We took the message – the good news – out in all directions, walking miles between each city, eating, and sleeping where we could stop and receive a welcome. It was just as the Lord told John’s disciples – the blind were given sight, the lame walked, lepers were healed, the deaf had their hearing restored, the dead were raised, and the poor had the good news brought to them.
Racing
We returned from our mission in a state of exhilaration and exhaustion; our hearts racing even faster than our feet. We were on fire at times, as the fire touched our hearers and blazed out across the land. At other times, though, we ran from the curses that pursued us, as we shook the dust from our feet.
The Rabbi poured Himself out for everyone, healing, and teaching those who came to listen nevertheless, some of those who heard him preferred to continue living as they chose, as if living in the dark were better than coming out into the daylight. We heard what the Lord said about those places. No sin or sickness was beyond His healing but for those who simply would not return His gaze or receive his touch there was no help.
Life Without Him
I think now that to reject Him would be to reject all life and health. I look back and I tremble when, remembering a life without him, I imagine what my life would be if I had turned away from that face and blocked my ears to His voice.
Once, as we stood beside the Teacher as the crowds turned and walked away, nothing they had seen would make them turn back to God that day. Later that night, as we huddled together, tired, and depressed, I asked myself ‘Is this all we can expect? Have we given up our lives for nothing?’ A mocking voice rose up inside my head telling me what a fool I was, taunting me, until I wrapped my cloak around myself and walked out in the dark.
His Voice
I came to a clearing as the moon emerged from behind a cloud. Then I heard His voice, sighing soft, as a bridegroom might speak gently to his bride as he woke her, as a little child might murmur in his father’s arms, I caught the words …
‘Father!
…thank you,
… Lord of heaven and earth,
… you have hidden these things from the wise and … revealed them to infants.
Father …
your gracious will….’
I stood, caught up out of myself in a moment of unutterable love passing between persons. As if to help me, the listener, to understand something of this, the words continued …
‘ … no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.’
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In the morning Jesus called us to Him, all the hurt in my feet and in my heart melted away as He spoke
‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.’
I would have disputed what He said next, but I reported it just as He said it – because I have gazed at His face and I have been caught up in the love between the Father and the Son and I know that it is true when He says,
‘ …my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Beautifully written.