I’ve been reading Rachel Held Evan’s book Inspired and I just came across her chapter on Jesus’ miracles. (This entire book is a must read! Check it out for yourself!) She brought out a beautiful and touching point that got me thinking.
“In all three stories, the point isn’t just that Jesus healed these people; the point is that Jesus touched these people. He embraced them just as he embraced other disparaged members of society, often regarded as “sinners” by the religious and political elite - prostitutes, tax collectors, Samaritans, Gentiles, the sick, the blind, and the deaf.”
The three stories she’s referencing are Jairus’ daughter (Mark 5:22-23, 35-43), the woman with the bleeding problem (Mark 5:24-34), and the man with leprosy (Mark 1:40-45). In each instance Jesus was touching the person to show that the strict rules the Pharisees placed on the Jews didn’t matter when it came to making people whole. They strictly forbade any contact with a corpse and required a period of quarantine afterward with a ritual washing. A woman that had been bleeding for that long wasn’t even allowed to be touched by her husband. And leprosy was viewed as outward evidence of some sin that had been committed.
It got me thinking about what we’d think of Jesus doing these same things in 2022. I’m sure there’d be a wide spectrum of viewpoints as there always is, but I have to wonder what side I’d be on.
Would I rejoice with the fact that Jesus is pushing against the “norm” in touching and healing people that the conservative side deams unworthy to even be around?
Or would I join the conservative church in rebuking Him, just like the Pharisees, and run Him out of town?
I’m afraid I find myself too much like the elite Pharisees when I tend to judge others around me as less-than. Sometimes I fall back into my judgemental tendencies and assume the wrong things about others. This chapter gave me a restart into realizing that if Jesus acted this same way in 2022 I might have not been very accepting of His actions. It all gave me great pause into rethinking how I view others that the conservative society casts away as “sinners”.
In fear of rambling on, I’d like to ask you one question. Where would you find yourself?