Nothing discourages us more than to be neglected and ignored. Matthew, Mark and Luke all tell the story of a woman in a crowd when Jesus came to town (See Luke 8:40-56). Jesus was having a terribly busy day. He had just returned from his dramatic healing of the demon-infested man of the Gerasenes and was promptly mobbed by a demanding crowd. The synagogue official, Jairus, soon captured His attention over his dying 12-year-old child, and Jesus began pushing his way through the crowd to visit the man’s home. Unknown to the Lord was the suffering woman behind Him. Her illness had hurt her for 12 years, seemingly incurable by the doctors she had paid a lot of money. And here she was, hoping Jesus could help her. Could she present herself to Him in such a huge crowd? Could she get his attention before he left with Jairus? She decided to take a big chance and go up behind Him to touch His cloak. Immediately she was healed.

Sensing what happened, Jesus turned and spoke to her. She fearfully confessed what she had done and told her painful story before everyone. Jesus kindly declared, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.” She had felt alone, but she really wasn’t. God was concerned about her; she had faith, and Jesus was willing to help.

Many people feel alone and don’t know what to do about it. Sometimes people have actually felt alone in the assemblies of the church. As we all know, it’s our responsibility to reach out to them kindly. It’s always easy to talk to our own family and friends and neglect other people. We can learn from Jesus: He was busy with others, but he made sure He looked after the woman too.

If you feel neglected and alone, it’s also your responsibility to change things. The woman didn’t just allow self-pity to hold her back; she determined to reach out to the Lord in faith; she was rewarded. God never neglects us, but you must also reach out to other people. They may not know you feel ignored. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “The only way to have a friend is to be one.” Try it; you might be surprised with the results.

Nobody really knows the name of the woman in Luke 8, but history has given her one: Veronica. Legend says she later rushed out of the crowd in Jerusalem and offered Jesus a cloth to clean his bleeding face as He carried the cross. Of course, this is just a legend, but the actual Biblical story has motivated many people to find relief for their own troubles, including neglect.

Nobody needs to feel alone when they are a member of Christ’s church. Now you know what to do about it.

– Tim Johnson

Flogged and beaten, there came a point when Jesus could not go on. The soldiers “drafted” Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross for Him. Luke records, “As they led Jesus away, a man named Simon, who was from Cyrene, happened to be coming in from the countryside. The soldiers seized him and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.” (Luke 23:26 NLT) Considering all that Jesus had endured, it is not difficult to imagine Him falling under the load. But consider this: carrying the cross was a sign of guilt, and our Lord was not guilty!

Simon had travelled more than eight hundred miles from Cyrene in northern Africa, to celebrate Passover. But why did the Gospel writers include his presence? It might have been that this same Simon would later become well-known in the early church, adding further historical evidence to their writings.

Mark identified him as “the father of Alexander and Rufus” (Mk.15:21), two men that Mark assumed his Roman readers would know. A Christian named Rufus was greeted by Paul in Romans 16:13; was he the son of Simon of Cyrene? Apparently, Simon and his two sons did become well-known Christians and were held in honour in the church. But, perhaps there were more reasons than just this for Luke’s inclusion of Simon. Consider:

1. Jesus was served by a foreigner.
2. Luke is the only one of the Gospels that says Simon carried the cross behind Jesus, not that he simply carried it. Perhaps Luke meant to project a graphic portrayal of what discipleship is. Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me”? (Luke 9:23)
3. Simon walked onto the scene at just the right time to share in Christ’s sufferings. Having chosen to follow Jesus, we don’t always get to choose the moments of our suffering, sudden as they may be. They can be random, frightening, and painful.
4. We might assume the Romans were being compassionate by drafting Simon to carry the cross. Yet it may have been their way to ensure the weakened and beaten Jesus did not die before arriving at the site. Forcing Simon to carry the cross was the very opposite of compassion.

Whether or not Luke intended one or all of these suggestions, what we do know is this:

• Simon was a foreigner who served Jesus in his final hour – a critical moment in history.
• Carrying the cross while following Jesus combines the pain and beauty of our call to discipleship. Intended or not, it is an apt image for disciples everywhere.
• Seemingly random calls to suffer for Jesus are often sudden and costly.
• Simon’s help was temporary. It ensured that Jesus made it to Golgotha and finished the course set before him by his Heavenly Father. In the end, the cross that Simon carried was the one upon which Jesus breathed his last.

