Day 59: Jesus has Eight Billion Favorites

As he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath, a woman was there who had been disabled by a spirit for over eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called out to her, “Woman, you are free of your disability.” Then he laid his hands on her, and instantly she was restored and began to glorify God. LUKE 13:10–13

See what great lovethe Father has given us that we should be called God’s children—and we are! 1 JOHN 3:1A

ONE MORNING, AT THE very beginning of yet another great but grueling day in a doctoral class at Denver Seminary, I was startled when my professor grabbed the front of my desk and asked me to look directly into his eyes. At first, I thought I was in trouble, but the twinkle in his eyes told me that wasn’t the case. After a long moment of smiling at me, he said slowly and sincerely, “Lisa, you are God’s favorite.” Then he just kept staring at me with this huge grin. Eleven of my peers were now watching the encounter with unbridled curiosity, so I was slightly mortified that Dr. Strait had chosen to single me out as a teacher’s pet. It was all I could do not to chuckle with embarrassment and mumble something dismissive to break what was beginning to feel like polite tension.

Just before I was tempted to scoot my chair away from him, Dr. Strait stepped sideways and did the exact same thing to the student sitting next to me. And on it went until he’d told all twelve of us that we were God’s favorite. Then he opened the syllabus and happily announced: “Let’s talk about the infinite nature of Jesus!” He then went on to explain how our Savior’s unconditional love cannot dissipate. Unlike our experience in human relationships (which in their limited nature, have capacity thresholds), when Jesus gives you what feels to be an extraordinarily large slice of His attention and affection, it doesn’t mean that someone else gets a smaller piece of proverbial pie. Unlike us, Jesus doesn’t run out of emotional energy. Nor does He prefer honor students to remedial ones. Or healthy kids to sick ones.

There’s several interesting details in the story of the bent-over woman that aren’t immediately apparent in the text, and one is that this is the last recorded time that Jesus taught in a synagogue before the crucifixion and resurrection. So this is effectively our Savior’s swan song. It’s His last public sermon. It’s the final number of His farewell tour. And the original Greek text from which we get the English translation “When Jesus saw her” (v. 12) indicates that she surprised Jesus. That she wasn’t present on a back pew at the beginning of His message but actually interrupted it, in addition to breaking the “testosterone only” rule that applied to whenever Torah was being taught in the sanctuary. Seems like that would’ve been more than enough to get her kicked off His list of favorites, right?

She was evidently so sick and tired of being sick and tired that she didn’t care about protocol anymore. New Testament scholars propose she was suffering from either a serious case of spinal stenosis or kyphosis, and since some translations describe her as “bent double,” this woman obviously had a very painful curvature of the spine. She couldn’t sit comfortably in a chair. Or pick up her kids. Or lie on her back. Or see beyond a few feet in front of her. So it makes sense that her desperation would drive her to seek the help of a rabbi with a reputation for healing.

However, His response defies human logic because He stops right there in the middle of exegeting the Old Testament to a bunch of stuffy dudes and calls out to her. Then He steps down from the platform, strides down the aisle toward her, and envelops her in a healing hug. Even though Jesus was busy and she was broken, she didn’t bother Him—He welcomed the interruption!

I think some of us stay bent because we don’t want to be a bother. So we swallow our pain and paste on plastic smiles and try to be “good” for Jesus’s sake. But y’all, we can’t be a bother to Jesus because (1) He has more than enough attention to go around, and (2) we’re His BRIDE! And every single one of our eight billion breathing selves on this spinning planet called Earth can legitimately lay claim to the fact that we’re His favorite—all it takes is asking for His help like that bent-over woman. If you’ve never done so, it goes something like this:

Dear Jesus, I’m a hot mess.

I’ve made a lot of mistakes that have separated me from God’s holiness.

And a lot of mistakes have been made against me that have broken my heart.

So I need Your forgiveness and Your healing.

I believe that You’re the only One who can save me.

I believe You came to this earth; lived a perfect, sinless life; shed your blood on a cross on humanity’s behalf; and were raised from the dead after three days.

I’m putting all my hope and faith in those facts.

Here’s my whole heart, Jesus; it’s Yours now.

Thank You for forgiving me and loving me unconditionally.

Help me to rest in Your grace and live the rest of my life to make You smile.

Amen.

• REREAD 1 JOHN 3:1A. Have you ever honestly felt lavished by God’s love? If not, have you asked to be?
• READ SONG OF SONGS 4:9. If you could actually see Jesus right now with your natural eyesight and He was telling you how you captured His heart with one glance, could you meet His gaze? Why or why not?
• TURN TO PSALM 139 in your Bible (it’s right around the middle), and if you’re comfortable writing in it, inscribe your name over every pronoun so as to personalize it. Then read the first seventeen verses with your name inserted. How does your heart respond?