Healing the brokenhearted,
and binding up their wounds.
He numbers the stars,
and gives to all of them their names.
(Psalm 147:3-4)
Ultimately, this is why I’m here. This is the God in whom I believe.
A formative movie in my junior high days was The Princess Diaries, directed by the unforgettable Gary Marshall. In its telltale introduction, high school students repeatedly bump into nerdy Mia (Anne Hathaway) as she awkwardly goes about her morning. She accepts that she is invisible.
We follow Mia’s story as she struggles to adapt to the life-changing news that she is more than she’d ever realized she was — royalty bound for a throne. Even so, she’s still treated as an object to be used and abused by everyone.
Everyone, that is, except the people who have always seen her.
This story replays before our very eyes as “the brokenhearted” are continuously used, even by members of the Church, and yes — even in broad daylight.
Has a celebrity newly converted to the Faith? Fantastic! Have they had a rough life? Brilliant! Let’s follow them around with a camera and prod their still-healing minds in interviews and book them to speak at our events where they’ll find themselves in an ‘affirmation bubble’… because their celebrity endorsement glamorously proves to ourselves and everyone else that we are in the right.
Has a member of the clergy been reprimanded by their superior? Perfect; let’s invite them to our events, put them on podcasts and YouTube, and perpetually dig into all their bruises with our constant promptings, to prove to ourselves and everyone else that our ideology is the superior one.
Meanwhile, Jesus enters a home and quietly raises up a mother-in-law from her illness. He casts out demons without allowing them to speak, even though they would acknowledge him as the Christ. (See Mark 1:29-39.)
Why didn’t he broadcast these deeds? Didn’t he want people to follow him? To know that he is the Almighty One?
We tend to remember Jesus’ ministry as the miraculous feeding of thousands, or the preaching of sermons to crowds. However, Jesus spent ten times more years in mundane, family life than in public ministry, and apart from when the crowds flocked to him, most of the Gospel stories feature Jesus sharing the Good News in homes, among friends, and in personal encounters, such as…
Fishermen while they worked — even getting into their family’s boat
Servants at a wedding in Cana
A leper, whom he healed and then said, “See that you tell no one.”
Nicodemus the Pharisee, who came to Jesus at night
An outcast Samaritan woman
A centurion’s servant, whom Jesus cured without even being physically near (which doesn’t sound like the best way to gain celebrity street cred)
A possessed person in Capernaum — whom Jesus rebuked and commanded silent when the demon announced that he was “The Holy One of God”
Peter’s mother-in-law, and all the folks who crowded into that family’s home, whom Jesus cured
‘Gadarene demoniacs,’ whose story was told by two swineherds
A paralytic, whom Jesus cured
Matthew the tax collector, who was surely despised by everyone in town, Jesus called to be his disciple.
A man with a withered hand whom Jesus cured on the Sabbath — which did not earn him points with the religious leaders
Peter, whom he saved from drowning in the middle of the night
Gennesaret healings, accomplished without a show — only by touching Jesus’ clothing tassles
Likewise healed, was a desperate, hemorrhaging woman.
Jairus’ daughter, whose healing from mortal illness Jesus insisted not to credit to him
The healing of the Canaanite / Syrophoenician woman’s daughter — two females and a race of people whom the Jewish had long considered enemies / outsiders
A ‘woman caught in adultery’ whom Jesus defended
Peter, James, and John before whom Jesus’ glory is revealed — yet Jesus tells them not to speak of it until after he’d risen from the dead
The little boy presented to Jesus by his father, whom the disciples had failed to exorcise, Jesus healed.
The rich young man, whom Jesus “loved” despite knowing that the man’s attachment to material possessions was an obstacle to his righteousness.
Ten lepers in Samaria, whom Jesus healed even though only one of them would have the heart to return and thank him
Blind men/Bartimaeus outside Jericho, a source of embarrassment for Jesus’ disciples, he healed.
Jesus stayed at the house of Zacchaeus the tax collector — again, not a popular move
Jesus made his friends Martha and Mary wait until their brother Lazarus had died, before he visited them. Some scholars suggest Lazarus had special needs… yet it was he whom Jesus raised from the grave.
The weeping woman of Bethany / ‘sinful woman’ in the house of Simon, Jesus defended.
A puzzled and pressured Pontius Pilate, with whom Jesus dialogued
The weeping women of Jerusalem
The ‘good thief’ crucified with him, whom Jesus guaranteed salvation
Mary Magdalene weeping at the Tomb, Jesus called by name
Thomas, even in his doubt, to whom the risen Jesus appeared
Two bewildered disciples on the road to Emmaus, with whom Jesus walked, listened, dialogued, and broke bread
Peter, for whom Jesus cooked a private breakfast and whom he forgave for vehemently and publicly denying him, and to whom Jesus entrusted his followers
…and so on.
In one revealing story (cf. John 9), Jesus heals a man who was born blind, with his own hands and clay made from his own spittle — before promptly disappearing. How was Jesus supposed to claim the credit for such a shocking miracle? Jesus only returns to the man after hearing that the religious leaders had “thrown him out.” In a rare occurrence, Jesus reveals his identity to this man — who had probably been traumatized by the way his religious leaders had treated him and his parents. The man worships Jesus.
Then Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind.”
Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not also blind, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains.
Jesus’ focus is on seeing the brokenhearted, on being present to them, and on healing them fully.
He spent time with us in this fragile realm, to understand the pain about which Job speaks — our pain, in the most personal way.
Since we have not yet learned from our Teacher and Healer how to love one another in humility and self-giving service, I wonder if we should be slower to boast.
Oh Lord Jesus, may we seek you and see you, more than we speak of you.
If I preach the gospel, this is no reason for me to boast, for an obligation has been imposed on me, and woe to me if I do not preach it!
(Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians 9:16)
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Amen 🙏
Thank you, Angela!❤️