Hope and Light for life

In recent weeks, I have been reminded of the necessity of Christian people learning to be merciful in their actions, especially when dealing with one another. The Gospel this week (Mark 7.24-37) speaks of the necessity of mercy in the stories of a woman who calls on Jesus to heal her little daughter and a man who is brought to Jesus by the community for Jesus to heal because of his hearing loss and being tongue tied. Now maybe at first, these don’t look like mercies offered but we need to consider carefully who these people were that Jesus healed and the impact they had on the people around them, including Jesus.

Firstly, there is the Syrian Phoenician woman. She had some many things against her and Jesus, when he encountered her in Tyre. She had gone in search of Jesus and found him out when he wanted to be in quiet and spend time with the Twelve, to make sure that they understood everything because time was short, and the cross was coming nearer and nearer. Jesus wanted to ensure that his work and his Church would thrive after the Resurrection and Ascension. So, when the woman came to him and interrupted his plan, Jesus did not make it easy for her to make the request. The woman remained undeterred in her persistence for her daughter’s health and well being. I think that this is important to the Markan community because it shows that someone who is thought of as an outsider, an enemy of the kingdom, or worse an insignificant speck, could have faith and receive what God is offer to the rest of his children. This understanding would be huge to those to whom Mark is writing because that is how the Empire and the world are treating them. They are hunted, persecuted and executed for claiming to believe that Jesus is their Lord. They needed encouragement and they wanted more hope for the life they needed to live, if they were going to live it for the name of Jesus.

Secondly then, to get further away from his popularity, Jesus went north from Tyre to Sidon, and then from Sidon to the region of the Decapolis (Ten Towns) where they brought a man to Jesus who had no hearing and only had a little bit of speech. It might be that the man had suffered an illness and lost his hearing. What is certain is that Jesus took him indoors to keep the healing from being a public spectacle. Wet Willies and your spit on another person’s tongue is a dramatic (if not completely icky) action to a modern ear and mind. In declaring that man to be open, Jesus opened the man’s life to all the good and grace that God had for him which in turn allowed the man to opening and plainly praise God for what he has and was doing, in his life and in the life of the nation. 

That is why I found this past weekend so powerful for the lives that were spoken into by the Spirit. The speaker at the youth weekend has the gift of prophecy. He spoke a word to each and every one of the 20 teens that were there because he had been praying for them for weeks. He told them about the things that God could see in them. He told them about how much God loved them and about how much joy there was in God’s heart over them. He worked to help these young people open up to God and to the people around them so that the world around them could hear about the transforming power and love of God for them. People who have experienced this kind of transformation cannot help but talk about God and how God has opened them up – and they keep talking and talking about God and how wonderful God is and what he is doing in Jesus in this world.

This has helped me to realize that true darkness is not the complete absence of light, but rather the total loss of hope. Being around younger people, newer Christians, has reminded me of a long-held belief that when the light and hope of Christ are seen in the life of a young person, then not only is a life saved, but so is the lifetime that goes with it.

Seeing Light and hope in another, is a mercy and a God given grace. I know that this is true in my life and pray is so with you as well.

Jason+