The fatherly heart of Jesus

Let's go together to the book of Mark Chapter 2. You know that... I began to think today about the paternal heart, not only of God the Father, but also of God the Son, the paternal heart of Jesus; but wait, he never got married in his earthly life, right?

Jesus was a single man, right? we know that one day he will get married and who is the bride? It's us, men too. The bride of Christ, the Church is the bride of Christ.

But in his earthly life, he was a single man with no biological children. But, how many of us know that parental love is much more than biology! It is love of a special kind demonstrated.

And I started to think about times in the Bible when Jesus called people 'my son' or 'my daughter', it wasn't very common, was it? It was not something frequent in his life. I know I don't hear it here as much but in California with the Latinos I meet there when I'm visiting my wife's family, I don't know, Mexicans call everyone 'My son, my daughter', right?

I don't know if there are others who do.

Jesus, mind you, he didn't do it much, someone may think. I could only find two times that Jesus calls someone, 'my son' or 'my daughter'. I only invite you to think. Can you think of moments, of people? No? Well, it's a big group so I'm not going to ask for the answer to be yelled at. I know we are not in discipleship class.

But I could only find two moments when Jesus did it and in all the synoptic Gospels it is repeated that Jesus said, 'my son, my daughter' and we know that the Bible does not have words just for the sake of it.

Jesus used his words on purpose. There was something he wanted to communicate; it was not an accident. The Bible puts that. Jesus said this to these people for a special purpose. So, let's start with case number one. If anyone finds more cases, forgive me, those are the only two that I found. And I felt something very similar in both of them.

We're going to start in the book of Mark, Chapter 2 and starting at verse 1.

The Word of God says: "And Jesus entered Caernaum again after a few days, and it was heard that he was in the house. Immediately many gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door; and he preached the word to them. Then some came to Him bringing a paralytic, who was carried by four, and since they could not approach him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where he was, and making an opening, they lowered the bed on which the paralytic lay. Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic: 'Son, your sins are forgiven you.

You know the first time I read it I said, "Brother, your children are forgiven," but it's not, "Son, your sins are forgiven."

"Some of the scribes were sitting there, pondering in their hearts: Why does this man speak like this? He says blasphemies! Who can forgive sins but God alone? And Jesus knowing immediately in his spirit that they pondered in this way within themselves, he said to them: 'Why do you ponder in your hearts like this?

"So that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, he said to the paralytic, 'I tell you, get up, take up your bed, and go home.'"

"Then he got up at once, and taking up his bed, went out in front of everyone, so that they were all astonished, and glorified God, saying, 'We have never seen such a thing.'"

Case number one: the paralytic: "Son, your sins are forgiven."

The next case. Someone knows? OK. I'll give you the chance. Go ahead, you can say. Who is it? Who? Go ahead. There! Mark 5. You win the prize!

Mark 5. It is the story of a man, a desperate father, whose name was Jairo who was a head of the Synagogue; who approached Jesus and said: "My daughter is dying. Jesus come help her." If your daughter, your girl is dying, you will beg on your knees, crying out 'God, help us! it's dying'. Jesus says, "Come on. And they are on their way to heal the girl."

And look what happens. Verse 24. And I want you to think about what the two stories have in common. The story of the paralytic and the story of the woman with the issue of blood that we are going to read now. OK?

Verse 24: "So he went with him, and a great crowd followed him, pressing in on him. But a woman who had suffered from an issue of blood for twelve years, and had suffered much from many doctors, and spent all that she had and nothing He had taken advantage of it, before things were worse for him, when he heard about Jesus, he came up from behind in the crowd and touched his cloak, for he said: If I only touch his cloak, I will be saved. And immediately the fountain of his blood dried up; She felt in her body that she was healed from that scourge.”

“Then Jesus, knowing in himself the power that had gone out of him, turning to the crowd, said, Who has touched my clothes? And his disciples said to him: You see that the crowd presses you, and you say, who touched me? But he was looking around to see who had done this. Then the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what he had done to her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. And he said to her: Daughter, your faith has saved you; go in peace and be healed of your scourge.”

While he was still speaking, they came from the house of the principal of the synagogue, saying: Your daughter is dead; Why bother the Master anymore? But Jesus, after hearing what was being said, said to the ruler of the synagogue: Do not be afraid, only believe. And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John the brother of James. And he came to the house of the principal of the synagogue, and saw the uproar and those who wept and lamented greatly. And entering, he said to them, why do you make an uproar and cry? The girl is not dead, but sleeps. And they made fun of him. But he, driving everyone out, took the girl's father and mother, and those who were with him, and went in where the girl was. And taking the girl's hand, he said, talita cumi; which translated is: girl, I tell you, get up. And then the girl got up and walked, for she was twelve years old. And they were greatly frightened. But he commanded them very much that no one should know it, and he said that he should be given something to eat."

