I was
standing in the elevator of a hospital when a woman, noticing that I was
wearing a suit and tie with an ID badge clipped to my suit jacket asked me, “What kind of doctor are you, if you don’t
mind me asking?”
Now, I just can’t let
these kinds of questions go by without having a little fun. I’m sorry, but you gotta have fun in life
once in a while. Like the time when I
was in a home improvement store and I was wearing khaki pants and a blue oxford
shirt, the exact same thing that the employees of the store were wearing.
A
customer came up to me and asked me where the power tools were. And of course, I couldn’t resist, so I said, “That would be aisle 23, across from the
light bulbs.” As he was walking away, I pointed toward a real employee and said, "Actually, ask that guy there. He can help."
So
anyway, I’m on this hospital elevator and this woman asks me what kind of
doctor I am. And I said, “I’m a spiritual surgeon and I operate on
sinners.” She actually thought that
was kind of funny.
But
truth be told, I think pastors are kind of like doctors, because in a way we’re
both in the health profession, and we both care about the well being of the
people we see.
Think
of all of the people that Jesus healed during his ministry. It seems like he was constantly laying hands
on people who had infirmities and diseases so that they would be healed. You can imagine how the crowds were drawn to
Jesus because of his ability to bring healing.
Today, as part of our sermon series on the crosses of Jesus, we focus on
the Tau cross. Tau, spelled,
“T-A-U.” And the particular meaning of
this cross is that it is commonly associated with God’s gift of healing.
I’d
like to have us think about three types of healing that are associated with
this particular shape of Jesus’ cross.
Physical, Emotional, & Mental Healing
The
first aspect of the Tau cross is that God desires for us to receive physical,
emotional, and mental healing. In the
Book of Numbers from the Old Testament, there’s this strange story, at least I
think it’s kind of strange, where Moses is leading the people of Israel through
the wilderness toward the Promised Land, but along the way, they complain and
they begin to stop trusting in God and Moses, their leader. And it’s to a point
where there is a real possibility that the people whom God had rescued from
Egypt will turn back.
As it
becomes apparent to God that the people might totally give up on following
Moses through the wilderness, God sends poisonous snakes which end up killing
some of the Israelites. But God also
provides Moses with a remedy for these poisonous snake bites by having Moses
make a bronze serpent, which he then wraps around a pole and he tells the
people to look at the serpent so they can be healed.
Now,
if you’re like me, that might sound like a strange way for someone to be healed
from a snake bite, but this is the image that various medical organizations use
even today as a sign of healing. It’s
the symbol of serpents wrapped around a pole.
But
it wasn’t the bronze serpent itself that brought healing to the people. The point of this story is that it was the
power of God through the symbol of the bronze serpent wrapped around the pole
that brought healing. This just goes to
show the power of symbols. Just by
looking at this serpent on the pole, the people were healed.
During
the time of the bible, it was believed that the type of pole that Moses used to
bring healing to the people was in the shape of a capital “T.” Just like the medical profession has picked
up on this symbol to represent healing, the Tau cross also reminds us that God
wants to bring physical, emotional, and mental healing in our lives.
The
Tau cross can also remind us of how Jesus healed people during his
ministry. In the Book of James, we are
told that we are to anoint those who are sick so that they can be healed. The anointing of oil has a long history of
God’s desire to bring healing in our lives.
I
have a friend who’s a pastor and he told me about a time when he went to the
hospital to visit a member of his church.
He happened to have a little container of anointing oil with him in his
car and he thought that he would take it with him and offer it to the person he
was going to visit. He doesn’t always
bring anointing oil with him, but for some reason, he felt nudged to do so for this
particular visit.
This
elderly woman ended up appreciating this opportunity to receive an anointing
and a brief prayer for healing. My
friend then told me that he left the hospital and he had about a twenty minute
drive back to his church. When he was
about halfway back to the church, he got a call on his cell phone.
It
was the secretary at the church.
