Recognizing Jesus

 

“What do you want with me, Jesus…”

Mark 5:7

 

Chapter 5 of Mark’s Gospel is packed so tightly with narrative, there seems no room for teaching; no sermonizing. From beginning to end it tells in simple and laconic language three fascinating and odd miracle stories.  It begins with one of the weirdest miracle stories in scripture: the Gerasene demoniac and the pigs.  Jesus drives the demons out of a man and (at the request of the demons) He sends them into some pigs who rush off a cliff into the sea and die.  When the people of the town hear about this, they go to Jesus and plead with Him to leave their town. And He does.

 

This story is followed by the story of the president of the synagogue who comes to Jesus pleading for help for his daughter. To my ear this story echoes the story of the Roman centurion who asks Jesus to heal his servant (MT 8:5-13).  In both stories there is an official who shouldn’t have anything to do with Jesus, who should be opposed to this itinerant preacher and His magical cures and His rule-breaking and trouble-making ways. But, in both cases the official humbles himself to come begging for help. 

 

And then there is that third miracle story which so artfully interrupts the second, so that we have a story within a story.  This interlude story is that of the woman who has been bleeding for 12 years.  Here is how Mark sets it up:  As Jesus is following the official back to heal his daughter, a woman comes up behind them and touches the robe of Jesus and is healed.  When Jesus turns to see who touched Him, the crowd is pressed around so tightly that no one can tell who touched whom.  And yet the woman comes forward and confesses that it was her—and that she has been healed. As Jesus is talking with her, people from the official’s house come and tell him that his daughter has died, there is no reason to bother Jesus anymore.  Of course, that isn’t the end of that story either.  

 

Though there is no preaching in this chapter, there is a lot of teaching going on.  Kind of a show, don’t tell, chapter—I guess.  And though there is much to be gleaned here, the message that I heard this morning was not about the miracles as much as it was about the people who sought them (or didn’t).  What I heard as I read these familiar stories this morning, was a lesson about recognizing Jesus.  And how we react when we do.

 

In the first story, it is the demoniac (or the demons within him) who recognizes Jesus. He is the one who comes to Jesus and demands: What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?

 

And what does Jesus want, but to make him whole. To cure him of his demons.  Of course, after the man is cured, the people of the town aren’t so sure it was worth it.  Sure, the guy was possessed with demons and haunted the mountains and the caves and broke every chain they tried to lock him up with, but what about all their pigs?  They come out to see this miracle, to get a glimpse of the “show” so to speak.  But instead of sharing the joy of a man’s healing, they focus on the cost and implore Jesus to leave their shore.  Like the demons, they recognize something special in Jesus, but don’t want to have anything to do with Him.  It costs too much.

 

And then there is the official from the synagogue.  He comes from a community that has already rejected Jesus, is already looking for ways to get rid of Him.  But, this man sees something in this stranger that makes him step away from the security of his community (his peers—the Pharisees and Sadducees), to risk ridicule and rejection, by coming to Jesus and begging for help.  He recognizes in Jesus something he can’t find anywhere else: hope.

 

And like him, the woman with the bleeding comes because she has heard talk of Jesus and His healing powers. For twelve years she has sought a cure from doctors and healers and has “spent all she had” without finding any help (5:26) and so she turns to Jesus out of desperation.  She is willing to risk everything just for a chance to touch the hem of His robe.  And after she is cured, what does Jesus tell her:  “…your faith has restored you to health…”(5:34). In other words, she recognized Him. She recognized that He held the power of healing. In fact, that is the story of all these characters—they recognize something in Jesus. 

 

The demoniac recognizes in Jesus (a stranger just arrived on his shore), an authority that sets him free from the evils that plague him.  The people from the town recognize that same authority in this stranger but want nothing to do with it.  It asks too much of them.  

 

For the synagogue official, Jesus is a man spurned by the religious authorities. He is an outcast, a problem, possibly even a criminal.  Coming to Jesus must cost this man more than we can imagine.  His reputation, his position in society, his place in the synagogue… all of it is at risk simply by him seeking out jesus.  And yet he does. Because he sees in Him hope and healing. In fact he pleads with Jesus to come to his house. 

 

And the woman, who has already given up everything she has. She has not only spent everything she has searching for healing, but by her constant bleeding, she has become unclean—a person to be avoided. She has nothing left to lose, and in her emptiness she sees in this poor humble carpenter a radiance that brings her to her knees and brings her back to health.

 

Jesus comes to all three of these scenes as a stranger, an outcast, someone who by his very presence makes a demand upon us.  How will we receive Him? Who will we see when we look at Him? At this stranger? The rejected? The outcast? Or the Son of the Most High God? Jesus? Who do we see when we meet a stranger? Do we see someone who is part of the body of Christ?  Do we welcome the stranger, even reach out to her or him because we recognize they too are children of God? They too are made in the image of God… Or do we turn away because see only a burden? An expense we are unwilling to pay?

Meditation for the 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

Meditation for the 2^nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

“Do whatever He tells you...”

