"If you choose, you can make me clean..." the leper said to Jesus, who was making his way to proclaim the good news of the nearness of the kingdom of God. Emily M. Brown, in her "Jesus Interrupted," offers insight, from the original Greek, of how Jesus must have felt, as well as what he did. She points out that some ancient manuscripts use the verb derived from οργιζω - to anger - that Jesus was angry at the request of the leper to heal him. Other manuscripts use the word σπλαγχνιζομαι - to be moved with compassion. Why would Jesus have been angry? The particular Greek word for having compassion is of one being moved in a gut wrenching way, literally from the depths of one's own being so you can feel it in your gut. What is the depth and meaning of Jesus' compassion? He feels and knows the pain - he, and we, vicariously, as the body of Christ, are to feel the pain, be moved by it, and do what?
Our own Fr. Rodge Wood in his "So how do we get paid?" teaches us there is no quid pro quo in doing God's work. And when we have that "aha" moment of Epiphany, and experience God's nearness, accepting his call, we are to proclaim the good news of God's forgiving love, to "lift up," to serve, as Peter's mother-in-law showed us, to bring about healing and reconciliation, and as Father Rodge tells us:
"The reward for what we do in the name of God is the bringing of the Kingdom of God into the world. That, in reality is not the job of the clergy, but the job of the whole Christian community. We all are the ones who are to heal and preach without price that God may be made known in all the world. The way that God is made known is by the work that we all do with those who are without resource, whether it is through illness or poverty. Those who have lost their homes or their health or food for their table are the ones to whom we are sent, not to convert them, but to help them. That is the message that we get from the gospels and from all of scripture. When we forget that, the whole of the Christian message is lost."
How did Jesus respond to the leper? Why did he do it? Why will we do it?
No comments:
Post a Comment