The Preaching and Healing Connection

As I was reading through Mark's Gospel I was struck by something. It is not anything new, I have read it in Mark and the other gospels numerous times before. But it hit me in a different way this time around. I'll share one verse particularly:

So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons. - Mark 1:39

Now the overall context, in a nut shell, involves Jesus calling the disciples (1:14-20), then Jesus performs an exorcism (1:21-28), heals many (1:29-34)and people search everywhere for him (1:35-39). Then Jesus heals a man of leprosy (1:40-45), heals a paralyzed man (2:1-12) and calls more disciples (2:13-17).

First notice that Jesus calls disciples to follow after him. This is a call to follow which means it is a call to learn by Jesus' example and subsequently it is a call to go and do likewise. Disciples are to imitate their Master.

As I was thinking about this in light of the highlighted verse quoted above, I couldn't help but reflect on my own life and ministry. In Jesus we see that his preaching was accompanied by healing/exorcisms. The two seem to go hand in hand. It was believed in that culture and in that time that physical sickness, malformations, etc. were the direct result of sin in one's life or in the life of one's parents (cf. John 9:2). So then, by healing those who were sick or possessed Jesus is teaching through actions. He is saying that these who in the eyes of the culture are "sinners" are now set free and forgiven. Again, part of the context here is Jesus' preaching.

Just as Jesus touched the leper we too must be willing to reach out and touch the untouchables. And this will involve not just words but actions, too. As David Garland points out in his commentary on Mark: "Humans are psychosomatic beings, healing involves mind, body, emotions, and spirit" (pg. 87). We see Jesus acknowledging this in His earthly ministry and we would do well by acknowledging it too.

When I preach or teach what do I see happening? Are people being healed? Also, are my actions matching up with my teaching and preaching? Again, with Jesus these things went hand in hand. He called the disciples to follow after Him and do likewise. What might this look like in our churches today?

Bonhoeffer on Community

Community is more than just a buzzword for the church today and throughout all time. Community is who believers are through Jesus Christ. We are the community of Christ, His body, His hands and feet, His priesthood, His family. There is no such thing as a "lone-ranger Christian" anywhere in the pages of the New Testament. To love Christ is to love His church because He is the head of the church. Thus, one cannot say, "I love Jesus but I do not have to gather with the church." That is a paradox, an oxymoron, or something like that.

I have recently begun to read Dietrich Bonhoeffer's classic Life Together. As I read through it I will be sharing some quotes that I think are particularly insightful and helpful. Here are a few from the early pages:

"My brother...is that other person who has been redeemed by Christ, delivered from his sin, and called to faith and eternal life. Not what a man is in himself as a Christian, his spirituality and piety, constitutes the basis of our community. What determines our brotherhood is what that man is by reason of Christ." - pg. 25

"One who wants more than what Christ has established does not want Christian brotherhood." - pg. 26

"God is not a God of the emotions but the God of truth. Only that fellowship which faces such disillusionment, with all its unhappy and ugly aspects,, begins to be what it should be in God's sight, begins to grasp in faith the promise that is given to it. Th sooner this shock of disillusionment comes to an individual and to a community the better for both...He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial." - pg. 27

"Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate." - pg. 30

Community is God's intention for His people, but it is real, messy, authentic and never as clean as we may ideally think it should be or like it to be. People are hurt, fallen, messy, etc. because life is like that. But Christ became one of us anyway. Real community looks at it all and becomes incarnational as our Lord, the Incarnate One, became like those He came to save. This is real community, warts and all.

Will You be a Trader?

When we look at our lives we have really only been given two things:(1) time and (2) energy. How do we spend our time and energy?

I don't know about you, but for quite some time now I have been discontented. I know there is something more out there. I believe that this "something more" is directly related with following Jesus Christ (or not following). The video posted above from RightNow makes the point. What are we willing to trade? In essence, how are we willing to spend our time and energy?

I fear that over the past year or so, while life has been grand I cannot help but feel like something is missing. I desire to follow Jesus with my life, not just with my words. I want to be a trader in the true sense of the word. When anyone submits to the already existing lordship of Jesus Christ they are a trader in that moment. They have traded their way of life for the life Jesus calls us to live. It is a life that is to be lived in imitation of Him. But quite often I fear that many of us, myself included, stop our trading there. We don't go any further and we stay in a "feel good" and safe Christianity that fits our needs and never challenges us to go further.

In essence, we are like the rich young ruler who encountered Jesus with a desire to follow and inherit the kingdom of heaven (cf. Luke 18:18-30). Jesus told him to sell everything he had, give it to the poor, then he could follow Him. He needed to "trade" everything to focus fully on the Christ and His mission. Many of us come to Jesus but we never fully trade everything to follow Him.

Part of being a trader means that we will face suffering of some kind, and not try to avoid it when it comes. But it is in this suffering that we are closest to Jesus Christ. A trader yearns along with the apostle Paul: "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection of the dead." (Philippians 3:10-11)

I don't know how this will play out, but my prayer is that I would trade whatever is in my life for deep and honest fellowship with Jesus. And I pray this will impact my church family and my community. God, I want to be a trader for You and Your kingdom!

How about you? Will you be a trader for God and His kingdom?