Kendall's Notebook, Page 50
The Healing in Us and God
February 22, 2006
Mark 2: 1-12
By Kendall Brown
For the past three weeks we have been reading stories about Jesus all of which have several common threads. One of those threads is the theme of healing. Another common element has been the presence of crowds around Jesus. The crowds’ gathering had several consequences that Mark describes. Because of the crowds, Jesus had to go off to a deserted place to be by himself. Like the mercury in a thermometer rising with the temperature’s rising, the authorities’ nervousness increases with the increase of crowds around Jesus. You can just see the Pharisees getting more and more fidgety with each passing day. And today we have that intriguing story about a group of friends who let neither the physical largeness of the crowds nor the spiritual smallness of the authorities get in their way. They are unstoppably determined to bring a sick friend into the presence of Jesus.
Jesus has magnetism. He draws them all to him: the determined friends, the curious crowds, and the suspicious Pharisees. What is it about Jesus that draws all of these people to him?
This morning I continue to use the doctrine of the image of God as a defining principle for interpreting these healing stories and the activity going on in them. Jesus is the one human being in whom the image of God is most transparent. God’s nature is to be full of grace, healing, and forgiveness. Those things at the very core of God’s being – healing, grace and forgiveness – make God a very attractive God. The wonder of it all is that far more people are not attracted to God.
Being in the image of God himself, Jesus is incredibly attractive. As he becomes known, the crowds become bigger. His magnetism is in the nature of God that is so perfectly operative in him. He is gracious, healing and forgiving. Why on earth would people not be attracted to him?
I have here the opportunity to restate one of my favorite epiphany themes. In Jesus the invisible is made visible. The sacred and holiness of the spiritual side receives in Jesus a window through which to shine into the darkness of this world. Like moths to a candle, people are attracted to that light in Jesus. Epiphany is a celebration of the extraordinary, invisible holy other becoming visible in the ordinary, visible events of our lives.
Being created in the image of God, God’s light should become visible through us and through everyone who calls him or herself a Christian. Nothing can yield more of that light than healing, graciousness and forgiveness. Why doesn’t that light shine brighter?
100’s of thousands of Christians gather to worship in this community, across the nation, and around the world this morning and every Sunday morning. With millions of Christians worshipping every Sunday morning, one would think that the light of Christ would give off a glow that even on the cloudiest Sunday morning would bring a warming embrace to the whole world. Our spiritual magnetism should create an aurora borealis as wondrous as the one created by the Sun’s magnetic energy in northern skies.
Today’s story gives us some clues to the reason for the lack of shining. Jesus was surrounded by a crowd in the story. But the light that is so visible in Jesus is not visible in that crowd of on-lookers and fire chasers. Let us look at the group of religious leaders. Not much light in that picture is to be found either. There they are standing with their judgments and anxieties, rumoring among themselves and finding fault with Jesus’ every move.
There is another group in the story. And when we turn our attention to them we do discover some of that same light shining in Jesus also shining in them. This bunch of bright lights is the four friends who bring their sick friend to Jesus and let nothing get in their way.
The friends do not worry about what others may say about their unusual behavior. Climbing to the roof and chopping a hole in it is not something that most people do every day or are accustomed to seeing others do. For the friends, others’ judgment of them or their behavior is of no importance.
Rachel Naomi Remen, through her book, “Kitchen Table Wisdom,” has been my reading companion in this season of Epiphany with the focus on Jesus’ healing stories in Mark. Out of all her familiarity with healing and disease from her daily practice of medicine, she finds reason to write, “The life in us is diminished by judgment far more frequently than by disease. Our own self-judgment or the judgment of other people can stifle our life force, its spontaneity and natural expression. Unfortunately, judgment is commonplace. It is as rare to find someone who loves us as we are as it is to find someone who loves themselves whole.”
I am blown over by how that quote from “Kitchen Table Wisdom” makes such a great companion to today’s story.
