ALIVE: Chapter 149, The Treasure Chest

The two days spent in Bethany with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were precious to Jesus who had come to treasure the family as His own. Lazarus arrived early in the morning after walking and taking sleep-breaks throughout the long dark night to return quickly from Philadelphia in Decapolis where he went to expand his trade. His haste to return was precipitated by a work-related purpose, but God had His own reason for Lazarus to arrive at his home when he did. He quietly opened the door to the house so as not to disturb his sisters who were undoubtedly still sleeping. By coincidence, Jesus was about to leave for His morning prayer time.

Surprised, Lazarus exclaimed, “Well! Look who’s here!”

Jesus held out His hand for a hefty shake and replied, “Yes, my men and I arrived yesterday evening. Your sisters took good care of us. How have you been My brother?”

“To be honest, I have been having headaches, but no matter. I just returned from Philadelphia, business is good, all glory to God! I admit I am very tired now. I will go in and try to sleep for an hour before everyone wakes up. Um, is there any place in there for me to sleep?”

Jesus chuckled, “Yes, of course; see, I left! If Simon hasn’t moved into both places; anyway if he has, push him over. He is a deep sleeper and won’t wake up. I’ll see you later. Rest well.”

“Thanks, brother. Pray for me!”

“I will, you can be sure of that. We’ll talk more later. I want to hear about your business. Shalom.“

After an hour or so in prayer, Jesus sensed in His spirit that He had company. He looked over to see several of His disciples approaching.

It was the first and only time the disciples dared to interrupt Jesus’ time with His Father, but after Lazarus came in and tried to push one by one aside, not knowing which place had been vacated by Jesus those men gave up sleeping, and wanted to give Lazarus rest, so they left to find Jesus.

Peter said loudly as they were approaching, “Master, we want to pray with You.”

Jesus closed His eyes to see His Father again and politely ended the conversation. Then He welcomed His spiritually hungry disciples, “Come, let’s sit in a circle.”

When the disciples reached Jesus and they all situated themselves on rocks or the ground, Peter said, “Lord, teach us to pray, like John teaches his disciples.”

Jesus replied, “Okay, when you pray, say ‘Father, Hallowed be Your Name. May Your kingdom come. Please give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; likewise, we promise to forgive every one who offends us. And bring us not into temptation. That is the gist of it My brothers. Do you understand?”

Peter nodded.

Jesus answered to make sure Peter understood, “Now tell Me what I prayed.” Then Peter looked over at John and said, “John, you say it.”

John thought about it for a while; everyone patiently waited to hear what he would say.

Slowly John began, “First, we acknowledge God our Maker and so He is our Father…. Then…we go from there to the goal, that is His kingdom where He reigns supreme and where there is no corruption, no illness, no conflict. We ask Him to bring that to us knowing that He wants it too. We confirm that we want what He wants.”

Enthusiastically Thomas blurted, “After reaching our souls up to heaven to see the beauty of purity and perfection, we plummet back down to earth, to our hungry bodies and ask for bread, but only for today. Not for great wealth, or for the future, but only for what we need to survive and only for one day, like when our Father fed us manna in the desert, lest we be presumptuous and greedy….”

Phillip, wanting a turn too, took it from there, “Yes, bread for our bodies, but even more important is nourishment for our souls, to keep our soul alive, more than bread, we ask for forgiveness. To emulate God, we really must forgive those who offend us too, forgive men who are angry or mean, who ridicule us, like how you behave to those Pharisees, right my Lord?”

Before His reply, Andrew topped it off saying, “Don’t forget temptation. We ask, we beg not to be in situations that confound us and threaten us to fall, fall into the mire of sinfulness. Is that right Master?”

“My brothers, you have done well. You are not far from the Kingdom of God. You need to pray this prayer every day, multiple times a day. Never forget it, teach others to pray it.” Prophetically, He said, “Someday these words will blanket the earth, giving faith and warmth in this cold and dangerous place. These words, these sentiments, will unite all mankind who use them in faith and truth. Never say them casually without thinking, for that is like pouring your flask of water onto the desert sand.”

Jesus looked around at His disciples, His students, His seeds and feeling satisfied He was ready to lead them to even higher heights to free them from the shackles of a  life of being tossed around in a sandstorm of good and evil. It was time to lift them above the vain struggle to real brotherhood, where God the Creator was their benevolent Father, where doubt and fears, and where pride could not trap them in its quicksand.

