Fast paced images
Here we are on the edge of Lent. Our last week in ordinary time or epiphany (depending on which calendar you are using). For some this week is the commemoration of the transfiguration. But we are using the readings for 6th Sunday in Epiphany/Ordinary Time. And we hear “what next” for Jesus. Mark is fast paced, and the story is moving rapidly. Jesus leaves Capernaum to preach to all the towns of Galilee and encounters a man with a skin disease. It is a strange story. The translations vary – is Jesus filled with compassion or anger? And it raises all kinds of questions like, what is it with Jesus ordering people not to tell? At the end Jesus and the man trade places and Jesus returns to the wilderness, where it all began.
Last week I noted that healing stories are difficult. Many of us struggle with them. Even in the stories not everyone got healed. Those that got healed still got sick again and died. Healing was important. But I don’t think it was the point. The point was that “Now is the time. God’s kingdom has come. Let that blow your mind. Trust this good news.” (Mark 1:15) These stories, especially those at the beginning of the gospel, set out what that kingdom looks like. They teach us about the markers of the reign of God. In this story Mark offers “an image of a God who is compassionate; reaches out to touch us in love; is so willing and eager to embrace us in healing, forgiveness, and grace; and eagerly embraces the pain and sin of the world out of love for us, for us and the whole wide world we live in.”[1]
So a question to ask for the gospel as a whole and for the stories included is – what does this teach us about these markers? For me these include compassion – God’s compassion in Jesus; God’s desire to restore and heal communities; and humility – this wasn’t even about Jesus – it was about the healing work of God. How do those values shape our life as a community? How do those values shape our lives as individuals? Good questions as we enter into Lent this year.
Comments