The universe is broken. Humanity is broken. Human beings have been devastated, paralyzed, corrupted, ruined by the powerful forces of rebellion, sin and death. Our rebellion caused us to be alienated from our Creator, who is the source of well-being, peace, happiness and eternal life. We are now under the control of dark, evil, demonic and satanic forces. We are headed toward death, not life; Hell, not Heaven.
Yeshua alone is the answer! He is the Son of God and Son of Man and the unique God-Man; He is Seed of the Woman and the only Savior of a lost and dying world; He is our Kinsman Redeemer; He is the Messiah – the ultimate Prophet, Priest and King; He is the Supreme Sage; wisest of Rabbis; greatest of Torah-teachers, teaching us about God and salvation; He is the Healer of Humanity – the One through whom God was doing and will do great miracles of healing from all kinds of illnesses; One through whom God was casting out demons; the One who will ultimately cast out all evil spirits.
No wonder why so many of the Jewish people were responding so enthusiastically to Yeshua of Nazareth! Yeshua was hugely popular! Many of the ordinary people loved Him, and were coming to Him for His teaching and His great healing ministry, as we can tell by Luke’s account of Yeshua on the Kinneret:
Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the Word of God, He was standing by the lake of Kinneret. So many people crowded around Yeshua, hungry for the Word of God that the situation became difficult and dangerous. Yeshua needed extra room to continue teaching them. And He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. With Simon’s gracious assistance, the crowding problem was solved. And He sat down and began teaching the people from the boat.
Simon Peter had done a favor for the young Rabbi from Nazareth by allowing Him to use his boat. Now Yeshua will return the favor by doing something good for this fisherman: When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets.”
Simon Peter and his partners had been fishing all night and had not caught any fish. They had worked hard. Peter must have been tired. Peter must have wanted to go home and sleep. But, Simon Peter respected the young Rabbi enough – the Rabbi who had been doing miracles in his hometown of Capernaum, the Rabbi who gave such great teachings from the Word of God – that if the Rabbi said go back out and try to catch some fish, he would go back out again and try to catch some fish. And, it was a good thing for this fisherman that he did!
When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break; so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink. Wow! Both boats started sinking because they had caught so many fish! That is an amazing amount of fish! Probably the record catch of their lives! Maybe the biggest catch ever caught on that lake. Fishermen almost always remember the biggest fish they caught, and the time when they caught the most number of fish. Simon Peter and his friends probably never forgot that day and that amazing catch, and the Rabbi who directed them to it!
This amazing catch helped Simon Peter recognize that Yeshua was someone who was indeed very special and very close to God; and, compared to the holy young Rabbi from Nazareth, Peter understood that he was not. But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Yeshua’ feet, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. These three fishermen, friends and business partners, became Yeshua’s followers, and became Messiah’s trusted inner circle. These three men will become some of the very greatest and most important human beings who ever lived.
Fear of God is good! Fear of the God-Man is also good, especially if it leads to a personal transformation and a changed life, as it did for Peter. And Yeshua said to Simon, “Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men.” From this moment, Peter’s life was never the same. Yeshua changed Peter’s life, his calling, his occupation, his profession. He changed him from a fisher of fish to a fisher of men; from catching fish to catching human beings – bringing Jews and Gentiles who are far from God, far from salvation, from truth, from life, into God’s saving nets; hauling them up from the dark waters of sin and death and chaos and confusion, onto good firm land, into the saving light; into God’s eternal kingdom.
What Yeshua did to Peter, He wants to do to each one of us. None of us here at Shema are professional fishermen, but some of us are businessmen. Yeshua wants to give us a new business. He wants us to be in the business of bringing lost human beings to God. Maybe you are a doctor. He wants you to be healing damaged souls. Maybe you are a homemaker. He wants you bringing people into God’s home and taking care of them. Maybe you are in the car business. He wants you to provide spiritual transportation for human beings to get to His Kingdom. Maybe you are an engineer. He wants you to come up with designs to save humanity.
Yeshua’s mission became Simon Peter’s life mission, which becomes our mission too! Yeshua needs our help! The One who is the Source of Salvation, the Only and Great Helper of Humanity, the Rescuer of the Wretched, needs good men and women, boys and girls to help Him rescue human beings. Yeshua asks a lot from human beings who will follow Him. He asks for total commitment. And, what He asks is not just for the leaders, like Peter, James and John. This request to take on His mission is for every potential Christian and Messianic Jew. Is that your life-mission?
