People in Pain
Last Sunday Eric told you a story about waiting to eat enchiladas while he was in Texas. He made a big point out of the fact that he was eating enchiladas in Texas, as if Texas is the place where you get really good Mexican food.
Now, I’ll admit you can get some decent Mexican food in Texas. But the reason I was gone last Sunday is that I was in New Mexico at a family event. My youngest step-sister was getting married. And New Mexico is where you go if you want to eat really good Mexican food. While I was there, I had a green chili cheeseburger and a green chili quesadilla–with chili from Hatch, New Mexico. I had chile verde gorditas. I had posole. It was really good Mexican food!
While I was there we walked around the plaza in Mesilla. Many of the buildings have been there since the 1800’s. People were selling all kinds of goods at the plaza.
We came across this painter named Joe Avalos. He had recently painted an image of the Organ Mountains near Las Cruces, NM which had won an award. He seemed to be a successful, up and coming painter. He was a very happy and outgoing guy. A very talented painter.
We got into a conversation and he told me something that surprised me. Back in 2008 he had been sent to prison. He lost his career as an engineer. And it was in prison that he learned to paint. It never would have occured to me, just standing there talking to him, looking at his work, that he’d had this season of suffering and brokenness in his life.
You can never tell the pain the lies behind the person you’re talking to.
Let me introduce you to Maude Julien.[1] When a tall and shy young man named Richard first meets slender and pretty young Maude they are both taking music lessons in Mr. Molin’s music academy in Dunkirk, France. Maude is amazing. She plays piano, clarinet, guitar, tenor saxophone, trumpet, and accordion. She is learning the double bass when Richard walks in for his lesson with Mr. Molin. He can’t take his eyes off Maude. And she can’t take her eyes off Richard.
But Richard does not know. He cannot know. He does not see that underneath Maude’s exceptional musical talent, beneath her attractiveness, is a woman in pain. For the past seventeen years she has been psychologically and physically abused by her father.
Believing that Maude was destined to be a superior human being and that he was to shape her for a clandestine mission in the world, Maude’s father forced her to face unimaginable feats of physical and mental endurance.
- Once a month in the middle of the night Maude was locked in a dark and rat-infested cellar. She was to sit still and meditate upon death. If she moved her father and mother would hear, for she was forced to wear a sweater on which were woven tiny bells.
- Twice a week Maude had to grasp the electric fence that surrounded the property around her home and hold it for ten minutes without showing emotion.
- She was subjected to spinning tests in which she spun around and around for several minutes and then had to walk quickly and directly in the direction her father demanded. If she veered at all in the wrong direction punishment was delivered.
- To teach her swim, Maude’s father had a long narrow swimming pool built and had her mother push Maude in the pool again and again, lifting her out just before she was about to drown.
Richard does not any of this when he meets Maude at Mr. Molin’s music academy in Dunkirk. But they fall in love quickly. He, miraculously, persuades Maude’s deranged father to let him marry her. And between him and Mr. Molin, they rescue Maude from the prison of her home and her father. Maude writes about this true story in her memoir The Only Girl in the World, released in English last month.
You can never tell the pain the lies behind the person you’re talking to.
Suffering in Luke-Acts
I thought of this truth when I read the text which is our focus this morning. It’s a text centered on a lot of people who are in pain:
12 Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. 13 None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. 14 And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, 15 so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. 16 The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed. (Acts 5:12-16 ESV)
It might be helpful to remember that Luke is the author of two books in our Bibles. He wrote 1) the Gospel of Luke and 2) the Book of Acts. Like so many of the books in the Bible, they’ve been taken out of sequence. Our Bibles now have John and then followed by Acts. It would be ideal to have Luke and then followed by Acts. They are really Volume 1 and Volume 2 of Luke’s writings.
And a careful reading of Volume 1, the Gospel of Luke, would help us realize that we’ve heard these words in Acts 5 before. We’ve witnessed this scene in Acts 5 before. The followers of Jesus, are doing what they’ve seen Jesus do.
Luke uses a particular word in Acts 5:16. It’s the word “therapeuo.” The word means to heal or to serve. It’s the word from which we get our word “therapy.” This is what the early church was offering all those people where were hurting. And Luke uses this very same word to describe what Jesus offered people who were hurting:
| People “healed” by Jesus |
| Now when the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. (Lk. 4:40 ESV) |
| But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. (Lk. 5:15 ESV) |
| And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. (Lk. 6:17-18 ESV) |
| In that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind he bestowed sight. (Lk. 7:21 ESV) |
| Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out (Lk. 8:1-2 ESV) |
Jesus was not simply faced with people who had theological questions about heaven and hell, the nature of God, or the supernatural. Jesus was not simply faced with people who wanted or needed teaching about the Bible or about spiritual issues. Jesus was faced with hurting people, people in pain. And thus what Jesus offered them was “therapeuo.” He healed them. He served them. And that’s what kept drawing people to Jesus.
