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In my last story I talked with you about Jesus’ sending his disciples on a journey to teach people and to help people. Jesus told his friends that they didn’t have to pack very much stuff for their trip because God would always be with them, and God would see that there would always be people to help them wherever they went. In the next Gospel lesson in Mark, Chapter 6, the Bible says,
The apostles came back to Jesus (the word “apostles” means the disciples whom Jesus had sent). They came back and told Jesus all the things that they had done and all the things that they had taught. And Jesus said to them, “Let’s go take a vacation. Let’s get away for a while because there are so many people coming to us that we have hardly even had enough time to eat together.”
Now, there are a couple of reasons why so many people came to see Jesus. One, of course, was that they wanted to learn the things that Jesus was teaching. And another reason was that Jesus could do miracles. He could do extraordinary things to help people out when they were in trouble. Many people came to see Jesus because he could miraculously make people all better again when they were sick or handicapped.
I’ll tell you about one time when I thought I needed a miracle. When I was twenty-one years old, I had a job in a city park over by Liliha Bakery neighborhood. I was something like a Summer Fun counselor, but I did it all year for one whole year. “Teen Center Director” they called me. I had an office in the park pavillion. I had sports equipment and puzzles and stuff, and kids could hang out there after school until about ten o’clock on weekday nights. No phone in my office. One summer night, way past dark, I was alone in the teen center office when a group of teenage boys were getting drunk and noisy in the park.
One of the teenagers, a boy named Johnny, decided for some reason he wanted to beat me up. He began yelling and swearing and calling me names, and I started yelling back. When Johnny came at me, I ran away from him. I ran behind a brick post, about this wide, that was holding up the roof of the pavillion. Johnny stood unsteadily on the other side of the post, yelling and threatening me.
Johnny was a lot younger than me, but I was really scared because he was a whole lot bigger than me. Well, Johnny and I made so much noise that a crowd gathered. This was, like, nine o’clock at night, nine-thirty maybe. I glanced around, and I saw about fifty people standing along two sides of the park. Okay, maybe thirty people. They all stood back; I guess they didn’t want to get too close and get blood on themselves if Johnny finally got hold of me. It seemed like about ten minutes passed with Johnny and me still across from each other with that post between us, and not one person offered to help me. (Well, not one person offered to help Johnny either, and I was glad of that!)
And then, all of a sudden, I saw a friend of my mom and dad’s, Noboru Matsumoto, walking by with his little pet dog. I had not seen this man since two years before that, and now I thought, This is a miracle! A miracle because Noboru Matsumoto just happens to be a black belt karate champion. A karate teacher! Yes, I thought, What a miracle! Mr. Matsumoto will just give Johnny a couple of good kicks for me, and everything will be okay. I said, “Mr. Matsumoto! Long time, no see!”
And Noboru Matsumoto said, “Hi, Bud. Is this fellow making trouble for you? Would you like some help?”
“He sure is,” I said, “and yes, I sure would!”
And the black belt karate champion said, “Fine. I’ll go home, and I’ll call the police for you.”
And that’s exactly what Mr. Matsumoto did. The police came and gave Johnny a good scolding and sent him home, and everything turned out fine.
Now, I hope you will remember that Jesus is always with us, no matter what kind of trouble we get into. And I hope you’ll remember that Jesus really can do miracles. But most of the time he doesn’t do them. Most of the time, Jesus works through ordinary people, like ordinary police officers, instead of through miraculous karate champions who might kick your troubles away.
Jesus works through ordinary people like you and me. And he really needs you and me to do his work. Amen.
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