TODAY WE REMEMBER WHO JESUS HEALED!

Third Week in the Time of Galilee

 You know when I was young, growing up in the valley in Texas, not far from Laredo, I had a great fear of snakes – and there were many snakes there, rattlesnakes and cobras. Still, when our family packed into the station wagon and traveled, we would pass “Wild Life Farms” where for a quarter you could see various animals of the desert in cages. Then, every two hours, would come the main attraction. A man would step into an enclosure filled with rattlesnakes. He would grab one of the snakes right behind its head and then “milk” the poison from its fangs. Wow! The example of the man drove the fear from me.

Today, we want to get rid of the fear that keeps us from our rightful place, that denies us our faith. Today we continue our walk with Jesus in his ministry in Galilee. He has gathered his 12 disciples and begun their education. As he moves through the towns and villages in this the poorest area of the Israelites, he is called upon to heal the sick. We make much of these healings today – as miracles – but it must be said that there were many “healers” in those days. The miracle was not the healing. The miracle was who he healed!

Leprosy was a terrible disease for which there was no cure. Even today, the disease brings with it the association with someone who is dangerously contagious and therefore untouchable. During the last ten years our opponents – including the President - have charged that Mexicans were bringing lepers across the border and must be stopped. In the scripture today, as Jesus walked with his disciples and followers, a leper “fell with his face to the ground and begged him, ‘Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.’” Jesus reached out and touched the man, drawing gasps from those around him and answered him, “I am willing!”

And immediately the leprosy left him. Then Jesus ordered him, “Don’t tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” You see the leper was not only suffering terribly from the disease, he was denied entrance to the temple. The priests would not touch him or speak to him. He was completely excluded. Jesus not only healed him, he restored him to the temple from which he had been separated. That is why he tells him immediately to “show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing.”

Inequality, marginalizing people, denying them a place in society, even today makes sickness more dangerous, more lethal. That is why we have our 5 plus 1 to get 20 program – reaching out to those who are marginalized to detect and heal diseases. Instead of a source of faith, the temple had become a fearful place, a place that denied people their faith, their favor in God’s eyes. If the leper had tried to enter the temple he would be beaten and turned away. So, when Jesus healed him and directed him to enter the temple, he not only healed the disease he healed the fear of the hatred and injury the leper could have expected from the Temple.

The leprosy was a disease that was skin deep. Next Jesus is asked to heal someone in whom disease had gone deep to his bones. Jesus was talking with many important people who came to hear what he had to say. Four friends of a paralytic wanted to bring the man to Jesus but could not get into the small hut where Jesus was speaking. So, they climbed up to the roof, bringing the man on a mat, made a hole and lowered him down with ropes. “When Jesus saw their faith, he said, ‘Friend your sins are forgiven.’

                    Now this response from Jesus greatly angered the priests and members of the establishment. “Who is this man who says he can forgive sins?” You see, sins could only be forgiven in the temple, by the high priests, who went behind a curtain to ask God for the requested forgiveness. The paralytic, like the leper, would not have even been able to get into the temple, much less ask the priest for forgiveness. Moreover, it was believed that he was paralyzed because he was a sinner.

               Jesus replied to them that “I could say you are healed or I could say your sins are forgiven. It doesn’t make any difference.” Then he told the man to pick up his mat and walk – and he did, walking out among the crowd with his four friends! Then Jesus made it clear that the son of man could forgive sins.

You see how this scripture is about more than a miracle of healing a disease or healing a paralytic? The church of that day had become a place for the elite – who served the Roman occupation. The poor were excluded and told they were unworthy of the faith of their ancestors – that God had nothing for them! This hypocritical church was denying faith to the people – and using their authority to create fear, to control the poor on behalf of the occupiers.

We have already noted that they have called the undocumented “lepers”. Yet, we also suffer from paralysis. The world we live in is different than the world the privileged live in. In our world, flashing red lights in the rear view mirror mean a family could be torn apart – or a beating at the hands of police. Those lights leave us paralyzed. And yet when members of this church come forward, like the four friends, and say “his sins are forgiven”, he is a father or she is a mother, a human being, equal to any human being anywhere – and he or she is loved and blessed by God – why then the real healing begins!

Like the disciples of those days, the disciples in this church, can learn from this ministry of Jesus. Jesus was teaching them – and still teaching us – that we can bring the faith to our community which a hypocritical and corrupt church denies them. We can bring the spirit of forgiveness and redemption as Jesus did – just as we can bring the healing they have a right to!

Why don’t some people go to the doctor when they are sick? They fear they will be asked for their papers or for their insurance or for money they don’t have. You see, fear keeps us at the margins – and the margins deny us life. It took courage for the leper to call out to Jesus knowing there were many in the crowd who despised him, who would kick him and beat him for coming forward. It took the four friends to bring the paralytic through the crowd of the so-called “important people” to ask Jesus to heal him.

In the desert, when the Israelites escaped from slavery in Egypt, the people had begun to grumble. They had lost confidence. They complained about the heat and the food and some wanted to turn back to Egypt.

They complained also that many were being bitten by snakes and some of these had died. The Lord spoke to Moses and he told him to kill a snake, cover it with bronze and put it on a stick. When the people looked on that snake on the stick, they gained courage and they were no longer afraid of the snakes.

When we confront the immigration authorities, when Francesca or Elvira take up sanctuary and resist deportation, when Miguel Perez withstands a year in detention and deportation to Mexico and still persists in demanding his right to be a citizen in this country; when we see some young brother being beaten by police and we stand up for him; when we fight for someone who was falsely convicted; when we do these things we are killing the snake and mounting its head on a stick so that the people will no longer be afraid! We are demanding our place in God’s love and in the faith of the people of God.

Yes, Jesus had the spirit of healing and he healed many. But the miracle was who he healed – for he healed those who were denied the faith by a hypocritical church and denied equal justice by the greed and oppression of a racist Empire. As the disciples learned from Jesus so must disciples today learn to heal – and learn who to heal! We must kill the snake of fear that raises its head in our path, grab it and place its head on a stick to hold up for others to see that their faith might be restored.

This year, the ministry of Jesus is calling us to confront the hypocrisy of the white evangelical church which supports the racist mobilization of Donald Trump – and the silence of other churches that will not stand against that wickedness. That is why we are asking you this morning to become disciples, to make the commitment to build our churches so that they shine a light in the darkness – and to join our churches together to demand an end to the separation of families.

Let us be like the four friends who lowered the paralytic down to Jesus. Let us make the way open for the one who is treated like a leper to walk freely in the faith. Let us step into the den of serpents and grab the snake by its head. Let us kill the snake of fear and mount its head on a stick so that the people will no longer be afraid. Let us say together: We are God’s people! We are the body of Christ! This is the year of the Lord’s favor! We are here to claim the victory!

The Holy Scriptures for the Third Week in the Time of Galilee

Numbers 21: 4-9 The Bronze Snake

They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way;  they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”  Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died.  The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So, Moses prayed for the people.  The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.”  So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.

Luke 5:12-16 Jesus Heals a Man with Leprosy

While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing, he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him. Then Jesus ordered him, “Don’t tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

Luke 5: 17-26 Jesus Forgives and Heals a Paralyzed Man

One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend your sins are forgiven.” The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”