I. Theme – God’s power to heal and restore
Healing the Blindman – El Greco (1570)
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
Old Testament – Isaiah 35:4-7a
Psalm – Psalm 146 Page 803, BCP
Epistle – James 2:1-10, [11-13], 14-17
Gospel – Mark 7:24-37
Today’s readings celebrate God’s power to heal and restore. Isaiah looks ahead to when God will bring healing to God’s people and to the land. Proverbs reminds us that God rewards just behavior. James speaks of God’s gift of inner, spiritual wholeness, a wholeness that results in outward acts of purity and kindness. In the gospel, away from the clamor of the crowd, Jesus transforms a man’s silent world by healing his deafness and a speech impediment.
There is a poem that Johnny quoted last Sunday, “God has no hands but our hands, no feet but our feet.” In the scriptures today, there is a theme of doing good—speaking out for the poor, standing up against injustice—in all of these things, we act out of faith, and we know that God is working through us. We can do nothing apart from God, and we know that God is present in us individually and collectively when we love others. And we cannot love others if we do not care for their needs, if we do not seek to end their oppression and stop injustice against them. We must live out the calling of God and allow God to work through us, and not be in it for our own gain.
If you have ever been ill, you know the relief that sweeps over you when you suddenly realize you are in competent hands. Although you may not verbalize it, there is an almost palpable sense that everything will be okay.
That experience, though incomplete, offers a slight parallel to how people must have felt in the presence of Jesus. Hearing that voice cry, “Ephphatha!” (Be Open) and feeling that touch on the ears must have brought an overwhelming joy. The restoration of sound must sing like a great gift.
The church’s healing ministry must take on global proportions, excluding nothing in our quest to be faithful to God’s vision of Shalom. Healing cuts across boundaries and takes many forms. We need to expand rather than contract our vision of healing to embrace the healing of the planet’s atmosphere, endangered species, economic injustice, ethnic exclusion, as well as the healing of bodies, emotions, and spirits. Healing is truly global and indivisible.
Healing in one place contributes to healing in other places. Any healing act contributes to the well-being of the part as well as the whole and reflects our commitment to be God’s global healing partners. We cannot separate injustice from physical distress or racism from infant mortality rates and accessibility to health care and healthy diet.
Our challenge is to recognize the deaf and voiceless among us–noting that difficulties in hearing and speech are not restricted to the physical sphere–then intervene with the healing presence of Christ acting through us.
II. Summary
Old Testament – Isaiah 35:4-7a
The first 39 chapters of Isaiah emerged during the beginning of Israel and Judah’s spiritual decline. The overriding theme is God’s call to come out of sin—with its inevitable punishment—and into right relationships.
In chapter 35 Isaiah imagines a future day when talk of anger and suffering is over and God’s people are restored. Then God will bring salvation and wholeness for all who are physically and spiritually disabled. The people will be restored like a watered desert.
Isaiah 35:4-7a are words of hope from the prophet for those who have been in exile. We read these words today remembering God’s faithfulness in times of hardship, knowing that in our own times of struggle it is difficult to keep the faith, to take heart and lift up our heads. It always seems that the world is becoming worse and it is hard to see God’s goodness and the goodness of God’s creation in the midst of the violence, the vitriol rhetoric and the political division we are experiencing now. We must remember that God is faithful, God was faithful to the Israelites in exile and God is faithful to us, in that something new, something good, will come, and we must take heart and be ready for it.
Long after these verses were first written, they then became a well-known sign of the messianic age. Jewish political leaders who made messianic claims—including Jesus—may have been measured against these standards of physical healing.
Psalm – Psalm 146 Page 803, BCP
Psalms 146–150 all begin with the shout “Hallelujah!” (meaning “Praise the lord!”). They, along with Psalm 145, were part of daily morning prayers in the synagogue.
Psalm 146 is a song of praise for God who hears the cries of the poor and makes justice possible for the oppressed. God works through those who do good, who live in God’s ways, and therefore God works in those who work towards ending oppression and injustice.
Psalm 146 has the form of an individual thanksgiving but invites participation by the congregation. The promises of freedom and sight echo the signs of the expected Messiah. The psalm calls for an unwavering trust in the lord’s goodness, power, and sovereign reign in the midst of outwardly dark and painful conditions.
Epistle – James 2:1-10, [11-13], 14-17
James here focuses on favoritism shown to the rich and on the relationship of faith and works. God regards all people as equal (Job 34:19) and so should we. This is consistent with God’s special concern for the poor, a major theme in the Old and New Testaments. The early Church was composed mostly of the poor.
