Faith as connector

Friday, January 4, 2008

Psalm 102; Matthew 9:27-34


Jesus said to them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?"
They said to him, "Yes, Lord."
Then he touched their eyes saying, "According to your faith be it done to you." And their eyes were opened.
(Matthew 9:28-29)

This story is reminiscent of the first account in this narrative section, that of the leper who says to Jesus, "Lord, if you will, you can make me clean" (8:1f). He was saying what Jesus is asking these blind men, something like, "Lord, I believe that you are able to heal me if now is the time for your will to be done in this way."

It also reminds us of the account of the woman with the issue of blood which precedes this one, "Take heart, daughter, your faith has made you well." In this account, faith was demonstrated by an act of reaching out and touching the fringe of Jesus' clothes - the tassels commanded by God in Numbers 15:37-41 (Deuteronomy 22:12) that they might remember the holiness of the Lord and his commandments and not go their own way.

Though these blind men couldn't see Jesus, they had heard of him and his compassion and power to heal. They reached out to connect with him, not through a physical touch, but by crying out, "Have mercy on us, Son of David." [Also, they sought Jesus together; there is encouragement and mutual strengthening through being together and together making their petition to the Lord. They didn't just have a pity party, complaining and playing the victim; they reached out together and their faith connected them to Jesus.]

Faith, as we discussed some in the Fall "Restoration" class, has an intellectual component and a heart component, if you will. What we believe, that is, whether it is true is extremely important; but there is more to it than intellectual assent. There is a trusting, even risking, heart. [It also has a "strength" or body / action component - we love and trust the Lord with all our heart, soul, and strength...]

I'm still back on the woman who touched the fringe of Jesus garment saying to herself, "If I only touch his garment, I will be made well" (8:22). She not only believed that Jesus could do it, but she trusted and and was willing to risk, and so reached out and touched his clothes. Even the blind men crying out for mercy was a risk, as was a non-Jew asking Jesus to heal his slave. The risk is in the possibility of rejection, both by Jesus and by the community; of being left out there exposed, vulnerable, more broken and more in pain than before.

The risk lies in the mysterious place in-between where Jesus is and I am, between his power and my powerlessness, his perfection and my weakness, between heaven and earth, between where God's will is always done and the kingdom has come in fullness and where we are still waiting... It is that space into which our hand is reaching out for him, where our cry for mercy lingers in a silence, an empty void in which we feel isolated from God and others.

Sometimes it is in this space that Jesus speaks to us and reaches out and touches us. What connects us to his word and his touch is trust. Trust is what God is looking for, it's what delights him and causes him to marvel. That is not to say that God meets us half-way. But it is to say that in many cases this faith/trust/belief is the connector to what God is doing and saying. It is the receptor that enables one to receive what is being offered.

"According to your faith be it done to you."
(Matthew 9:29)