9 Pentecost P.11 July 22, 2018
2 Samuel 7:1-14a Psalm 89:20-37
Ephesians 2:11-22 Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
When one reads the Gospel accounts one can often get the impression that the ministry of Jesus was something like the resident doctors in a large city ER hospital. One gets impression that Jesus is constantly being thronged by sick people who want to be healed. It sometimes seem like his healing role is even greater than his teaching roles in the Gospel.
The prominence of sick people that are part of the Gospel record invites us to understand sickness in the time of Jesus.
One could say that "sick people" were an entire demographic group of people during the time of Jesus. When you and I think about sickness, we think about medical diagnosis of a condition that deviates from what we regard to be our normal condition of health. We live in a world of rhetoric about medical and pharmacological interventions; every other television commercial invites to a medication to suggest that our doctors prescribe. With all of advances in medical knowledge, it does not seem that we regard ourselves to be any healthier than the people of any other period. We are obsessed with being healthier, even while we break the obvious rules of health which involve eating right, exercising and avoiding stress.
The general aging process of life means that everyone is always already sick and careening toward the entropy of death. Health therefore is relative; but it probably means that we are comfortable enough to at least be on our way to living the age of life expectancy in our place and time.
During the time of Jesus, the class of sick people was a religious and public health designation. The purity code of the time classified life situations into categories of being clean or unclean, pure or defiled. People with sickness were designated as ritually impure. This designation would keep one from the being a part of the community as long as the symptoms persisted. Sickness is always communal; when one person is sick, a host of family members are also involved and so the effects of someone being designated as unclean because of their condition left lots of people and their relatives in the state being ritually impure or they would be unobservant in their religious practices because they had to support their "sick" relative.
There were also theological overtones that went with being sick, including blaming the victims. A person must be sick because he or she or their family member must have done something wrong to incur such a condition. In the time of Jesus, it was very important to be lucky or able or well, because if you weren't you could be marked. You had to bear the mark of being unclean and therefore not worthy of certain religious society because you did not want to infect the community with one's curse exemplified by the symptoms of one's illness.
The throngs of "sick" people that went after Jesus is an indication of a large number of the populace who had no religious standing because of their condition. The other class of unclean persons, were the publican and sinners, those who had to interact regularly with the Roman Gentile officials and soldiers for their livelihood and so did not observe the ritual purity rules.
Sick people and sinners were a large class of people in the time of Jesus. And what did Jesus do? He usurped the role of the priests by ipso facto declaring sick people clean and pure and by declaring sinners, forgiven by God and therefore made clean by God. Jesus noted that the classification of so many people in his locale as unclean sick people and sinners, did not truly represent the God of the prophets who said that good news meant the inclusion of the blind and the sick and the oppressed and the broken-hearted. The healing salvation of Jesus primarily involved the declaration of God's love and mercy for all people, especially the sick and the sinners. The salvation and healing presence of Jesus essentially meant the proclamation of the accessibility of God to all.
King David desired to build a house for God; his son Solomon was the one who built the famous Temple in Jerusalem. The prophets reminded their people about God's House. God's House was to be a house for all people. People could not be segregated or separated from God's presence because of sin or sickness. We come to God because we need God and want to clean up our act. If God is only available to the people who have already cleaned up their act, lots of people are missing out on access to God.
The sinners and sick people of the time of Jesus believed that if they could touch the fringe of the clothes of Jesus, they could be forgiven and healed by being declared as clean and acceptable to God. In the Jewish wardrobe the fringes or hem of a garment had special significance. Some included decorative tassels and often the special fringes (tzitzit) were worked into a rounded hem of the robe. The shawl with the fringes signifying the commandments of God were a sign of the mantle of a prophetic office. People in faith, paid tribute to the prophetic office of Jesus in reaching out to touch the symbols of his office. But Jesus did them even better; he touched them; he placed his hand on them thus granting them full accessibility to him and his message about the declaration of the cleanliness of those who once had to live under the classification as unclean sinners and sick people.
During the time of Jesus and Paul, one's group identity was an issue. One could be observant Pharisees and Sadducees in good standing. One could be a follower of John the Baptist. One could be Gentile. Who am I? Am I a member of the synagogue? Am I a Gentile not allowed in the synagogue? Am I a person victimized as unclean because of sickness or my failure to attain ritual purity? Am I disqualified from ritual purity because my job requires me to interact with Gentiles? Paul solved the citizenship issue; he wrote that our citizenship is in heaven. The new temple is the temple of the connection of believers in God's grace and mercy. People, not a building is what makes up the universal household of God.
Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of the new temple, the church, the body of Christ and everyone is welcome into the body of Christ. Jesus Christ is a universal presentation of God who lets everyone know that by the virtue of being human, they are declared to forgiven and healthy to know access to God's grace.
To be human is to live within communities which define sickness and sin. Each of us have our own classification of what it means to be clean or unclean, acceptable of unacceptable. Jesus Christ is a reminder to us to be careful about implying that God has a bias against any person because of the conditions of life of any person. Jesus Christ came to declare the unclean sinner as forgiven and thus made clean; he came to declare the sick person as clean and therefore able to live in the healthy regard of God and one's community.
