Monday, August 31, 2009

Jesus and the Healthcare Debate

Everywhere in our country the healthcare debate continues to rage. I recently heard a commentator ask, rhetorically, “What would Jesus say?” As he continued, he stated that Jesus did not ask for health insurance cards, that He was not concerned with people paying Him for healing, and that He did not turn anyone away. As the political environment has changed in this country, it has become necessary for believers to address political subjects because we carry a banner of righteousness that must not be furled and put away for the sake of political correctness or avoiding offense. As to what Jesus would say, I do not know. I am not Him. However, I do know what His Word says. This radio commentator was “concerned” with the helpless, the sick and those who are unable to help themselves.

Immediately, my spirit rose up within me and I wanted to ask him, what about the unborn? Jesus usually looks past the whiners, the complainers, and those with an agenda to the truly helpless and those who are truly unable to help themselves. I do not know what Jesus would say, but I know from scripture, that while He loves me, He must be more concerned right now with the slaughter of innocents than with the structure of my health plan.

In Genesis 4:10, God, confronting Cain over the murder of Abel, tells him, “Your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground.” God does not mention hearing Abel’s cries, but does say that He hears Abel’s blood crying out. Those of you who hurt over the abortions in this country, I assure you that God hears the cry of their blood and He is not ignoring it. We know that the blood of the innocent has God’s ear because Hebrews chapter twenty-four says that the blood of Christ cries even louder than that of Abel’s.

Leviticus 17:14 states, “the life of any creature is in its blood.” An embryo, a child in the womb, has a blood line. This goes beyond the physical. The fetal baby’s blood connection is spiritual as well as physical. The blood has a spiritual quality to it. That is why God hears the cries of the blood of the innocent.
What would Christ say in our current healthcare debate? Maybe He would look past the debaters. Maybe He would look past conservative and liberal. Maybe while the healthcare debate is important to Him (because it is important to his children) He would recoil at the notion of being dragged into the political facade.

Maybe He would address the innocent whose blood cries out to Him and say, “I alone created your inner being. I knitted you together inside your mother. Your bones were not hidden from me when you were being made in secret. Every day of your life was recorded in my book before one of them had taken place. How precious are my thoughts concerning you” (Paraphrased from Psalm 139).

-Pastor Jason Greene

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