Jesus was Latin, right? "That the girl should be fed," that's the first thing you think of, isn't it? Father in the name of Jesus. Thank you that You are a perfect Father. Lord, I ask you, and Lord, I feel the... Father, I am unable to find words to communicate the truths that You want to express to your people today, so I ask that it be Your Holy Spirit, touching each one, Lord, letting us know, Lord what it is in Your heart. Father, guide us, I pray, speak to us, I pray. Holy Spirit, You are the Teacher and we open our hearts to You. In Jesus name. Amen and amen.

So Jesus had a paternal heart, Jesus was also a father to the people around him. In other words, I start thinking about the testimonies we just heard, right? The special children; who among us is not special in some way, right? Are you special, do you have any special needs? I do, I have several and you know it. My Spanish is already a special need, but there are others that you don't know, private things that we all have. Our imperfections, right?

Paul spoke of his thorn in the flesh. Each of us is imperfect in something. Question: when you look at a child with special needs, who has a need, the need, I don't know if this has affected you in any way, does it make you love and want the child even more? Not in spite of, but because of your special need. And you know that we are also people with special needs.

The Father's heart looks at us with all the bumps, all the problems we have, all the defects and says: 'My son, I love you, not in spite of all your things; but even more because you have these things'.

The Father's heart towards us, right? I would like to think a little about what the paralytic has in common with the woman who has the issue of blood. Two things that I see in common in these stories - there are many things that perhaps you can see - but the first thing I see is that they both have special needs. In one case it is a person who needs to be carried by four others, in another case it is a woman who carries her need inside, secret, lost, right? very private things, but that she has. Both are people who have that need.

And number two that I observe, the two miracles take place within a crowd. In the case of the paralytic, what is happening at home, right? they are all, all tight. Some cell leaders here sometimes three or four kittens come, right? But sometimes the house is full and there is no more space; there are people everywhere and they are all crowded together and they are there in the corner; and the children making noise, thank God. This is how it was in the time of Jesus, in this house, the house full of people. In a children's book that we have, a drawing of this miracle, there is a mother outside with a child. A toddler looking and my son looks and says, 'Mommy, I want to see Jesus. Mommy I wanna see Jesus'. Yes, you keep saying that, don't you? because he's like that kid trying to see. They are all tight.

And in the second case we have Jesus walking to perform an important miracle, to heal the girl of a leader in the community and a precious twelve-year-old girl. And Jesus is there all squeezed by the crowd. How many have gone to see the artificial lights there in the Boston Common, on the 4th of July, right? You know what it's like to get out of there, to be squeezed into a crowd, right? It's not always a very pleasant thing, is it? You are there stuck with everyone.

Jesus like this, the crowd squeezing him and He performs the miracle within the crowd. And I feel that God wants to tell us something. Within the context of many people, how many of us know that it is possible to feel very lost in the crowd, right? Sometimes you walk in the city and you feel alone, you feel alone, that nobody knows me. It's called "being anonymous in the crowd", in the crowd you feel apart from everyone. Jesus knows that it is so for humanity. We feel lost at times and Jesus in these contexts chooses two people and calls them 'son', 'daughter'.

And I feel that God wants to tell us something with that.

Having children has really surprised me. It's not that it wasn't planned, though, well, but a lot of things surprise you, don't they? of the new experience. And for me something that surprised me a lot was that it's like something permanent has changed in my head. It is that the radar of my mind always has them present. Now I imagine that it is different in different times of life. Many of you could tell me better than me. But no matter where I am or what I'm doing, they are there. I can be here preaching, but if I close my eyes there they are, I see them. There is something different.

I remember last Sunday - my wife sometimes hides behind with the child so he can play in a corner without disturbing anyone - that I looked for them and didn't see them. I didn't know if they were there or not at a certain point and then my son comes running and I saw him in the crowd and I was like 'no way, there he is. I can't believe it. It's you! I didn't know you were here'. What a surprise!

