What In The Name of Jesus?

 But Peter said, "I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene -- walk!" (Acts 3:6 NASB)

Violence in the Middle East, Muslims attacking American embassies, and an Ambassador killed.  Yesterday, the eleventh anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center, "9/11", the radical Muslims in two countries in North Africa attacked American sovereign soil in the form of Embassies.  There has been a lot of polarizing responses to these attacks.  Some claim that they are reactions to a film released in America that denigrates the Muslim Prophet Muhammad.  Few in America have even heard of the film until now.  Mob mentality ruled, and now continues.

I have to accept that, had the movie attacked Jesus' character I would have been angry as well.  When a movie came out in the 80's with some shocking character assaults on Jesus, there were lots of angry mobs in America.  I'm not sure if anything was burned, or anyone killed, but it wouldn't surprise me.  Just the anger over abortion clinics and doctors, and the violence perpetrated against them in the name of Jesus looks frighteningly similar to these mob riots directed at Americans.  There are a boat-load of differences, but there are also similarities.  But that is not what the power of the Name of Jesus holds for Jesus' human creatures.

The Name of Jesus is not for a war banner against other people who hold different views.  The Name of Jesus heals those human creatures held in the powerful grip of an existence apart from their Maker and Savior.  "Walk" commanded to one lame from birth in ankles and feet sounds ridiculous.  But what a wonderfully different "lunacy" from the violence on both sides.  This lunacy makes strong the legs and brings a man to walking, leaping, and praising Jesus.  The lunacy driving other human creatures to kill each other and other violence is not the name of Jesus.

People who claim the Name of Jesus may decry this stance as "soft on Islam", but my response to those who believe that I'm wrong is that my stance offers healing in the Name of Jesus to those who would kill me for my faith.  If my Master, Jesus, the Eternal Ever-Existing Only Son of God Most High, God of the Armies of Heaven, would consent to heal me, how can I withhold such healing from anyone or hope they never find it?  I can't.  I won't.  Instead I weep and pray for their healing. "In the Name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene -- Walk!"