Claimed

One day, when I was volunteering as an on-call chaplain for a series of hospitals in the area, I got called in to minister to a Jewish man who was suicidal.  It became quickly apparent to me as I talked to the man that he really needed a rabbi.  My problem?  It was Saturday and the rabbi the hospital usually called in emergencies did not answer his phone on Saturdays. 

I called the head chaplain for the hospital and he put me in touch with a Jewish woman who was also a spiritual care volunteer for the hospital.  I relayed the need for the rabbi to her and she called the rabbi herself, knowing he would pick up if he saw her name.

The suicidal man got his visit with the rabbi.

One of the most interesting things to me, as a chaplain, was ministering to all people, not just Christians, but Jewish people, Muslims, Hindu, Buddhists … even agnostics.  Even among Christians, various denominations had different needs.

Some Catholic patients wanted a priest.  One Catholic man prayed the Hail Mary in Spanish while I said it in English.  Another man wanted healing prayer, not just prayer for healing, but the laying on of hands.  A husband and wife wanted to know if I believed in spiritual warfare before they would let me pray for them, because they needed prayer for that specifically.  One man began to speak in tongues as I prayed for him.  Other patients punctuated my prayers with “Yes Jesus” and “Amen” as I spoke.  One patient was so high, he was convinced he was deaf and couldn’t hear, so I wrote a prayer for him on the whiteboard in his room while a large, burly orderly sat nearby for my protection.

You meet people where they’re at.  You offer them whatever you can to ease that spiritual pain.  You offer it unconditionally and without judgement. 

Last week, I spoke about the value of a sparrow.  Jesus says we are worth so much more than a sparrow, but what is a sparrow worth?

And in today’s reading from Matthew 12:1-14, we get another animal comparison.  This time, Jesus, being peppered by gotcha questions from the Pharisees, asks His own question of them in return.  They want to know if it is lawful to cure someone on the Sabbath.  Jesus says to them in verses 11-12, “Suppose one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the sabbath; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep!”

There are two very important things that Jesus is saying here that go beyond simply our value being more than a sheep.

First, He’s not asking them if they would save any old sheep that they happened to find in a pit.  He’s asking if they would rescue their sheep.  And in doing this, Jesus is implying that those He heals are His.  They belong to Him.  We all belong to Jesus.  We are all His sheep.

Secondly, when Jesus asks the Pharisees if they would save their sheep, He qualifies that by saying suppose it’s your ONLY sheep.  Again, there is a greater implication here.  It’s not just that we belong to Jesus, that we are His sheep, it’s that He treats us as if we were His only sheep.

We are, therefore, much like the sparrow, priceless, irreplaceable. 

And, so of course, in today’s reading, Jesus heals the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath.  He belongs to Jesus.  And Jesus, as He always does, shows compassion on the Children of God.

You, too, belong to Jesus. 

When I was volunteering as a chaplain in the hospital, I was mostly visiting people in the ICU.  That meant I was seeing people who were quite possibly suffering the worst moment in their lives.  And when I would pray for them, I would pray two prayers—there was the prayer I spoke aloud, and the prayer I held silently in my heart.

That silent prayer was simply this—I was claiming them, I was claiming them for God.  They were protected.  They were anointed.  They were a Child of the Living God.  Whatever evil or darkness had entered their lives, it was not welcome.  It had no home there.  This person belonged to the light and to God. 

A couple of weeks ago, I read to you my favorite quote on prayer from Anne of Green Gables, that part where she talks about staring up at blue, blue, blue sky and just feeling a prayer.   That silent prayer I said for patients, that prayer I held in my heart, that was feeling a prayer, feeling it in my spiritual bones.

My prayer for you today would be that you would know that Jesus has claimed you as His.  You are His and He is yours.  There is nothing He wouldn’t do for you. 

Amen.