Healing the Outsiders (Matthew 8:1-13)

On August 23, 2023July 23, 2023 By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”

Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”

The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment. (New International Version)

On a few occasions, my computer picked up a nasty virus that hijacked every file and function I have. The most frustrating thing about those events is that there was nothing I could do by myself to fix it or make it better.

I had to humble myself and ask a computer geek to get into my system and take care of the problem. It’s a weird feeling to look at my screen and have a stranger work inside my personal computer. But if I failed to get help, my computer was worthless – unless I let someone with authority fix the blasted thing.

Kingdom Values

Jesus is Lord of all. Since Christ has authority over everything, we are to live our lives in submission to his will and way. Only through humble resignation to Christ can we experience the healing and deliverance we seek.

Jesus preached his famous Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and taught the people as one who had authority. In that Sermon, Jesus laid out the values of God’s kingdom: humility, sorrow over sin, meekness, purity, mercy, and peacemaking. In today’s Gospel lesson, we see the power of those values evidenced and expressed in two stories of healing and deliverance.

The world needs saving, and that’s exactly what Jesus is up to. Christ’s authority is total – coming from his moral authority – as the very embodiment of the Beatitudes he taught. Grace always has the last word, as Jesus healed showing neither favoritism nor discrimination.

Healing a Leper

In the first story, Jesus used his authority to heal and transform a leper. Leprosy was a feared disease in the ancient world. There was no known cure, and lepers were forced to live apart from everyone else. The Old Testament book of Leviticus says that a leper must wear torn clothes, let his hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of his face and cry out “unclean! unclean!” (Leviticus 13:45-46). Lepers were the ultimate outsiders.

A leper came to Jesus with a humble profession of faith: “Lord, if you want to, you can make me clean.” It was a clear case of genuine need, and poverty of spirit. Jesus responded by doing the unthinkable: He touched him. In a great and wonderful reversal, Jesus did not become unclean by touching the leper; but instead, the leper was made clean.

Still today, the world needs to be touched. It’s an important way of following Jesus and changing the world. This requires us, God’s people, to get up-close and personal with outsiders and marginalized persons and groups. Christian service requires Christian touch.

Authentic Christian ministry communicates love through contact and identification with others. A thousand years after Christ’s earthly ministry, St. Francis of Assisi met a leper on the road:

“Though the leper caused him no small disgust and horror, he nonetheless, got off the horse and prepared to kiss the leper. But when the leper put out his hand as though to receive something, he received money along with a kiss”
Life of St. Francis, by Thomas of Celano

Francis did what seemed humanly impossible because he was filled with the love and compassion of Christ. The love of Jesus allows us to touch others with compassionate care, especially to those who have been rejected and mistreated.

Healing a Roman Officer’s Servant

*Fresco of* *Jesus healing the Centurion’s servant, Dionysiou Monastery,* *Mount Athos, Greece*

The second story was equally eye-popping and unbelievable to the people in Christ’s day. Jesus used his authority to heal and transform a Gentile – and what’s more – a hated Roman army officer.

We see the values of the Beatitudes expressed in a Roman Centurion who felt unworthy to even have the Lord Jesus come into his house. The Centurion’s profession of faith amazed even Jesus: “Just say the word,” he said in recognition of Christ’s authority, which is big enough to heal without even being present.

Although Centurions were the backbone of the Roman military machine and hated by the Jews, yet Jesus responded to the Centurion’s request, and he also affirmed his faith as greater than any Jew.

Grace answers to need, and not to smug self-confidence.

The Roman Centurion requested healing. Jesus listened and answered. The Centurion did not use his position to order Jesus or demand healing; he came in a spirit of humility and asked with confidence that Jesus could heal his servant if he wanted to. The Centurion threw himself on God’s mercy. So, Jesus upheld the Centurion as a model of faith for us all.

Healing Doesn’t Happen with the Independent

In affirming the Roman officer’s faith, Jesus also gave a solemn warning to the self-righteous: Their lack of humility and genuine faith would land them outside the kingdom. In another great reversal, the insiders will become the outsiders, and the outsiders become the insiders.