Let us review the story with the question in mind, “where do we find the darkness of judgment and the light of non-judgmental spirit?” With that question in mind, we see that the crowds gathering around Jesus and the Pharisees have much in common. One group, the crowds, apparently approve of who Jesus is and what he is doing and are ready to applaud him. We should remember here that crowds stay in the picture throughout the Gospel story. Crowds gather to wave Palms and hail Jesus with Hosanna’s when he enters Jerusalem. Crowds gather before Pontius Pilate and yell “crucify Him!” on Good Friday. The Gospels never treat crowds as having much to offer.
If the crowds, at this time in Jesus’ ministry are offering approval, the Pharisees are in the story today with their troublesome disapproval. The crowds and the Pharisees have one thing in common and spiritually it is a huge thing that they share. Both the crowd and the Pharisees, stand in judgment of Jesus. The crowds offer applauding approval. The Pharisees offer critical disapproval. But whether it is approval or disapproval, it is still judgment. Approval is not the opposite of judgment. Approval and disapproval are equally judgment. The crowd and the Pharisees are equally judgmental.
Hear again what Rachel Remen writes about judgment: “The life in us is diminished by judgment far more frequently than by disease. Our own self-judgment or the judgment of other people can stifle our life force, its spontaneity and natural expression.”
Rachel writes some more about that diminishment:
“To seek approval is to have no resting place, no sanctuary. Like all judgment, approval encourages a constant striving. It makes us uncertain of who we are and of our true value. This is as true of the approval we give ourselves as it is of the approval we offer others. Approval can’t be trusted. It can be withdrawn at any time no matter what our track record has been. It is as nourishing as cotton candy.
Yet many of us spend our lives seeking it.”
Approval can’t be trusted. So why on earth are se so fixed on giving it or receiving it? Jesus said, “I came into the world not to judge (condemn) the world but to save it.” Jesus is the most transparent image of God. In him we see God most completely. What do we see re-imaged in Jesus? We see a gracious, loving, healing and forgiving God. And a gracious, loving, healing and forgiving God cannot be a judging God.
There are many stories in the Gospel about people coming to Jesus. Some of his guests were obviously seeking approval. Remember the story of the rich young ruler wanting Jesus to tell him that he was OK. He longed for approval and Jesus sent him away disappointed. Approving or disapproving was never what it was all about for Jesus. Judgment isn’t in the picture. As Rachel Remen says, judgment cannot be trusted. It can be changed or withdrawn at anytime. But holy, godly forgiveness and grace never end.
We have been created in the image of God. Nothing reduces and diminishes that image more in us than judgment. This is a tough one for us. I think that the hyperactive instrument of judgment to be found in each of us is part and parcel of our fallen human state.
We have fallen into sin. Sin is being separated from God. And nothing separates us much faster, nothing diminishes God’s image in us much lower than our judgmental tendency.
We are full of judgment, just as much for ourselves as for others. Perhaps you can remember the March 4, 1954 Saturday Evening Post Cover by Norman Rockwell. (image to screen) Like all art, the picture has a story twice told. First there is the obvious picture of a pre teen or early teen girl sitting in front of a mirror. The mirror is propped up and indicates that the girl is the attic of her house for this moment of musing. On the floor is a doll. The doll is pushed away to the corner and pulled near the girl’s feet is a brush, lipstick and other items of makeup. The girl ponders her image in the mirror.
The second story in the painting is the story about all of us to be found there. Spiritually, the painting is all about approval. Teenagers desperately seek approval and distance themselves from disapproval. This is the reason why we trip over packs of teens in the molls. You might call all those groups “approval squads.” This is good and this is natural. From a psychological development point of view, the teen is differentiating from the parent at this point and that is a good thing. Considering the alternative, eternal enmeshment with mom and dad, hooking up with a group of peers is a good thing. Part and parcel in it all, is that horribly judgmental question, “Will others approve of me?” The sadness is that many people never really grow beyond the teen years, seeking others approval day after day. Approval is something one can become addicted to. A lifetime can be spent chasing after the wind. For the lesson is not learned that approval is not what we are given by God of Jesus. Jesus offers the acceptance of loving grace – and that has nothing to do with approval.
