The Power of Active Listening

 

As a trainer I have long noticed an absence of people from active listening, few more so than a salesperson. As a leader, it has become somewhat distressing. We have witnessed politicians pit once race and one culture against another. We have seen defund the police and BLM cause huge divisions. COVID similarly divided us as did the 2020 elections.

We didn't get here over night.

In 1937 Dale Carnegie wrote a book that set the world on it's ear and became the handbook for the human psyche: How to Win Friends and Influence People. He had begun teaching courses in 1912, and did so for many years held in church sanctuaries, classrooms or public libraries in the evenings. 

His publisher actually had to convince him his book was needed and subsequently paid for a stenographer to record the essence of his presentation creating the manuscript.

The book sold over 250,000 copies the first year; imagine how big a deal that was. The population at the time was around 128 million people, not every home had a phone and certainly not everyone had a car!  The book has sold over 30 million copies since and is a powerful guide to how to become closer to other people.  If you have not already read, you should.  In it he has 6 simple principles to follow:

1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
2. Smile.
3. Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language
4. Be a good listener
5. Talk in terms of the other person's interests.
6. Make the other person feel important - and do it sincerely.

With technology vying for every second we have, people are being heard even less. The younger generation take multiple selfies to share the right image they want us to see, they filter everything they say so of course everyone thinks that person is in a good place. Sadly, it is quite the opposite.  We are more and more lonely now because when we "see" other people "surrounded" by friends, our moment of being alone grows in significance substantially. It manifests thanks to the attacks of the enemy. 

Additionally, we use emojis or an acronym to show support of someone's post; we can't even type out a message any more it seems because we need to get to the next message from our list of so called friends.

During our study of Corinthians ch 11 last week, this premise of not listening hit me hard. I've been compiling a lot of empirical evidence supporting a God who designed us and created everything. The evidence is incontrovertible and overwhelming. Eric Metaxas' recent book Is Atheism Dead? Given the evidence out there, I believe it should have had a subtitle "Why isn't it?" 

The answer is quite simple; As Emerson wrote- 

"Your actions are so loud I cannot hear what you are saying."

How often have we Christians erred as humans while the world watches us?

Countless times. Perhaps the most recent egregious actions are of the Westboro Baptists condemning basically everyone outside their myopic and twisted congregation of judgmental, legalistic self-righteous people. Campaigning on the memory of someone's child who was killed in the service because the U.S. military allows gays in their ranks. I suppose this must be the first time in history that gays have served in the military, or any military for that matter. Young men die in battle. It's a given.

Who in the world would want to be a part of that?

I have a Jewish friend who's teenaged son was invited to a Bible years ago, and being his friends, he went. He endured the entire week of hard court presses that he was going to hell unless he converted then and there. 

Wow- the hubris these people must have to think they can overcome God's hardening of their hearts in ONE sit down rather than following Jesus' example.

Similarly, have you ever noticed how well Peace "Talks" work? I believe the  model is all wrong. Two belligerents get together with a mediator and all they talk about are demands. Demands. 

What if they met with an opportunity to air their complaints and be heard? That would probably do much to alleviate the tension.

Deeyah Khan, a Muslim woman and documentary director was under the threat of death in England from skinheads. Real threat.  Her reaction was extraordinary; Rather than getting body guards, securing herself in a fortress or totally ignoring the situation, she convened an audience with some their leaders in an auditorium here in the U.S. and filmed the conversations about why they hated her and other people dissimilar to themselves. 

One by one, once they had been heard, their hatred had been shed and most could no longer reconcile that hate with what they just had experienced.  It was liberating, in a word, as the individual left the hate mongering group that created such a cancer in them.

One other point, a big one given Oppenheimer is opening in a couple days, the story of the American Atomic bomb program.  After Pearl Harbor, Americans were on board with the mantra "Unconditional surrender". To us, it made sense. To the Japanese, on the other hand, it had very serious ramifications. They took it to mean their Emperor, a living god, would be removed. Thus they began the kamikaze attacks to die in the service of the Emperor thinking that their way of life would be destroyed by American principles. 

