Be Opened

Ann Beaty
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

September 6, 2009

Text: Mark 7:31-37

Today, our scripture is a story about healing.  A deaf man with a speech impediment is brought before Jesus.  The people beg Jesus to lay hands on the man and heal him.  Being deaf in the first century was not merely about not hearing or speaking clearly.  For many people, physical impairment was viewed as the consequence of sin.  People who suffered from blindness, deafness, or withered limbs had little or no status.  They were often barred from the social and religious institutions of the day.  In those days, people were afraid of physical differences and did not understand the biology of birth defects as we do today. 

Jesus sees beyond this man’s infirmity.  He sees his value as a child of God.  Jesus takes the man away from the crowd and puts his fingers in his ears, then spits, and touches the man’s tongue.  Raising his eyes to heaven, Jesus says, “Be opened”  (vs. 33-34).  Immediately, the deaf man can hear and speak clearly.  Jesus has not only released him from the bondage of his affliction, but has reunited him with his community as well. 
(From:  Feasting On The Word – David L Bartlett & Barbara Brown Taylor)

The stories of Jesus’ healing in the New Testament are some of the most beautiful and moving accounts in the scriptures.  They also raise a lot of questions for us today.  I don’t know about you, but it’s easy for me to go to a place where I immediately think, “well…that was then, but this is now…and we don’t see healing like these stories very often in our day and time.” 

But, when I take it further, what I really believe, in my heart of hearts is that we DO see and experience healing every day in our lives and in our world – not always exactly in the way we want in terms of physical healing, but in ways that often go far beyond bodies into hearts, relationships, and communities.   This story helps me with that understanding.  Let’s take a look at it more closely…

• There is a man in need of healing.
• Someone else – probably his family or friends who cared deeply about him, bring him to Jesus. 
• Even though this man has been shunned in the community, Jesus sees his value as a child of God.
• Jesus touches him – looks to heaven – as if to say “this power is not in me, but it comes through me from my Father” – and then Jesus says to the man, “Be opened”.
• His tongue is released and he can speak clearly.
• He is restored to community.

In Jesus time, the typical idea of healing was that you healed the body only.  But, Jesus challenged that thinking as he healed both the body and the spirit together.  Jesus ministry was about bringing the Kingdom of God to earth.  It was about bringing people to wholeness in relationship with God – as John Wesley in our Methodist heritage said – Jesus’ ministry is about moving people to perfection (or wholeness) in LOVE.  Jesus did that by not only healing bodies, but by healing spirits – moving people back into relationship with God and with community.

I love the image that is presented in this passage of the progression of the healing.  The man is TOUCHED by Jesus.  As this is happening, Jesus is looking to heaven and he is TOUCHED with power by his Father.  Only after they are all connected – God- Jesus – and the one to be healed, does Jesus say - “Be opened”  - and then, the man is healed.  Be opened. 

Be opened, Jesus said.   What if Jesus is saying that to us today?  Imagine that Jesus is saying that to you today, right now, in this time of worship… Be opened.  Where are the places in YOU that need to be opened – that need to be healed?  (pause)

One of my favorite little books is an old one (out of print) called: Prayer Talk:  Casual Conversations with God (William Coleman)  The conversations are on different topics of faith and are his prayerful consideration of what it might look like to be in casual conversation with God his friend on those topics he struggles to  understand.  Listen to the dialogue he writes about a conversation with God on healing:

God:  I am very pleased to hear people talking about healing today.  I do heal and love to be asked about to do it.

Me:  Why do you heal some and not others, God?  That has troubled me for a long time, but I have never dared to ask.

God:  That is a question that many of my children grapple with, and the answer is ever so simple.

Me:  Simple?!  Then tell us, please.

God:  I hear everyone who calls on me.  No, I don’t always perform what you call miracles, but I reach out with love, the greatest of all miracles, to calm and strengthen all my children.

Me:  Do you mean that you heal hearts and not bodies?

God:  No, I always heal hearts, and at times my healing goes beyond hearts into entire bodies.  I heal memories, reconcile friends, calm fears, encourage fear-filled people, and co all those things loving parents do for their children.

Me:  But, why do some people seem to suffer so much pain?  It isn’t fair, is it?

God:  Fair is your word, not mine.  I don’t necessarily remove pain from those who are my best friends, but I do give them the strength to bear it.  Pain has a goodness and a value all its own.  No one grows without pain.  If I were to take away all pain, few of my children would ever grow into mature, loving, healing adults.

The reality is, there is a lot we don’t understand about healing.  But, if we let our questions and our lack of understanding stand in the way of relationship with God, we can miss out on many opportunities for healing - in body, in spirit, in relationships, in our fears, or attitudes or simply in our daily living.

I have had the privilege of leading the Service of Holy Communion & Healing weekly in our chapel for the past 12 years or so.   There are usually anywhere from 3 to 20 people present on any given Wednesday evening.  Some people are what I would call “regulars” – they are there almost every week or at least a couple of times a month.  Some people come for a “season” – a time in their life when they are prayerfully seeking God’s healing presence for a specific situation.

One time a young woman started coming to the service who had recently received a diagnosis of cancer.  After a few weeks she commented to me she had never come to this service before because “she had never needed it” before.   I knew what she meant – she had been healthy and had not felt the need to pray for physical healing before this time in her life– but I was intrigued by this comment.  It made we think we need to do a better job of helping people in the church understand that healing is happening all the time as we are made more whole in our relationship in love with God.  And that this Wednesday service is an opportunity to be in intentional healing prayer.

That same woman – who has been clear and free of her cancer for several years – still comes periodically to the service.   I asked her once why she still comes when her cancer is gone.  She told me that she realized at some point in coming regularly to the service that her need for healing went far beyond her cancer diagnosis and that regardless of her physical condition she was in need of God’s healing touch at all times in her life. The service gives her an intentional way to practice this in prayer.

We all long to live in a world free from physical and mental illness, free from pain; free from difficulties and uncertainties; free from death and loss.  But that is not the reality of our life.  God has given us a great gift in the capacity to be in healing relationship with Him regardless of what we are going through.  Even in death – we are being healed – healed from whatever ailed us in this life as we move to our ultimate healing in wholeness in love in eternal life.  Healing is a gift to be celebrated.

Let us pray:
Gracious God, as we come to this table today to be fed by our Lord Jesus Christ, may we be opened to receive this nourishing meal of faith.  May we understand as we take in this bread and this juice that we are indeed taking in your healing grace at work in our lives and in our world.  Amen.