The Glory of God in the Face of Jesus, part 7: At the Level Place

This is Bella. Bella is a stray cat that came to our house last fall, looking for a home. She is now my grandkitty, living with my daughter in Lancaster as she goes to college there.

As you can see, Bella is beautiful.

And my daughter, being the artist loves to take pictures of her and put filters on her too.

So this is silver tone, vivid warm, and vivid cool.

It’s amazing how we can apply these filters to any picture we have on our phones, to get different views, even clearer ones.

There are times when you and I read scripture passages and we are uncertain what to think about them, but today I am going to suggest we learn to apply a glory filter.  A glory filter is to take what Jesus shows us about God, and use that to read the challenging texts we face.

With our passages today, I want to teach you how to do just that.

So let’s start with the gospel lesson first. Verse 17 states: ¹⁷ He came down with them and stood on a level place with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. 

The term “level place” is important to note in this passage from Luke. While Matthew has Jesus teach on a mountain, to point back to Moses teaching from the mountain, Luke uses a level place because the word “level” or “plain” was often used in Hebrew scripture as a place of misery and mourning.

• In Jeremiah level is used to describe the fields where Israelites were killed by sword.
• In Joel it describes the harvest fields that were devastated by weather.
• In Habakkuk it is the fields that do not produce food at all.

So for Luke to say Jesus came down to be with the people on a level place, means Jesus came to be with those who were struggling, mourning, in need.

And they were, the text goes on to say: ¹⁸ They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases, and those who were troubled with unclean spirits..

But there is something else about Luke using that term “level place”. You see Hebrew scripture also uses that term when prophets foresaw God renewing those level places, as the glory of God would be revealed in them.

Isaiah 40:4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed.

And Ezekiel 3:22-23 ²² The hand of the Lord was on me there, and He said to me, “Arise, go out to the plain, and I will speak to you.” ²³ So I got up and went out to the plain; and behold, the glory and brilliance of the Lord was standing there,

Luke is saying in this text, this is what is occurring, what was prophesized of old, God has come in Jesus to the level places, to the plains of misery and suffering, and what does he do? Verse 19 ¹⁹ And everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

He healed all of them. He made things right, in the midst of the plains of misery and suffering, God in Jesus came to the level place to renew and the divine glory was revealed.

So, as followers of Jesus, who believe him to be the one to reveal the glory of God, let’s apply this filter to our Old Testament lesson today. The filter being that God comes to our level places of misery and suffering, and does what? Heals all.

Now recall with me the background to Jeremiah. We spoke about his calling the other week, that he was young when God said he would be empowering Jeremiah to speak God’s word to the people and guide them through some challenges.

The challenges being, Israel is a small kingdom, that has made some bad choices, and in the end there are larger nations pushing in on them, causing struggles for the local people.

So in this passage Jeremiah weeps for the city and for the nation he loves. And as you hear, he expresses this pain not only for himself, but on behalf of the people of Israel:

My joy is gone; grief is upon me;  my heart is sick.
“Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King not in her?”
²⁰ “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.²² Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?

There is no joy, there is no salvation, there is sickness and a need for a physician, right?

So where is God, the savior, the physician, the king? That’s where the filter of Jesus can be applied, and when we do so, we can see God’s glory being revealed.

Let’s look at the whole text of that passage, because we don’t just hear Jeremiah and the people, there is a third voice in this passage too. Let me show you but putting names to the words being spoken, the names of Jeremiah, the people of Israel, and God.

Jeremiah 8:18:  My joy is gone; grief is upon me; my heart is sick.

God verse ¹⁹ Listen! The cry of the daughter of my people from far and wide in the land:

People “Is the Lord not in Zion?Is her King not in her?”

God: “Why have they provoked me to anger with their images,
    with their foreign idols?”

People: ²⁰ “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”

God: ²¹ For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am broken, I mourn, and horror has seized me.

People: ²² Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?

God: Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?

What do you see happening through this filter of Jesus who reveals God?

First, we see a God who sees the justification for what had happened. The pain and misery was brought on by the people and their choices, their poor choices that led to their own weakness and destruction by outside sources. “Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their foreign idols?” Now that’s not saying God brought the calamity and misery, no, the people brought it on themselves and free will is at work in this world. But it doesn’t end there.

God goes on to say: ²¹ For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am broken, I mourn, and horror has seized me. We see a level place where prophet, people, and God all sit together in pain. Suffering does not discriminate, does it?

And so while God may be disappointed, God has a heart, right? A heart that compels God to act Verse 22 God: Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?

So what’s going to happen next? God will work to restore.And God does, because New possibilities appear when God sits in the circle of pain. We see that in Jesus as revealed in the gospels. And we see it, when we, his followers apply his glorious filter to the level places around us. Where pain and suffering are, and healing needs to occur.

So here’s the question for us today, church, “How do we convey the filter of Jesus, the glory of God revealed in him, in today’s level places of life?” I think we do what God did with Jeremiah, what Jesus does in Luke, “¹⁷ He came down with them’

You know, research is proving that pain can be reduced when the person with the pain is in the presence of someone who cares for them. Tests have been done with people who talk a person through their pain, hold their hand, or just quietly sit near by a person with pain. And what they found is none of those particulars matter, so long as the person who is experiencing a level place of pain knows someone else is present who cares for them. This is huge, isn’t it? No worries about saying the right thing, or doing the right thing when you want to help someone who is suffering, studies say, just be there. Be there with kindness and compassion. Be there with love and grace. Be there, with another, in the level place, is to reveal healing and hope. It is to reveal God’s glory.

Friends, many of us look around and we see the level places. Because suffering does NOT discriminate. There is physical, emotional, and spiritual suffering in various ages, races, orientations, and socio economic classes . It’s all around. We are surrounded by level places, so what is God doing? God is nudging us, to be with them. Be with them who need to know just as you grieve, so does God. Just as you hurt, so does God. More importantly, be with them to bring the Jesus filter that tells them God is here, and in learning that, some healing can take place.

I want to close with a poem written by John Roedel titled “When the world goes mad”

when the world goes mad be wildly kind to everyone
everyone everyone
~ you can’t control much but you control how you treat others

in these breaking news heartbreaking times when nothing feels certain

let your raw kindness be a certainty

allow your compassion to become a North Star stamped up in the sky for
others to follow back home.

Let us pray:

God, it’s a tough time for many, more than we even know. And yet just as you have proven in our lives that you are with us, you are with the crowds of people who want to be healed too.. May we be open to treat everyone, everyone with kindness and compassion to point to the great North Star of your light, your Son, the filter of your glory, Jesus Christ. Amen.