Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Walking Trees Are Just One Example?

Mark 8:11-26
There is one of those verses in our reading from Mark today that always catches my attention. I find it fascinating, perhaps, for no other reason than it is so honest. According to Mark’s account, Jesus had just put saliva on the eyes of a blind man in order to heal him. “Can you see anything?” Jesus asked him. “And the man looked up and said, ‘I can see people, but they look like trees, walking’” (Mark 8:24). Finally, Jesus laid his hands on the man’s eyes and the man’s sight was restored.

One thing this passages helps to demonstrate is the particularity of Jesus’ ministry, especially his acts of healing. The detail and complexity of this account remind us that the people Jesus ministered with and for were real people with real needs. This sort of detail – the dialogue between Jesus and the blind man, the failed first attempt at a complete healing, the fact that to the man in need people looked like trees walking to and fro – it all serves to remind us that no two people that Jesus met were alike. Just as they suffered from different conditions, they also had different personalities and different habits. There were men and women, young and old, rich and poor, Jew, Samaritan, and Syrophoenician, Pharisee and sinner, priest and tax collector, some were blind, some lepers, some deaf, some possessed. Some were shy or withdrawn when meeting the Lord, and others bellowed across the road at him. Everyone was different.

Nor was Jesus’ response to these people the same. As I’ve pointed out elsewhere, Jesus is reported to have healed folks in a variety of ways and under a number of different circumstances. Sometimes he touched the person in need of healing and sometimes that person touched Jesus; sometimes Jesus was nearby the one in need and sometimes Jesus never actually saw that person; sometimes Jesus accomplished the healing with mud, sometimes saliva, and sometimes with only the spoken word. In this case, of course, Jesus used two methods of healing to allow a blind man to see again, but that’s because the first method didn’t get the job done.

As Mark’s gospel makes abundantly clear, Jesus is willing to meet us as individuals right where we are and to meet our needs in the ways they need to be met, not in a one-size-fits-all sort manner, but displaying God’s love and affection for all of us, which is just what you would expect from a God who created each of us and knows us extremely well. The challenge, then, is for us to begin to see one another and our needs the way God sees them, as applying to particular individuals in particular types of need. We must never look for instant fixes or one-size-fits-all solutions to fling among cutout people. Instead we must see the world as a rich tapestry made up of different types of men and women all striving in their own way toward an abundant life. When we do this, when we see beyond the stereotypes to the things that make us who we are – as different as our fingerprints – then and only then can real ministry take place. Only then can we do the work of God in the world.

Prayer: Almighty God, teach us to know one another as individuals and to cherish one another as ones created in your image. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

No comments: