There were three men in a little road side diner. One of the men looked up and noticed one of the customers looked familiar. He said to the waitress, “I know this sounds weird, but your customer over there looks like Jesus.” The waitress said, “It is Jesus.” The man said, “Well then, put his dinner on my bill please.” As the waitress walked by the next table the man there said, “I’m sorry for overhearing your conversation, but did you say that man was Jesus?” “Yes, I did.” “Wow,” the man said, “Jesus! Amazing isn’t it!? Well then by all means let me pay for His drink.” As the waitress moved on she was asked by another man who offered to buy Jesus’ dessert. When Jesus had finished eating he walked up to the first man and thanked him for his kindness and then Jesus said, “Son, I see you have a bad back.” The man said, “Yes, rodeo accident. It is not too bad though.” Jesus reached out and touched his back and the man felt the healing immediately and was very grateful. Jesus went on to the second man and thanked him as well and mentioned that the men seemed to have terrible arthritis in his hand and reached out and healed the man. Jesus went on to thank the third man for his kindness. In the conversation Jesus said, “I see you have a crippled leg.” The man said, “I know, but don’t touch me. I am on compensation.”
“Don’t touch me, Jesus,” seems to me a ridiculous thing to stay to Jesus. Leave me as I am, I don’t want your transformation. I am sure most of us do want to be touched by Jesus. We want sickness cured for sure. We all know someone right now who could use a miraculous healing. If Jesus could make us young and sleek again that would be good. If Jesus would help us overcome an embarrassing fault, I am pretty sure most of us would be open to that as well. But are we open to the great things that He wants to do as well, the things He really wants to do and that is make saints? I don’t want a show of hands, but I want you to ask yourself this question: are you comfortable where you are spiritually in your life? Do you think that God is calling you to more?
I noticed in the First Reading something I found to be a good thing, in Israel there were priests and they all belonged to the tribe of Levi. But do you think that God called all prophets from the tribe of Levi? Did He call all the great leaders from the priests? The answer is He did not. He seems to call them from different tribes. Why is this significant? Because God did not only work through priests. Commonly He did, in the areas of sacrifices to God, but often the extraordinary person that God worked through was a lay person.
Do you believe that God is calling you and I to more? For sure He is. I was thinking how often my response to God calling was like that demonic, “Have you come to destroy me?” I admit it feels scary to put our hands into the hand of God and we might be scared what God’s plan looks like. If we answered, “Yes, I am good where I am,” and I don’t mean that you are content with God’s growth plan, I am talking about, “No, I am not going to grow any more,” then I am sorry that you have given up on your perfection and sorry for the people that have to live around you while you stay stuck. Hopefully the suffering you cause will at least be used by others to become holy so your life isn’t a waste.
My grandfather was a doctor and he once had a patient who was obese. He tried to help her, giving her different diets and nothing seemed to work. He finally said to her, “Lady, if you don’t care about yourself, at least have mercy on your pallbearers.” You see if you and I don’t commit to Jesus changing our lives, we will not only be robbing ourselves of healing, mercy and grace but the people around us as well that God wants us to be an instrument to. Yes, there are people here that God wants to do healing through – you. Speak prophetic words through – you. In the Gospel, it said that Jesus’ fame spread throughout the land, yet in our land Jesus’ name is blasphemed and mocked because you and I are not allowing Him to do the great deeds that He desires to work in our own lives.
Maybe the reason you have given up on your perfection and transformation is because you have struggled with repetitive sin and, trust me, I know how frustrating that is. But we can only get free if we allow God to work, humbly begging Him to work. We may be like the demoniac in the Gospel, terrified to let Jesus in because we believe He will destroy our lives. I have dealt with this before and people who have demonic activity often believe it but it is not true. God will not destroy your life. He is the Lord of life and He comes to give us life.
If today you hear God’s voice harden not your hearts. Don’t settle for mediocrity. Don’t settle for comfort. Open your heart to the greatness you have been created for. God is not finished with us yet. When we open our hearts to God, we will say, like the people of the Gospel, never have we seen such things. Never could I have believed how much God loves me. Never could I have believed that He wanted to work such deeds of power through me. Let us let God raise us up.