The Way of Healing
By Rev. Karin Case
February 28, 2010
Second Sunday in Lent
It often feels like the time between Christmas and Easter is too short. We move from the baby in Bethlehem to the grown man, full of wisdom and power, in three short months. As Jesus sets his face toward Jerusalem, we barely have time to get our feet dusty on the roads of Galilee, to ponder the stories of Jesus’ power—the miracle of fish and bread, stories of sight restored, bodies healed, demons exorcized. There is barely time to puzzle at the controversy surrounding Jesus, or wonder at his insistence on calling all manner of undesirable people into the service of love.
On gospel, in particular, mirrors this breathless pace. The shortest of the four gospels, Mark’s gospel, in fact, completely skips Jesus’ birth and moves immediately to recounting myriad things that happen on his journey, barely stopping to breathe!
Dan reminded us last week that the first name given to the early Christian community was, “People of the Way.” But what does it mean to be “People of the Way?” What is the way of Jesus?
If we trace some of the things that happen along “the way” in Mark’s gospel, as Jesus walks the roads of Galilee and journeys toward Jerusalem, we get a fast, full sweep of Jesus’ ministry. By tracing a single Greek word, hodos, which means path, road, journey, way-of-being, we can draw a rich picture of Jesus’ way of being in the world.
Mark’s gospel opens in the wilderness of Judea: The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, "Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way; the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of t he Lord, make his paths straight" (Mark 1:2-3)
Mark 2:23 recounts a controversy about the importance of observing the law, versus providing food for the hungry. One Sabbath he was going through the grain fields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, ‘Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?’… Then he said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath.
In Mark 4:4, Jesus’ traveling instructions to the disciples give us a sense of our utter human dependence on God. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts.
In Mark 9:34, Jesus’ followers display their human limitations and total cluelessness. Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the way?’ But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest.
Mark 10:46 tells a familiar story of healing: They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ You will remember that Jesus restores Bartimaeus’s sight.
Finally, in Mark 11:8, is the story of where we are headed at the end of Lent, the story of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Friends, in four short weeks, that path will lead us here—under the dome—as we observe Palm Sunday. Let us journey with intention. Let us walk together a path of study, prayer, service and humble servanthood.
If we come as “People of the Way,” we also journey with all our human ways—and we do not always pack light. Like the disciples arguing, we carry ambition, jealousy, pettiness, confusion, and fear. Like blind Bartimaeus, we bring our broken, aching places, yearning for a healing touch. Like the people along the route to Jerusalem, we are happy to join the crowd in shouting “Hosanna” but also susceptible to the mood of the crowd when it turns angry.
Friends, in a few moments we will share a time of healing prayer. We bring all that we are. Our confusion, our longing, our human frailty, our mistakes and regrets, our hopes, intentions, our desire to be touched by God’s gentle hand.
I suspect that we understand healing in relation to our own brokenness and suffering. This is a wilderness we know well. Alienation from family members, old hurts that never seem to heal, harsh words spoken with such fierceness they are seared in our memories. The ways we have failed—when we hurt others, or cannot face up to own weaknesses and faults.
Jesus’ way speaks to our need for healing. But is speaks to us out of the depths of our wilderness. Out of the parched and lost places, out of the snaggled, overgrown paths that tear at us, the labyrinths of confusion and fear.
We come seeking healing for the world, our community, and our church. We seek healing for our souls.
Let us pray. Holy God, we are “People of the Way.” Set our feet firmly on your path, and lead us. Open our hearts to one another and to you. Be with us now in this time of healing prayer. Amen.