The Next Day… and beyond.

“That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon possessed. The whole town gathered at the door and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons…”

I love the book of Mark. I’m rereading it again this month. I’ve read it many times and yet again today I was caught by something. This idea of the whole town and all the sick and demon possessed.

Not that the whole town was there necessarily, but the fact that after this night the town would be amazingly and dramatically and astonishingly… different. Transformed is the only word that I can think of right now that comes close, maybe redeemed works too. Think about it for a second, really think about this; One day you have a town that has a bunch of sick people and a bunch of demon possessed people and the next day, NADA. Joy comes to mind, peace comes to mind, relief comes to mind, refreshed comes to mind.

The town gets a fresh start on life. The whole town has a sense of hope about the future. Can you feel what that would be like? Close your eyes and try to feel what that would feel like to get a brand new start, a weight, a burden lifted. Kids could run down the street again, you don’t have to avoid certain parts of town. A community can see clearly and get excited about their situation.

Is there something that you can rid your town of that would give it a fresh start, a hope, a relief a joy? Our town is pretty big, so maybe a neighborhood… you office? Your child’s classroom?

It’s Wednesday… and I’m still stuck on Mark… ugh.

So, I’m thinking about that passage we looked at on Monday. I focused on the compassion that Jesus had for the man in his current state… leper, rejected, alone, unwanted. “LORD IF YOU’RE WILLING” He cries out.

Jesus more than anyone must know how he feels.

The man was created for relationship. Jesus knows the man, maybe better than the man knows himself… and Jesus knows he was created to live with others in community. But that’s not the way it stands right now. He’s alone, rejected; he’s separate. It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

So what does Jesus do? He touches.

Do you see that, did you read it, or did it come and go too fast, skimmed right past it to the healing?

Why didn’t Jesus just heal him. We read on other occasions that Jesus healed from afar.

He touches the man.

I think this is important, I think it’s more important than the actual healing.

Mondays With Mark

A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” 

Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured. ~ Mark 1.40-42.

When people come to me with a need, my first response is not compassion. After 38 years I guess I’m more skeptical, cynical, more hard than I’d like to admit. My first response is usually, sadly, is this legit. In El Paso, we tend to have a large homeless population, the weather is nice 90 percent of the time. I am calloused to the hand out asking, the cardboard sign. We also live along the border, less than a mile from real poverty… so when I see people on the corner asking for help it’s hard for me to want to help. I’d say it’s about a 50 50 chance that I’ll give something… but my heart isn’t really in it… if I’m honest.

I think I want that to change.

I mean in this interaction with Jesus, the need is obvious, I imagine it would be hard to fake leprosy. I also believe Jesus knows the heart of the guy and would know if it wasn’t legit. But regardless if it was or wasn’t legit I’m blown away by Jesus. He had compassion… not just had… FILLED WITH IT. Not pity. Not get a job. Compassion.

Jesus came to redeem… not just the soul, but the person. I don’t get why some are healed today and some not, but I’m thinking… He healed the man. He cares about the whole person. We as followers are called to join Jesus in the work of redeeming.

Last night we (about 20 of the paseo folks) went to UTEP and used the campus as a guide to pray for our world. We went to the geology building, the education building, the library, the arts building, the political science building. We asked what did God originally intend for this area of our world, what is wrong and what do we do now.

I’m thinking now this morning, we ask God to help fill us with compassion for what isn’t but should be, I think. And  join Him in redeeming it.