Independently proud folk do not experience healing and transformation because they don’t even know they are sin sick. They see no need for an intervention by Jesus because they already have their righteous deeds to boast about. Such persons are more concerned about looking good and saving face, than perceiving their own unworthiness.

The self-righteous and self-sufficient approach to handling problems and difficult situations is to come up with good ideas and clever strategies, relying on sheer personal effort and willpower. Prayer may or may not happen; there is no honest beseeching of God.

Delusional thoughts of personal autonomy only separate us from the grace of God that we so desperately need.

There is a spiritual dimension to every situation and trouble we face – including sickness. If we only examine the medical and biological end of physical problems, we may be dealing with symptoms instead of the root issue that plagues us.

Are you hurting? Pray. Do you feel great? Sing. Are you sick? Call the church leaders together to pray and anoint you with oil in the name of the Master. Believing-prayer will heal you, and Jesus will put you on your feet. And if you have sinned, you will be forgiven—healed inside and out. Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. (James 5:13-16, MSG)

Conclusion

Jesus healed and transformed outsiders. Followers of Christ, dependent upon God, ask themselves:

Who are the outsiders among us?
Where are the strangers?
How can we get close enough to touch aliens and immigrants?
Will you help us intercede in prayer for foreigners?
When can we search for and pursue those on the periphery of society?

Believe that the risen and ascended Jesus can and will heal, deliver, and transform people of all kinds.

Jesus cannot be domesticated into some figurehead that suits our desires and conforms to our ideas about how things ought to be. Jesus is portrayed in these stories as eager to heal, wanting to show grace to the least and the lowly among society.

So, let us participate in the world’s healing, beginning with the Lord’s Prayer:

Our Father in heaven,
    may your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done on earth,
    as it is in heaven.
Give us today the food we need,
and forgive us our sins,
    as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
And don’t let us yield to temptation,
    but rescue us from the evil one. Amen. (Matthew 6:9-13, NLT)

Insiders and Outsiders (Romans 11:13-29)

On August 22, 2023July 22, 2023 By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

But I don’t want to go on about them [the Jews]. It’s you, the outsiders, that I’m concerned with now. Because my personal assignment is focused on the so-called outsiders, I make as much of this as I can when I’m among my Israelite kin, the so-called insiders, hoping they’ll realize what they’re missing and want to get in on what God is doing. If their falling out initiated this worldwide coming together, their recovery is going to set off something even better: mass homecoming! If the first thing the Jews did, even though it was wrong for them, turned out for your good, just think what’s going to happen when they get it right!

Behind and underneath all this there is a holy, God-planted, God-tended root. If the primary root of the tree is holy, there’s bound to be some holy fruit. Some of the tree’s branches were pruned and you wild olive shoots were grafted in. Yet the fact that you are now fed by that rich and holy root gives you no cause to gloat over the pruned branches. Remember, you aren’t feeding the root; the root is feeding you.

It’s certainly possible to say, “Other branches were pruned so that I could be grafted in!” Well and good. But they were pruned because they were deadwood, no longer connected by belief and commitment to the root. The only reason you’re on the tree is because your graft “took” when you believed, and because you’re connected to that belief-nurturing root. So don’t get cocky and strut your branch. Be humbly mindful of the root that keeps you lithe and green.

If God didn’t think twice about taking pruning shears to the natural branches, why would he hesitate over you? He wouldn’t give it a second thought. Make sure you stay alert to these qualities of gentle kindness and ruthless severity that exist side by side in God—ruthless with the deadwood, gentle with the grafted shoot. But don’t presume on this gentleness. The moment you become deadwood, it’s game over.

And don’t get to feeling superior to those pruned branches down on the ground. If they don’t persist in remaining deadwood, they could very well get grafted back in. God can do that. He can perform miracle grafts. Why, if he could graft you—branches cut from a tree out in the wild—into an orchard tree, he certainly isn’t going to have any trouble grafting branches back into the tree they grew from in the first place. Just be glad you’re in the tree, and hope for the best for the others.

