Create in Me
Read Mark 5:21-43.
It's always amazing and amusing to me when someone tells me they have Jesus figured out, or when you hear preachers (they're the worst) tell you that if you just follow this formula, then such-and-such will happen because "that's the way Jesus did it." Take healing, for instance. There are those who claim to have Jesus' method of healing figured out. "Do this, get that." But when you read the Gospels, it seems as if Jesus rarely heals the same way twice.
Take today's passage as an example. Two healings, neither one done the same way. The woman with an issue of blood is healed simply by touching the hem of his garment (the fringe that all good rabbis wore on the bottom of their robe). Jesus tells her that her faith has made her well, which is a head-scratcher...because we don't know a thing about the other person Jesus heals in this story, whether the girl or her father had any faith at all. Jairus seems to address Jesus only as a miracle worker, and he is a desperate father who wants his little girl to live. Jesus goes to her and calls her back to life.
Another time, Jesus heals a child from a distance. Yet another time, he has the person participate in their own healing by washing off mud packs that Jesus put on. And that person has to wash twice! On and on I could go, but here's the point: Jesus rarely does things the same way twice. Some will say he tailors each healing to the situation, and that may be true, but I wonder if there isn't a deeper, more profound truth here.
Jesus is the Word (John 1:1-5) through which the universe was created. When I look around at just our own world, and marvel at the creativity, it causes me to realize what joy God must have found in creating. Beauty, diversity, incredible complexity! When I look at pictures taken of outer space and imagine what other worlds might look like, my mind struggles to comprehend the creativity of our God. And that makes me think healing may be in the same vein. Healing is an act of re-creation, and in Jesus' case, an act of bringing in the kingdom, restoring the world to what it was meant to be. What if Jesus does it differently each time as an act of creativity, an act of joy in bringing the kingdom to this world? Each act of compassion brings joy to the heart of our wonderful creator, our persevering re-creator.
So just try and pin Jesus down to a method. Just try and figure out a God who is "doing a new thing" (Isaiah 43:19). Personally, I'd rather trust him to do what he needs to do, to create and re-create wonderful things in me and in my world—and by doing so, bring the kingdom to our world. Create in me, O God! Create in me!
It's always amazing and amusing to me when someone tells me they have Jesus figured out, or when you hear preachers (they're the worst) tell you that if you just follow this formula, then such-and-such will happen because "that's the way Jesus did it." Take healing, for instance. There are those who claim to have Jesus' method of healing figured out. "Do this, get that." But when you read the Gospels, it seems as if Jesus rarely heals the same way twice.
Take today's passage as an example. Two healings, neither one done the same way. The woman with an issue of blood is healed simply by touching the hem of his garment (the fringe that all good rabbis wore on the bottom of their robe). Jesus tells her that her faith has made her well, which is a head-scratcher...because we don't know a thing about the other person Jesus heals in this story, whether the girl or her father had any faith at all. Jairus seems to address Jesus only as a miracle worker, and he is a desperate father who wants his little girl to live. Jesus goes to her and calls her back to life.
Another time, Jesus heals a child from a distance. Yet another time, he has the person participate in their own healing by washing off mud packs that Jesus put on. And that person has to wash twice! On and on I could go, but here's the point: Jesus rarely does things the same way twice. Some will say he tailors each healing to the situation, and that may be true, but I wonder if there isn't a deeper, more profound truth here.
Jesus is the Word (John 1:1-5) through which the universe was created. When I look around at just our own world, and marvel at the creativity, it causes me to realize what joy God must have found in creating. Beauty, diversity, incredible complexity! When I look at pictures taken of outer space and imagine what other worlds might look like, my mind struggles to comprehend the creativity of our God. And that makes me think healing may be in the same vein. Healing is an act of re-creation, and in Jesus' case, an act of bringing in the kingdom, restoring the world to what it was meant to be. What if Jesus does it differently each time as an act of creativity, an act of joy in bringing the kingdom to this world? Each act of compassion brings joy to the heart of our wonderful creator, our persevering re-creator.
So just try and pin Jesus down to a method. Just try and figure out a God who is "doing a new thing" (Isaiah 43:19). Personally, I'd rather trust him to do what he needs to do, to create and re-create wonderful things in me and in my world—and by doing so, bring the kingdom to our world. Create in me, O God! Create in me!
Very interesting.
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