Jesus peered into the eyes of His disciples, all was quiet. No one dared so much as to clear his throat. Then He lifted His face to the heavens to receive the warmth and light from the sun, and the right words to speak from His Father for He was about to say the most powerful, most unlikely, most misunderstood statement, one that fixed His men in their brotherhood with the Son of God. He cleared His throat, “I tell you to Ask of Our Father, and He will give to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you to enter.”

Wide eyes of inspired souls didn’t even blink. Could this be true? It was when they healed so many people, but to ask for anything? Is this what it means for God’s kingdom to have come, for God Almighty to be their father?

To confirm His claim Jesus added, “Everyone who asks will receive, and he that seeks will find. For he who knocks, the door will open.

The angels surrounding them winced. They could sense the bombshell that was dropped with those simple, even casual words. Even the sparrows flying overhead shuddered as they flew over the scene, not knowing why the air currents suddenly shifted. An archangel came to calm the poor sensitive angels.

One cried, “You know such a statement will lift a man up to heaven and then send him crashing to his death!”

The archangel replied, “It had to be said because it is true. It is true and it is the essence of the relationship between the human and its Maker, our Lord God.”

“But, were they ready to hear this, is anyone ready? They will ask and not receive.”

“That’s the point child. You called the statement a bomb and rightly so. Bombs are shot out to destroy the enemy, so as to be victorious in protecting the righteous.”

Still worried and confused the other angel added, “My Lord, to ask takes faith, but when time after time the request is not given, what is a poor human to think?”

The archangel, indignantly replied, “POOR HUMAN!!! How dare you say those two words together! The human is made in the image of God! We aren’t. There is nothing poor about humanity, look at its brilliance, it’s creativity, it’s intelligence….” And then with head bowed in reverence the archangel added, “its physique. What a miracle of construction. The human must be God’s greatest work. In a magnificent, highly skillful form the human contains the spirit of you angels, with the mind of God, and the heart, the soul that has no match in the vast biological world under the sea, above the earth and farther into the skies. No, I will never pity the human.”

“But my Lord.”

Knowing what the other angel wanted to counter, the archangel said, “That bomb will destroy the doubtful, the unworthy. True and pathetic. But to the strong, the children of God who live both inside and outside of time, who live humbly, the statement is True and Dependable. Time, that other magnificent invention is the framework for faith. This ‘bomb’ did not destroy Abraham, or Noah, or David, or even Elizabeth and Zachariah or Anna and Joachim, and others. It made them stronger and more powerful because they trusted in the power of the bomb of trust to protect them from death and were uplifted by it and eventually, in time all their requests were provided.”

“Wait! Exclaimed the littlest angel. How is that fair?”

“What do you mean?” replied the archangel.

“That some humans benefit from the bomb and others are destroyed.”

“Fair? Every human being no matter the color, stature, intelligence, education, facial features (the angel said with a smile) and height of earthly success, every human being is made in the image and likeness of God. Don’t forget that! Each of them, no matter what, is made higher than us. But they are free to do with their superiority to us whatever they wish. You know even angels choose to be dark. What can we do? Each human works out his or her own destiny according to what she or he chooses to think, to be influenced by during their short time on earth. This is what their Creator wanted, freedom. Remember when it was first written “choose life or death?”

Deuteronomy  30:19,20. “This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him. For the Lord is your life, and He will give you many years in the land He swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

“How sad for those who choose death? They don’t know that they are doing that.” If angels have tears, this one certainly wept at the thought.

“My dear angel” consoled the archangel, “don’t be sad. Remember, that when you are sad, one of those fallen angels may take advantage of your condition and whisper to you to join it in misery and lead you farther into its abyss. Feel your sadness, but right away glorify God who can repair all hurt, all the causes of sadness, in His time and in His way, according to His infinite wisdom. Don’t you think His grief is even greater than yours over lost souls? Give your sadness to Him who can carry it safely. Let your sadness pass over you like a breeze or like a wave.”

The sad angel, and the others, quickly gave themselves happy thoughts, to each  his own, and thanked the archangel for clarifying their view. They said in unison, “We see, we stand corrected, we too will wait.

………..

Meanwhile, after dropping that bombshell, Jesus wasn’t finished. He wanted His disciples to understand the Goodness of His Father, and theirs. He went on to say, “And of which of you that is a father should, if his son asks for a loaf of bread, and he gives him a stone instead? or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?”

