The last words of the Gospel today, Jesus basically says,
don’t tell anybody what I have just done.
Frankly, I think he is little disturbed! If he’s expected to heal everybody, he would be a pretty
busy guy. The elders and his
disciples set him up as your neighborhood handyman for all healings!
Jesus realizes if word gets out that he will be so busy
healing that he will have no time to preach and teach his message of God’s
love. The healings are great! Who does not enjoy a good healing? Jesus knows however, that it is God’s
message of love that will change the world and be sustainable for all times.
To go deeper and understand love on Jesus’ terms we have to
explore the nature of healing in today’s Gospel. In one reading of the Gospel the young woman was healed due
to the elders trust in Jesus. However, their trust is established similar to a
handyman’s contract for services. They go to Jesus because he will get the
healing job done right like nobody else does!
In another reading, the daughter was healed due to her trust
provoked by her love of Jesus. The
elder’s trust and the daughter’s love are very different ways of encountering
Jesus. I will acknowledge that it
is a subtle difference, but the difference is profound and necessary for all of
us to grasp. In both healing approaches Jesus heals the woman. The message is not about the healing as
healing, but who asked for the healing and out of what kind of relationship
with Jesus is the healing requested.
Keep these principles in mind as I share with you a modern
day story of healing. The story I
am about to share with you is a story about a young man who had no fear. Peter
was in a severe motorcycle accident that put this young 18-year old man in the
Intensive Care Unit. It was
Peter’s birthday and his successful older brother gave him a motorcycle as a
birthday gift.
Peter took his new bike out for a spin around the
neighborhood. He drove up and down
his neighborhood street and was very excited. All was fine, but then later that night he decided to go
beyond his local neighborhood and went riding further afar. Peter sped around the city on his new
bike.
Apparently unaware in his youthful innocence Peter drove
down a major urban city street famous for its potholes. Peter sped down this street. Between
Peter’s speed and the street’s bumps, at one point he was launched twenty feet
into the air and hit the ground landing on his head. He suffered severe and massive head trauma. It was a miracle that he did not die
instantly at the scene of the accident.
Peter lay in his trauma bed for weeks without any physical
movement. In the first few days he was not expected to make it. Throughout
Peter’s stay in intensive care his family surrounded him. Peter’s mom and dad never left his side
but for some sleep. One or the
other of his family was with him at all times. The family was very religious. There were statues and rosaries everywhere in Peter’s room. His family prayed for him constantly and
they talked to him every day, all day even though they had no idea if he could
hear or understand a single word.
The courage, persistence of faith and stamina of Peter’s family constantly amazed me. One day at early morning trauma rounds I heard the first good news in weeks about Peter. The doctors were seeing some hopeful signs of brain activity. Later that week Peter opened his eyes. A few days later he acknowledged family with his eyes. A week later he was saying a few words, but they did not make any sense and the doctors were not sure how much he understood.
The courage, persistence of faith and stamina of Peter’s family constantly amazed me. One day at early morning trauma rounds I heard the first good news in weeks about Peter. The doctors were seeing some hopeful signs of brain activity. Later that week Peter opened his eyes. A few days later he acknowledged family with his eyes. A week later he was saying a few words, but they did not make any sense and the doctors were not sure how much he understood.
The doctors decided to get him going on physical
therapy. Over a period of two
weeks I saw Peter go from standing shaking at the foot of his bed to walking
his first steps. Then a few days
later I saw him walking with a walker with his family and nurses at his
side. A week later he was released
after 6 weeks of intensive treatment!
Now he was on the rehabilitation unit as he continued his two periods of
intensive physical therapy every day. He was on the rehabilitation unit for
about a week when he was transferred to a leading rehabilitation facility.
I was fortunate to be on the rehabilitation unit just as
Peter was walking to the elevator assisted by his therapist and nurse as he
made his way to the ambulance. I
wished him well and congratulated him on his amazing recovery. Later that day I saw the physical
therapist and asked “how did Peter go from death to never walking again to
walking?” The therapist said that most people who suffered Peter’s trauma never
even survive.
The therapist said Peter was determined to walk. He and his family put all of their
efforts into his recovery. The therapist said recovery often comes down to
self-will. She said stronger
bodied men and women fail because they lack determination. She also said an 18
year old man with pure will has a better chance than a 40 year old man with no
will. She also told me that this
was the second major trauma that Peter had experienced in two years. Both were accidents that could have
been prevented with a bit more judgment.
Some patients even with comparable or greater determination
and self-will cannot be saved due to the severity of their injuries. For every story like Peter’s I saw many
more patients die torturous deaths. In some situations patients were in an
irreversible decline and they had no choice but to passively wait for the hour
of their passing.
Peter and his family were very grateful for his healing,
just as the elders were in today’s Gospel. Was Peter like the elders today who wanted Jesus to be their
healing handyman or was he like the daughter whose love and self-determination
led to her healing? I am not sure, but Peter’s story and the Gospel story raise
good questions and enough reasonable doubt to justify our further exploration
and reflection.
The Gospel introduces us to two ways that we encounter
Jesus. In one account Jesus is our
handyman to get us out of every bind with his magical healing. In another account the young woman is
cured by her love of Jesus and her own self-determination. For the elders Jesus is the handyman on
contract. The young woman has covenantal
love. Covenant might be a new word for you. Covenant is not a new Christian word.
Covenant was the way God talked about God’s relationship
with humanity throughout the Old Testament. In Jeremiah, God describes the new covenant where God places
God law of love within us. The
daughter touches Jesus’ garment out of her faith and deep love for Jesus. When
we do not learn about this distinctive covenant that God has made with us then
we risk our impulsive reliance on contracts. Our default like the elders in
today’s Gospel is to expect God to act in the precise ways we expect God to be.
Our Christian theology is not based on “if I do this, I expect you God to do
this.”
We embrace the new covenant that God outlines for humanity
in the Old Testament in the church’s baptismal covenant. In Baptism we enter a relationship with
God. The covenant is a relational space that is flexible as our life changes,
even and most importantly when it suddenly changes. The covenant flexes with unexpected changes. Contracts on
the other hand, predict all behaviors with exacting expectations for specific
results.
Most of our lives are too complex for spiritual contracts
with God. Our life and even the miraculous potential of Jesus’ healing love are
exhausted and trivialized by our contractual expectations. The fullness of God’s healing love is
only experienced through the covenantal love of the daughter in today’s
Gospel. It is love that is
faithful without precise expectations.
Healings were never predictable in the intensive care
unit. Doctors were often surprised
as much by treatments that worked as those that did not work. Was Peter healed because of his
family’s faith or his youthful self-determination? We really do not know.
One does learn in trauma chaplaincy to live with very few precise
expectations of God. One also
welcomes the unexpected. People and God in trauma units are malleable, that is
open and flexible to a range of possibilities but never demanding of one
specific outcome.
We are each called to live and love through covenantal style
relationships with each other and with God. The Good News today is that God
does not bind us up in closed ended contracts that provides no room for the
changes that interrupts and sometimes disrupts all the long-term plans we have
dutifully made concerning our lives. Nor in covenantal love are we able to bind
God to our precise, desired outcomes.
I have found that my deepest, most spiritually mature relationships act
out of covenants not contracts.
In the Holy Communion we are about to receive we are like
the daughter in today’s Gospel who touched the garment of Jesus and was healed
by her faith. As we receive Holy Communion today let the healing touch of
Christ be the precious oil that deeply heals us in our diverse needs.
