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Meditative Reflection
The Power of His Word

“I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed.” (Lk. 7:7)

When Jesus commended the faith of the centurion by saying, “I have not found such great faith even in Israel” (Lk. 7:9), he could have said the same, not just of Israel, but of us today.

The centurion was indeed very unique in these ways:

- He was a Gentile — and considered to be an alien to the Jewish faith because he was not a descendant of Abraham.

- He was a centurion — the Jews considered him  an oppressor.

- Yet, he was obviously well-liked by the elders of Capernaum. Yes, his contribution to the building of the local synagogue did help him gain favor from them, but they said of him, “he loves our nation”. That went beyond politics but it expressed a genuine spirit felt by the locals.

And it is not too far-fetched to assume that he would have worshipped in the synagogue that he had helped to build, and as a result, he knew the Law and the Prophets quite well. The news of Jesus’ teachings and miracles together with the speculation that He might be the Messiah would have reached his ears.

But he was unlike most of the Jews in Capernaum: He believed the very claim of Jesus. And who Jesus was to him was clearly revealed in these amazing words:

“But say the word, and my servant will be healed.” (Lk. 7:7)

He understood very much the authority he had as a ruler. All he had to do was to say, “Go” to one of his servants, and whatever order he gave would have been done. But he believed that Jesus had the authority to cause his dying servant to be healed, in other words, he believed Jesus had authority over life! And who has the authority over life? Only the Giver of Life!

But even more amazing was his faith in the very “word” of Jesus. If he could make things happen by his own word, how much more powerful is the word of the Maker of heavens and the earth! Indeed, he probably read, understood and believed these words of the psalmist in a way that few other Jews of his time did:

“By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of His mouth…For He spoke, and it came to be; He commanded and it stood firm.” (Ps. 33:6, 9)

This is who Jesus is to him. Who is Jesus to you today?

Meditative Reflection
The Sovereignty of God

“He said, ‘Young man, I say to you, get up!’ The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.” (Lk. 7:14-15)

Over the years, I have had the privilege of visiting and praying with many families with loved ones who are ill. Although most of these families are believers, they do approach the situation quite differently, especially where the illness appears to be terminal.

Of course, the sadness that accompanies these terminal cases is understandable, even among the strongest of faith. However, I have found it most difficult to deal with those believers whose faith is so strong that they insist that God has heard their prayers and that their loved ones will definitely be healed. More than once, I have been assured by some of them that God has assured them with His words from the Scriptures. Sometimes, it would be the patients who expressed their faith in God’s healing, based on some of the passages that they have read in the Bible.

As I look back, I have seen cases where God has chosen to answer our prayers and miraculously heal those whose sickness was terminal. However, I recall that in these cases, no one claimed that God assured them of His healing. On the other hand, unfortunately, in all the terminal cases where believers claimed that God had promised healing, all had gone to be with the Lord. So, it begs to ask the question, “Does God not perform miraculous healing any more today?"

The answer is, “Certainly!’ I witnessed at least two so-called terminal cases in which God miraculously healed the sick. An old man was deemed irrecoverable from his illness, and the medical personnel insisted on pulling all his “IVs”. But his son knelt and prayed with me at his bedside around 8 PM that night. The very next morning, his father was able to leave the hospital on his own. I prayed for another old woman who was not even a believer at the time. When her potassium level dropped to a very low level, the doctor opined that she would not survive through the night. As I prayed for her that night, she not only survived through that night, but fully recovered and subsequently came to believe in the Lord Jesus as her Lord and Savior. Yes, God does answer prayers and He is still in the business of healing the sick, even the very sick.

But, whether He will heal or not is 100% His prerogative. My dying niece (who subsequently went home to be with the Lord at age 28) directed my attention to these words in Isaiah two weeks before her death,

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways…As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isa. 55:8-9)

For those who love the Lord and yet struggle with such unanswered prayers, these words from John Milton (1608-1674) deserve our reflection:

“But patience is more often the exercise of saints, the trial of their fortitude, making them each his own deliverer and victor over all.” (Milton, Samson Agonistes)

Meditative Reflection
Falling Away from Faith

“Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” (Lk. 7:19)

It was quite surprising to see John the Baptist question who Jesus was in his moment of weakness. He was the one who leapt for joy in his mother’s womb at the visit of Mary (Lk. 1:44); he would no doubt have heard of the virgin birth from his parents; and he witnessed the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus and the voice of Father God at Jesus’ baptism. In fact, he himself testified as to who Jesus was with these words in public, “I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.” (Jn. 1:34). Why then would he doubt if Jesus was the “one”, meaning the Messiah, the Son of God?