I want to lay all this out on the table as clearly as I can, friends. This is complicated. It would be easy to misinterpret what’s going on and arrogantly assume that you’re royalty and they’re just rabble, out on their ears for good. But that’s not it at all. This hardness on the part of insider Israel toward God is temporary. Its effect is to open things up to all the outsiders so that we end up with a full house. Before it’s all over, there will be a complete Israel. As it is written,

A champion will stride down from the mountain of Zion;
he’ll clean house in Jacob.
And this is my commitment to my people:
removal of their sins.

From your point of view as you hear and embrace the good news of the Message, it looks like the Jews are God’s enemies. But looked at from the long-range perspective of God’s overall purpose, they remain God’s oldest friends. God’s gifts and God’s call are under full warranty—never canceled, never rescinded. (The Message)

A big reason a lot of people don’t go to church anymore, is that they can’t stand the bickering, backbiting, and belligerence amongst the people. It’s sad that so many have had a bad experience of Christians squabbling with each other. It’s not supposed to be this way.

*Paul disputing with both Gentiles and Jews, c.1175 C.E., (Victoria and Albert Museum, London)*

The letter to the Romans reminds me of two siblings going at it, always at odds with each other. Gentile and Jew both together in one church, constantly arguing, and never stopping to listen to the other. The Apostle Paul, their spiritual parent, had enough of it. So, he wrote a lengthy tome, often alternating between speaking directly to Brother Gentile and then to Brother Jew.

Wisely, Paul never took sides and avoided favoritism even though he himself was Jewish. In today’s New Testament lesson, Paul speaks pointedly and forthrightly to the Gentiles in the church. He gets to the issue of Brother Gentile’s attitude and view toward Brother Jew. Father Paul’s instruction to Brother Gentile is also instructive for us, as we navigate a pluralistic world and a diverse church.

Brother Gentile tended to look down on Brother Jew as stuck in the past, too concerned for tradition, and unwilling to change. Brother Gentile thought it was high time Brother Jew understood that all that Jewish stuff is no longer needed; Gentiles were the future of the church.

For Brother Gentile, God has accepted him, and Brother Jew has been rejected as an unwanted anachronism. But Father Paul would have none of it; he was not going to allow Brother Gentile to eviscerate Brother Jew of his identity.

Notice Father Paul’s reasoning to his son, Brother Gentile, utilizing the lesser to the greater argument:

Brother Jew’s stumbling and bumbling has already caused Brother Gentile to come to faith in Christ.
Brother Gentile’s deliverance and acceptance will cause Brother Jew’s jealousy to kick in.
Brother Jew’s response will bring even greater spiritual blessing to the world.

Paul insisted that Brother Jew still has a prominent place in the family, and that a time is coming when the entire human family will have their socks blessed off because of him. Just as an olive tree is pruned and has branches grafted in, Brother Gentile needs to understand he’s a graft, and not part of the original tree.

Therefore, there is no place for arrogant pride. Grafted branches get broken off and pruned, too! And pruned branches can also be grafted back on the tree.

So, Father Paul wanted his sons to understand and appreciate one another as the one tree in God’s family. There is room for neither Brother Gentile’s complacency nor Brother Jew’s despair. Both brothers share together in one equitable tree of life, enjoying the blessings of renewal and restoration.

Let us take these lessons to heart in our interactions with folks who are different from ourselves! There is no room in God’s benevolent kingdom for simpletons who fail to see beyond the end of their noses. Instead, we are to appreciate our brother who looks, thinks, and lives differently than us.

God is only intolerant about intolerance. The Lord desires mercy and justice toward those distinctly offbeat from our own path. Just because Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life does not give any follower of Christ a license to misinterpret, misrepresent, and mistreat another group of people who subscribe to various jots and tittles other than me.

Neither you nor I are the Gardener. We do not get to do the pruning and grafting. That is God’s job, not ours. Love is our business, while the Lord will show both his kindness and sternness when and to whom he will.

Simply assuming we are always on the right side of things only produces a lack of listening, a lack of like-mindedness, and a lack of love. It creates a worldly system of demagoguery, inattention to suffering, and narrow policies, procedures, and laws which benefit only one brother, and not all the siblings.