This is not a message of easy believism; this is not a message of cheap grace; this is not a message about self-improvement, and how your life will improve, and your finances will get better, and your marriage will improve. This is not a men-pleasing message. This is not a painless Gospel. What Yeshua asks is not easy or convenient. He asks each one of us to follow Him. He asks each one of us to put Him above family, business, career; He asks each one to deny the world, pick up a cross, and take His message that alone will save human beings, into the world.
Peter and James and John accepted Yeshua’s invitation to join Him and become His disciples and take on His mission. But, there was a very high cost for them: When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.
John, James and Simon Peter were willing to leave everything that most people value most – home, family, business – in order to stay close to Yeshua, and learn from Him, and work with Him to rescue human beings. We must have that same willingness to leave everything in order to follow Yeshua, to stay close to Yeshua, to serve Yeshua, to learn from Yeshua and help Him carry on His work. Do you? Yeshua is not looking for pew-warmers. He is looking for disciples, students, followers, co-workers, assistants, helpers. Is that you?
Humanity is very sick. Sin has sickened us terribly. Sin has made us unhealthy. Sin has made us unclean. Sin has caused us to be isolated from the close companionship of a holy God. Sin has impoverished us. If we can compare the consequences of sin to a disease, sin is like leprosy, and sin has made humanity like a leper – sick, dying, contagious, in need of isolation, poor, impoverished. But, there is hope for the leper! Luke tells us about one powerful interaction between Yeshua and a leper that is full of hope for humanity:
While He was in one of the cities, behold, there was a man covered with leprosy. This was not a mild case of leprosy, but a serious case. He was covered with leprosy. According to Torah, the person with such an infectious disease must wear torn clothes, let his hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of his face and cry out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ He had to avoid contact with healthy human beings. He must live outside the camp. Normal family life would be limited. Religious opportunities would be limited. The leper couldn’t go to synagogue or Temple. Work opportunities would be severely limited. Money would be limited. The life of a leper was not a good life. Leprosy was an awful, horrible disease.
But, this poor leper knew something that might help him. He knew that young Rabbi Yeshua of Nazareth was a good man who wanted to help people, and that Yeshua was close to God, and that God could use Yeshua to heal even someone as ill as him. And when he saw Yeshua, he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” And Yeshua stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” And immediately the leprosy left him.
Normally, no rabbi would touch a leper. If he did, he might become infected. He might become unclean. But Rabbi Yeshua was and is so good, so holy, so full of the saving and healing power of God, that when He touched the leper, the leper didn’t make Him unclean. No, Rabbi Yeshua made the leper clean! A great miracle occurred and the man was instantly and completely healed. This poor man who had been without so much, could lead a normal, healthy, good life!
That leper is representative of all of humanity. That leper is us. That leper is you. That leper is me. We are not wholesome and sound and brimming with health. We are not good. We are not honorable. We are not even OK. We are leprous! We are very sick! We don’t need just a little healing – we are deeply infected by a terrible terrible devastating disease and we are in need of a tremendous, miraculous amount of healing.
What Yeshua did for this leper, He can do for us! Mohammed can’t heal us. Buddha can’t heal us. Even Moses and the other prophets of Israel can’t heal us! The disciples of Freud can’t heal us. Scientists can’t cure our illness. The Democrats and Republicans and Independents can’t make us sufficiently well. Yeshua alone can completely cure us of our terrible disease. He has the authority to declare: Be clean! And, if He says “be clean” to us, we will be clean!
And, He is willing to heal us. He is willing and able to reach out and touch us, just as He reached out and touched that leper. He touched us by the Incarnation. He touched humanity by becoming a human being, and living among us, and living a perfect life, and then taking our sin upon Himself. No one else can touch leprous humanity like this. No one else can heal our wounds or cure our illnesses.
We must be like the leper, and simply understand who Yeshua is, come to Him by having faith and confidence in Him, talk to Him and ask Him to make us clean. Have you?
And, after we are healed and cleansed of our spiritual leprosy, we don’t want that leprosy to ever come back! If we feel we are getting a little leprous, a little sick, a little unclean; if we are losing our love for God; if we are giving into the things that tempt us, we need to keep on trusting Yeshua, keep on getting close to Yeshua, and keep on asking Him to touch us and once again making us clean.