--John 2:1-11

The last words we hear from the Blessed Virgin Mary are pretty good advice: Do whatever He tells you.  They are spoken in the famous Wedding at Cana story.  And much has been made of their important advice.  Do whatever He tells you.  Yes. Good advice, for sure. And because what happens next is the first miracle, or as John calls them signs, i.e.  the first manifestation of Christ’s glory, it would seem to be pretty important advice too.

In this too familiar story wherein Jesus turns the water into wine, we are presented with that striking moment when Mary comes to her Son and says: “They have no wine,” to which Jesus responds: “Woman, how does your concern affect me. My hour has not yet come.” (cf. 2:3-4) Mary then turns to the servants and gives them her advice: Do whatever He tells you.   And the servants do it and suddenly there is more than enough wine and the wine is so good that the steward thinks the hosts have held back their best wine for the last.  This wonderful little story (11 verses) is rich with theological truths that have been explored and expounded since the days of the Church fathers.  So, I wasn’t imagining that I would be making any new or important discoveries, however I wanted to try my hand at it. And yet as I set pondering Mary’s advice, I found myself instead drawn to something else even more:  What He tells them to do...

Jesus tells them to fill the jars with water, and they do. They fill them to the brim.  Then He tells them to “draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” (2:8)  And that was somehow the part that caught my attention as I listened Sunday during mass.  That part about the water.  Jesus didn’t ask the servants to do anything magical or dramatic or exotic or even out of the ordinary.  He simply asked them to fill the jars with water.  And then He asked them to present some of it to the “master of the feast.”  It was as if I had heard this story for the first time.  I couldn’t stop thinking about that water.  It’s just water.  That is all they bring.  And yet it is wine by the time they present it to the steward (or master).   And it isn’t just any wine, it is the good wine (sometimes translated: best).  What does this little detail mean? The water?

I can’t say for certain, but I want to propose something.  Water. It is common and every day we use it to rinse and wash and flush and soak and moisten and even to drink... We give it away for free at restaurants.  We forget to shut off the sprinkler (sometimes overnight) and waste it.  But, not to worry—it’s only water. I was thinking about that.  How Jesus asks the servants to do something they probably did every day of their lives: fill the water jars with water.  Nothing special.  Just do you work.  And they did. They did it with integrity. They filled those jars to the brim.  And that was all that Jesus required of them and that was how the first sign came to be; how the Kingdom of God began to be revealed; by some servants doing their menial everyday chore.  But there is one more piece to that puzzle: they did it for Jesus. 

Do you want to bring about the Kingdom of God? Do you want to be part of a sign, part of a miracle, a manifestation of God’s glory?  You don’t have to be a priest or a nun or a missionary to a foreign land; just do your work, your ordinary every day work –but do it for Jesus. Are you a math teacher? Teach for Jesus. You don’t have to proselytize, just teach each student with love and compassion and kindness.  Are you a salesperson? Then treat each of your customers as if they too were beloved children of God. Are you an executive, a company leader: then lead with patience and love and gentleness and integrity and honesty.

Jesus isn’t asking us to go out into the desert and wear sackcloth and eat locus.  He is asking us to bring our ordinary lives and work and live them and work them for Him. Bring Him your water: your tears, your sweat, your labor, your rest, your sorrow and your joy, even your laughter; give it to Him.  Fill the jars full with it. Even up to the brim. If we do that, He will do the rest: He will turn our water into wine. And not just Boones Farm; we’re talking something really good. We are all invited to this wedding feast –come. Bring some water with you. You don’t want to miss this. 

The hurricane and the henhouse

“...Hidden in the storm, I answered you...”

--Psalm 81:7

 William Faulkner told an interviewer that writing a novel is like trying to “nail together a henhouse in a hurricane.”  He said: “You haven’t got time to be thinking about images and symbols.  You’ve got all you can manage without that.”[1] I know what he means.[2]  And what he is saying applies not just to writing, but to life as well.  In the midst of the storm one doesn’t have time for symbols and images and lessons and profundities.  In the midst of the storm you are too busy trying to keep the henhouse together to look for symbols and imagery; for grace and lessons. In the midst of the storm you are holding on for dear life –your own and those of the people you love. But, I think what I heard in Psalm 81 this morning was: if you open your ears –if you really listen—if you train yourself to be open to them –you will discover that they are there.  In the storm He answers us.

When we were at the hospital –in the midst of our storm—I had little time for thinking about symbols or images or meanings.  I was too set on trying to stay awake and by my daughter’s side.  And too worried about what might come next.  Also, I was worried about my wife and my other daughters and about my job and about getting lost in the halls, about the parking garage and what happens if I lose my parking ticket and back in the ICU there were all those monitors and those numbers that kept changing and the beeping and the IVs and the nurses who would come and go at all hours and I couldn’t remember anyone’s name and...  I felt frightened and helpless and overwhelmed.