Father Paul said earlier in his letter, “God doesn’t have any favorites!” (Romans 2:11, CEV)

Father James said in his letter, “Don’t treat some people better than others.” (James 2:1, ERV)

Father Peter said, “I really am learning that God doesn’t show partiality to one group of people over another. Rather, in every nation, whoever worships him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” (Acts 10:34-35, CEB)

And the witness of the Old Testament says, “Cut away the thick calluses from your heart and stop being so willfully hardheaded. God, your God, is the God of all gods, he is the Master of all masters, a God immense and powerful and awesome. He doesn’t play favorites, takes no bribes, makes sure orphans and widows are treated fairly, takes loving care of foreigners by seeing that they get food and clothing.” (Deuteronomy 10:17-18, MSG)

For our failure to realize that the whole world is a family, that Christ is all and in all: O Lord, forgive.

For our prejudice and self-consciousness of race, color, or language: O Lord, forgive.

For our indifference and lack of concern for our neighbors living in poverty and unemployment and for children who are ill-clothed, illiterate, and ill: O Lord, forgive.

For our unwillingness to understand the needs and problems of other people, the bitterness of those without power, and the groans of the oppressed: O Lord, forgive.

For our readiness to acquiesce in the ways of the majority, to seek the path of least resistance, and to prefer popularity to fairness: O Lord, forgive. Christ have mercy on us all. Amen.

Inclusion vs. Exclusion (Acts 15:1-21)

On August 21, 2023July 22, 2023 By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Exploring Church Ministry Blog, Year ALeave a comment

Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the believers very glad. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.

Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.”

The apostles and elders met to consider this question. After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”

The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. When they finished, James spoke up. “Brothers,” he said, “listen to me. Simon has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles. The words of the prophets agree with this, as it is written:

“‘After this I will return
    and rebuild David’s fallen tent.
Its ruins I will rebuild,
    and I will restore it,
that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord,
    even all the Gentiles who bear my name,
says the Lord, who does these things’—
    things known from long ago.

“It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.” (New International Version)

*The Council of Jerusalem, by Franz Mayer of Munich, 1883*

What happens when new people come into a group who are different? How does any church or faith community deal with long time members alongside new ones? Is there a way to work through differences without becoming like the Borg, trying to make others to be just like me? (“Prepare to be assimilated. Resistance is futile.”)

Differences of thought, opinion, and practice are inevitable. Conflict cannot (and should not) always be avoided. Anyplace there’s people, conflict eventually happens. Put a bunch of sinners together in one place (like in a church), add a few grumpy old people, a few know-it-alls, then sit back and watch the fireworks.

It seems to me that every church is about one or two good fights away from being non-existent. It’s a miracle that more congregations don’t call it quits every year, especially after their annual congregational meetings! I myself have a long resume of handling ornery folks, family squabbles, and cantankerous curmudgeons that could make your head swim – or just get you downright angry.

What is the source of conflict among you? What is the source of your disputes? Don’t they come from your cravings that are at war in your own lives? You long for something you don’t have, so you commit murder. You are jealous for something you can’t get, so you struggle and fight. You don’t have because you don’t ask. You ask and don’t have because you ask with evil intentions, to waste it on your own cravings. (James 4:1-3, CEB)

Within the church there are expectations, whether they are reasonable or not. If those expectations are not fulfilled, people feel unfulfilled. So, they look to put unnecessary burdens on those entering the faith – to make them pay their dues by observing rules that they themselves aren’t even able to keep.

Conflict begins with some kind of desire. If unmet, it becomes a demand. And demanding something usually leads to judging other people. After all, if you really care about me and my group, you will meet these demands (desires). If left unchecked and unresolved, the progression ends in trying to punish others by simply withdrawing from a relationship with the intent of hurting another.

A focus on reaching out, on rebuilding and restoring lives, puts our efforts where they need to be – and puts us on the same page together, acting out of a sense of purpose, not preservation.

Today’s New Testament lesson deals with the conflict and debate surrounding gentile inclusion into the family of God. The success of Paul’s missionary journeys in reaching non-Jewish peoples and establishing churches, created tension as to whether these new believers ought to become Jewish in order to be Christian.

