Imagine this scenario: Jesus and his motley crew of disciples walked into a synagogue in a small Jewish town. As soon as He entered, his eyes met those of a bent somewhat dejected man sitting at the side. He had a withered hand that could not straighten or stretch.
Amidst protestations from the Rabbi who was reading out the Jewish law, Jesus walked straight to the man, asked for his name, and asked him to step out into the middle of the synagogue where everyone could see him. Jesus touched and held the man Elam’s hand, breathed deeply with His eyes closed, and immediately the hand came to life with colour returning. Jesus asked Elam to stretch out his hand and lo! Elam stretched out his hand and fingers, with eyes wide opened and a broad smile of incredulous surprise and sweet joy. Tears rolled freely from his eyes.
Rabbi was livid by now, for it was the Sabbath and no one was supposed to work or heal on this holy day. He belted out in anger scolding Jesus: “If he was supposed to be healed, God would have done it himself!” With a knowing smile, Jesus turned to him and replied calmly: “Interesting point.”
This was one of my favourite scenes from Episode 6 in Season 2 of The Chosen. It shows the irony and humour of the situation where Jesus as God actually and personally heals Elam on the Sabbath, to the chagrin of the legalistic man of religion oblivious to Jesus’ true identity. May we not take our idolatrous images of God to be the truth, so much so that when truth comes in person to knock at our door, we will not open it. Let’s open the door of our hearts to the Lord. He’s calling us by name.