To be there, by her side, feeling helpless and afraid, was to be in the midst of a terrifying storm; and sitting there by her side –especially in the middle of the night—I felt terribly alone.  And all I could do was keep praying over and over: Lord, help us. Please God, help us. Without realizing I had stopped praying or knowing how long I had been sleeping, I would awaken to see a nurse checking vitals or noting something on a chart or changing an IV bag –tenderly caring for my daughter—and without knowing it, I would fold back upon myself, eyes drooping closed, head slipping exhaustedly down upon my chest, mouth murmuring prayers and in my half-consciousness wondering whether God would ever answer.  Wondering whether the storm would last forever? Would we feel this helpless, this alone forever?  The storm beat us down, physically, psychologically, emotionally.  Even spiritually.  It stopped us in our feet. Everything we were doing, our lives, our work, our plans... all of it stopped. The storm came, and all that busy-ness stopped, and we were forced to put everything else aside and attend to one thing. And the strain, the effort required to focus ourselves in such a way, it was terrible. Exhausting. Utterly consuming.

And yet, looking back, as the storm fades, I can see there was signs.  There were symbols.  Images. 

I wasn’t alone.  There was the friend who spent that first night in the waiting room with my wife, the same friend who invited me the second night to come take a shower and take a break at her house.  After my shower, she and her son sat with me, talked as she peeled a kiwi and sliced it and put it on a plate in front of me. Refilled a glass with water and listened and laughed with me as I repeated stories about the hospital and my daughter, then --for some reason—the conversation wandered off to Dostoevsky and Camus and Marilynne Robinson and carrots. Invite a librarian to come take a shower at your house –see what you have to put up with.  

That was my first break from the hospital; from the storm.  And all I can remember from it is the patience and kindness of this friend and her son.

The next day I took a second break and went home to sleep for a while.  My wife and a friend were at the hospital, and they convinced me that I needed a nap.  I went.  Someone else drove.

At home I stretched out on my bed, certain that I wouldn’t be able to sleep.  Until I woke two hours later worrying about what time it was.  As I got ready to go back to the hospital, the doorbell rang.  It was someone delivering groceries.  Apparently, my oldest daughter had been getting calls from our co-workers and friends asking about what we liked to eat and what we might need.  As she was putting away the groceries she opened the freezer to show me all the frozen meals someone had already brought us. It was crammed full. As I was leaving, the counters were still covered with grocery bags and she was promising me she would find somewhere to put all of it.  Not to worry.  She opened a cupboard and a box of crackers tumbled out. 

“Not there...” she laughed.

Over the next week and a half more groceries would come, even meals from restaurants until our house was overflowing with food... In the back of my mind, I kept thinking how kind people were. How generous.  How blessed we were.  But somewhere deeper inside I was haunted by the thought that none of it mattered. All I really wanted was someone to fix my daughter.  To fix our family. To fix this brokenness. To make us whole again. 

By the end of the week we were home. She was home.  The storm was over. Maybe.  At least it had paused.  And I could breathe again.  I could put the hammer down –so to speak.  Take a long look around and see what kind of hen house the storm had left standing....  so to speak.

The first thing I noticed was all the groceries still on the counters.  The refrigerator full, the cupboards full and even as we were laughing at that somebody was pulling into our driveway with dinner from a Tex-Mex joint: fajitas and queso and chips. 

Still worried about my family, I was starting to get overwhelmed by the abundance.  It felt like one more responsibility to be worried about, one more source of stress, anxiety, and I couldn’t bear it.  But with time and a little distance I began to understand it differently. I began to recognize an image in the cupboards and refrigerator and counters overflowing with food... I began to see twelve baskets overflowing with broken bread and pieces of fish... I recognized in my own life the actuality of the miracle described in Matthew 14.  We were in a lonely place and we felt like we had nothing left; less than five loaves and two fish; and the Lord told us to sit down and suddenly there was more than we needed; the food was literally overflowing.  We didn’t have baskets, so we were putting things in boxes and bags.  But it was clearly a loaves and fishes moment! An image of God’s grace and generosity was lived out before our eyes.

But as Mr. Faulkner says: In the moment, in the middle of the storm, who has time to look for symbols and imagery.  Only when I had come to rest and feel a moment’s calm could I begin to see.  Yes.  The answer was in the storm.  And the answer wasn’t: “Everything is going to be fine.” Or: “Let me fix this.”   The answer we were getting wasn’t words or promises, it was a miraculous abundance of food and it was people dropping by to check on us and staying to have tea and share some of our cookies or crackers or carrots.  It was small acts of kindness and generosity. Acts of love.  Out of the storm God answered us: You are loved.  Your family is loved.  The answer was simple and clear.  And beautiful.

Hidden in the storm we may not recognize God, but He is there.  Hidden in the storm there is an answer, and it is simply this:  Love. 

It’s not an easy answer. And it is very hard to recognize when you are exhausted, and the henhouse seems to be falling apart... but when there is a pause in the storm, perhaps just a calm before the next, take a moment and look around at the signs and the symbols.  Take a moment to reflect; close your eyes and open your heart and listen.  They are there. He is there. And I suspect you will find the answer is always the same:  Love.

Can you hear it?

---

[1] This is quoted in Hugh Kenner’s essay, “The Last Novelist,” in his wonderful book on American modernism: A Homemade World.

[2] I’ve been trying to write a novel for years and every time I think I have a nail in place my hammer disappears!