Here are verses 2-6 from Mark Chapter 3.
“Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.” Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent. He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.”
In the last post, I focused on the faith of the friends of the paralytic. Here we get the utter opposite. We get men so disinterested in faith that their response to a healing miracle is to plot the death of God.
As with the last post, I turn to my Franciscan formation materials as a starting point. The chapter we reviewed last weekend began with paragraph 5 of the SFO Rule:
“Secular Franciscans, therefore, should seek to encounter the living and active person of Christ in their brothers and sisters…..”
The material makes it clear that “brothers and sisters” is all inclusive by stating this:
“We understand this simple statement leaves no one out of the circle……...”
Then it instructs us that enemies are part of that circle by quoting Henri Nouwen:
“When we meet the “other” in our lives, and label him/her as enemy, our heart must change from suspicion to welcoming, from hostility to hospitality.”
Does this instruction extend all the way to the Pharisees who are plotting the death of Jesus? During my prayer, when I put myself in the synagogue, I am easily able to gaze upon Jesus. But can I also see Jesus when I turn and look at the silently sitting Pharisees?
Does Jesus see Himself in these men even as they look for a reason to accuse Him, and then again as they exit the room to begin plotting His death, breaking the sabbath themselves in the process, by the way?
What is the nature of Jesus’ anger and distress?
The Gospels are supposed to be relevant to today’s world. There are equivalents to the Pharisees holding power now. God is under attack today just as He was in the Gospels. No doubt some even seek His death as part of their agenda.
How would Jesus have me react to these modern day Pharisees?
Am I supposed to somehow emulate the anger and distress of Jesus?
Or is the most important thing what happens next, the act of love and healing that follows the anger and distress?
When I look at the Pharisees I see men that are, at best, deluded. They think they are doing the right thing by challenging a blasphemer, but their stations and worldly concerns make them blind to the truth. At worst, they are intentionally pursuing a course of evil. They recognize who Jesus is, they view him as a threat to their worldly position, and they seek to preserve what is important to them, ignoring what is important to God in the process.
Either way, I have hard time seeing Jesus in them. I am going to suggest that Jesus’ anger and distress is rooted in a similar difficulty. I think, perhaps, that He looks at these men and sees an ocean of rejected potential. If they emulated Jesus in their public lives they could accomplish so much. But, instead of serving God and His people, they choose to serve themselves. They deliberately disfigure themselves by that choice. Jesus is angry because His likeness in them is hidden, so distorted that, even though it remains, it’s next to impossible to see.
It is similarly hard to see Jesus in many of today’s leaders. They are similarly distorted by poor choices in who or what they serve.
This makes me angry. It causes me distress.
But I cannot get lost in the anger and distress. I have to follow the example of Jesus, who let go of the anger and distress in order to transform bad to good by healing the man with the shriveled hand. He used the opportunity given Him by the Pharisees to increase the amount of love in the world, offering them a miracle as the basis for reforming themselves, and prefiguring His passion in the process.
To follow His example, I have to look for ways to embrace healing and increase love in the world.
Maybe I even have to be willing to embrace the possibility of a modern day miracle.
Becomes sometimes it seems it would take a miracle for enough people to let go of their anger and distress, their worldly concern, for a focus on healing and love to take flight. A miracle for enough people to comprehend that political leaders of all stripes are most often an impediment to healing and love, not its source. A miracle to grasp that nothing prohibits the Church and the faithful from demonstrating so much love outside the current political structure that no one who encounters us could doubt that government and its distorted figureheads are not the source of hope, and justice, and everything good.
God is.
A miracle to understand this simplest of truths is just as applicable now as it was when Jesus proved it true by healing that hand despite the threat of the Pharisees.
The question is, how can a sinner such as I help enable such a miracle?