Jesus meets all people in need and restores them

Good morning, happy Monday, and many blessings.

It’s been a busy season at the Galilean seashore. Comings and goings, revival meetings, feedings, exorcisms and healings of one sort of another. It’s gotten to the point, in fact, that crowds are forming the moment Jesus gets out of the boat.

This is, as we’ve seen, one of the themes of Mark’s story (Mark 6:53-56) about Jesus: he stands against all that would rob the children of God of the life and abundance God intends for them. That’s part of what the kingdom is: whole-hearted, abundant life, even here and now.

They came to him in their numbers because they wanted something from him, a cure for themselves or their sick. We come to prayer often with our needs. We can come to prayer also to know what we might do for Jesus, or what he might do through us. Discipleship brings us into both friendship and partnership. We are grateful for both these callings, knowing that every time we meet the Lord, we are healed and strengthened.

But there’s another element of Mark’s account that has been a regular, if less obvious, part of the story as well, and it is signaled in the first five words of this passage: “when they had crossed over.”

Jesus, you see, is never content simply to remain where he is. He is always “crossing over” to a new territory. Nor is this simply geographic traversing. He crosses social boundaries as well. Moving from the familiar shores and folks of Capernaum to the foreign lands and people of Garazene and back again, conversing with leader and peasant, man and woman, alike. In fact, most of this first part of Mark describes Jesus flitting between the familiar and expected haunts of a teacher of his stature and the unfamiliar and foreign lands of those who are different – other – than his own people. Jesus and the kingdom he bears will not, even cannot, be contained.

Yet one thing remains constant across his travels: he meets all those in need and restores them, bringing God’s abundance to them wherever they are.

Perhaps people’s urge to "touch even the fringe of his cloak" might have been set off by the story of the woman who had been healed by Jesus in the previous chapter. Having suffered hemorrhages for twelve years, she ‘came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak’ – and was immediately healed. (Mark 5:25-34). In biblical terms, the benevolence of God, the Great Healer is here in full view: abundant, pressed down, flowing over.

Now I ask you; do you catch the excitement of the people as Jesus, always so approachable, steps ashore from the boat? Do I share the enthusiasm of the crowds or do I miss the action? What difficulties do I overcome to get to him – like rising earlier to pray, or going to visit the sick, or taking quality time in a busy day to sit with him? How do I welcome Jesus? As a man; a healer; a friend - as God? Think, and pray, about it.

Blessings,

Fr. Luis+