3rd Epiphany
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| Jesus Heals Leper |
Matthew 8, 1-13
When he came down from the mountain, large crowds
followed him. And behold, a man with leprosy approached him, and kneeling down
before him said, “Lord, if you are willing, you are able to make me clean.”
Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him saying, “I
am willing; be cleansed.”
And immediately he was cleared of his leprosy. And Jesus
said to him, “See that you tell no one. But go and show yourself to the priests
and offer to them the gift that Moses commanded as a testimony of your
cleansing.”
When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a Roman captain, leader
of a hundred soldiers, approached him, pleading with him and saying, “Lord, my
boy lies at home, paralyzed, suffering great pain.”
Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”
The centurion
answered, saying, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof. Just
say a word, and my boy will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority,
with soldiers under me. If I say one word to this one—‘Go, ’ he goes, and if I tell another ‘Come,’ he
comes. If I tell my servant ‘Do this,’ he does it.
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| Jesus Heals Centurion's Boy |
Hearing this, Jesus was amazed and said to those
following him, “Amen, the truth I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel
with such great power of trust. And I tell you, that many will come from the
east and from the west and will take their places at the feast with Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of the heavens. But the sons of the kingdom will
be cast out into the darkness of [godforsaken] external existence, where there
will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”
And Jesus said to the centurion, “Go home. Let it be done to you as you have believed.”
And the boy was healed in that hour.
3rd Epiphany
January 24, 2016
Matthew 8, 1-13
If we hold a stone, we trust
that if we let go, it will fall to the ground. If it is a helium balloon, we
trust that if we let go, it will rise to the sky. It does no good to demand
that they do otherwise than what God has ordained them to do.
In the gospel reading, a
lowly outcast approaches Jesus, and in courage and trust asks to be healed. He
trusts that Jesus will heal him if Jesus wills it. And a high officer does the
same. He approaches Jesus in humility for the sake of another. He trusts Jesus
the same way he would trust his own commanding officer. It is their trust in
Christ that allows for their healing. The souls are healthy; only the body is
ill. They ask, and then they cede control; they let go and bow in humility before
God’s will.
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| Roland Tiller |
In our lives, too, we can
trust in Christ’s destiny guidance. We can ask in humility for cleansing and
healing. And in humility we can let go of control, trusting in what God has ordained.
And at the same time, we can
trust that whatever the outcome, whether we rise or fall, Christ is
accompanying the direction of our lives, and especially the direction of our
souls. As it says in the service, our ‘housing’ may be sick, yet Christ’s
creative word enables us to change and evolve; our souls can become healthy.
Our humble courage and trust in asking for soul healing makes straight the paths
of the Lord of Karma into our lives.