This led President Truman to the hard decision to drop 2 atomic weapons to end the war, saving literally millions of lives should we have had to invade mainland Japan.

A simple misunderstanding of words and missing the message cost tens of thousands of Japanese and Americans lives. 

When we encounter a non-believer, our best tact is to listen and be curious about their faith (yes, atheists have a faith but they simply don't realize it). 

 3 things we should do when listening to others;

1. Trust ourselves that we can remember the message or feelings being expressed, not necessarily the details or verbatim. We are really bad at fine details. Stick to the feelings they express
2. Patience is next, in creating a "space" allowing them the opportunity to be heard. Listen and do so without judgment or feeling like you need to respond with anything other than "tell me more" or "help me understand..."
3. Self aware has 3 components and it means to check if are you mentally there or are you worried about your phone/computer screen? Perhaps you forgot to do something. You're mentally half there. Physically is your body pointing at them but your feet towards the exit? Posture? Arms crossed, defensive? And finally your energy- are you running on fumes after a long day, bad conversation or a boatload of stress? Physically and mentally you can do a reset, but energy gone is best addressed by rescheduling that talk.

This opens the door for further conversations and is not what they expect.

Why? Because every time they have encountered a Christian, they have probably been attacked or ignored. Neither is a good answer. By being receptive to them, you plant a seed that will now have a better chance of sprouting.  If, on the other hand, you try heavy handed scripturally based arguments, you will fall into the trap we read in John 18:10 where Peter cuts the ear off Malchus. The sword being symbolic of the Word, his ear being symbolic of someone becoming deaf to the Gospel

Earn this

 As we enter the Memorial Day weekend for 2023, I wanted to share for a moment a word I had heard in my psyche from a powerful scene in a movie most all of us have seen and are familiar with.

The epic Saving Private Ryan tells a story based partially in a real instance, but it is one that underscores the value and sanctity our country gives to the heritage of a family, and how important lineage is.

The U.S. Navy had a tradition of not allowing siblings to serve together, but for some reason they acquiesced when they insisted they all five serve together on the same ship.  The Sullivan brothers, from Waterloo, Iowa all enlisted 3 January, 1942, in the shadow of course of Pearl Harbor. Tragically all were lost when their light cruiser U.S.S. Juneau was torpedoed during the Battle of Guadalcanal in November of that year. 

U.S.S. Juneau seen here. 

  The vessel was struck by a torpedo and in less than 20 seconds, sank in what came to be known as "Iron Bottom Sound" to give you an idea of the carnage that small area saw during savage battles in the south Pacific.

A strict policy was and has been since enforced to ensure a tragedy like this is unlikely to happen again, as was the standing order to evacuate any sole remaining sons in combat.  The stage was set for a SGT Frederick Niland, who's lost a brother when he was shot down in Burma in May, 1944, and during D-Day he lost brothers Robert and Preston. During the chaos following the landings and air-dops into France,  SGT Niland had disappeared somewhere in the morass of the battlefields around Normandy.

Stephen Spielberg took screenwriter Robert Rodat's fictional story and made it an epic tale of courage and sacrifice.  It showed the reality each of these young men faced, all with their own perspective and personality, making the sacrifices even more compelling.

Near the end of the movie where the men are defending the last intact bridge leading into Germany, CPT Miller, played by Tom Hanks, is mortally wounded ironically by the very German he set free during an earlier scene. As he sits, waiting for the inevitable, he summons his last breath to honor all who served under his command and had lost their lives, and whispers into  Ryan's ear: 

"Earn this- earn it"

My first reaction was what a truly cruel and daunting task he placed on this young man, PVT James Ryan, played by Matt Damon.  But over time as I reflected, it dawned on me that  

WE ALL ARE PRIVATE RYAN.  

Or we should be.

What we have is precious, and it is because of the brave that we are the land of the free.  Reflect on this and remember why we celebrate this day- for those who could not return home.

John 15:13:  

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

Thanks to the support of Paul Allen (co founder of Microsoft) Juneau's final resting place was found in March 2018. The violence of her explosion left the bow and stern next to each other and the midsection nearly 1 km away, some 13,000 feet below the surface. 

