Ok, I admit it. I listened to some MC Hammer when I was growing up. I never could dance like he did though, and honestly, don't know that I'd want to. It almost looked painful. But he did have one song that I liked, U Can't Touch This. I don't know why, but I liked it. That was a time in my life when I was blaring Hank Jr. on the truck stereo as I cruised the Plaza in Mayfield, but I liked this Hammer song.
"U can't touch this" almost became a battle cry for a whole generation of kids, and it's good to have those things, I reckon. I never thought, though, when I was listening to that song 20 years ago, that I would be sitting here today writing a blog about it and tying it to scripture. But, that's what makes my job so cool. I had a professor in seminary who said you can find God words in almost everything if you look. He called it "keeping your homiletical mind on." Just about everything will preach if you keep an open mind.
So, this morning, MC Hammer and Jesus are on the same page. U can't touch this. But over 1900 years before Hammer made it a rap hit (when rap was actually kind of cool), Jesus said the same thing to a group of folks who had been on a mission under his flag.
Yesterday, I hit on this story in the message at First Church, but I stopped a little early in the scripture. Today, Jesus told this group of 72 (or 70 depending on which version you read) after they had returned from this little trip he had sent them on, "I saw Satan fall, a bolt of lightning from the sky. See what I have given you? Safe passage as you walk on snakes and scorpions, and protection from every assault of the enemy. No one can put a hand on you..."
How cool is that? Back up and read the story to see what Jesus had sent them to do. This group of folks had been sent out without any extra clothes, shoes, money, or food, to prepare the towns that Jesus had planned on hitting personally. They went, maybe some were scared to death, maybe not, but they went. And because they went, he has now told them that no one would be able to put a hand on them now. Talk about cool.
It feels good to know that Jesus has got your back. It takes a lot of the risks and questions out of what we're being asked to do, which gives us, or at least me, what I need to go ahead and do it. Dang the consequences. I know that as long as I'm doing what my Jewish carpenter boss is telling me to do, U can't touch this. It's not cocky or arrogant, it's just being confident.
So, if you're not sure, go back and check out Luke 10 again. See for yourself that Jesus has got your back too. When it comes right down to it, if Jesus has our back, no one can touch us.
Peace
Jamie
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