See if you can relate to this: imagine a culture in which the people are for the most part living the good life. Politically things are stable; they are not a nation at war. Economically things are really quite nice. Many people are making a very comfortable living. The standard of living is high.
Two times in the recorded ministry of Jesus we are told that our Savior is amazed. Usually in the Gospels when the word “amazed” is used, it does not refer to Jesus but to the people around him. People are amazed at the preaching of Jesus, or people are amazed at the miracles he performs. Yet, there are two occasions recorded in which the Son of God is amazed.
Every fiber of his being must have been screaming, “This can’t be happening! She’s only 12! Twelve year olds are supposed to be healthy and full of life! But now life is slipping away from my little girl!” But there was hope. Jesus of Nazareth was in town, not far away at all! He had heard about Jesus. This is the one who touches blind eyes and they see, touches deaf ears and they hear, touches leprous skin and it is healthy and whole, touches bent and crippled limbs and they are strong and good. He could go to Jesus now. If Jesus would just touch his little girl she would be healed and would live. But he must go fast. Not a second to wait!
When I was in the 6th grade in Florida, I went on a school field trip to the Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa, and one of the highlights of the Museum of Science and Industry at that time was the hurricane room. It was a long, narrow room with thick windows and seats on both sides bolted down to the floor. As we entered the room and chose our seats, they handed each of us a pair of goggles and earmuffs.
If the bus for heaven pulled up outside the front doors of this church this morning and was leaving in five minutes, would you get on? That seems like it ought to be an easy one, right? Who wouldn’t get on the bus for heaven?! But it’s not that easy, is it?
Imagine that you have in front of you a standard sheet of paper, and a line runs straight down the middle of the page. One column is marked “Good”, and the other column is marked “Bad”. So you’ve got a chart in front of you with one column for good things and one column for bad things. Now, under which column are you going to place the following words: Hostility? Crush? Cursed?
By and large, the commandments are not too difficult to understand. The 1st Commandment is clear enough: You shall have no other gods. I think we all understand that means we should not fear, love, or trust in anything more than God.
Words are powerful things. You’ve heard the popular playground poem: “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” False. Words can cause a whole lot of hurt. Words can do a whole lot of damage. In the book of James the human tongue is compared to a fire that can set an entire forest ablaze. With such capacity for destruction, we have to conclude that words are powerful things.
“We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life.” (Nicene Creed) You recognize those words, don’t you? Those words are from the Nicene Creed. We confess them together each week. We stand shoulder-to-shoulder and we confess to each other and to the world that we believe that the Holy Spirit of God is “the giver of life.”
Our text this morning is a portion of a prayer that Jesus spoke to his Father on the night he was betrayed. This prayer is often called Jesus’ “High Priestly Prayer,” and in this prayer, he prays for himself and for his apostles and for his whole Christian Church on earth. It is a precious prayer to us, and we are blessed that the Holy Spirit saw fit to have this prayer recorded in the Scriptures, because in this prayer we hear what our Lord desires for his Church.
