If there’s one question I believe every Christian should be able to answer while there are certainly more than one, it’s “What is the good news, the so-called gospel Jesus proclaimed?” To love God and neighbors as oneself is the greatest commandment, which is not the gospel itself. Jesus commands us to act on love which extends to teachings of no harm to others and oneself, forgiveness and reconciliation, compassion, etc. So, what’s our biblical response to the question? It is, “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe in the good news.” (Mark 1:15; Matthew 3:2, 4:17) A more concrete version is St Luke’s: “The kingdom of God is among (or within) you.”
That the kingdom of God is within you isn’t just about God’s dwelling within every human being. While this inner focus of God’s presence in us invites us to contemplation and empowers our lives, this good news of Jesus has an external effect. This externally efficacious nature of the gospel is powerfully shown in the healing miracles of Jesus. This morning, we see Jesus curing a person who has been ill for 38 years and has no one to put him in the pool, Beth-zatha. What this miracle tells us about the gospel of Jesus is that God’s kingdom is also within this miserable person. Jesus’ gospel universally applies to every human being. Even if one’s circumstance is far from God’s indwelling, God is compassionately present. We can then think of the worst place or person. Even in that place or that person, God’s kingdom is within though it may not have been experienced at all there. This isn’t to say naively there’s something good in everyone but to expand our perception of God’s presence that God is ever-present in most undesirable, unlikeable places and persons. This divine presence becomes our hope for them. As Larry Gallick, SJ who is known as a special Jesuit, blind since childhood, provocatively said once, “Sometimes prayer is just letting God sit in the sh*t with you.” God’s kingdom, God’s presence, is too in the sh*t. Every healing miracle story points to the gospel of Jesus while we might easily get stuck in that miracle itself or the performer of that miracle. The latter view can foster a rather passive position, seeking supernatural support from God rather than doing our best to improve our social system better and more livable for people with disabilities or other psychosocial challenges. From our modern eyes, we should question why the man near the pool with 38 years of chronic illness, unable to move but lying down, has been neglected that long. This social, spiritual, and emotional neglect of the man continues in our time with the homeless who desperately need medical and psychiatric support. Yet again, the kingdom of God is within them. Our Christian goal would be to help them see it within themselves with their own eyes and encounter it within us. Jesus models us on how to point to the kingdom of God within the man lying near the pool. As we reflect on the dialogue between them, it’s brief and simple. Jesus asks the man’s intention to get well, “Do you want to be made well?” The sick man answers, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.” It isn’t clear if he would like Jesus to carry him and put him into the pool at the right moment or if he would like Jesus to have compassion or pity on him for a miracle of cure. We at least know from his response to Jesus that he has either lost or depleted a sense of agency. There seems to be nothing left of his inner strength. Perhaps Jesus is an ounce of hope he’ll ever have. Jesus, however, too plainly says to the man near the pool, "Stand up, take your mat and walk." No sophisticated performance, no prayer, nothing. Jesus presumes that the man has the agency to stand up, take his mat, and walk on his own. In other words, Jesus believes that the kingdom of God is within the man. It’s like, “You have everything within yourself. Stop paralyzing yourself with chains of self-defeat, self-pity, lack of help and support from others, and despair. Stand up on your own. Take your mat since this is no longer your place. Walk and leave this place.” Two applications that we can take from the gospel lesson this morning: 1) Be painfully honest with ourselves to see what memories have chained us for 38 years or even longer. We can safely do this with our conviction of the gospel of Jesus that God’s presence is within us. This calls us into a persistent practice of contemplation. 2) Once we see God’s presence dwelling in us, which we can call the mystery of the incarnation, God becoming flesh, God embodying our flesh personally, our duty as Christians is to help those who are chained to experience God’s kingdom in themselves through us sharing our inner presence of God with them. My friends, where have you been lying down for 38 years? Where in your life have you been feeling powerless? Reframe how you connect with that wounded memory. Stand up, take your mat, and walk. And walk to those who are still lying down for 38 years. Do unto others as you would have Jesus do unto you. |
Paul"...life up your love to that cloud [of unknowing]...let God draw your love up to that cloud...through the help of his grace, to forget every other thing." Archives
January 2025
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