This question was at the heart of why the Council at Jerusalem was convened. Those who believed that Gentiles need to become Jews, demanded that the they be circumcised and observe the Law of Moses. Others, including Paul and Barnabas, believed that sort of thinking and approach was contrary to the gospel.

The Apostle Peter was there and gave his own experience of observing God work among Cornelius, a Gentile. Peter’s story was more than personal testimony; it was a powerful theological argument about what God was doing and what God is up to with all people, not just the Jews.

Peter’s story demonstrated that God (and not Paul or anybody else) is responsible for including Gentiles among God’s people without making them Jewish. It was God who called and cleansed Gentiles – making no distinction between them and Jews.

People are justified and made right by God’s grace, and not by human judgments of who can be in or out. The upshot of the whole thing is this: We believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, both Jew and Gentile. Period.

The only thing needed from Gentiles is to believe, because salvation is an act of God’s grace, and not the result of human effort.

What’s more, the inclusion of non-Jewish persons as the people of God is nothing new; it has always been there in the Old Testament Scriptures. And they were never called to become just like Jews in order to be the people of God. (Amos 9:11-12)

This is instructive for all contemporary faith communities. Our mission is not to make followers of me or you or of a particular faith tradition, but to make disciples of Jesus Christ. Grace brings us in, grace keeps us in, and grace will lead us home.

Our focus is to be on openness, connection, and inclusion, and not in seeking to be closed-minded and closed-hearted – separating from those different from us and practicing exclusion. The following ways may be helpful in fostering a more generous gospel:

Talk less, listen more. Don’t interrupt. Do give focused attention. Use respectful language. Ask how others prefer to be addressed and how they refer to themselves. Asking is a sign of care and respect for the person you are talking to, and is also a way to help them feel safe and comfortable.

Be open. Don’t stereotype. One person doesn’t represent an entire group of people. There are different Christian traditions throughout the world. And there are also different traditions and ways within all major religions, as well as within all people groups, institutions, organizations, communities, races, ethnicities, and genders. Seek to learn, rather than superimpose what you think onto someone else.

Become self-aware. Understand that, although all persons are created in the image of God and are equal before the Lord, there is not equity in human organizations and systems. Being aware of our own privileges is a crucial first step to adopting a more inclusive attitude.

Stay curious. To remain curious means to seek people and situations that allow us to challenge (both in a positive and negative way) our beliefs and our cultural and personal patterns of thinking, worshiping, working, and living.

Generally speaking, exclusion creates conflict, whereas inclusion gives space for others to explore and discover what it means to live into their faith and spirituality.

Loving Lord, give us strength so that we can build places of belonging: To create a community for all to share their gifts, to know that each of us is loved, to help us to see the light of Christ in all that we serve. Help us remember that each of us is loved and important. Amen.

All Who Come and Touch are Made Well (Matthew 14:34-36)

On August 19, 2023July 19, 2023 By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

They crossed the lake and came to land at Gennesaret, where the people recognized Jesus. So they sent for the sick people in all the surrounding country and brought them to Jesus. They begged him to let the sick at least touch the edge of his cloak; and all who touched it were made well. (Good News Translation)

Jesus showed up. That’s all it took. The very presence of Christ emboldened people to act. And these were not just the religious folk. They were on the other side of the lake – which for us means the other side of the tracks. In other words, the people of Gennesaret were poor and needy with lots of sick persons, as well as spiritually pagan.

This wasn’t a place that pious people visited. It was far from being a destination vacation spot. But it was just the sort of place that Jesus would visit. It was for people like those at Gennesaret that Christ came.

Jesus Recognized

In the previous story of the disciples on the lake during a storm, Jesus walked out on the water to them. When they saw him, they didn’t recognize him. But here, in today’s story, a bunch of people who weren’t following Jesus around, knew who he was straightaway.

One of the great ironies of the New Testament Gospels is that Jesus often got a cool reception of unbelief amongst the religious insiders in his own homeland, while tending to receive faith from spiritual outsiders in heathen places. Christ initiated a seismic shift and a great transfer of replacing the insiders with the outsiders. This sort of activity was so spiritually scandalous and cataclysmic that it eventually got Jesus killed.

