There is a story in the Old Testament that I don´t understand (of course there are more):
1.Chronicles 13: David wants to bring the Chest of God home to Jerusalem. David, the priests and all Israel together make a grand parade with song and dance and a marching band. A happy day for God´s honor.
Until the oxen stumble and Uzzah grabs the Chest of God to keep it from falling off. God kills Uzzah on the spot.
David is shocked and mad at God. The parade is called off and the Chest is stored in house nearby.
I´m totally with David here. Why is God doing this?
Uzzah just wanted to help. He grabbed the Chest in reflex, in order to protect it, to keep it from falling off.
2 things:
-The Chest of God is extremely holy. That´s where God lives.
Nobody, not even the priests, are holy or pure enough to ever touch it, to come that close to God.
-Second: God is so mighty and big, He doesn´t need our help. If he doesn´t want the Chest to fall off than it won´t fall off. Who do we think we are that we needed to help God? That catastrophe would come if we wouldn´t intervene?
God doesn´t need our help.
He has everything under control. Ever.
There is no surprise for Him not even stumbling oxen.
However I think that God overreacted here.
But that´s how the story is. Now we know how holy God is.
But we find a totally different story in the New Testament!
Luke 8, 40-48: A woman who has been sick for years touches Jesus and is healed.
That woman is not worthy to touch Jesus. She suffers from hemorrhages for 12 years.
You could hardly be more impure than that.
She´s not even allowed to enter the temple less touch the most Holy, the son of God!
She does so anyway. Because she´s so desperate and needs help.
And the miracle happens: The very moment she touches the edge of Jesus´robe, her hemorrhaging stops.
Not she is the one making Jesus unclean, Jesus is making her clean.
Power flows from Jesus to the woman, a healsome, purifying power.
And Jesus notices that. “Who touched me?“
The others laugh at him. „We´ve got crowds of people on our hands. Dozens have touched you!”
But Jesus knows what happened.
The woman kneels down in front of all the people and blurts out her story.
Embarrasing. Courageous.
„Daughter, you took a risk trusting me, and now you´re healed and whole. Live well, live blessed!“
It was a risk. She could have died like Uzzah or at least be exposed and humiliated.
But Jesus healed her.
It was not that she had made him unclean but that he had made her clean.
That´s the New Testament. The game has changed!
I don´t need to be afraid to get in touch with God!
Not because we were holier than people back then (the hemorrhaging woman was way less clean than Uzzah the priest).
Not because God was less holy or scary now (Jesus is much more holy than the Chest of God).
Something´s different.
One part is the motive: Uzzah tried to help God. He was not humble but maybe a bit pride.
The woman touched Jesus because she needed help. Not because she wanted to help.
She wanted to get something from God. She came humbly. Desperate and at the end of her rope.
God knows how needy we are. He wants to help us.
And that is possible now, since He sent Jesus down to earth!
We are not holy enough to come close to God.
But He came close to make us holy.
His death is the sacrifice for our sin and impurity. It´s for ever enough!
We may come close to Jesus and touch him.
In our weakness and with our problems, just as we are. Dirty and unworthy.
Jesus is waiting for us. He loves us and wants to help us.
What a difference!
Later (Luke 10) Jesus sends his disciples ahead in pairs to heal the sick and tell them that God´s kingdom is right on their doorstep.
The seventy came back triumphant. “Even the demons danced to your tune!”
Jesus is happy for them but also says:
“The great triumph is not in your authority over evil, but in God´s authority over you and presence with you.
Not what you do for God but what God does for you – that´s the agenda for rejoicing.”
God is working in, on and through us. Its´s always Him!
It´s never about what I can do for God.
Uzzah wanted to do something for God.
The woman wanted God to do something for her.
I want God to make me whole and heal.
Through my story He can help others too. But that´s not me.
It´s Him.
I don´t want to give in the temptation in wanting to do something great for God.
It´s always about my relationship with God, about my life.
God and I.
I need Him so much. In so many parts of my life.
As soon as I think I can do something for God, I start drifting away from Him, am not that dependent of Him anymore.
I want to be close to Jesus and stay there.
Maybe sometimes something is splashing over me and touches others as well.
1.Thessalonicher 3, 12-13:
“May the Master pour on the love so it fills your lives and splashes over on everyone around you.
May you be infused with strength and purity, filled with confidence in the presence of God.”