I feel that God wants to tell us something. That special love that you have for that boy, for that baby, I have that love for each person in the crowd. You are walking down the street and you pass an older man who has his hat, he is walking, you just pass, God looks 'he is my son, I love him'. You're driving and there's someone parked next to you and a young man, maybe a different race who has the music "bump, bump" and he's there and God looks 'it's my little boy.' You are in the store and you buy food and there is a girl dealing with it and God looks 'it is my daughter, precious'.

God wants us to know that the Father's heart is for each one of us and each one of the people around us and we sometimes cannot do everything we would like for his children. But he is their excellent dad and he is always with them, he loves them. They are precious to Him and for more defects they have and how many of us know that every child has defects! Sometimes you love them and sometimes you want to give them a good whack. God loves you in it.

The story of the paralytic, there Jesus says: "Son, your sins are forgiven." What sins? Jesus knew, Jesus knew. I knew his heart. God is a Father who knows us, who looks at us even when we don't know it.

In other words, a beautiful story for me that expresses the heart of God the Father is the story of Jacob when he is traveling, running from his brother Isau. How many of us know the story? Jacob was the son of Isaac and he was a tricky person, a person who deceived, who was very cunning, who had many flaws, he lied, but he also loved the Lord. It's possible? Well, it is expected that it will change over time, that discipleship be taken, that the anointing, work, that it be changed, right?

But we know that God chooses clay vessels, imperfect people. And Jacob had gotten into trouble with his brother, sin. But he stole the blessing, he lied; the brother consoling himself with the idea of killing his brother Jacob, right? And Jacob is running and he's sleeping in the desert, a place on the road, he has no place to stay, so he finds a stone and uses the stone as a pillow. It's pretty bad! It's that he has nothing, right? It's peeled, not anymore, nothing. I probably didn't say it right, but he's sleeping there, he doesn't have anything, he got in trouble. And he looked for them, he looked for his own problems, right? and he is there and he has a dream. We know the dream. He dreams of a ladder -a ladder- and angels of glory, going up and down the ladder. And he wakes up and he hears in the dream "I am God, Jehovah, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God that I am calling you. I will give you" and God tells him all the promises that He has for Jacob, promises for his life . And Jacob stands up and says, 'This place is terrible.' Certainly God was here and I didn't know it. God, Father God, was here waiting for me and I didn't know it.

This is the heart of God the Father who knows even in our sins, even in our troubles, He is there present, watching, guarding us, protecting us. How many moms and dads praying "Lord, protect my son against all the barbaric things he is doing?" and God is in charge of sending warrior angels, watching over and taking care of them. God does it, God is here and I didn't know it because God is my dad and although I didn't realize it, God was watching over me!

God is there. Psalm 139, a beautiful Psalm. Let's go together:

"O Lord, you have searched me and known me.

You have known my sitting down and my rising up;

You have understood my thoughts from afar.

You have scrutinized my walk and my rest,

And all my ways are known to you.

Well, the word is not yet on my tongue,

And behold, O Lord, you know it all.

Behind and before you surrounded me,

And upon me you laid your hand.

Such knowledge is too

wonderful to me;

It's tall, I can't understand it.

Where will I go from your Spirit?

And where will I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there;

If I made my stand in Sheol,

Behold, there you are.

If I take the wings of dawn

And I will dwell at the end of the sea,

Even there your hand will guide me,

And your right hand will take hold of me.

If I say: Certainly the darkness

they will cover me up;

Even the night will shine around me.

Even the darkness does not hide from you,

the night shines like the day;

The same is the darkness that

the light.

Because you formed my entrails;

you made me in the womb of me

mother…"

And the Psalm goes on, on. God You know me. When I was born, there you were... watching. When I grew up and took my first little step... there you were, walking beside me, holding my little hand. When I went to school, there you were with me, when I graduated and received the certificate, there you were enjoying yourself with me.

God says: 'There was my son. And even when things didn't work out for you, when you were left alone, when you suffered loss and pain... there I was, looking at you like a father taking care of his son. I never leave you. I will never leave you. I will never leave you.'

God is an Omnipresent Father, a Father who cares for his children, who cares for us and that is why He could look at the paralytic and say: 'Son, your sins are forgiven.'

He knew that this man had deeper needs than the need for healing. He was in pain, maybe inside; the ravage of sin in life, which we all have.

He said: 'I see you, I know your heart. All the complexity and I tell you: Son, your sins are forgiven you.'