Yeshua knew who He was. Yeshua knew who God was. Yeshua knew who He was in relationship to God. Because He was strong in His self-identity, and in His God-identity, Messiah did not seek popularity from fallen human beings. He did not seek the praise of flawed men and women. He didn’t need or want the former leper, now normal and healthy, to go out and advertise to others this great miracle of healing.
But, the Torah does have a command that should be observed if a leper is healed, and Yeshua knew and knows the Torah, and wanted to make sure the Torah was obeyed. And He ordered him to tell no one, “But go and show yourself to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing, just as Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
In spite of not wanting fame, it came to Yeshua anyway. But the news about Him was spreading even farther, and large crowds were gathering to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses.
And, the more well-know He became, and the more God used Him to heal the Chosen People, the more Yeshua got away from people and talked to His Father, and found that spiritual renewal and refreshment that comes from getting alone with God and talking to Him. But Yeshua Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.
Yeshua was and is the greatest teacher of the Word of God. Yeshua wanted and wants followers who know Him, and who will carry on His message and mission. Yeshua was and is the greatest healer of diseased humanity. Luke now tells us that Yeshua is the God-Man, and the Judge of all the Earth, who alone has the authority to forgive our sins. And, we desperately need our sins forgiven before we leave this life! We do not want to “die in our sins” – to leave this world in a state of unforgiveness.
Word of Yeshua’s powerful teaching and healing ministry had spread to the entire Jewish nation. The common people were very attracted to Him and He was extremely popular. But not everyone liked Him. Israel’s religious leaders were very much aware of the Carpenter-Turned Rabbi from Nazareth, and were monitoring Him, but were not enthusiastically endorsing Him. Luke now tells us about a great miracle that Yeshua will do that will challenge Israel’s religious leaders about who He really is:
One day He was teaching; and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing. Yeshua did not heal using His own divine power. He healed as a man who was close to God, and anointed and empower by the Holy Spirit.
And some men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in and to set him down in front of Him. But not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle of the crowd, in front of Yeshua.
Seeing their faith, Yeshua first responded to the paralyzed man’s greatest need – the spiritual paralysis caused by sin. He said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.” If one understands Torah, this is a very bold, audacious, startling statement indeed!
The scribes (Torah-Teachers experts in Jewish Law) and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?”
These men knew the Torah, and they knew that the way that God ordained for forgiveness wasn’t an easy matter. When a Jewish person sinned, it wasn’t enough to say, “Lord, I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.” Atonement and forgiveness involved much more than mere words. The person seeking forgiveness from his sins had to find a clean, fit animal, make a pilgrimage up to Jerusalem, which could be several days journey, go to the Temple, find a priest, confess his sins and lay his hands on the head of the animal. Then, the bull, goat, lamb, ram, or pigeon was killed. Then the priest took the blood and poured it on the base of the altar, cut up the animal, and burnt some of it on the altar. Then if the man’s heart was right, and he didn’t do this as an empty ceremony, then and only then was his sin forgiven.
But, Yeshua bypassed all this, and with His authority, granted the man atonement and forgiveness because of the faith that the man and his friends had in God and in Yeshua Himself! The spiritual paralysis was gone! He had freedom of movement so that he could move closer and closer to God! How wonderful!
But Yeshua, aware of their reasonings (and knowing those thoughts were wrong), answered and said to them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins have been forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?
The answer is it easier to say “Your sins are forgiven” because that declaration is hard for human beings to verify. It is harder to say “Get up and walk” because that is easy to verify. Yeshua will now verify that the paralyzed man’s sins were indeed forgiven, because of the authority that Yeshua had, by verifying that He also could say (and have done) the harder thing: “Get up and walk. But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on Earth to forgive sins,” – He said to the paralyzed man – “I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home.” Immediately he got up before them, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God. They were all struck with astonishment and began glorifying God; and they were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen remarkable things today.” And, they had seen remarkable things that day. They had caught a glimpse that Yeshua alone had and has God-given, God ordained authority to forgive sins; that Yeshua had and has the authority and the ability to heal human beings of paralysis – those who are physically immobilized and those who are spiritually immobilized by their trespasses and sins.
Yeshua is the great healer of terribly sickened and paralyzed humanity.
Yeshua is the great atoner of sinful humanity which is in the most desperate desperate need of forgiveness.
Yeshua is the great transformer of humanity who redirects human beings to those purposes and missions that are really important.
Is He your healer, atoner and transformer? If He is, wonderful! You are greatly blessed! If He isn’t, please make an appointment to meet with me, and I will try to help that become possible.