Evidently, the son of this elderly woman who had just arrived to the
hospital saw my friend’s business card which had the church phone number listed
on it. This man called the church to see
if my friend would be able to come back to the hospital. His mother had told him that she had been
anointed with oil and because he was going through some medical problems at the
time, he wanted to be anointed as well.
And
even though my friend was already several minutes away, he turned around at the
nearest exit and returned to the hospital and anointed this man and offered a
prayer for healing.
But
it’s not just about physical healing because we know that God also cares about
our emotional and mental healing as well.
A little later in our worship service, an invitation will be extended to
come forward and receive an anointing of oil.
Like this man in the hospital this might be a good opportunity for us to
receive an anointing of oil from one of our Stephen Minister Leaders so that we
can receive God’s healing presence and love.
The
Tau cross reminds us of the pole that Moses used to bring healing to the people
of Israel and of Jesus ministry of healing.
God wants to bring healing in our lives as well.
Spiritual Healing
A
second aspect of the Tau cross is that it is a powerful symbol of God’s desire
for us to receive spiritual healing.
Whenever Jesus heals someone, the word that the scriptures use for
healing is the Greek word “sozo.” It’s a
word that doesn’t just mean physical healing, although it can have that
meaning, but it also can refer to spiritual healing. And sometimes it’s a little ambiguous as to
which meaning is intended. Is it referring
to physical healing or is it that the person received spiritual healing and
received salvation? Or maybe even both?
One
of the reasons why the word can have these different meanings is because of the
Jewish and biblical understanding that we’re not just physical beings or
emotional beings or spiritual beings.
All of these dimensions are an important part of who we are.
So
when God brings healing in our lives, it’s not only about one dimension of our
lives. It’s about all of who we are.
One
day, a man named Nicodemus came to Jesus to ask him some questions and Jesus
ended up talking to Nicodemus about the importance of spiritual healing. Jesus said, “No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and
the Spirit.”
And Nicodemus is
confused by all of this, thinking that it’s impossible to go through a second
birth when you’ve already been born.
Guess how Jesus tries to help Nicodemus understand what it means to have
a spiritual healing or a second birth?
He
refers back to that story from the Book of Numbers which we already looked at a
little earlier, the story about the poisonous snakes and the bronze serpent
being put on a pole and lifted up to bring healing to the people.
Jesus
says, “Just as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever
believes in him may have eternal life.”
What’s Jesus talking about here?
He’s talking about the time when he will be crucified on a cross. He will be lifted up on the cross and take
upon himself all of the sins and the evil that the world can throw at him, and
through his death, and as we place our faith in him, we can receive eternal
life. We can receive a spiritual healing
in which we are born again and saved from our sins.
And
right after Jesus uses this analogy of comparing his death on the cross with
the serpent on the pole story from the Book of Numbers, we get this wonderful
verse that many of us know by heart.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his
only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have
everlasting life.”
This
is the good news of the Christian faith.
That in any given moment, you and I can respond to God’s invitation by
looking at the cross and what Jesus did for us and be born again, and receive
eternal life.
As
C.S. Lewis, the great Christian thinker of the last century once said, “It can happen today, if you’d like.”
All
we need to do is to look to the cross, turn from our sins, trust in Christ, and
be born again.
The
story is told of three men in France who were walking through the countryside
together. And the one man kept going on
and on how the problems of the country could be blamed on the church and the
Christian faith.
Every
time they would see a church, this man would point to it and say, “That’s the problem with our world
today. Religion.”
As they were walking by a cathedral, the man
started complaining about the Christian faith again as he pointed toward the
building in disgust.
One
of the men said, “Well, if you feel that
way, why don’t you just go into that cathedral and tell the priest what you’ve
been telling us?” And the man said, “Alright, I will.”
So he went inside the cathedral, found the
priest and told him what he had been telling his friends all day long, that the
Christian faith was just a bunch of superstitions and that the church was the
reason the country was in such bad shape.
