Either/Or - Both/And (Mt 9:35)

Short teachings from Hillcrest Church further exploring Sunday's teachings.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, hope you're doing well. Tim here, and we are diving deep into our living scent series. So, you know, Matthew 9 35, I talked about it earlier this week, and I just wanted to uh wanted to uh spend a little bit more time on it. Um Jesus uh, you know, we read uh this kind of summary of his ministry in Matthew 9 35. We're told Jesus went through all the towns and villages teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness. And in the last episode, I talked about how just schrammatically we have the main verb, Jesus went, and then we have these three participles describing his what he was doing as he went. He went, teaching, he went proclaiming, he went healing. And there's a there's a Greek word uh that connects those three participles. Um teaching, proclaiming, and healing. The word is uh chi, and in English that word is and um so chi uh uh kappa alpha iota is the the the Greek equivalent of the English word and it's a very common word when you read through the Greek New Testament, chi. Um and I think uh I think it's an important just I I think there's there's something that we can take from this term chi and the English word and. Um James uh, you know, in his message on Sunday, he talked about kind of are you a word person or are you a deed person? He said, Hey, we need to be uh kind of you we gotta be kind of in the middle. Um you need to both word and deeds. And I think in this passage um where you see Jesus doing this, he's teaching and proclaiming and healing. It's not either or, it's um all, it's and um, and I would probably even say it a little bit different uh than James said it on Sunday, because I think the and James did a great job, but that just there's a little nuance that I want to bring out that um you know the the danger is if you think about word and deed as a spectrum, you might think to yourself, I need to do more, you know, express Jesus' love through actions, more deed. And so therefore to move to the middle means doing a little less word, like talking about Jesus less. Um and that I think uh it's like you know, 50% word, 50% deed. And that's that's not uh the way I think we should think about it. Um I would um think about it as, I mean, if your visual uh kind of a y-axis and an x-axis with four quadrants, you could have you know one quadrant, no words, no deeds. You don't talk about Jesus and you don't show his love. You want you know, one quadrant, you talk about Jesus, um, but you don't show his love. Another one is you show Jesus' love through actions, but you don't talk about him. And then the top quadrant um would be both. You uh uh you totally talk about Jesus and you totally show his love through actions. And it's not by by showing his love in action, you're not taking away from from verbalizing or from verbalizing, you're not taking away from showing it. Um and it's uh you could say it's a hundred percent of both. And I think that um is what that for me, that and word is doing. I don't think Jesus' healing ministry took away from his teaching ministry. It's and uh and um I mean I think in real life, you know, maybe in theory we can kind of get tangled up in this, but I think we all get this in real life. Um, and I've mentioned this before. Uh if you whatever, your uh your your brother, your sister, um, you've been praying for them to uh you've been praying for them to know to know the same love of Jesus that you know, and you're and you you've you've shared some of your story with them, and and they they get sick and they're in the hospital. You don't stop and be like, well, if I care for them while in their hospital, that's a lot of deed, and maybe I should do more words. I mean it's not it's like you don't even think in those terms. You're like, I I care about my brother or sister. I will go care for them while they're sick. Because I just that's just what you do if you care for a person. And yeah, when like in other like throughout my life, when there's times for me to share my story, what God's meant to me, I'll do that. And when they need help, I'm gonna do that. And it's not either or and they're not pulling against each other. I just that's what you do. Um, and I think actually when it comes to real life people, um, we we don't find the word indeed. I mean, in uh, you know, I totally agree with what James is saying that some of us find it more easy to do one or the other, 100% true. Um, but when we're actually seeking to care for somebody in our life, they don't compete against one another. We it's you know, we have no problem um both sharing our story and practically um caring for the person uh that we know. But this word and I just think it is so helpful in the spiritual life. Um uh there are these two ideas, and I, you know, either or, both and either or um is describing when there's two realities that cannot coexist. Uh both and is describing a time where both of these realities are not the same thing, but they can coexist together. And there in uh in the life of faith, there are times where there are either-or things. Um like either you are walking in sin and rebellion against God, or you are seeking his will and trying to walk in right relatedness to him and to others. Like that it's not both and sin and righteousness. There's no both and there. Like it's just either-or. Like either you're letting God be your king and direct your life, or you're doing it yourself and like turn your back on God. Like that's not both and, it's either or. Um, so there are definitely um either-or uh aspects to faith. That being said, I am convinced one of the places that oftentimes um really churched people, I think um sometimes unchurched people is they need to hear the either-or about specific things. But I think people who are really church, who've been around Christianity a lot, sometimes they get all tangled up when they apply this either-or thinking to aspects of faith that are meant to be both and. Because there are a lot of aspects of faith that are meant to be both and, and when you apply either-or thinking, it gets things all confused. What we're talking about this week with James led us into um expressing our hope in Jesus through words, um, expressing our love uh of Jesus through actions. It's both and. And you and I think, you know, I find this in so many different parts of faith when people talk about they get hung up on like God's uh, you know, God's sovereignty um and human free will. Um and it's like either or is where we get all, it's both and. Yeah, God is king over the universe, um, and God knows the end from the beginning, and humans have free choice. Um, we are not just automatons. Um uh justification is sanctification. We are freely forgiven um by Jesus' death on the cross for us, and Jesus wants to lead us into a life of transformation where we grow more and more into his image and likeness. It's both and. It's not either it's all just a free gift or we have to like work our whole life. Like, yes, it is a free gift, and Jesus continues to transform us throughout our lives. It's both and. And I think over and over again, um, you know, scripture is uh written by real human beings in real cultural times and places, um, in you know, uh in real human language, and it's the divine word of God uh to us today. It's both and it's both a human word and a divine word. And I just over and over again, uh there uh I think um sometimes we apply either-ord thinking to parts of faith that are meant to be both and, and we get ourselves all tangled up. That doesn't mean that there aren't either-or things in faith. There are some critical either-or things, and we need to be clear about them. But even, you know, whenever you you kind of bump into some kind of theological debate, I think it's good to kind of take a step back. Is this an either-or thing? Because if it is, we should take that seriously, or is this a both and thing? Um and we're we're getting confused about uh how these things can coexist. Um so to circle back this week, I believe is a both and thing. I believe, um, and I think we just see in Matthew 9 35, we are called to both um express the good news of uh Jesus' coming kingdom with words in appropriate ways, appropriate times and places, and to express his love through the actions of our lives. Both and grace and peace.