After all, John the Baptist was human.

In His reply to John, Jesus asked John’s disciples to report back to John what they had seen and heard: “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the good news is preached to the poor”. In other words, the prophecy of Isaiah 61, the passage that Jesus spoke on to affirm who He is in Luke 4:18-19, has been more than fulfilled. He is definitely the “anointed one” spoken of by the prophet. The problem was, there was at least one fine detail in the prophecy that had not been fulfilled by Jesus, and that was the “release from darkness for the prisoners”. This was personal to John, because he was imprisoned by King Herod. If Jesus was the Messiah, why then did He not free him from prison?

Perhaps, the real question that John was asking was, “Have you forgotten about me?” But to have his disciples come and ask Jesus, “are you the one who was to come or should we expect someone else?” he was not only expressing his doubt in public, he was shaking the faith of his disciples and that of all the hearers! I believe, it was in this respect that Jesus said, “yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (Lk. 7:28).

John would come to submit to the will of God and he would come around to affirm his belief in Jesus upon hearing Jesus' reply through his disciples, but that at that moment of weakness, he had “forced” Jesus to point out a very important fact: Faith in Him as the Messiah and the Son of God is the Kingdom of God. Lacking faith will cause anyone to be less than the least in the Kingdom of God, i.e. being an outsider of God’s Kingdom.

Indeed, unanswered prayers sometimes do have a way to cause us to “fall away”, even momentarily from faith in Jesus (Lk. 7:23).

Meditative Reflection
Different Roles in the Kingdom of God

“But wisdom is proved right by all her children.” (Lk. 7:35)

Jesus ends His comments about John the Baptist with words of rebuke for that generation in Luke 7:11-35: They rejected both the ascetic and forceful ministry of John and the celebrative and gentle ministry of Jesus. In so doing, Jesus is not only rebuking the people, but also affirming John and his ministry. John and his ministry had fulfilled a preparatory role for Jesus though his ministry differed from that of Jesus.

Yesterday, we considered the rather shocking words of John in doubting if Jesus were the Messiah, when previously his own miraculous birth and commissioning, the testimony of his own mother, Elizabeth, the testimony he himself witnessed of the Father and of the Holy Spirit at Jesus’ baptism, had led him to affirm Jesus as the Lamb of God whom he publicly declared.

How then would he end up doubting Jesus when he was in prison? Some scholars opine that it was Jesus’ celebratory lifestyle that caused him to doubt. John was too austere a person to comprehend a Messiah who would not fast. In fact Jesus did, but not as frequently as he did, and certainly not as openly as he and his disciples would have liked. Worse, Jesus appeared not to impose fasting as a must on His own disciples. This was perhaps too much for John.

Here is a lesson for us today. There is not one set way of spirituality for all God-loving Christians. Throughout the centuries, there are saints who are called to a life of asceticism and contemplation. There are saints who devote themselves to a life of action, reaching the pagans in the most remote regions of the earth. There are saints who devote themselves to changing political and social systems that are evil. There are saints who devote their lives to serve the poor. There are saints who give themselves to witness for Christ in their workplace and career. There are saints, while living an ordinary life in the world, devote their lives in intercession for the Kingdom of God, and the waiting for the Lord’s return. As long as they are true to their calling and the role given to them by God, they should not envy or criticize those who serve in a different role in the Kingdom.

Meditative Reflection
To Love Jesus More

“Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he cancelled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” (Lk. 7:42)

Jesus was using the parable of two debtors not only to justify His reception of the kissing and anointing by the woman who was most likely a prostitute, but also to show Simon, the Pharisee that he too was a sinner in need of His forgiveness.

However, if Simon perceived that the woman was the one who owed 500 denarii and he was the one who owed only 50, he would be totally wrong. Indeed, the woman would have seen herself as the debtor who owed the most, because she recognized how sinful she was, perhaps, as a prostitute. As a result, her weeping signified her deep contrition; her kissing of Jesus feet showed her deep love for Jesus and His forgiveness; and her anointing of His feet demonstrated her total submission and worship as a slave.