So, so far from Iowa...

The First Broadcast from the Moon

 On this day, Christmas Eve, in 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 became the first humans to orbit our nearest neighbor, the moon. Astronauts Frank Borman (Commander)  Jim Lovell (Command Module Pilot), & William Anders (Lunar Module Pilot) undertook this historic journey to make their marks in history and pave the way for the actual landing on the moon by Apollo 11 the following year.  

Apollo 8 crew from left to right Lovell, Anders, Borman

On their ninth orbit, the crew began their second television broadcast from the cabin of the command module.  Each took a turn to describe what they were seeing and experiencing. Borman reportedly said it was ".. a vast, lonely, forbidding expanse of nothing". Once these comments were complete, Anders stated the crew had a message to share with the people of Earth. 

Each read a portion of the creation story in Genesis with the following transcript:

Bill Anders

We are now approaching lunar sunrise, and for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.^[*]

Jim Lovell

And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.^[*]

Frank Borman

And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas – and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth.^(*)

It is hard to imagine how fast and far we have fallen from the ability to give God credit publicly and in conjunction with a government agency like NASA while broadcasting to the entire world. To be an astronaut you had to be elite, an upper echelon in intellect and decision making. Not all were Christians, but it is clear here in this case at least, these 3 men were humbled by their mission. They realized the impact on humanity this program would have and thus used it as a platform to give God the glory. May we all learn from this and repeat it.

Merry Christmas

Apollo 8's reading of Genesis

(*) Woods, David; O'Brien, Frank (December 27, 2008), "Day 4: Lunar Orbits 7, 8 and 9:" The Apollo 8 Flight Journal  NASA History Division

How Powerful is the Omnipotent One?

 While doing some research on the scientific basis for the existence of God, I came across a document originally written by Peter W. Stoner some time ago (Science Speaks, Online Edition), and has been revised since it's original publication. In the article, Stoner explains the mathematical likelihood of the 13 events of Creation being correctly recorded in the right order and explains the importance of this sequence being in the correct order, and how it confirms what scientists have since discovered. (I find the latter rather humorous) 

He then goes on to explain the power that is in the suns of the universe and it really stopped me dead in my tracks to reconsider my opinion of God, and ask- "Just HOW powerful is He?"

All believers probably say much the same thing that He is all powerful, knowing, present etc. He knows the stars by name (Psalm 147:4) and the hairs on my head are numbered (Matthew 10:30).  These are concepts that we are familiar with and are not hard to appreciate, that is, until you start to try to appreciate just what these passages imply. Have we actually thought about how much power there must be in our God? 

But now, let me share what Stoner wrote about the power of a sun:

    "The sun is a great power plant. If you were to mark off one square yard on the sun you would find it is giving off 70,000 horsepower of energy continuously. There are 10,000 times the square yards of the Earth on the sun. (For comparison's sake, the sun releases the equivalent of 2,700 Little Boy atomic bombs of 15 kt of TNT every second.)

This is a tremendous amount of energy, and "there is still enough energy for the sun to continue to burn for another 5 billion years." Is that power? Indeed, but consider now, there are 100 billion stars in our galaxy. Multiply our impression of God by 100 billion. But how many is 100 billion? "If you were to count 250 stars a minute, day and night, it would only take you 1,000 years to reach this number." Now that's power.

Lest we forget, the Milky Way is but one of many galaxies. How many? Perhaps a trillion (1,000,000,000,000) galaxies to consider. And there will be a host of planets in each of those solar systems represented by a star, each with mass and velocity, traveling through space at fantastic speeds. All this motion and mass contains kinetic energy which had to be created and set in motion somehow.

I think this properly, or at least minimally, begins to put into perspective the words of Jesus in Matthew 28:18 ".. all power is given unto me."

Lessons From Rahab's Faith

Reading Joshua this morning I was struck by a thought about the story of Rahab hiding the spies in her home in Joshua 2 and began contemplating what significance might be here.

The Holy Spirit quickly revealed to me some thoughts I would like to share.