This is all as hard for a minister as for anyone else. Being a clergy type does not free one from daily temptations to judge. In fact, being a pastor probably opens the door for far more opportunities to judge than many other jobs. When you work with people, having things before you to tempt approval or disapproval is always there. Sometimes, when my heart is flooded with disapproval, I have to remind myself of what is really important by saying a little prayer. One sentence. “God, you be the judge.” Sometimes I have to say, “God, this person is beyond my care. You take care of him or her.” That is about the same thing. In any case, if I did not release my capacity to judge to God, I’d be a mess. Even as I release my capacity for judgment to God, I do not do it thinking that God will judge that person. Freeing myself from a judgmental spirit, also involves for me releasing the other person to God’s healing grace and however God’s healing grace might transform that person in ways that I cannot even begin to imagine.
When I say to God, “God, you be the judge,” all I am doing, given the inadequacy of my words, is releasing the person to God’s grace. I am not sending that person to God’s judgment.
Sometimes we beat ourselves silly with guilt about being judgmental. Mature Christians are able to distinguish between judgment and discerning. Freeing one’s self of a judgmental spirit does not mean throwing discernment to the winds. It does not mean never setting boundaries that distinguish between appropriate behavior and inappropriate behavior. Freeing one’s self from judgment does not mean never opening your mouth and speaking up for what is right. Freeing one’s self from judgment does not mean closing one’s eyes to injustice or a lack of compassion and mercy.
We cannot follow Christ without being able to discern, but discern without being judgmental. Jesus corrected, chastised and even was deeply angry with his disciples. All that without judgment! Jesus drove out the money changers, even using a whip, the Gospels tell us. But there is no judgment in that account to be found in the man, who said, “I came into the world not to judge.” But there is an unending discernment seen through his eyes in all of these moments.
Going back to the hole in the roof story from Mark, we recognize that the Pharisees and the crowds are filled with judgment – either the judgment of approval or disapproval. The light of God, the image of God’s love doesn’t shine in those two groups. Where God’s light shines in this story is in the friends who let nothing get in their way to bring their friend to Jesus, and in Jesus himself.
All of these healing stories that we have had before us these last three weeks of Epiphany are not about healing alone. Healing is not even the real subject of these stories. These stories have a divine side and they have a human side. They have a holy side and they have an earthly side. They have an extraordinary, timeless sacred side and they have an ordinary daily profane side. On the divine side, these stories are about the healing, forgiving non-judgmental love of God (in whose image we have been created). On the here and now, earthly side, these stories are about the church.
Around Jesus in today’s story are three possible manifestations of the church. There is the Pharisaic Church: filled with rules and regulations, full of definitions of correctness and incorrectness, and ready to dispense its blessing of approval on those who act properly. To this church come many people today desiring that the church bless and approve their life-styles, their politics, their prejudices, their self images without ever stopping to think that Jesus himself challenges and questions every one of those things for everyone. There is the church of the crowd in today’s story. This one really gets into our heads and hearts these days through our thinking that a large or larger crowd is a measure of discipleship and faithfulness. The church of the crowds swells up when something interesting is happening and falls away when Jesus invites us to genuinely follow him even unto the cross and death to one’s self The church of the crowd is so useless that it even gets in the way of others who genuinely want to live in Christ’s presence and bring others to it.
And then there is the church of the friends. The image of God is pretty hard to find in the Pharisees and the crowd. The image of God shines brightly in the friends. That image shines in us. It shines when we make our church handicapped accessible so that someone in a wheelchair can join us in worship. The image shines when we equip our worship with media that helps someone with vision impairment see the words to the hymns. The image shines when we open our hearts to children who come from a different place from most of us, and help them get around the crowd and away from the Pharisees, and through the roof if need be in order to be with Jesus.
Shine Jesus shine, declares an old hymn. Let the image of god, god’s grace and forgiveness shine through. May the crowds be a plague to you and may the friends be your mentors and guides that the image of God might shine ever more brightly through you.