Did you know? There's something nice, something liberating about knowing that God knows you, isn't there? I don't know if you have had the experience of confessing your sins or your struggles to a trusted brother or sister. Well, with a Catholic background, it's done with priests, right? So it's not bad. But the idea is not to look for this person to forgive you, but for this person to pray for you; May this person be by your side. I don't know if you have had this experience of looking for a man of God if you are a man, a woman of God if you are a woman and telling him the ugly things that you have to confess. And when you do, you experience God's love in a way you never could have imagined. Because you know that I am in the light of this person and God sees me as I am and loves me despite everything. And he loves me because of everything. My God is with me, even in this, wow! You are a heavenly dad. Thanks God.

God looks at you and knows you and He knows all the potential that is in you. How many of us have had a person in life -it could be a mother or a father or it could be a coach or a teacher or a Youth Pastor- who looks at you and sees the potential that is in you; and you feel that when they look at you, you feel wow, this person believes in me! And you feel, wow, this feels good, doesn't it?! It feels good. Because that person can see your potential.

In the book of Jeremiah Chapter 1 God says the following: He says a well-known Verse, the word of the Lord came -or the Word of the Lord came- to me saying, Verse 5, Jeremiah 1:

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I sanctified you, I gave you as a prophet to the nations." That is all, "before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I sanctified you, I gave you as a prophet to the nations". God looks at the potential that is in you, looks at the beauty that is in you and looks at the beauty that is in the person next to you, too. And look at the beauty still inside that boss that annoys you, that you hate and want to take his head off. And God looks at this person and says: 'Do you know that he is also my little son?'

You know that if something has changed me in my process of these years, I can think wow, God loves this person in a way that I never understood before! This person is precious to God, and God knows them in all their complexity and God seeks them out. In the context of the woman with the issue of blood, do you know that the woman comes up behind and touches him? We know the story, right? I hope you've heard a lot of sermons on that, because it's a beautiful text.

The woman had an issue of blood. In the Hebrew culture of that time, if you are a woman with an issue of blood, there are effects of that under the Law of Moses: you remain unclean, impure. There are certain places where you cannot go, if you touch a person, this person is unclean. How does it feel to be like this? It's enough that you're sick, but also anyone you touch is already dirty, under the law. This is hard. Jesus wanted to say something: 'I come to change that. I come to bring emotional, spiritual and moral healing and cleansing to the people.'

So her touching Jesus was an act of extreme audacity because if she touches a person and much more a rabbi and much more Jesus, her ceremonial uncleanness can be transmitted to this person. It was something that is not done and that is why she did it secretly in the crowd so that he would not notice.

But we know that our God notices. How many have wanted to do that? Do you want a healing from God, a miracle from God and then you want to hide in the crowd again? But Jesus doesn't let you hide. Jesus wants more than just to heal the body - although we are going to pray for healing of the body - He wants to heal your heart, heal your soul; and He is not satisfied with that. And He stands in the crowd - and we remember that Jesus is in a hurry, the girl is dying and He is - and Jesus stands in the crowd and begins to search: "Someone touched me. Who touched me?" and is looking in the crowd.

And the disciples who say to him: "Jesus, who touched you? About 10,000 people just touched you and we're in a hurry. Look, we have a schedule, there's a girl. Come on, come on."

You know this happens, this happens. When you undergo discipleship with a person, there are almost always scandals and Jesus with his disciples scandalized them. They say, "What are you looking for? What do you mean someone touched you?"

In other words, I see another element of the paternal heart of Jesus in this: that Jesus is looking for his children, he is looking for his children. Think of the Garden of Eden. Your first two little children messed up with sin, didn't they? they ate the forbidden fruit and God comes in the wind of the day and what do they do? they hide from Him. They hide and are there trembling among the trees and God says the saddest and most beautiful words that you will ever hear. God says, what does he say?: "Adam, where are you? My son, where are you?" And God is looking for his lost son because he loves them. In other words, God, you know, is Almighty. There is nothing that takes him by surprise, but we know that God has feelings, human feelings that we receive from Him and I hear in that certain voice - I am going to use a word but I have to qualify it - I hear a certain eagerness in that: "My son, Adam, where are you?"

And Jesus in the crowd: "Someone touched me", certain as "no, no, no... I'm not going to be there..." and they say: "Look Jesus, relax. Many of you...", " No, no, I'm not going to relax. Someone touched me. There's a girl lost in this crowd who is a daughter of God, who is my daughter and I'm not going to calm down until I find her."

There is a certain eagerness, it is not eagerness with anxiety because God, Jesus is Almighty God too, He knows what He is going to do. But there is that soliciting heart of a father looking for his son, looking for his daughter.

