"... great multitudes followed him, and he healed them there..."
Jesus never turned away anyone who was seeking healing.
This passage is one of a few summary passages that reveals Jesus' hands on dealings with the sick, the in-firmed, and the outcast (see also passages around 4:23, 14:34, and 15:29). This particular piece is sandwiched between his teachings on forgiveness, divorce, and the danger of placing ones trust in riches - all of which are potentially the greatest kinks in the Kingdom.
Jesus' healing - his integration into each part of the human condition - is noticeable. He is not the kind of god who only goes so far into the darkness with us and then gives up. He is not the kind of god who waits for us to clean ourselves up before he'll talk to us. God is has already entered the darkest caverns of our hearts and the most painful experiences of our life. He is there, ready to lift us into Light and free us from all bondage.
Indeed, he perhaps is his best in our despair - as he comes alive and seizes any opportunity to provide a glorious echo of the Empty Tomb. Jesus has been there, he is here, and - indeed, if you were to fall further, stray deeper - even pass through the threshold of Death itself - he would be there as well, comforting, healing, and resurrecting you from darkness and into his marvelous Light.
Jesus isn't afraid to get his hands dirty.
That being said, he is also acutely aware of our sincerity, or insincerity, as the case may be, when we come to him in prayer. He is quick to convict and confront. He loves us and wants us freed of anything crippling us from making a non-stop beeline into the Easter Morn.
In the case of the rich young ruler, his crippling cord was his love of riches. (For us it may be different.) Jesus scanned the interior of this man's tomb and easily diagnosed that it was this man's love of wealth which was trip keeping him from fully running into the Day. His directive was specific: sell all you have. If the man would have confessed, of course - i.e. agreed with God's Word on the [any given] situation - he would have instantly known the power of Christ to bail him out of that situation. But he didn't. Indeed, may he thought it was too tall an order and he wouldn't be able to do it on his own.
Perhaps he had forgotten that the conviction of Christ is always accompanied by the Power to pull it off.
The whole of our condition - the depths of our sin, the snares of our humanity - may seem overwhelming to us. But they remain powerless in the Presence of the Risen Christ. It is his Nature to bless the good in us and to reveal the bad in us - in order that we can have more of the God in us.
No comments:
Post a Comment