Here is the link to my talk on Healing
Love and Healing
On Mark 1:29-39
I love this story.
There are many ways to read these stories. many ways to enter, and many lenses to use to gain a deeper understanding of a Biblical story, This morning I want to focus on what Jesus is doing and trying to figure out. So, come with me.
Peter's mother-in-law probably has been feeding these young men (Simon, Andrew, James and John, and Jesus), "her guys" for a long time. It's an intimate family scene, as they gathered together on the Sabbath after prayers in the synagogue. She too has been watching Jesus try to figure out who he is and what God's call is for him. He has just stirred up a huge commotion by healing an unclean spirit in a man, who has named him - loudly and, apparently, accurately- Son of the Most High.
They walk in and learn that she is sick with fever. Jesus goes in, takes her hand, and lifts her to her feet. "And she served them," the text adds, rather laconically, perhaps as evidence she really is healed.
It doesn't stop there! Mark's story goes on, adding to the picture: crowds come, and he heals many sick and many suffering each his or her demon. ( A word about demons. We would name this psychosis, or something similar. There is no evil, dark presence in those poor suffering Israelites.) And again, Jesus insists the demons remain silent, "as they knew who he was."
Poor Jesus. No Sabbath rest for him. Finally, he escapes, probably absolutely drained from that deep work, and goes off to a "deserted place to pray." He must get away from the crowds, the demands, and the noisy chaos. He needs to take this in.
No luck. His friends finally find him ("hunted him," my translation says!), to tell him, "Everyone is searching for you." He finally releases his painful ambivalence about the course of his life: Should he allow himself to be known? Or not? How can he do this work, if he must stay hidden?
Let's take a breath and ask ourselves, what is going on here? Why does Mark tell this story, and this early in his Gospel? What does he want us to glimpse?
First, we belong in the group of onlookers watching this frenzied display of neediness and healing. We too wonder, what is going on here? Who is this guy? He seems an astonishingly successful healer. Is he just a more skillful traveling healer, for that was not so uncommon in that world? Or is this something more powerful, more chilling, more "of God?" Is he really a Son of God, as the crazy guy shouted out? Might he even be the long-awaited and desperately needed Messiah??
I will leave the answer to those questions up to you, for each in the crowd and each of us must wrestle with that ourselves. And remember, it seems likely to me at least, that Jesus too is wrestling with it, trying to understand his gift, and then to figure out how to handle it.
But we modern folks, standing in that crowd, centuries later, have to decide ...are these miracles? What is a miracle, what was it considered then, and does the category even exist for us, in any meaningful way? Again, I place this question back on your lap; your job to discern for yourself. My job for myself.
Let me try.
First, let me say, I am sure healing can happen in strange ways difficult to account for in our materialist, science-obsessed society. One of those ways is recognizing you are loved - deeply, unconditionally, with no "buts" or exceptions.. You know you are being seen completely and clearly, while held without judgment in unfathomable love.
Every spiritual tradition I know of agrees this is possible, and develops practices and offers teachings about how to experience the reality of such love. The names and sources of this lovingkindness vary from tradition to tradition, but you know some of them. This is the Love of God, the faithful, forgiving, infinite love of the Creator for Creation. This is the infinite lovingkindness of your own essential human nature, which the Buddhists call, your Buddha nature. The point is, to become available to or to open a porthole for that vast, cosmic love to flow through you and out into the world. This is the tender heart of mercy and compassion, recognized in all the saints and the holy ones. This cosmic love survives death.
There is no question in my mind, Jesus is one of the greatest exemplars of being wide open to this vast lovingkindness who has ever walked this earth. He often refers to it as "the Kingdom of Heaven is right at hand". Or "the Kingdom of Heaven is within you". I think it is his most prominent belief and teaching, as I watch him move through the world. Fundamentally, it is who he is.
To be in the presence of that Love is life changing. Shame melts away. Anger and hurt and betrayal soften and release. Wounds close, and pain lifts. This is healing - healing of spirit, healing of soul, healing of heart and mind. This is fundamental healing, the most significant and enduring healing possible. It is life giving and life restoring. The person is returned to her original wholeness and goodness.
Does this say anything about healing the body as well? Probably, for we know the body holds our history of abuse and trauma, and much else. Certainly being in the Presence of that lovingkindness, experiencing being fully loved, without judgment, opens the way for deep wholeness. And sometimes, without question, it can support the erosion of physical, bodily manifestations of the previous brokenness and suffering.
And so, Jesus - heart wide open from his morning in the synagogue, comes to the home of Simon and Andrew, learns of their mother in law's illness, goes in and takes her hand. She is enveloped in that great flow of Sacred Love, and as Mark says to us, "he lifted her up."
Still streaming with this vast loving energy, he meets the gathering crowd outside the house, and one by one, welcomes each into that Sacred reality. Healing spread through the community, accompanied by stories and questions and speculations. Who is this man? Look what he can do! His Being is made visible through his doing.
I don't name this "miraculous." I name this opening fully to the Divine, to Spirit, and Sacred Love, and allowing it to flow through you and out into the world. It is becoming whole and so, fully human. Perhaps that, in itself, is the Great Miracle.
How mind blowing the simple truth of LOVE is. How everything and everyone changes for the better..in its presence. A beautiful examination of a tender story of Jesus’ love for self, others and the world in which he lived. Thank you for this reminder of His power and our own, to step into love and impact our very essence in each moment.
How quickly I forget. Love and miss you.
This resonates completely. Thank you for sharing Penny.
Regards from Maryanne Rygg