James 2:1-17 is a reminder that we are called to help the poor and the widow and the orphan—those in need—and that this basic call is the fulfillment of what it means to be a faithful follower of Jesus. Faith without works is dead. It does not matter what we say in the long run if we do not live out what we have been taught. As Jesus said, all of the commandments can be summed up in loving God and loving our neighbor as ourselves. If we do not care for those in need, we do not love God. Plain and simple. Yet it is much harder to live out. We often put ourselves first. We want to look good in front of others. Sometimes we even do charitable acts to look good, but we are not consistent with them. If we are truly faithful, then we are moved out of compassion and faith, not out of an attempt to do good works to earn social points—or even a foothold in heaven. We do good works because this is who we are, what we were called to be in Christ Jesus: a people who love other people.
James and Paul use the word faith in different ways: James means intellectual assent to theological statements; Paul means a total loving relationship with God. Thus James’s “works” are the practical counterpart of Paul’s “fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22-23), the result of “faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6). James points out that living faith is demonstrated by works.
Gospel – Mark 7:24-37
Mark 7:24-37 contains two familiar stories of healing by Jesus, both by acts of faith and courage of others.
The miracle story in this passage is told only by Mark, not the other gospel writers, as is the story of the blind man of Bethsaida (8:22-26), with which it has many features in common. Spittle was believed to have curative qualities.
The first is the familiar story of the Syrophoneician Woman, who happens to come to Jesus at a bad time. Jesus has gone to a house in the region of Tyre and doesn’t want anyone to know he is there—probably to rest, to take a break—and this woman gets his attention and bows down to his feet, begging him to cure her daughter, to cast out the demon that has possessed her. When Jesus first turns her away—in an act and with words that are ungodly—she reminds him “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” She may be worthless in society, but she was worthy to God, and Jesus is reminded of that. By asserting her own worth, by standing up (to Jesus!) in faith, her daughter is made well.
The healing of the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter is an example of distant healing. Our prayers, intentions, and healing energy radiate across the universe and touch people whom we have never met. On the other hand, this story portrays another kind of distant healing: healing that goes beyond ethnicity to embrace the whole earth in its diversity. Healing and consideration are not just for the Jews or for our people but for everyone.
This story, at first glance, paints Jesus as ethically and ethnically insensitive. He appears to insult this woman simply because she and her daughter fall outside of the circle of God’s chosen ones. Is Jesus is simply mirroring the racism characteristic of his time? There are two other options: 1) Jesus is testing her, and will reward her if she is willing to persist regardless of his insult. This interpretation makes the healing contingent on her faith, but worse makes Jesus’ sympathy contingent on her jumping through behavioral hoops and ultimately allowing herself to be demeaned for the sake of her daughter’s well-being; 2) Jesus is presenting a living parable to his listeners: he has every intention of healing her, but wants to test and teach his followers. As he demeans this woman, insulting her ethnic and religious background, they nod their heads in approval. He has authenticated their racism. But, then, he pulls the rug out from under them by healing her daughter and honoring her faith. The healing parable points out the depth of her faith and commitment, and proclaims God’s love for the outsider. However we view this narrative, it is clear that God’s healing now embraces everyone regardless of difference. All are touched by God.
In the second story, it is the friends of a deaf man who bring him to Jesus, who beg Jesus to lay his hands on this man who also has problems speaking. Jesus transforms touch into healing power and spittle into a sacrament. There is no fanfare, no theatrics, just the simple joining of two people in quest of God’s energy of love.
Jesus says the words, “Be opened.” Was it to open the ears and mouth of the deaf man, or was it to open the eyes, ears and hearts of the people witnessing this event? In either case, it is the faith of the man’s friends, the ones who bring him to Jesus and beg for Jesus to lay his hands on him that moves Jesus into this act of opening.
The choice of the word translated he “had an impediment in his speech” creates a direct reference to Isaiah 35:6, the only other place in the Bible where this word occurs. Thus, the messianic promises of that passage would come to the minds of those who had already heard of the healing of the paralytic (2:3-12) and would hear of the healing of the blind (8:22-26; 10:46-52).
Mark may also intend the story as a comment on the disciples, who so far have been “deaf” to Jesus’ word. However, at Caesarea Philippi they will have their tongues loosened as Peter confesses his faith (8:27-30). Yet the time for open proclamation of Jesus’ messiahship has not yet come. That will come only in Jesus’ suffering and death (8:31).
III. Articles for this week in WorkingPreacher:
Old Testament – Isaiah 35:4-7a
Psalm – Psalm 146
Epistle – James 2:1-10, [11-13], 14-17
Gospel – Mark 7:24-37