Lots of things come in threes. I’ll bet that you can think
of some. The Three Stooges. The three little pigs. The three Billy goats gruff.
Even this story in Mark’s gospel is full of threes! Three different people are
healed: a man who was possessed (you heard about him last week), Peter’s
mother-in-law, and a leper. There are three different kinds of healing: Jesus
exorcised an unclean spirit, cured a fever, and healed a leper. And they took
place in three different locations: a synagogue, a home, and in the wilderness.
What is Mark trying to tell us with this surplus of threes? Why not just tell
us one story and leave it at that? I think one answer is that Mark is showing
us the extent of Jesus’ authority. He cures both men and women; fevers and
leprosy and demons; and he can do it anywhere. I could preach on just this one
story for a couple of months! But today, let’s focus on just the places where
Jesus has authority. The first healing was in a synagogue; the second was in a private
home; and the third was outside, in a “lonely place.”
Now, the church is where we expect Jesus to have the most authority.
It’s where we call him Lord and Savior, and where we celebrate the power that
raised him from the tomb on Easter morning. Of course, sometimes we don’t
always behave as though Jesus has any authority at all. When a petty quarrel
divides us – like when Nellie isn’t speaking to Gertrude because she brought
the wrong thing to the potluck dinner – we wonder where Jesus is, anyway.
But when a tragedy strikes Nellie’s family and Gertrude is the first one to
phone her with an offer of help, we see the spirit of Jesus working. Yeah, he’s
in here, even though he’s difficult to see sometimes.
Because Jesus specializes in repairing relationships,
he’s in our homes, too. As most of us know, the most difficult relationships
can be found in our own homes. It might be the teenager that is driving you
nuts, your Democratic Uncle Charlie who can’t get along with the rest of your
Republican family, or your crotchety Dad who refuses to age gracefully. Those
situations can be really tough! But Jesus knows what a good relationship is
like – and Jesus wants us to experience that, too. After all, he is in a perfect
relationship of love with his Father and with the Spirit. As Jesus transforms
us into his image, he can also transform our relationships into the image of
the love that Father, Son, and Spirit have for one other. That is very good
news for all of us!
But maybe the most powerful authority that Jesus has is in
the “lonely places” of our lives – the places where we feel like lepers,
estranged from each other and even from ourselves. We don’t talk much about those
places; but we all have them. They bubble up in our minds on those nights when
we lie sleepless and miserable; and it’s all we can do to shut out the images.
They cling to us like Super Glue. We don’t talk about them, except maybe with
our very best friends every now and then. Theologian and author Frederick
Buechner wrote about one of his own lonely places as he remembered the suicide
of his father. “We didn’t talk about my
father with each other; and we didn’t talk about him outside the family either,
partly because suicide was looked on as something a little shabby and shameful
in those days. My father had tried to keep it a secret himself by leaving a
note to my mother in a place where only she would be likely to find it, and by
saying … that there was something wrong with the Chevy’s exhaust system which he was going to see if he could
fix. His suicide was a secret we tried to keep as best we could; and after a
while, my father himself became such a secret.” (Telling Secrets)
Suicide. Mental illness. Divorce. Child abuse. Sexual
molestation. Bankruptcy. Jesus has authority even in those lonely places. We may be afraid of the shadows that lurk there, but Jesus isn’t afraid. Jesus will
come and stay with you regardless of your lonely place. He will hold your hand
like a mother whose child is frightened by the boogie man under the bed. He’ll shine
a light into the darkness, and he’ll reassure you that nothing can hurt you
while he is there. Slowly, slowly, that lonely place won’t feel so lonely
because Jesus is there with you. More slowly still, we will reach out to others
who are also in that lonely place, and we’ll begin to support one another as we
are partners with Jesus in the healing process.
In the same book in which he confesses his father’s suicide (Telling Secrets), Fred Buechner ponders
how members of Alcoholics Anonymous cope with living in their own lonely
places. He writes that they are a varied bunch: men and women, young and old,
educated and illiterate, Christian and Jew and atheist. But they have one thing
in common. “They all believe that they
cannot live fully human lives without each other and without what they call
their Higher Power. They avoid using the word God because some of them do not
believe in God. What they all do believe in, or are searching for, is a power
higher than their own which will make them well. Through prayer and meditation,
through seeking help from each other and from helpful books, they try to draw
near any way they can to God or to whatever they call what they have instead of
God.” Alcoholism is a powerful lonely place; and even though many
alcoholics talk not about Jesus but about a Higher Power, I’m convinced that
it’s really Jesus at work. I have seen the transformation that he can bring
about in their lives. Jesus is always ready to go into a lonely place with us,
and help us to face whatever terrors it holds. What would happen if we all
sought for Jesus as fervently as many alcoholics do as they seek their Higher
Power for support and healing?
The good news is that Jesus has authority everywhere – in
church, at home, and in our lonely places. He healed a demon-possessed man in
the synagogue; he healed Peter’s mother-in-law in her home; and he healed a
leper in the wilderness. Jesus has authority no matter who you are, where you
are, or what problem is bothering you. Whether your life takes you to three
places or to three thousand, Jesus – the One who went through his own lonely
place, who died for love of us, and whose authority was proved by his
resurrection from the dead – that One is already there with ultimate authority
over whatever difficulties we may find in our travels through life! Thanks be
to God!
No comments:
Post a Comment