People enter twelve-step programs because they have exhausted their own means of handling addiction and are looking for a solution outside themselves. They are challenged to believe that there is a higher power who can restore them to sanity. Self-sufficiency runs its course at some stage in our lives.
There are various kinds of power greater than ourselves that we take for granted. We don’t have the power to light up a room, but with the help of electricity, the only power we need is that of flipping a switch. We don’t have the power to move an automobile down the street, but with the help of gasoline, all we have to do is put the car in gear. Our lives feed off power sources outside ourselves.
At a deeper level we need power that goes beyond the physical level. When we are weighed down with sin, we need a power to forgive us. When we are dealing with a health problem that doctors can’t solve, we need the intervention of a power that is beyond anything on earth. Blinded by the secular mentality of our age, we tend to close our minds to the fact that there is a heavenly power that is available to us if we ask for it.
Jesus, the Son of God, was a new power source on the earth. He came from heaven and brought with him the creative power of God. People flocked to him because they needed some of this power in themselves.
We hear about this today (Luke 6:12-19).
“A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and even those who were tormented by unclean spirits were cured. Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him because power came forth from him, and he healed them all.”
Three powers are named here: the power to teach, the power to heal, and the power to deliver from unclean spirits. Human words sometimes amount to mere noise and are limited in how they can help us. With Jesus, however, his words contained power and brought about conversions in the hearts of his listeners. Doctors and medicines can help heal us, but never instantly. Jesus, on the other hand, had so much healing power inside him, that his mere touch brought about instant and miraculous healings. And there is no earthly power that can free people from evil spirits; Jesus, however, was able to speak a word and unclean spirits left those who were tormented. No wonder the crowds sought him out.
Though Jesus has ascended into heaven, he set up a Church to continue to administer heavenly power to those of us on earth. When the Church does its job, sins are instantly forgiven, truth is proclaimed in power, and the sick are healed. The power that went out from Jesus two thousand years ago still flows out today. Do we believe that? Are we imitating the crowds spoken of today and making the effort to seek out Jesus and to touch him. Or are we content with relying on our own power to deal with the challenges of life?
Why does it take us so long to admit our powerlessness and seek out the ever-available power of Jesus Christ? Why is he our last rather than first resort?
