A healthy body still isn't good enough. (Luke 19:1–10)
Jesus has answers: Love, acceptance and touch demonstrate our true worth.
We have better health care than ever before in history and at the same time record levels of anxiety and depression amongst men and women at every level of society.
We fear death so we worship youth. We have an unhealthy obsession with looking young. A recent magazine reported on an attractive young professional in her mid twenties. There was nothing medically wrong with her she was simply obsessed with image and wanting to be as young as possible for as long as possible, spending inordinate amounts trying to stave off the inevitable.
Jesus was talking to the religious leaders and said, Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.” (Matt 23:27)
External image can help you in job interviews and impress people at a distance but it is who you are as a person that will determine the significance of your life. Jesus’ criticism of the religious leaders of his day is very instructive for us even today all these years later. It is not about how we look that matters most, whether this is our efforts to stay young or to look spiritual and religious. Faith is not an act, it is a internal change and an ongoing relationship with Jesus.
Jesus loves us as we are. He accepts us where we are and our relationship with him grows from that point.
In Mark’s biography of Jesus we’re told that Jesus dealt with a man who had leprosy. You couldn’t get something that created a worse body image. Jesus showed his love for this man by reaching out and touching him with all his imperfections.
A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean."
Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man."I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" 42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.
Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: "See that you don't tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them." Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.
It is through a relationship with Jesus that we are set free from our fears about who we are and we can start to be real with him first and then as we grow in confidence with those around us.
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