Jesus had an inexhaustible amount of positive divine energy that he put to work for God’s glory as he went through Galilee teaching, healing and casting out demons.
This energy attracted the huge crowds that flocked after him.
They wanted some of that positive energy for themselves.
All of us could use this sort of energy ourselves in our busy lives. Just as it was for the people who flocked after Jesus, we too need direction and focus in our lives. We too, need healing. We too, need to be freed from the demons that haunt us and sap our energy.
Even though Jesus is no longer with us in a physical body, we can still come into his presence by doing some of the same things that the crowds in Galilee did in order to obtain the positive divine energy that Jesus shared with those who came to him in need.
The people in the crowd who interrupted the retreat that Jesus and his disciples had planned were like sheep without a shepherd. They had no direction. And so Jesus had compassion on them and taught them.
Once they had sought him out, the people in the crowd listened to Jesus. “He began to teach them many things,” the gospel says.
Even though we can’t sit at his feet, we too, can listen to the Lord by paying close attention to scripture, by entering ever more deeply into listening for the direction that Jesus gives us through the careful study of God’s word.
This living word contains positive divine energy that flows into us as we “read, mark, learn and inwardly digest” (BCP, Collect 28, pg 184) the living words of scripture.
In addition to seeking him out and listening to him, we hear that the people in the crowd begged to touch even the fringe of the cloak of Jesus so that they could be healed. They simply asked for what they needed, and all who touched the fringes of his cloak were healed.
We go to God in prayer to ask for what we need, and God knows what we need even before we ask. God knows what we need even when we don’t dare to ask, and even when we can’t figure out exactly what it is we need. The main thing is to go to God in prayer.
Just pray.
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
This twelve word prayer is a perfect prayer. It describes who we are praying to—our Lord Jesus Christ, our Good Shepherd, the Son of God. This prayer describes who we are—we are all sinners, in need of God’s direction and mercy.
When we pray this prayer, we ask for all we’ll ever need, God’s inexhaustible healing mercy, poured out on us.
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
The third example that the crowd gives us is that the people helped one another get to Jesus. Jesus had what they needed, and they didn’t try to hoard his healing power for themselves, or to keep it secret. Instead, they helped one another get to Jesus. The gospel tells us that “they began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was.”
By sharing the good news with one another and by helping one another receive healing, the people in the crowd were able to take in and then spread out the positive healing energy that they had received from Jesus even further, to more and more people.
Sharing our faith, inviting people to come hear the good news and to share in it, helping people, no matter where they are, to find Jesus, actively working as people who share God’s loving and healing work—God uses these actions on our part to spread positive divine energy even beyond the boundaries of our particular communities, to spread God’s healing work throughout the world.
As we study God’s word, as we pray, as we go about our daily lives, how can we be sure that we are really going in the direction that God has planned out for each one of our lives, especially when we feel a lack of energy in our daily lives and work?
We can keep two things in mind and make sure that we have these two things in place in our lives.
The first thing to keep in mind is to make sure that our focus is on God, just as Jesus did in his ministry. Everything Jesus did was for God’s glory. Jesus turned to God for direction throughout his life on earth.
We’ve said the twenty-third psalm today, which is a timeless reminder for us of the power of following a trustworthy leader.
If the Lord is our shepherd, we have what we need, our souls are revived, the right pathway is pointed out to us, we lack fear, we can sit down with our enemies, and as God leads us, God surrounds us with goodness and mercy.
When we live knowing that we will have what we need, that our pathways are laid out for us, and that we have no reason to fear our enemies, or even death, then positive, divine, life giving energy can surge through our lives.
Second, and this idea is very counter-cultural, if we want this positive divine energy to flow through us, then we have to forget about ourselves.
Jesus had great energy because of his ability to forget about himself and to follow God.
To use a familiar psychological term, Jesus does not place his ego in the way of God’s work. Instead, everything Jesus does points to God’s kingdom being manifested here on earth.
In all of his teaching, healing, and casting out of demons, Jesus points to God—who leads him through his earthly life, to the cross and beyond.
Jesus forgets about himself as he serves others. As a result of this self-forgetfulness, Jesus is full of God’s positive divine energy because he is simply a channel of God’s healing grace and mercy and love.
God’s divine energy can flow through us when we know who we follow and when we remember that we are simply part of one great fellowship of love with all of creation.
God’s divine energy gives us the power to love and to serve God and our neighbors with all our hearts,
to sit down with our enemies,
and even to walk fearlessly through the valley of the shadow of death.
And surely, as God’s divine energy fills us,
goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives, and we will dwell together in the house of the Lord forever.
Amen