02262022 – Luke 9. 28-36
How good are you – at ENCOURAGING “others” or one-another, for that matter? It doesn’t COST ANYTHING and has some pretty huge results.
I think it is IMPORTANT…and is something all too often OVERLOOKED. NEGLECTED.
I think a LITTLE encouragement SOMETIMES can go a long way. FARTHER than we think, know, or realize.
I think encouragement FOSTERS a relationship. It STRENGTHENS it. It is a sign of CARING about another. It is a way of reaching out. It is almost ENDEARING.
Everyone SOONER OR LATER … NEEDS a little encouragement. You know, it is just nice to HEAR! It EMPOWERS. It’s like planting a seed.
The spoken word has POWER over us. It can REFRESH…or it can DIMINISH.
“The RIGHT WORD” can EMBOLDEN and MOTIVATE. “The right word” can CHEER someone on and be UPLIFTING for them. “The right word” can INVIGORATE, ANIMATE, and bring forth a new kind of VITALITY. “The timely offered word” – can bring forth a smile. I cannot think of anyone who wouldn’t like to hear a bit of encouragement. But I can tell you this, a great many people SELDOM hear it. They are DENIED hearing it. It is WITHHELD.
The tendency is to” HOARD our words of encouragement” and “to be STINGY with them.”
When Jesus was turning towards Jerusalem and the life and death encounter, he would be facing there, God provided him “a FAITH-FORTIFYING experience of encouragement” which gave him “the OVER COMING POWER of endurance” which not even death could destroy.
Jerusalem is where they kill the prophets! Jerusalem is where you go to die! Why would he or anyone in their “RIGHT MIND” want to go to Jerusalem?
And yet, he found himself heading constantly in that direction, PULLED, PUSHED, COMPELLED, CONSTRAINED always TOWARD Jerusalem.
He probably could have used a word or two of encouragement.
So, I tried to think about “other times” when he might have encountered encouragement.
Certainly, he must have received encouragement at the hands of his PARENTS, Mary, and Joseph. Parents usually offer encouraging words to their children.
Surely, he received some encouragement from THE TEACHERS OF THE LAW as they talked with him at the age of 12 at the Temple, in Jerusalem.
He would forever remember the encouragement of the “heavenly AFFIRMATION” as he BURST OUT of the waters of his baptism.
Talk about feelings of emotional support, endorsement, certification, and confirmation. He must have felt embraced and totally loved.
I am sure he would have felt further encouragement when he first summoned an unclear spirit “out of someone” and demanded that it come out…AND IT DID!
Then there was the encouragement of THE ANOINTING he received in the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus at Bethany…It was, as if, he was being encouraged all along the way of his journey…at MANY STEPS and PLACES along the way.
As we think about the events of his rather BRIEF LIFE, it becomes clear that “encouragement” was a CRUCIAL ELEMENT in sustaining him to “PERSEVERE” in his ministry of teaching, preaching, healing and miracles.
It was encouragement that PUSHED HIM on…So it was, that on the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus FERVENTLY PRAYED.
It was, perhaps because of his CONVERSATION with Moses and Elijah that Jesus was able “to face the future of Calvary,” with “assurances” – from the “TOWERING FIGURES” of “his faith tradition.”
This was an UNDENIABLE SOURCE of encouragement. Their presence said to him, “Do not be afraid, go on and be sure that THE ONE who “sends you” will be faithful in “seeing you through.”
At the beginning THE VOICE is addressed to Jesus alone, but during the transfiguration, it is to Jesus and to his three disciples.
This represents the HIGHEST FORM of encouragement. To be AFFIRMED by God and to have one’s friends and supporters URGED by God to “take heed to what we say”— that is encouragement and ENDORSEMENT at the same time.
Jesus now has clarity, confidence, and commendation. One more time, he is being embraced, supported, and led toward Jerusalem…
Encouragement was there every step of the way. Encourage one another. It will cost you nothing to do so. But for the “other person” it can mean EVERYTHING. It just might be the ONLY ENCOURAGEMENT they EVER HEAR.
BE ENCOURAGING. Amen.