Forty first Page: A Capernaum Home – Jesus Inside!

Google tells us that Dennis Carter and John White developed “Intel Inside” in 1991. It loaded a simple logo with enough meaning to give non-techies an easy way to understand that their devices contained quality components provided by the company -Intel Corporation –  that defined the state of the art in its domain. Even the logo’s design — two words drawn in informal script inside an imperfect circle created by the art director of White’s advertisement agency — conveyed a breezy straightforwardness.

Now I don’t have to insult your intelligence by explaining that this is what gave me the inspiration for the title!

Look at the scenario painted in Mark chapter 2:  “A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them.” Luke 5 puts it slightly differently: “One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem.”

Who is inside your home? Is it a nagging wife, a cantankerous mother-in-law, a fussy father-in-law, a wayward child, a good-for-nothing husband ……..or God forbid, Beelzebub himself?

How wonderful it would be if people were to recognize your home because “Jesus inside“!  Is your home an island of tranquility, a place of peace, quiet and wholesome joy? A place where God is glorified, and whence hymns of praise resound? Is your family  anchored by prayer on a regular basis?

Not just as the dumb and ineffective “Head of the House” as the popular wall text says, but the real deal.

Those of you who were growing up in Kerala and Tamil Nadu in the 1960s would remember a remarkable itinerant evangelist called Ponnamma Sanyasini. One of her favourite songs – much echoed by children those days – was இயேசு வந்த வீட்டில்………  குமுதம்   இல்லையே , ஆனந்த விகடன் இல்லையே and so on ad infinitum. Television was not around those days in South India, else she would have included that as well in the list of banished items! She was a good soul with a loud voice – no amplification needed – and handled a tambourine like Miriam herself! Maybe she also cut out சண்டை,சச்சரவு ,பொறாமை, பெருமை etc. in the home where “Jesus inside“! (but see what sticks in your mind!)

Moving on, what is interesting here is that anybody who was somebody in the region knew that Jesus was there and was drawn to him.

Can that be said about you? your home? Is your home a beacon of light in a dark neighborhood? Do people come to you for prayer, for counsel?

Hey, do you know whose home that was? I don’t. It could have been anybody’s (maybe it was Jesus’s). Why it could be yours if you invite Jesus to come inside.

Now let’s change tack a bit and consider the crowd.

Why are you going to that Capernaum home or why are you not going there?

Does Jesus mean something to you? Are you attracted to Him or are you dispelled by Him? Brother, sorry you cannot be a cat on the wall. No Sir, it just won’t do to believe in a reasonable-sounding Unitarianism! All roads do not lead to Rome!! If you have heard about Him at all, you have to take a position, indeed a decision!

Joshua in the Old Testament might have lacked credible antecedents (I mean he was the “son of Nun” !!!) but he was definite about his faith. He said: “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Josh. 24:15. He also urged the children of Israel to make up their mind. “Choose you this day whom ye will serve” he thunders in the same verse. And in the same chapter vv 23-25 Joshua gets even more particular:” Get rid of your idols! You must decide once and for all that you really want to obey the LORD God of Israel.” The people said, “The LORD is our God, and we will worship and obey only him.” Joshua helped Israel make an agreement with the LORD that day at Shechem.”

There is another telling verse in the Old Testament that points to the uselessness of prevaricating in this important business: “Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”1 Kings 18:21

We can find the similar exhortations in the  New Testament; the apostle James quite clearly states that a “double-minded man is unstable” James 1:8. And  the church in Laodicea gets a severe warning: “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” Rev.3:15-16.

All of the above is not to suggest that people who gathered in that Capernaum home were all followers of Jesus. They were not. For we read that “Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there” and we know that they were of a different persuasion. The point really is that 

they wanted to hear what Jesus had to say

That is very much more than can be said about people in churches today when the Word of God is expounded. With the use of mobile phones becoming rampant, these are freely carried inside churches. To be sure these devices come conveniently loaded with the Bible. So who knows if you are diligently searching for a scripture reference or surreptitiously texting a friend, or even playing a silent game. It is understandable if doctors on call or other emergency personnel suddenly exit during sermon time but others have no business to take a walk or go out for a smoke (no kidding, I know of at least one instance)

How about you?

Do you have an ear to hear what the Spirit says unto the church?  Has God opened your ears as he did the Psalmist’s ?(My ears You have opened Ps. 40:6). 

Before we go further, we can look at it from another angle.

There was nothing legalistic about the gathering there. It wasn’t a Sunday Service ordained by tradition. You didn’t have to rise early, put on your best clothes, carry your Bible and go. Those who went simply wanted to see Jesus (“Sir, we would see Jesus” John 12:21) and hear His words.

There was no other agenda.

Pray, what are your motives in going to church? This calls for a little soul searching.

Now, it is time to turn the prism some more.

Consider this: “But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” John 6:68–69. Then again we know the story of the disciples who walked to Emmaus: They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” Luke 24:32

So a great deal of responsibility devolves on the Preacher. Does he know what he is talking about? Is he merely bloviating and waxing eloquent? Is he pointlessly demonizing the demigods around to the detriment of communal harmony? Do the techniques of rhetoric such as the tricolon and alliteration become so important for him to the point of missing the elephant in the room? Pointedly, does he/she have the “words of eternal life”?

It is good to keep in mind that Jesus did not sugar-coat His words. Sickeningly cloying forms of address such as “my precious, precious people of God” were not His style. He did not hesitate to call them “false prophets, ferocious wolves, evil doers, hypocrites,  brood of vipers, wicked and adulterous generation “; yet the people “gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them.” Mark 2:2

You preacher, teacher standing at the pulpit – please do pay attention. Preach the Word. Not some social gospel.

Now, we must be practical. We are not Jesus. It would create quite a scene if you raise your voice and call your congregation derogatory names. The consequences could be disastrous (remember Jesus himself was about to be stoned). But then again, there is no need to be syrupy sweet with them. I once attended a Methodist Church in Bangalore where the pastor put on a lachrymose melodrama right through the service!

Read Acts 2 and digest the remarkable sermon that Peter preached. Do you know what the response was? “Cut to the quick, those who were there listening asked Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers! Brothers! So now what do we do?” Peter said, “Change your life. Turn to God …………….”

Isn’t this we want from our church services?

You don’t have to impress anybody by your scholarship. See what that great evangelist Paul says: And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power 1 Cor. 2:4. A..ah read the account in Luke again: “And the power of the Lord was with Jesus “Luke 5:17

Not ecclesiastical authority.

And the narrative goes on to talk about  the paralyzed man being healed.

But that is another story!

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