The
priest listened patiently as the man went on and on with his complaints. When the man was finally done, the priest
said, “Before you leave here today, I
want to offer a challenge to you. I
challenge you to go into the sanctuary and look up at the large crucifix with
Jesus hanging on the cross, and I want you to say these words, ‘Jesus Christ
died on the cross for me and it doesn’t mean a thing to me.’”
And the man said, “Sure, I’ll take up that challenge.”
And so he went into the sanctuary as the priest instructed him to
do, and he went up the full length of the aisle until he made it to the large
crucifix. And after he stared at it for
a few moments he said, “Jesus Christ died
on the cross for me and it doesn’t mean a thing to me.”
He went back to the priest and told him that he
did exactly what he had told him to do.
As he was about to leave the cathedral, this wise priest said, “I dare you to do it again.” And the man shrugged his shoulders and
said, “Sure, why not?”
Like the first time, this man slowly walked
up the long middle aisle and when he finally made it to the foot of the
crucifix, he stared into the face of the crucified Jesus again. And as his eyes were fixed on the face of
Jesus with the crown of thorns and his pierced body, he began to say those same
words, “Jesus Christ died on the cross
for me.” He stopped for a moment and
then he started over. “Jesus Christ died on the cross…for me. And, and it doesn’t…” He couldn’t
continue.
He stood there motionless and then he slowly
knelt down there in that huge cathedral and he began to cry.
The
tau cross is a cross that reminds us that if we want to receive spiritual
healing, we are to look to the cross and be born again.
The
tau cross reminds us that God wants us to experience physical, emotional, and
mental healing. It reminds us that God
wants us to experience spiritual healing where we are born again and again and
again and again.
Offer God's Healing for the World
And
number three, the tau cross reminds us that God is calling each one of us to
offer the healing love of Jesus Christ to the people around us.
The
Tau cross is often associated with St. Francis of Assisi who lived during the
Middle Ages and who ministered to those who were sick and especially to those
who suffered from the skin disease of leprosy.
St.
Francis chose the Tau cross as his emblem because it represented life-time
fidelity in being a servant of Jesus Christ for the sake of others. It was a reminder of his pledge to serve the
least and the outcast of his day.
St.
Francis even had a special habit or robe made so that every time he would
stretch out his arms, his body would take the shape of the tau cross, which
reminded him that he was to be the hands and feet of Christ for everyone around
him.
When
we look around us, we can’t help but to see the many opportunities to serve
those who are in need of God’s healing.
Maybe
today, the reason you decide to come forward to be anointed with oil is because
of this third aspect of the Tau cross.
You want to be anointed to be sent forth from this place as one who
offers God’s healing presence to those around you, especially to those who need
it the most.
Whatever reason you choose to come forward to receive an anointing of
oil, whether it’s to receive physical, emotional, or mental healing, or if it’s
to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, or if it’s to become one of
God’s healing agents in a broken and hurting world, I invite you to come.
Come
and experience the healing presence of Jesus Christ in your life.
Crosses of Jesus: The Tau Cross
Small Group Questions
Numbers 21:4-9 & John 3:14-21
March 19, 2017
This week in our series on the different crosses of Jesus, we focus on the TAU cross. This cross is in the shape of a capital "T" since it is believed that this was the shape of the pole that Moses used to lift into the air for people to see and be healed from their poisonous snake bikes (See Numbers 21:4-9.) The medical profession has picked up on this Old Testament story and use this as their symbol.
Have you ever felt that God healed you from an illness or disease?
The biblical word that is used for "healing" can refer to physical as well as spiritual healing.
Have you ever felt that God has healed you, "spiritually?" How has this kind of healing been a blessing in your life?
Pastor Robert shared how St. Francis of Assisi who is famous for how he offered God's healing love to the outcasts of his day, adopted the TAU cross because it represents God's healing for all people. He even had a special robe made so that when he would stretch out his arms, his body would form the TAU cross.
Share how you might offer yourself in the shape of the cross by offering God's healing love to others through the church.
Our Gospel reading offers us one of the most recognizable verses in the entire bible which is John 3:16.
Read John 3:16 together out-loud:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”
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