19/01/2017 - THE LORD’S INDIGNATION

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Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.”  Mark 1.40

After the Sermon of the Mountain, a leper came to Jesus and said that He could heal him if he were willing. The Master’s answer was with indignation, as we read in Mark 1.41, in the NIV version. He heard what he needed to receive the blessing, but preferred to act like the religious people. He did not have to come to the Master (he had already done so when he listened to the Word), implore Him, kneel down, and say “if You are willing”. The faith he received was enough to heal him.

Jesus was moved by deep compassion, being angry at the evil of human’s teaching, which makes people have to beg in order to be attended by God. In fact, what truly pleases the Lord is when we act by faith. You will receive nothing from High if you implore and try to bless God, but if you learn to take hold of what belongs to you, and then praise Him for the request that He will grant.

Many people do not receive their healing, forgiveness, prosperity, or any other blessing because they do not act as the Lord taught. After receiving faith, you must order evil to leave and believe that it will happen as you say. Thus, everything that you say will be done (Mark 11.22,23). If you have accepted Jesus as Savior, you have become a child of God, co-heir with Christ in all that the Father says that is ours.

Many preachers, after sharing a message of faith with the people, say that God will probably operate in their midst. This is a great mistake. It probably happens because they do not fully believe in what they preach or do not have the certainty that the Father will listen to them. Our words must be yes or no (Matthew 5.37). When they act in such a way, they destroy the certainty that they bring in their words, and this frustrates the Lord!

Jesus was also frustrated when He saw the money lenders and sellers of doves making the house of God a place of robbers. The priests, men of the law, Pharisees, and elders of the people were zealous in regards to keeping the Sabbath, but they did not care about commerce in the holy place. When the Master saw this, he got a whip and destroyed what was used in the temple for unrighteous reasons. He still does so to this day.

In Capernaum, the word ministered by Christ enlightened a woman that suffered a serious problem in her column. When He saw her not taking the attitude she should, He called her and said she was delivered from evil. Since she did nothing, He imposed his hands, and she was healed. The leader of the synagogue was furious. Jesus, however, was angry at his evil reaction, and called him a hypocrite, because doing good is more important than religious rules.

The Savior might be angry at us as well, for what we ought to do is to have Him as an example to do the same things as He did. Christ called us to do His work, and not our own. He gave us His Spirit so that we would heal the sick and set free the oppressed. If we do not do this, we are unfaithful servants.

In Christ, with love,

R. R. Soares