1. Rahab, a prostitute, realized the source of the Israelite's success in leaving Egypt and the conquest of neighboring kingdoms. So well known was their success to the inhabitants of Jericho that their hearts  "melted" in fear. Why is it a prostitute could figure this out and no one else? I immediately saw a correlation between this story and Noah's ark where a handful of people were saved because of their faith.

2. She lied to her king. While we know lying is a sinful act, see here a new believer who lied to protect the spies she was hiding. It might also have been out of fear to protect her family from the king's wrath given her new walk, but I feel comfortable giving her the benefit of the doubt. Particularly when we realize why God was pleased with her act in that it must have been her heart was about fulfilling God's will.

4. God uses us in His works for our benefit. I saw another reminder of how God uses us to further His Kingdom as Jesus did with the wedding miracle (John 2:1-12). I love this story because it is of no doubt that Jesus could easily have spoken the water to become wine but he used the servants in the miracle to further demonstrate his power and because of this the servants could share their story of the encounter. Coincidentally, that is what each of us is to do; share our story or testimony as a tool to witness to others.

3. The red cord placed in the window. The color red symbolizes a couple things in the Bible. First, scarlett represents sin ("The great harlot dressed in scarlet and purple (Revelation 17:1-6) and the need for atonement which of course is effected through a blood sacrifice. I was struck by the similarity of the scarlet cord in a window and the lamb's blood, also scarlet, spread over the door of the Jews' doors in Egypt to protect the occupants of the household therein from the angels' death touch. As in Genesis   we see Rahab's family protected by this simple act.

4. I saw a parallel between the angels sweeping down on the occupants of Egypt and the Israelites doing the same bringing death and destruction to those not in a protected household. Symbolic also of the coming judgment with the angels sounding the Seven Trumpets (Revelation 8 & 9)

5. I see our faith perfectly illustrated here: First, the promise of the spies to Rahab in that if she were to complete one simple act of faith they would honor their agreement. The second being the promise of salvation which they gave her. Third, we see the fulfillment of that promise at the appropriate time which was unknown to the woman and her family, just as God's promise to us we will not know the hour of His return.

Lessons From Mary's Anointing of Jesus

Most everyone familiar with the Bible knows the story of John 12:3-8 in which Judas chastises Mary for using expensive oil to anoint Jesus' head. Reading that passage again this morning gave me new insight to a few things we might have missed in the past.

THE SCRIPTURE:

 3Then Mary took a twelve-ounce jar12:3 Greek took 1 litra [327 grams]. of expensive perfume made from essence of nard, and she anointed Jesus’ feet with it, wiping his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance.

4But Judas Iscariot, the disciple who would soon betray him, said, 5“That perfume was worth a year’s wages.12:5 Greek worth 300 denarii. A denarius was equivalent to a laborer’s full day’s wage. It should have been sold and the money given to the poor.” 6Not that he cared for the poor—he was a thief, and since he was in charge of the disciples’ money, he often stole some for himself.  7Jesus replied, “Leave her alone. She did this in preparation for my burial. 8You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”(NLT)

We all know of course Judas' motivation here because John explains he was a thief and his love of money is later exposed when he betrays Jesus for 30 silver pieces and we see Mary's pure love. What was revealed to me were just a couple simple thoughts:

1. Jesus knows our hearts and our true intentions, and He will reveal them to us or publicly as recognition or for correction.
2. Judas relied on worldly wisdom which would indeed seem to make sense of his comments but with true wisdom we see Jesus destroy the thought in 1 simple sentence. Simple as this verse is, "you will always have the poor, but you will not always have me" it is so profoundly deep in symbolism, prophecy, hope and truth.
3. This reinforces Luke 12:34 in which we are reminded where our treasures are, also is our heart. Be cautious of what you hold dear and pursue.
4. Mary's motivations were out of love and adoration so Jesus receives it and acknowledges her service and devotion. Judas, as Jesus knows, is all about how he can enrich himself riding on the coat tails of this upstart religious movement. For this reason, Jesus gently rebukes him in public and I suggest this shames him because he does not open his mouth again. Perhaps this pushed him to betray Jesus because he did not get to steal anything from the sale of the perfume. That could be an interesting topic of conversation. 