Today let us accept that Jesus Christ has forgiven us and made us clean and acceptable. Jesus Christ has declared us clean and healthy, even as our aging bodies often tempt us not to believe this. And if Jesus has declared us clean and healthy, this is how when should live with each other; with grace, love, mercy and forgiveness. Amen.
The prominence of sick people that are part of the Gospel record invites us to understand sickness in the time of Jesus.
One could say that "sick people" were an entire demographic group of people during the time of Jesus. When you and I think about sickness, we think about medical diagnosis of a condition that deviates from what we regard to be our normal condition of health. We live in a world of rhetoric about medical and pharmacological interventions; every other television commercial invites to a medication to suggest that our doctors prescribe. With all of advances in medical knowledge, it does not seem that we regard ourselves to be any healthier than the people of any other period. We are obsessed with being healthier, even while we break the obvious rules of health which involve eating right, exercising and avoiding stress.
The general aging process of life means that everyone is always already sick and careening toward the entropy of death. Health therefore is relative; but it probably means that we are comfortable enough to at least be on our way to living the age of life expectancy in our place and time.
During the time of Jesus, the class of sick people was a religious and public health designation. The purity code of the time classified life situations into categories of being clean or unclean, pure or defiled. People with sickness were designated as ritually impure. This designation would keep one from the being a part of the community as long as the symptoms persisted. Sickness is always communal; when one person is sick, a host of family members are also involved and so the effects of someone being designated as unclean because of their condition left lots of people and their relatives in the state being ritually impure or they would be unobservant in their religious practices because they had to support their "sick" relative.
There were also theological overtones that went with being sick, including blaming the victims. A person must be sick because he or she or their family member must have done something wrong to incur such a condition. In the time of Jesus, it was very important to be lucky or able or well, because if you weren't you could be marked. You had to bear the mark of being unclean and therefore not worthy of certain religious society because you did not want to infect the community with one's curse exemplified by the symptoms of one's illness.
The throngs of "sick" people that went after Jesus is an indication of a large number of the populace who had no religious standing because of their condition. The other class of unclean persons, were the publican and sinners, those who had to interact regularly with the Roman Gentile officials and soldiers for their livelihood and so did not observe the ritual purity rules.
Sick people and sinners were a large class of people in the time of Jesus. And what did Jesus do? He usurped the role of the priests by ipso facto declaring sick people clean and pure and by declaring sinners, forgiven by God and therefore made clean by God. Jesus noted that the classification of so many people in his locale as unclean sick people and sinners, did not truly represent the God of the prophets who said that good news meant the inclusion of the blind and the sick and the oppressed and the broken-hearted. The healing salvation of Jesus primarily involved the declaration of God's love and mercy for all people, especially the sick and the sinners. The salvation and healing presence of Jesus essentially meant the proclamation of the accessibility of God to all.
King David desired to build a house for God; his son Solomon was the one who built the famous Temple in Jerusalem. The prophets reminded their people about God's House. God's House was to be a house for all people. People could not be segregated or separated from God's presence because of sin or sickness. We come to God because we need God and want to clean up our act. If God is only available to the people who have already cleaned up their act, lots of people are missing out on access to God.
The sinners and sick people of the time of Jesus believed that if they could touch the fringe of the clothes of Jesus, they could be forgiven and healed by being declared as clean and acceptable to God. In the Jewish wardrobe the fringes or hem of a garment had special significance. Some included decorative tassels and often the special fringes (tzitzit) were worked into a rounded hem of the robe. The shawl with the fringes signifying the commandments of God were a sign of the mantle of a prophetic office. People in faith, paid tribute to the prophetic office of Jesus in reaching out to touch the symbols of his office. But Jesus did them even better; he touched them; he placed his hand on them thus granting them full accessibility to him and his message about the declaration of the cleanliness of those who once had to live under the classification as unclean sinners and sick people.
During the time of Jesus and Paul, one's group identity was an issue. One could be observant Pharisees and Sadducees in good standing. One could be a follower of John the Baptist. One could be Gentile. Who am I? Am I a member of the synagogue? Am I a Gentile not allowed in the synagogue? Am I a person victimized as unclean because of sickness or my failure to attain ritual purity? Am I disqualified from ritual purity because my job requires me to interact with Gentiles? Paul solved the citizenship issue; he wrote that our citizenship is in heaven. The new temple is the temple of the connection of believers in God's grace and mercy. People, not a building is what makes up the universal household of God.
Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of the new temple, the church, the body of Christ and everyone is welcome into the body of Christ. Jesus Christ is a universal presentation of God who lets everyone know that by the virtue of being human, they are declared to forgiven and healthy to know access to God's grace.
To be human is to live within communities which define sickness and sin. Each of us have our own classification of what it means to be clean or unclean, acceptable of unacceptable. Jesus Christ is a reminder to us to be careful about implying that God has a bias against any person because of the conditions of life of any person. Jesus Christ came to declare the unclean sinner as forgiven and thus made clean; he came to declare the sick person as clean and therefore able to live in the healthy regard of God and one's community.
Today let us accept that Jesus Christ has forgiven us and made us clean and acceptable. Jesus Christ has declared us clean and healthy, even as our aging bodies often tempt us not to believe this. And if Jesus has declared us clean and healthy, this is how when should live with each other; with grace, love, mercy and forgiveness. Amen.
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