Did you think Jesus only cares about things like heaven and hell? About forgiveness and sin? About holiness and wickedness? About truth and lies? About salvation and judgment? Jesus does care about those things. But He also cares about your job, about whether your child makes the sports team, about your children’s college tuition, about your budget now that you are unexpectedly pregnant, about the roof that leaks, about the cranky transmission in the car, and about all the other physical problems and needs we face.
Jesus cares even if the physical problem we face is largely of our own making. He cares if we are having car trouble, even if it was caused by our not having taken the time to change the oil regularly. He cares if we are having financial struggles, even if they were caused by our having run up massive debts on our charge accounts for things we wanted but did not necessarily need. Jesus cares about your physical needs today.
Often, when I arrive in a city to participate in some conference or seminar, the organizers will take me aside and tell me privately about the various people who will be attending. They describe the multitude. People with broken hearts and broken homes and broken dreams and broken hopes. And then they say, “Anne, we want you to know about someone in particular because we’re hoping you will say something that will meet his or her needs.” If I accepted that burden, I would be crushed under it! There’s no way I can meet all those needs, so I usually respond with something like, “That’s impossible! There are too many diverse needs. I can’t address them all individually. But I can just give them Jesus.” And again and again, I have seen Jesus personally meet the spiritual needs of the multitude – one by one.
Jesus has given me ample resources to meet the spiritual needs of others because He has given me Himself and He has given me His Word.
Jesus looked out at the approaching crowds and saw people who were seeking God but instead had received hundreds of manmade legal burdens.
He saw people who wanted truth but had received political posturing and religious platitudes from the Pharisees.
He saw people as more important than His own plans and need for rest.
He saw people not as an interruption, but as an opportunity to reveal His loving care and His Father’s compassionate power to meet their deepest needs.
He saw people as sheep who needed a shepherd. He saw people as God saw them.
After the long journey of life, we are going to look up and see heaven. We’re going to hear voices lifted in songs of praise. We’re going to see the glory of God radiating from within, and we’re going to long for home. But we will be forbidden to enter. Heaven is closed to us because we are too dirty in our sin to enter it.
However, because Jesus found us in our hopeless, helpless state and offered us His hand at the Cross, we can be welcomed into heaven. If we accept His offer and put our hand of faith in His, He will walk with us hand in hand, not only through the remainder of our journey, but through the gates of heaven that will be opened wide for us. We will be as welcomed and accepted in heaven as He is, solely because of our relationship and identification with Him. Praise God! Jesus is the One, and the only One, Who makes heaven available to the sinner, not only through the cross, but also through His resurrection.