The lessons Jesus give us here spoke to me about Cain and Abel's offerings to the LORD in which Abel held back nothing and gave his best while Cain foolishly held back the best for himself. He then has the pride and audacity to be up set with his brother when he himself failed to be obedient. That's weird; just like his dad who failed to obey the LORD and protect his wife and to not eat of the tree. The nut does not fall far from the tree.

The takeaway should be for each of us to pray to the Lord to reveal what we hold dear in our heart and if it is not pure to please help me remove it. Just because we go to church does not mean we are a believer or are right with God any more than my hanging out in a garage makes me a mechanic. YOUR walk is between you and God. What is the Holy Spirit saying to you?

Is There Significance That 2 Men Were Crucified with Jesus?

When it comes to reading the Bible there are some things to bear in mind. First, if it is IN the Bible it is there for a reason. Second, sometimes what is NOT said or written is equally as important.

Recently our pastor delivered a profoundly deep message on the first Easter Sunday with Mary's encounter of the angels in the tomb and with a newly resurrected Jesus outside the tomb.  We have all heard sermons in which we receive a powerful message with an in-depth analysis of the word, or, the exigy of the Bible; That is, the extracting of information from the Bible.

The crucifixion then came to my mind and I wondered WHAT the significance was of there having been 3 men crucified on Calvary that Good Friday.
Certainly we all understand the import and seemingly innumerable instances in which the Word gives us a reference to 3, but I felt there was more to this than that.  I reached out to my friend a Baptist minister and in a few brief messages attempted to expound on what I felt was significance to get his insight. Failing miserably, I then turned to the Holy Spirit and the good book.

Jesus demonstrates perfect love
The greatest commandment is to love our Lord with our whole heart. IF we could do that then we would also love all his children as we love ourselves, but alas, our sinful nature leaves us short every time. We see a couple instances in the story of the crucifixion in which Jesus provides a model of how we are to love others.

First, John 19:11 we see Jesus telling Pilate the power He claims to have is from above (so he is NOT challenging an earthly position of power) but also tells him his sin is not as  egregious as Judas': “You would have no power over me at all unless it were given to you from above. So the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.” (NLT) In other words, you are being used by the Almighty- this is not on you.

The next instance is from Luke 23:28-31  28But Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, don’t weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 29For the days are coming when they will say, ‘Fortunate indeed are the women who are childless, the wombs that have not borne a child and the breasts that have never nursed.’ 30People will beg the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and plead with the hills, ‘Bury us.’ 31For if these things are done when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?

I take this as a word to the people- this? this is fleeting. My physical death will be over quickly but you are going to be left here to your own devices, relying on pastors not using the Gospel but rather a worldly spin on the Word.

Perhaps the most obvious and significant example is John 23:34  where Jesus is pleading for our mercy (the crowd jeering him) at the foot of the cross saying: “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”  Though I am not always successful, I try to remember this when I feel I have been "wronged" and hang on to anger or hurt feelings longer than I should.

He took my place on the cross
While many of us may have heard the analogy that Jesus took our place on the cross, there may not be a more obvious example other than his sentencing in front of Pilate and the crowd. Pilate, caught between his misgivings, a premonition from his wife and a precarious position between what he knows and the Roman emperor, is clearly looking for a way out. In fact, as we see in Luke 23:7, he gives Herod jurisdiction on this matter since Herod is over Galilee.

He is not convinced Jesus is what the Pharisees are portraying him to be and matter of factly proclaims "I have found no fault in this man." (Luke 23:14)  It was customary to release one of the accused during a feast for mercy's sake apparently, so again, Pilate attempting to extricate himself by admonishing Jesus and releasing him to his people, but the crowd demanded the release of Barabbas (a robber, not a thief so this is a really bad guy) and for Jesus to be crucified with the other criminals. As we now know the Pharisees got the crowd riled up to demand Jesus' blood instead.

Pilate asks a third time what wrong this man had done and then washes his hands of the situation, effectively and almost prophetically, putting the blood of Jesus on the Jewish people. So here is, what I believe, the first demonstration of Jesus laying down his life for our sins. If that is not enough to give you goosebumps or get you choked up a bit...