“Many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.”
Jesus (Matthew 19:30, NIV)

People Respond

The people of Gennesaret demonstrated their faith by acting on the sight of Jesus amongst them. They sent others out into the surrounding countryside to let them know that Jesus was here. That was all it took for the rural folk to not only come but to bring all their sick friends and family with them. Belief abounded, that this man, Jesus, could do the impossible work of curing and healing.

And this is precisely the sort of mentality and heart attitude Jesus was looking for. In telling his parable of the soils, Christ wanted the response of the fourth soil: To not only hear and acknowledge, but to also take the words and ways of God into one’s life in such a way that growth and development happens, fruit matures, and a harvest of righteousness, justice, and peace occurs.

“The seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23, NIV)

Jesus Makes All the People Well

The most “touching” thing to me in this short account of Christ encountering the people of Gennesaret is that every single person who came to Jesus was made well, without exception.

Such was the faith of the people, that they neither needed nor expected Jesus to come and lay his hands on them or to even say anything. They simply believed that if they could but touch the fringe of his cloak, healing and wellness would happen.

And the people weren’t just seeking their own betterment, but were concerned for everyone they knew who needed help. Whether there was superstition mingled with the faith is really of no concern; just a smidgeon of faith in Jesus is potent and powerful enough to effect a complete makeover of a person.

Moreover, there wasn’t simply individual and isolated instances of wholeness and healing; there was a mass level miracle, a giant group touch of healing and health.

Jesus welcomed them all, and allowed all the people to touch. Most of us don’t want a bunch of strangers touching us or our clothes, at all. That’s too weird and creepy, and likely makes us uncomfortable. What’s more, no respectable person would ever think of touching a rabbi – especially women. That sort of thing was religiously and culturally unacceptable.

Another irony we see is that the crossing of purity boundaries and laws which made people ritually impure is turned on it’s head. Instead, this kind of activity of people touching Christ made the impure folks pure. As something of a rule-breaker at heart, I find this reality refreshing. We need a lot more of it.

Jesus and People Today

Today’s Gospel lesson might seem a nice story that happened a very long time ago. We may also believe it doesn’t have much to do with me today. After all, Jesus isn’t bodily roaming the countryside today. We don’t see mass healings of people. In some places, we rarely see any healing at all from a direct result of faith. So, why even talk about this? Why bring it up? Do you just want to get my hopes up, only to dash them? Isn’t all this stuff pie-in-the-sky thinking, anyway?

Those are legitimate questions and concerns. And we ought not to disparage or make light of anyone asking them. All of us have likely encountered reaching out in faith without any healing or change of circumstance. Rather than going to one of two extremes, by either berating ourselves for a supposed failure of faith, or of discounting God altogether as a figment of the unenlightened mind, we can take a different approach.

The very nature of faith is contact, connection, and care. Faith is up close, relational, and involves touch. Faith is free, yet it is not cheap. Faith always involves a cost: vulnerability and intimacy. If we ever look for faith from afar and have no intention of getting up close and personal – so close as to touch the hem of a garment – then that which we seek will forever be elusive to us.

I’m not talking about a process or a plan that you can predictably access to get the result you want. Rather, I’m referring to real human contact and relationship that can only happen with being open about needs and wants, and is willing to expose one’s inner person to the outside world. I’m talking about putting away the false front we put up for others to see, and let the true self come out. Yes, it’s risky. Yes, it most likely will hurt. And yes, it will lead to healing.

When a person goes to a doctor for a pain they cannot get rid of, and get a diagnosis of needing surgery to deal with the hurt, we willingly allow the surgeon to create more pain for us by cutting into our body. We allow it because we understand that more pain leads to less pain.

And the same is true for our soul. Our broken hearts, our damaged emotions, our racing thoughts, and our hurting spirits need to experience the invisible scalpel of God. Divine intervention is often unpleasant – at least at first – but then later results in wellness for all who invite it’s touch.

May you come with vulnerable faith, confident hope, and active love, to the One who can help you realize your most intimate longings. Amen.

Rev. Tim Ehrhardt

Tag: christian life