You know I started thinking about a movie when I saw this, have you seen that movie "Finding Nemo"? When that little goldfish goes after that boat, I even wanted to show that clip but I found out that it costs a lot of money to teach something to a group of people and my wife said "I found a cheaper way to make your point" so she got it. ..

Said: Nemo come back! -speed sounds- Do you remember that? He swims after him... he is swimming and the boat -sounds of a boat leaving at full speed- and then there is him swimming and then there is the diver there with the big charges and "No, my son, my son" and he is swimming, swimming, he is there in the sea eagerly looking for him: "My son, where is he?" and we know the story right?

So he searches, he has to fight the sharks, fight the jellyfish, whatever in the world, how do you say jellyfish in Spanish? Living Water? You know how it is: Aguaviva is the Lord, but well... he looking for a fight with these things and swimming and looking and looking and looking and there is the whale -like Jonas- and then all these things and finally thank God, find your son.

You know what? The message that I think Jesus wanted to give to the crowd, to these people, is that: "I am looking for you, my son, I am looking for you. Do not hide from me."

Here my wife when she was a child, she had her closet, her big closet with all her clothes and shoes and all these things, but she also had all her books and her stuffed animals. And when she was a child, she liked hiding in her closet, being there with her books, but also because she loved it when her mom or dad would open the door and say: "There you are." It is the joy of being found, the joy of being found.

In other words, we have all drifted away from God. Some are like the prodigal son who walks in sin and we have separated from God because of it and it breaks God's heart because he wants that intimacy with you as He had before. But there are others that we can be far from God even inside the house.

We know the parable of the prodigal son. There was another son, the eldest son who stayed at home working but his heart was far from God. He got angry when the other son came back and the father goes out to where he is and the son says: "Why have you never given me any party and all these years I serve you?" and the father tells him: "Son, my little son, you are always with me and everything I have is yours. But we have to rejoice because this son was lost." The thing is that this son, even inside the house, even inside the church, was lost. But Father's heart searches for him, with eagerness, he searches for him with seriousness that says: "I'm not going to give up until I find you, because I am your heavenly dad and I'm with you always and you're not going to hide from me. My son, my daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace but you have to know that I am always with you."

Brothers, what we wanted to talk about today is that God is looking for you and I don't know where you are, if you are running from God, if you are perhaps moving away from God without knowing it. God wants you to know that He is your Dad, He loves you, He sees you. I love this story of Hagar in the desert. I invite the musicians to come in.

Hagar in the desert, a slave, Abraham's slave who had the son Ishmael and then was mistreated and runs away and feels completely alone in the desert. And the angel of Jehovah appears and says: "Hagar, where have you come from and where are you going?" And she says: "I come running away from my mistress's house." She did not know where she was going and God says: "Look, come back, I am going to bless you and your son." And she named a well, there. The name was, is the well of the God who sees me. Well of the Almighty who sees me. God looks at you, even when you feel far away, when you feel alone, when you don't know what to do... God looks at you. He is with you, he is with your loved ones and he seeks you and he cares for you and he knows you and he longs for intimacy with you. He wants you to get on his lap and says, "Here I am with you." He wants you to be a child close to Him again.

So I invite you to consecrate yourself once again to your Heavenly Father, get closer to Him, to give Him the best gift on Father's Day that you can give, which is your own life, your own heart. He seeks you and wants them. So let's stand up and let's pray.

Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank you because you were not satisfied with staying in heaven, Jesus. You came into this world and suffered to search and find what was lost, which is us. And Father, I ask you in the name of Jesus that your Holy Spirit at this moment reveal to every heart the love of the Father for us.

Father, I ask you in the name of Jesus, Lord, Father that You open our hearts, to draw us closer to You once more.

Lord, to let You look us in the eye. Many of us are hiding in the crowd, Lord, or are living far away in a faraway land in sin. Lord we do not want to be far from You, we just want to be close to You We want to be close to You, we return to You on this day. We tell you: 'We give you our hearts'.

Father I ask you Oh my God! may Your Holy Spirit pass through here, Lord, revealing that special love that You have for each of your children.

Lord, I ask you especially for those who are separated from their family, Lord, whether by distance or distance, Lord that they know that there is a Heavenly Father above all, who unites us all. And the space of geography and still, Lord, the differences. Those who have gone to be with you, everything is present with you, Lord.

Thank you Father, thank you that You are the faithful God, the Almighty God. Thank you Jesus for your paternal heart. We received it today, Lord. We don't hide anymore.