After a bit of an Easter break from writing, it is time to resume my reflections here…
In the gospel attributed to Matthew, on the heels of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus wastes no time resuming his work, going about healing people indiscriminately.
With this immediate placement following perhaps the most monumental sermon of Jesus, the gospel writers stress that the core tenants of Christian faith are meant to be lived out in action, and shared anywhere and everywhere, with anyone and everyone. As we continue through the season of Easter, it is a good time for us to receive this reminder. Indeed, it is actually always a good time for us to hear this reminder, as the world is always looking to divide and Christ-followers must counteractively always be looking to heal and restore.
Jesus’ healing works are littered throughout the gospels; and the stretch of healing stories right after the Sermon on the Mount is particularly notable. Here (Matthew 8-9) Jesus heals people from a wide variety of backgrounds and social standings. The list includes those close to him, such as Peter’s mother-in-law, as well as those marginalized by society, including women, people who are physically disabled, and those struggling mentally with “demons”. It also surprisingly includes those who are in power, such as a soldier’s servant and a regional ruler’s daughter. (I shall write more about this in a later post.) It is a remarkably inclusive list of people healed within just two chapters of text. No one is beyond the love and healing power of Jesus.
While Jesus goes about healing generously, we are often tempted to hold Jesus and the blessings of Christ to ourselves. Perhaps we hear the beatitudes and visualize ourselves among the blessed, leading us to secretly (or not so secretly) think that we are more blessed than others, and that there cannot be enough blessings to go around for everyone else.
This scarcity mindset happens at the individual level, as well as in social circles and geo-political spheres. It is easy to think that if we share what we have with others there cannot be enough for ourselves. While this mindset is often related to physical things, we may even believe deep down that our faith internally within us and within our church walls will become diluted if we open the doors of our sanctuaries and hearts to others. We think that our ways of following Jesus will lose their relevance to us—individually and in our siloed groups of similarly likeminded folks—if we make our faith truly available to all.
Jesus’ wide-ranging acts of healing remind us that the opposite is the reality in the Eternal Kingdom of God. When we share the good news and blessings we have with others, we actually discover blessings on top of blessings. Conversely, and dangerously, if we do not share what we have—spiritually and practically—with others we are not actually being good Christ-followers at all and are at risk of being condemned by the very One we have hoarded for ourselves.
May we be a people of faith who go about the world seeking and creating restorative healing wherever we can, with whoever we can. Just as our Lord and Savior did, so we must do now.
Relevant Reformation 