Jesus didn’t just provide theology. He provided “therapeuo.” He didn’t just save. He served. He didn’t just give homilies. He gave healing. Jesus knew that he was surrounded by hurting people. And thus he provided healing.
Healing and the Church
And this is what we see in the early church as well. Let’s read our text again:
12 Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. 13 None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. 14 And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, 15 so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. 16 The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed. (Acts 5:12-16 ESV)
Earlier in Acts 3:11 in this exact spot, Solomon’s Portico, an outdoor area of the temple, Peter, having just healed a lame beggar, addresses a crowd who gathers because of the miracle.[2] Now we learn that the church in Jerusalem is gathering regularly at Solomon’s Portico. And the church is growing rapidly. “More than ever” are coming to the church Luke says. “Multitudes” Luke tells us are coming into the church.
The growth is coming from two surprising areas.
- First, this is the first time Luke specifically mentions women. In v. 14 Luke highlights the fact that among the multitudes being “added to the Lord” are women.
- Second, people from the towns outside of Jerusalem are now coming to Jerusalem and coming to faith. The church in Jerusalem is becoming regional, drawing people from all over the area.
And what’s fascinating is the thing that’s drawing these groups. They aren’t necessarily coming for theology. They aren’t necessarily coming for salvation. They are coming for healing. They are hurting looking for healing.
So many are coming they have to be put in the streets. So strong is their desire for healing that they’ll take even the shadow of Peter falling upon them. They are coming in droves. Why?
Because the church didn’t just provide theology. It provided “therapeuo.” It didn’t just save. It served. It didn’t just give homilies. It gave healing. When hurting people looked for healing, they looked to the church.
Warmer for the Wounded
In this series, we’re challenging Highland to become a warmer church, a church that draws people in like the early church did. In this text we learn a critical lesson. That lesson is this: In order to increase our heating capacity, we must increase our healing capacity. If we wish to be a church that is warmer, we must excel at being a church for the wounded. Because we are surrounded by people in pain.
Each month I coordinate our Advance class for people who are interested in placing membership at Highland. Not long ago I recall meeting one woman who came to Advance. She was friendly. Outgoing. Happy. Seemed to have everything going well. And then several weeks later I was in a Bible class with her. And she shared a little bit about her recent past. And she teared up as she shared. There was deep pain present. I had no idea. You’d never have guessed just chatting with her. You can never tell the pain behind the person you’re talking to.
People flocked to Jesus because he understood this. And he offered healing for the hurting. People flocked to the early church because they understood as well. They offered healing for the hurting.
Eric mentioned last Sunday that each Sunday 40-50 guests arrive at Highland. Some of them may be looking for some great preaching. Some may be hoping for some great worship. Some may be looking for a few good friends. Some may be wanting some great child care. But do you know what many of them are also longing for? Healing? Among all those guests are many who are in pain. Many who are hurting. And the more we can truly be a place of healing, the more we’ll find ourselves living out Acts 5. If we want to increase our heating capacity, we need to increase out healing capacity.
Last Friday I spent some time prayer walking at St. Columba, a retreat center near Bartlett. While I was walking, one of the staff people drove up and said, “Would you mind checking in at the office before you leave, just so they know you were on the property?” A little bit later I did just that. I introduced myself to the person at the front desk. I told him I preached at a local church. “Which one?” he asked. “Highland Church of Christ,” I explained. “Oh, I want to your church when it was located down near the University,” he said. “Oh really,” I said. “Yea. It was a difficult time in my life. I was going through a divorce. And you guys had some really helpful divorce recovery classes.”
What drew him wasn’t our great preaching, worship, or events. He was a hurting person. And he was seeking healing.
The more we can increase our healing, capacity, the more we increase our heating capacity. And the more likely we make it that Acts 5 becomes a reality at Highland.
[1] http://md1.libe.com/photo/678381-img_4979web.jpg?modified_at=1411067938&width=960
[2] http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dYXVYGxJlEo/UCGMrPKAW3I/AAAAAAAAAPU/ZDxbI9ONFNA/s1600/ESV+temple+mount.jpg