He preceded us in death
Then his time of the cross seems to be a bit of a conundrum. He was crucified in the auspices he was an enemy of the state. Romans were expert merchants of death and routinely used crucifixion as a warning to all non-Romans who broke the law, and in the case of insurgents would ensure their existence on the cross would not only last for days of indescribable agony, but then left the bodies on display. Perhaps one of the greatest examples of this was the final disposition of Spartacus's revolt  and his fellow gladiators in France in 73 B.C. Once Crassus had defeated the revolting gladiator-slaves, he lined the road to Damascus with 6,000 crosses and put one of the insurgents on each cross. This was a grisly and clear reminder to all who travelled the road between Rome and Damascus what penalty they would face if they chose not to live under Roman rule.

So here we see an accused protagonist of the state hung on a cross to die an insurgent's death but he does not linger there like those who preceded him. It was almost as if the scourging he received inflicted enough harm to hasten his death. Centurions would routinely break the legs of the condemned if they were not enemies of the state. Again, we see a misstep in tradition of the Roman army when the guards approached Jesus' cross and found he was already dead and were instructed to thrust a spear into his thorax, rather than desecrate the body. If he were not already dead a hasty end was imminent.

However, as we know from the Gospels, He had already given his last breath and gave up the spirit.  The criminals on either side had not yet succumbed and consequently, had their tibias broken by an iron rod to speed their death.

Salvation is yours for the asking

During the crucifixion, we are given the details of a conversation between the 3 men on the cross when one thief challenges Jesus to rescue them all "If you are the Christ save Yourself and us." (Luke 23:39) while the other, with a repentant heart, asks Jesus to remember him when Jesus comes into his Kingdom. Jesus so lovingly and warmly consoles him with the assurance that "... today you will be with Me in Paradise." (Luke 23:43) This also shows the two human hearts: the repentant heart and the heart that is not truly repentant but instead is asking for grace to get out of his situation because he is only sorry he has been caught. But the real power of this example is nothing more needed be done on the thief's part!  Too often today we rationalize how salvation can't be that easy. It has to be. We are called "sheep" more than once and that is not because they are cute but because they are defenseless and rather dumb. Remember, we only had ONE rule in the Garden and we screwed that up. How is it we think, through our works, we can please a God who offered his only Son to forgive us?

Besides, if there is something on my end to do I could brag about, as Paul points out, it and it would be a direct contradiction with Jesus' last statement before death.

One will be taken, one will be left
As we read of Jesus' warnings of the future after He is gone, we realize He is talking about a time in the future in which the green wood (indicative of a living tree with water- Psalm 1:3 a tree planted by a river) dries up, what then? It seems to me He may be referring to the end times and how we will rely on our own knowledge from a worldly church. While the tree symbolizes a church, it is clear the "green wood" is one with the Living Water we can only get from Jesus, while the dry wood is one where we no longer get sustaining life-giving water from the LORD. I feel his example here, between the two criminals, one who received him as Lord and the other defiant in his sin to the end, are so powerfully symbolic of what Jesus shared in Matthew 24:40-42 “Two men will be working together in the field; one will be taken, the other left. 41Two women will be grinding flour at the mill; one will be taken, the other left. 42 “So you, too, must keep watch! For you don’t know what day your Lord is coming. 

Being called may be risky and uncomfortable
Finally we close the scene with Joseph of Arimethea in the uncomfortable situation of having to jeopardize his position and approach Pilate for the body of a man executed for treason. As a Sanhedrin, he had spent his life building a reputation so the potentiality of him losing it all for a momentary calling out of his norm must have been daunting. Unlike the wealthy young man from Mark 10:17 Joseph undertakes the calling of the Lord and gets Jesus' body from the Roman authority for burial.

Time was of the essence since Jewish law stipulated a body be cared for before sundown and to not work on the Sabbath which commenced at sundown that evening. His request was granted, seemingly without much to-do and apparently some grace, thus setting the stage for the greatest come-back ever recorded.