No Fuss

I have had a habit to stick a lot of paper, cards and bookmarks in my Bible. Today I sat down to do an inventory of my “treasures” I found a clipping with a summary of all the healings that Jesus did and where they were mentioned in the four Gospels. I thought I knew them all but one in particular was a question mark. In Luke 14 it says:

“ On Sabbath when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched.

There in front of him was a man suffering from dropsy. Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?

But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him away.”

I looked up “dropsy” in my dictionary and it was explained as a “pathological accumulation of fluid in tissues and body cavities”. I was sure I had read this chapter in Luke before but now it appeared as something new or at least something I had totally forgotten. How strange. But even more strange is that I’m having the same problem with “accumulation of fluid” in my legs and it is rather painful at times. For the moment it is to be looked upon as a minor ailment but even so it is very unpractical at times. For instance in the early morning if the phone rings and I’m upstairs and have to hurry down to answer; It is painful to hurry downstairs when your feet and ankles are hurting. One step at the time while the phone keeps ringing but just so long that when I reach for the receiver it stops. So I have stopped the hurrying part because I can see who the caller was in the “Logger” on my desk and eventually can call back later.

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As always my mind wondered away to the man with edema and that moment with a rather rapid healing process. No fuss.

1 Jesus took hold of the man

2 Jesus healed him

3 Jesus sent him away

He was an anonymous man suffering from edema and he was caught in the middle of a fight between Jesus and those who searched for a moment when they could accuse Jesus of doing something wrong and worth death penalty.

Was this man going to be healed or sent away because it was Sabbath? Was he also going to commit a crime if he was healed on a Sabbath? A lame man who stood up and walked away with his bed had been scolded because it wasn’t allowed to carry a bed on Sabbath. No joy whatsoever over the fact that he just had been healed from a life long illness. So there was tension in the air.

But Jesus knew whatever he would do it still wasn’t enough to convince the opponents. If he didn’t heal the man they would accuse him and if he did heal the man they would still accuse him;. so he turned his eyes to the man with edema; and with no record of questions asked he healed the man and told him to go.

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- I would like that very much Jesus. No questions; no reproval; no nothing. My legs and feet would just stop hurting, My ankles would be even more slender than before, (I have never had that you know)and I could get my shoes on again without pressing them on.

- Oh, … well … No fuss would be just fine with me too.

In your name Jesus,

Amen.