Cast out Thieves to Heal the Blind and Lame

“And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.” Matthew 21:14

How many of us have glossed over this scripture when we read about Jesus casting the merchandisers and money-changers from the temple? Before he healed the blind and lame, he had to cast out the thieves.

“The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy,” Jesus stated in John 10:10. But, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

In Jesus’ day, thieves ruled in God’s house, the temple. That’s because they had allowed the biggest thief of to influence them – the thief that steals, kills and destroys. That thief is the devil.

Sometimes before Jesus could heal people, he had to cast out the devil behind the disease.

The passage in Luke 13:11-16 gives an account of a woman who had a spirit of infirmity. She walked hunched over, which meant she was looking down and couldn’t see straight. In a sense, it was like being blind. It also kept her from walking straight, so in a way she was lame too.

But when Jesus spoke the word and laid his hands on her, she straightened up. No stumbling block kept her from seeing the path that lay before her and walking in it. She had come into the synagogue (the equivalent of church for a Christian) and received not only healing, but deliverance too. Once Jesus cast the thief out, what was blind and lame in her got healed.

It wasn’t just a spiritual healing, it was physical too! But to heal her, Jesus had to cast out the spirit that kept her bound.

Peter told the Cornelius crowd in Acts 10:38 that Jesus went about doing good and healing everyone the devil had oppressed,

He first cast out the thieves, then healed the blind and lame.

What, if anything, immobilizes you and/or blinds you to whatever opportunities are knocking on your door? Do you need some sort of healing, whether spiritual or emotional?

The thief may try to steal, kill and destroy, but Jesus gives abundant life to all who will believe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Advertisement

The First Ever Techno-whiz

“So then, Noah, you’re so slow-ah. Take that!”

The boy who aimed the spear brushed back a curl from his rugged tanned face. He was two times taller than Noah and five times as muscular. The star athlete of the school crunched boulders for fun, and his aim was nearly perfect – 99.9 percent of the time he got a bull’s eye. He wasn’t known for having a bad day. Certainly, this day would prove to be no exception.

The burly fellows in his gang jeered. The weapon was sure to hit its target. No way could the puny kid duck it in time. It was sure, it was quick, it was – what?

With an unexpected whoosh, the spear was deflected. Noah’s brown eyes sparkled with delight to see it fly over his head. Instead of hitting him, it zoomed toward the magnet he had hidden high in the tree behind him, just beneath the bird house.

“Noah, slow-ah? I don’t think so.” When it came to outwitting bullies, Noah knew a trick or two. He didn’t have to strain his brain to invent new ways to deflect weapons. The way to make a magnet just sort of came to him.

As he watched the bullies run away in fright, he realized his inspiration had come from a higher power. He knew that it was God. God had given him ideas he could never have come up with on his own. He knew how to bend wood, how to cut it, and how to fit the pieces together to make a giant floating ark. I’m sure he knew how to make nails. He even had a reputation for knowing how to speak to animals. Such powers were beyond human. They were supernatural.

The desperate times in which Noah found himself called for super powers. Just like in today’s world, where hate has a way of spreading all across the internet, so it was in Noah’s time. Violence was a huge problem, and back then they didn’t even have TV! Fallen men with giant’s blood had spread their savagery everywhere. Survival of the fittest seemed to be the rule of thumb. Giants were the ones who were considered the heroes, but God used an ordinary carpenter like Noah to turn that idea on its head.

Noah probably didn’t look much like a hero, but he acted like one. He was probably like the geek that all the bullies made fun of, but I’m sure nobody could swing a hammer like he could – not even the mythological god Thor.

God showed Noah how to use simple tools to save himself and others from harm. Building the ark is the one we all know about, but I believe that even as a boy the call was there. For his father Lamech said that Noah would be a comfort, and he sure was a comfort to his family. As for me, I think of our great ancestor as the first ever techno-whiz. What comic book inventor-hero can compare to him?