I remember the day of terrorist attacks in 2001. An event, out of the blue, caught us all off guard, drew the nation together, setting aside political differences, and changed the world forever. It was a crisis.
I can think of personal and family crises through the years that changed our direction and brought us to our knees to pray and seek God’s guidance.
In times like these I am reminded to look first to Jesus. There is a song by Helen Lemmel, written in 1922, that always comes to mind. It always brings comfort and guidance.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,We have all faced crises in our lives. Both individually and collectively. We have experienced events that changed our direction and made it impossible to ever go back to the way things were. It has happened in our families. It has happened in our church. We are facing one of those times now.
look full in his wonderful face,
and the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
in the light of his glory and grace.
Crises have a way of bringing the important things into focus, and setting aside the things that are not so important. Suddenly opinions or plans or preferences don’t matter so much. They are willingly set aside to concentrate on the more important things – drawing near to others, drawing near to God.
Crises have a way of making us turn our eyes on Jesus, where everything else pales in comparison.
The text today calls attention to two crisis. The first is a personal crisis Jesus encountered when he heard his cousin and baptizer John was beheaded. He went away to grieve but needy crowds followed him to his lonely retreat. Having compassion he ministered to them.
But they wanted to redirect Jesus’ mission, and the conversation apparently confused the disciples. Jesus sent the disciples across the lake in the boat, and sent the crowds away. He then resumed his personal retreat to grieve and to focus.
Meanwhile the disciples encountered another crisis. They sailed into the most dangerous storm they had ever seen in a lifetime of fishing on the lake. They were terrified. They thought all was lost. For hours they fought the storm, hanging on for dear life. I have the impression Jesus deliberately sent them into the storm to get them to refocus.
As morning approached the disciples saw a figure walking toward them on the water in the darkness. They were even more terrified. Peter recognized Jesus and asked if he could come out. Peter walked on the troubled waters toward Jesus. As long as he focused on Jesus he was fine. But he got to noticing the wind and waves and began to sink. “Why did you doubt?” Jesus demanded as he pulled Peter up.
When you face a crisis Jesus will ask, “Why do you doubt? Turn your eyes toward Jesus!”
A crisis is a time to examine one’s life, to reorder priorities, and to look to Jesus for grace and help. I am reminded of the letter to the Hebrews, a group of Jewish Christians facing crisis because of Roman persecution. They were ready to give up, ready to go back because being Jewish was far easier than being a follower of Jesus. “Approach the throne of grace to find grace to help in time of need,” the writer admonished. Look to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. “He endured the cross, ignoring its shame, for the sake of the joy that was laid out in front of him, and sat down at the right side of God’s throne” (Hebrews 12:2 CEB). Turn your eyes upon Jesus.
In this time of crisis, I encourage you to look deep within to examine priorities and do away with anything that takes the focus off Jesus and the reasons we are here. One of our families is hurting deeply, and we must come to their side. Through God’s grace, will come together to mourn, grieve, and find comfort. We together will draw strength in the moment of intense pain and unspeakable weakness. We together will rally around and minister to Joy and her family. We together will discover that God is indeed present and working in and through all things, no matter how tragic or incomprehensible.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus.
Matthew 14:23-33
No comments:
Post a Comment