Let us comfort ourselves with the thought that in our case and in Simon’s, the cross that we are called to carry belongs to Jesus. He calls us to faith in him and to godly living. It is for these that we suffer as he did. How delightful for us to carry His cross, in His name and for His glory. May our love for him and thankfulness to him grow from day to day.

Harold Bruggen

Port Colborne

In writing to the Corinthians of Greece Paul said, “For indeed Jews ask for signs, and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness” (1 Cor.1:22-23).  In the Greek language foolishness is skandalon, from which we get our English word “scandal.” The philosophy-ridden world of Greece just could not understand how any benefit could come from a beaten, bloodied, and murdered man. Why should they line up behind a spiritual leader who couldn’t prevent his own execution? It was not attractive to them; it was scandalous. But God used what the world considered offensive to be the very power that could save them.

We are a bit bewildered today as our society heads more in the direction of accepting and promoting social issues that God has declared to be wrong. To us, it is shocking and scandalous. At the same time, society points its finger at the church and calls it a scandal because we do not go along with them. This tension between society and the church is nothing new and should not surprise us. Christianity was founded upon the unjust and scandalous death of a righteous man sent from God. The world has never been happy with it. Why should they be happy with us now?

Jesus frankly told his apostles, “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. And these things they will do, because they have not known the father, or Me” (John 16:2-3). The world has done these things  every century since.

But Jesus also threw us a life saver: “These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (v33). Don’t be shocked or discouraged when the world heads the wrong way and makes things hard for us when we won’t go along with them. If it happened then, it will happen today.

But we keep on living for Him and speaking for Him.

– Tim Johnson

“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13)

It’s been a disappointing week. After just one Sunday of meeting together at the church building, we’re back to isolation at home for a month. Tighter restrictions are a hard pill to swallow after a full year of fighting Covid-19. The virus has proven to be tenacious. We are tired and wonder when life will return to normal.

If we simply concentrate on the world’s troubles, we’ll be discouraged and disappointed. It’s easy to do with endless news reports reminding us of the difficulties we face. Somehow, we must rise above the bad news and concentrate on God who sustains us. The world has forgotten Him, but we must not. If you look again at the scripture above, it will remind you of His desire to give us hope.

We’ll always have disappointments in life. Someone compared them to shipwrecks – the shores of life are littered with them. But out of them arise great things, like joy, peace, hope and power. The Bible was written by men who knew many disappointments. They faced murderous rulers, military occupation, and churches wracked with controversies and upsetting cultural adjustments. Yet all of these inspired writers were great men who relied on the God of hope. He saw them through to victory, and He has continued to give people perseverance and hope for 2,000 years.

John Newton, the once-reformed British slave trader of the 18^th century and author of the hymn “Amazing Grace,” said this about disappointments: “There is many a thing which the world calls disappointment, but there is no such word in the dictionary of faith. What to others are disappointments are to believers intimations of the way of God.”

Viruses and disappointing restrictions are no match for God. He’ll see us through. There is peace in believing. Read our scripture one more time.

– Tim Johnson

After many months of Sunday Zoom meetings, it’s great to be back at the church building where we can worship along side of each other. I’m grateful for computer programs like Zoom – and we may have to use it again – but nothing works better than a physical meeting.

Let’s not forget that Covid-19 still rages all around us. The medical people are warning us about the strength of the third wave. Many restrictions remain in place. Some families among us long to travel and visit relatives in the United States, but that isn’t possible. Some people are suffering from poor mental health due to confinement. It’s been over a year of restrictions, cautions, and masks. It seems endless. We are impatient as we wait for things to improve.

I want to turn our attention to a little flower that is blooming in my back yard. Wild crocuses must be he first flower that blooms in early spring. In some places in Canada, they will push right up through the melting snow. The one in my yard waits until a good patch of grass is snow-free before it opens up. These flowers amaze me because they spring up immediately after our typically long, brutal winter. Likewise, spring birds have invaded my neighbourhood. Cardinals and Robins start their loud chorus early in the morning (who can sleep?!).  Nature doesn’t seem to care about the pandemic. Life surges all around us after many months of freezing temperatures.

My point in all this? If flowers and birds can emerge after a whole season of horrible weather, we can overcome our lengthy season of pandemic hardships too. Nature knows how to do it. We should too.

Remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:25-26? (And what good is a bulletin article without a scripture?) “For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat or what you shall drink; Nor for your body as to what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body then clothing? Look at the birds of the air that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?”

Our first in-house church assembly yesterday proves it. Welcome back!

– Tim Johnson