Having described the love of a father, Jesus lowered the bar and said, “Which of you has a friend that you may need to go to at midnight, and say to him through the open window by his bed, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves. A friend of mine just arrived at my house hungry from a long journey, and I have to feed him. Imagine that the friend answers and says, “Go away! It’s late and my children are in bed with me and we are trying to sleep! I can’t get up to get you bread.” I tell you, even though he will not rise and give him the bread because he is his friend, but because of his persistence, he will relent, arise and give him as much as he needs. Don’t give up. Our Father wants to hear from you and give to you whatever you ask, but for many reasons, some within you, some outside of your control, your requests will not break through. Never give up. Cleanse your mind and your heart from a bad conscience and keep asking. Let’s go back. Martha will be wondering where we are, and will have breakfast ready for us.”

Sure enough, when they arrived at the house Martha and Mary had the table filled with fruit and boiled eggs and fresh bread that Judas had fetched from the baker. They wanted to treat their friend Jesus like a king. Lazarus was still sleeping a deep sleep, oblivious to the flurry around him, as exhausted as he was from his journey.

Out of respect for Lazarus, Jesus and the disciples all ate in silence or whispers and then told the ladies that they were going into town to be out of their way.

As they walked into the center of town Jesus and His men were recognized by many for they had been in Bethany before and of course His reputation preceded Him.

As they neared the synagogue a worn out man and his tired, bedraggled wife seeing Jesus walking toward them, excitedly approached Jesus to plea for the healing of their handicapped son.

“Excuse me Master, you are Jesus, the healer aren’t you?” said the father, tightly holding his son’s hand, lest he run.

Jesus replied that He was and asked how He could help, looking at the silent boy with glazed and cut eyes. Jesus perceived immediately that the child was possessed by a demon.

The father went on, “Our son doesn’t speak and he is blind, and only sends out the most frightening sounds from time to time. He has been this way always and we don’t know what to do with him. I can barely work, because my wife can’t control him. Can you help us?”

Jesus felt great compassion for this family, and especially for what the young man was enduring in this life. He replied, “I can.” Then He took the young man’s hand from his father. Feeling his father let go and the transfer to another hand, the young man jerked his hand to pull it away. But Jesus held on tightly and strong Peter and Andrew stepped up to help control him for the demon instantly tried to fight back to maintain control of his young human shelter.

Maintaining His grasp with one strong hand, Jesus took His other hand and placed it on the boy’s forehead partially covering his darkened eyes. Several passers by attached themselves to this scene, for the villagers all knew this family, and this young man and they were curious to see if anyone could help them.

Tears welled up in the mother’s eyes as a spark of hope turned to anticipated relief. Her husband put his arm around her shoulder and squeezed it as they fixed their eyes on Jesus who closed His own eyes in prayer. Jesus and the young man opened their eyes simultaneously.

Jesus looked into the cleared brown eyes of the boy and said, “Hello, my friend. You are free, can you see me, and your mother and father?”

The young man smiled for the first time since he was a toddler and looked around for who could be his parents. He opened his mouth ignorant of how impossible it would be to speak, but instead of thinking about the impossibility, he simply emoted words, for he wasn’t deaf and he had heard words, but could never speak them.

Slowly he emoted, “Yes. I see you mister.” And he looked around him again. His parents rushed up to him together. The three forming a tree of great love and relief and gratitude. The mother released herself from the hug and pivoted to Jesus, and falling on her knees she worshipped Him and thanked him with tears of relief.

The crowd around them were amazed as they looked at the scene and at each other.

One man shouted, “Can this be the son of David?”

A Pharisee who had walked out of the synagogue just before the healing to see what the commotion was about took it upon himself to reply, “This man is casting out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of the demons.”

Jesus quickly responded to such an ignorant and outrageous statement before it took hold in the minds of the crowd, by saying, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand: and if Satan castes out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then shall his kingdom stand?

If I am casting out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons caste them out? Let your rabbis tell you by whom they too caste out demons. Therefore shall they be your judges? But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. How  can one enter into the house of the strong man, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man, and then he will spoil his house. He that is not with Me is against Me; and he that gatherers not with Me scatters.”

The grateful father boldly shouted, “This man speaks Truth. Let us all listen to Him and not to that foolish Pharisee.”

The Pharisee turned in a huff and went hurriedly back into the sanctuary of the synagogue. The parents and son continued to thank Jesus. The mother invited Jesus and His disciples to dine with them.

One child blurted, “You shouted go, this lady makes the best falafel in the whole town!”

Jesus smiled and accepted the invitation; the crowd scattered.