Opposition

“But Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever, and anon they tell Him of her.” (Mark 1:30)

This happened at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. He had called His first disciples and had healed a man of an unclean spirit in the synagogue of Capernaum. (Mark 1:23-27) Simon’s family was from there and they go to his mother in law’s house, but she is sick. They tell Jesus Who immediately heals her and she is able to attend to them. (Mark 1:31) The disciples brought the sick to her house when Jesus was there, and He healed them. (Mark 1:33) Soon all the city came to her door. (Mark 1:33) And Jesus healed many and cast out many devils. (Mark 1:34) Jesus was intent on preaching. The next morning, He tells the disciples, “...Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also: for therefore came I forth.” (Mark 1:38)

Healings were the confirmation that Jesus said Who He said He was. When John was imprisoned, he sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus if He was the Messiah they were waiting for. Jesus’ reply said it all. “Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in Me.” (Luke 7:22-23) It was the confirmation. This answer to John would be enough for him to be convinced that Jesus was the Messiah they had been waiting for.

Isaiah had prophesied about Him. And He read from that passage in Isaiah.  ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4:18-19; Isaiah 61:1-3) He proceeds to tell them in so many words how they will reject Him and miss God’s visit by telling them of the widow to whom Elias was sent during a three-and-a-half-year famine, but not to Israel. And He told them about Naaman the Syrian who was healed but not the lepers in Israel. This angered them so much they took Him to the edge of a cliff to kill Him, but He just walked out of that mob.  It was not His time nor was it His destiny.

One would think that things would go smoothly.  After all, He was anointed, the Anointed One. He was doing God’s Will. But there will always be opposition to God’s work from the god of this world. “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” (2Corinthians 4:3-4) New Christians are shocked and offended when afflictions come when they are doing God’s will. But the reality is that there another spiritual force here on earth. And it will oppose everything that God is trying to do.

How do we accomplish anything for God then? We don’t. We take it step by step in obedience to God and do what we are told to do. God does the rest. If it’s His work, He will do it. The Lord has given each one of us gifts and talents to work in His church according to the measure and proportion of faith and in cheerfulness. (Romans 12:3-8; 1 Peter 4:10; 1 Corinthians 12:4-25) So we do what we’ve been gifted and anointed to do. God takes care of the spiritual and natural opposition. He takes care of the hiccups. Our task is to be obedient. In this way the glory doesn’t go to man, to the church or the organization.  All glory goes to God. Even Jesus gave the Father glory for the work He was doing here on earth. “I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.” (John 17:4)