the Spirit to anyone else. That was just too ‘messy’.
And I guess this horrific scenario would be the description of the Church, and Christians, today. What makes us think that Jesus’ only suffering was not being ‘comforted’? Why do we think He was only sad about how many wouldn’t know Him? What about the suffering He endured because of knowing that his own people would do nothing with the incredible gift He won for us all? That we just kept it to ourselves, let it benefit our own lives, and went about ‘being busy’ living that life... Hmm….?
If we are baptized Christians, then we have Jesus Christ living in us.
LIVING IN US.
Last time I checked, Jesus Christ is God. So, we have the power of GOD living in us. The power to heal, the power to cast out demons, the power to confront evil, the power to bring new life to the dying. Jesus has no body now; only ours. He needs our hands to reach out and heal; our lips to proclaim the good news; our voice to send demons away, our feet to travel to the sick; our laughter to cheer the joyless. Us.
It’s kind of a supernatural thing we’ve got going on here - yet how many of us know it?
More importantly; how many of us USE it?
I struggle with this also. It’s been generations since the people of God were told that they had Christ’s power within them, to do what He did. It’s hard to remember that, when someone tells you they are sick - you can ask to put your hands on them and pray for healing - before telling them of the latest man-made cure. When someone is suffering from mental distress - it’s hard to remember that you can tell them to stop listening to the demons who are torturing them; and you can silence those demons in the name of Jesus!
I mean, I have done both of those things! I once laid hands on a man who was scheduled for surgery that week; and prayed for the Holy Spirit to heal him. After all, the man said he would rather not have to go through surgery and miss the time off work. I even felt the heat of the healing power of the Holy Spirit flowing through my hands. Later that week, when the man went for surgery - they were shocked to discover he was already healed. I was pretty shocked too; I mean, who knew?!!
And I have seen more demons be silenced and flee when I’ve told them to be silent and to flee in the name of Jesus; then I care to even remember. And yet I still hesitate. Will people think I’m weird if I ask to pray for them? Will they be mad at me? And this thought: What if God chooses NOT to heal for some reason - will it make me look foolish? Will it make the person disbelieve in God?
But imagine if we, as Christians, began doing those things - and more.
“I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.” Said Jesus. (John 14:12)
Was he lying? Was he delusional? Or was he telling us what he expected us to do?
I would think that his sufferings could possibly be somewhat lessened - if we did them. Jesus after all knew. He knew that talk is cheap; but action is priceless. We live in the same cynical world that He did. More than any time else; we have endless words with no power. We mumble some comment like ‘I’ll pray for you’; and then we walk away. But what if we prayed for them on the spot? I mean, praying for people is great - but do they actually SEE the result and MAKE the connection? What if they got healed right then and there? Imagine how shook up this world would be if people began seeing the POWER behind our words? The POWER behind THE Word?
We complain about the spread of New Age, Eastern Religions, Islam, even Satanism - among us. But would people be drawn to those worthless things if they SAW stage 4 cancer tumors disappear before their very eyes at the name of Jesus? If they saw the blind see, the lame walk, the dead be raised, those in the hold of evil be set free? Part of the reason that the Christian faith is growing in leaps and bounds in 3rd world countries is because these miracles are being performed all over the place there. They are seeing dead whitened eyeballs brought to wholeness, they are seeing crooked limbs straighten out and walk, they are seeing cold, stiff, dead people sit up and start talking again. People believe because they see. They see that we are not just blowing hot air when we tell them to follow Jesus - we are bringing them life in abundance. We are giving them what Jesus came for!
“A thief (satan) comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” John 10:10
If we want to convert the masses; if we want people to have better lives - then we must ACT. We must unleash the power of Christ that is lying dormant in us. We . Must . ACT.
Fortunately, we kind of have the Supernatural Power within us to do just that. So how about we use it? How about we REALLY try to lessen Jesus’ Agony on the Cross?
BTW: If you don’t know how to do this; there are plenty of Christian groups today who are re-teaching us disciples on what to do. Here are just a couple:
Christian Healing Ministry in Jacksonville, FL
- https://www.christianhealingmin.org
Renewal Ministries
- https://www.renewalministries.net
Unbound Ministry
- https://www.heartofthefather.com/
Read about: Heidi Baker, Fr. Michael Scanlon, Francis McNutt, Agnes Sanford, Neil Lozano, Sr. Briege McKenna - and countless others who have done, and are doing, the work of Christ among us