On hearing it, many of His disciples said, “This is a hard teaching who can accept it”….From this time many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him.

This past week I went to see my friend….He is dying of cancer. He has battled it for six years…been to death’s door a number of times and this time I don’t think he will be walking out of the hospital this time. He lost his wife six years ago; she died suddenly and unexpectedly. She had just taken early retirement to stay home to be with grandchildren….Did I tell you that my friend is about my age maybe a few years older?

I went to see him and it was very late. In between dozing off and seeing things that I couldn’t see, he knew me. I reminded him of God’s great love for him. I reminded him of the cross and the empty tomb. I told him a Bible story…it was the one about the paralyzed man. It seemed appropriate because my friend couldn’t do much more than lay and struggle to breath.

Many people might look at him, look at the situation and say that it isn’t fair or where is God in all of this. As I pondered that, I began to think of the situations many people are in: parents who have been deeply hurt by their children; children who has been deeply scared by parents or other adults; those who are struggling with long-term diseases; I thought about those who are addicted to all manner of things; those who struggle with getting older, those who have been overrun by unfairness and those who just struggle day to day. What about those who have had a lifetime of work taken from them? There is a long list of hurt and hardship out there.

There is truly a human drama unfolding out there. For many, their lives are going okay now but if you’ve lived very long you know that things can be changed by a phone call, a doctor’s report, or a plane crashing into a building. And all of this led me to wonder: where is God in all of this?

I encourage you to look into the Gospels. Our Gospel today really begins back in chapter 6 verse 2. Great crowds followed Jesus because he performed miraculous signs. Mark tells us that at seeing the people, this is important; He had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. (Mark 6.34) Here was God in flesh appearing (Jn 1.14), the author of creation from whom all things were made (Jn 1.3), in whom all things whole together and have their being (Col 1.16), the One who came down from heaven and He was among them. It says that He had compassion on them- care to the depths of His being…. He touched and healed them; He wept for them, and He cared for them.

An interview with the philosopher Peter Kreeft has given me much to think about and maybe a different way to minister to people. He was shown a picture of a very poor, starving woman in drought stricken Africa, a woman whose child had just died from the ravages of drought and disease. When he asked what he would do if he were to encounter her, asked what he would do with this woman who had no real prospects for the future, a woman who wanted to die herself, if he encountered this woman what would he do…. He said “I would do nothing.” At first I would do nothing but be with her and listen to her. There are some pains that we are powerless to overcome, rescue people from, or to take away. Some times I have found one way in which we minister to people is to be with them, like Job’s friends did at first. They came and just sat with him for seven days in the dust and ashes. No one said a word to him because they saw how great his suffering was. (Job 2.12-13) And then I would speak to her of Jesus and minister to her needs as I was able.

With my friend this past week one thing he wanted was for me to be with him. I couldn’t change the course of his disease but I could sit with him. Did I care? Yes. Did I hurt for him? Yes, very much. One thing I could do for him was to be with him. Jesus did that for us in that He came and was among us, more than that He came like us. He took up our humanness- He is fully God and yet fully man. He became a man of sorrows knowing our pain and suffering. He came among us, and He was one of us, and He had compassion from the depths of His being for them. (Mark 6.34)

That same Jesus has compassion on us. He is with us and for us. He comes among us by and through His Word. When we hear the Scriptures read it is Jesus speaking to us. It is by and through the Word that real faith can and is created. (Rm 10.17) It is by and through the Word that we can receive hope, comfort, and direction.

When some of those gathered around Jesus heard what He was saying about being “the bread that came down from heaven”- He was after all claiming to be God in flesh appearing- many turned back from following Him, from listening to Him. At that time and other times, then as now, some didn’t like what He was saying, others didn’t like what He did or didn’t do? Others didn’t think He did enough. Others thought He asked too much of them. And they turned back from following Him. How many people today, how many of us close our ears to Him, only hearing what we want to hear, because we don’t like all that He is saying? How many people turn back even now?

Jesus asked the few left around Him Do you want to leave, too? Are there other teachers from whom you want to find comfort, other teachers who you think could better explain about life and its struggles, others who teach you the things of their gods and what they say is beyond your last breath? Simon Peter has a profound answer. Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the Words of eternal life. (John 6.68)

The story I told my friend was that of the paralyzed man whose four friends brought him to Jesus. To get him close to Jesus they had to take apart the roof and lower him down before Jesus. Then Jesus did an amazing thing. A thing that was hard for many people to accept: He forgave the man’s sins. What you need most, my friend, is to be forgiven because with forgiveness comes life and salvation. I’m sure the man’s friends must have puzzled at this. I’m sure they wanted more in way of physical healing but Jesus did what the man needed most- he restored the man’s relationship with God.

Understand this- this life whether you live healthy or as a paralytic will pass away but there is a life beyond this that is for eternity, and where you live it- in heaven or hell- depends on God’s relationship with you.

It is reported that Mother Teresa said, “In light of heaven the worst suffering on earth, a life filled with the most atrocious tortures on earth, will be seen to be no more serious than one night in an inconvenient hotel.” (A Case for Faith p.47) The light of heaven is Jesus for He declared with convincing proofs: I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life. (John 8.12)

The light of life, the light of heaven is found in a restored relationship with our triune God. We see the cost of that restoration is found at the cross- Jesus suffering and dying for the sins of the whole world. We see the validation of that restoration at the empty tomb. The power of this is given us in the declaration of Jesus: Your sins are forgiven…. Now In this world you will have troubles but take heart for I have overcome the world. (John 16.33b)

We are restored in and through the waters of baptism- our sins are washed away. In baptism we who were beyond paralyzed in our sins- we were dead in our sins- are restored to life by His Words and promises joined to the water.

Just as Jesus told the once paralyzed man to get up and walk, He also tells us to get up and go. Go tell others; Go and minister to others even those in seemingly the most dire and hopeless of situations. Go and make disciples by baptizing them and teaching them all I have commanded you that they may see God’s hope, comfort, peace, and promises even through the most dire of situations and most seemingly impossible situations.

All around are people leaving lives of some times quiet desperation, struggle, and/or despair. They like us need to know of this Jesus who came from heaven to live, die and rise again to life for us. They may need us to be the hands and feet of Christ, to have compassion for them, to be with them. They most definitely need us to speak God’s Words of eternal light and life to them.

Amen