However, is the sin of this woman necessarily worse than that of Simon who openly insulted Jesus by not even washing His feet, let alone not kissing Him as his guest and anointing Him as his honored guest? The Apostle Paul understood how grave a sinner he was as a Pharisee who rejected Jesus and persecuted His church; he even called himself the “chief of sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15).

Indeed, how deep a conviction we have of our sinfulness has to do with how honest we are within and how close we are to the source of the Light of Life.

Once I visited someone’s home which was a basement suite. I knew her to be a very neat and tidy person and automatically assumed that her home would be no different. As I walked to her dark living room, it did appear to be very clean and tidy, but as she pulled open the blinds, a ray of sunlight shone in and I could see dust particles flying all over the place. If we shade ourselves from the Divine Light, we will fail to recognize how sinful we are. However, if we choose to draw close to God often and in the light of His Word, we will be shown, like the woman in Simon’s house, how sinful and filthy we are after all. And as we weep, kiss and anoint the Lord’s feet, we will come to experience the forgiveness of our many sins and we will also be able to “love much” (Lk. 7:47).

Meditative Reflection
In His Time

“But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it and by persevering, produce a crop.” (Lk. 8:15)

As we seek to share the gospel with our friends and relatives, especially those we love dearly, we are sometimes frustrated with their lack of interest in spiritual things, and secretly, we wonder if they will ever come to Christ.

As we read Jesus’ parable of the sower, we are far too familiar with those seeds on the path and on the rock. We too are familiar with those who appear to respond favorably to the gospel, only to fall away because of their busyness, their reluctance to give up their way of life or objections from their family.

I too remember the long journey it took to see my parents come to Christ. While I thought that my mum was a very good person and I saw that she went to church at times, I was afraid she did not really know salvation. So, when I truly came to Christ in my late teen-years, I worried about her salvation, and one day, I gathered up my courage to share with her the need to accept Jesus Christ as her personal Lord and Savior. It did not go too well, as she basically did not respond to whatever I said (which probably was because I did not do a good job in explaining it). But I did not stop praying for her, and I knew my other born-again siblings would have also prayed for her.

It would be almost 20 years later, when she joined us in Vancouver. Then she began attending church regularly, and I could see her appetite for spiritual things grow exponentially so that she could even recite Psalms 22-24 by memory before a large gathering in the church.

While my mum’s conversion was not too surprising, that of my father’s was. His relationship with most of us had not been good, and with his macho and smile-less image, none of us would have the courage to share the gospel with him, except to pray for him. For many years, I did too and God answered our prayers. My brother’s pastor happened to grow up in a small village that my father used to be stationed at (I think during the war), and thus he could strike up a kinship with my father that no one else could. Eventually he led my father to Christ, and my father passed away not too long afterwards. I will never forget the time, when the pastor led our family in prayers at my father’s funeral, before we headed out to the main hall. I  stood there with my eyes closed and though I knew the light came from the ceiling lights, the light glowed in such a way as if it were from heaven. My heart felt strangely warm with the inner assurance that, as much as it was hard to believe, my father was received into heaven.

I always wonder how we, as sharers of the gospel, can make the soil of the hearers good. Well, we cannot and only God can. But I believe that through our unceasing intercession, God will cause circumstances to happen to our loved ones to soften their hearts, so that the seed of the gospel will eventually bear fruit. No matter how long a journey it may be, He does make all things beautiful in His time.

Meditative Reflection
Blood is Thicker than Water

“My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.” (Lk. 8:21)

Whether I was in a remote city of British Columbia or Great Britain, in the airport of San Francisco or Hong Kong, or on a tour, once I made known my faith in Christ to fellow believers, then instantly the distance between us  narrowed.  This is something the world cannot understand.

I still remember the joy of that Christian family from Florida who met my wife and I for the first time in our tour of Italy. In a few short days we became like old friends and how they would ask all kinds of biblical questions on a daily basis.

But I remember most the young university graduates who dedicated themselves in reaching the Muslims in Banda Ache, Indonesia. With complete trust in someone whom they met for the first time, but who was a brother in Christ, they confided in me their passion, the danger they faced and their struggles with their families.

Indeed, they are my brothers and sisters, because they are Jesus’ brothers and sisters. We belong to the same family.

Blood (in Christ) is indeed thicker than water.