XXIII Sunday Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Is 35:4-7a
Ps 146:7, 8-9, 9-10
Jas 2:1-5
Mk 7:31-37

At the very beginning of the Gospel passage today, Jesus has just left Tyre through Sidon to the district of the Decapolis.  Mind you this is not Jewish territory per se, but rather Gentile territory.  The pagans are here and yet they have heard that this Jewish fellow named Jesus has come to see them and bring people who were sick or in need of healing of some sort.  Even though this seems like a “business as usual” for the Messiah - where this healing takes place is important and even more important is how he goes about healing this particular deaf man with a speech impediment.  Whenever you encounter Jesus in the Gospels, he usually heals with a simple statement: “Be healed!” or “Go, your faith has saved you.” Bada-bing-bada-boom healed!  This is God Almighty, the Incarnate Word, after all and well… he can will and do whatever he pleases simply by thinking it.  He doesn’t have really have to do anything, he really doesn’t have to say anything.
 
However this time is a little bit different.  He puts his finger in the man’s ears, spits on his hands and touches  or “anoints” this deaf man’s tongue, and then He groans!!  Scholars like to point out how carnal he gets here – almost like a primordial magical ritual that he is performing.  To us who are not so well versed, it seems kinda funny like there is a bunch of smoke and mirrors like a bad magician.  And to those who have the maturity of an eight year old…. [that’s me sometimes]  Jesus basically gives this guy a wet-willy, spits on his own hands and touches his tongue with it.  I don’t know about you, but this is the kind of thing that makes kids in Sunday school giggle.

But isn’t it interesting, in this passage, what we witness and heard proclaimed is basically God’s unnecessary love becoming necessary for us.  His extra-superfluous-action in our every day mundane life transforming it into something extraordinary: “I don’t have to do this, but I want to because I want to show you how much I love you.”  He does this time and time again.

He didn’t have to die on the Cross, He didn’t have to suffer for you and me, He didn’t have to be humiliated for our offenses, but He did.  Here in this sanctuary are the signs of His extravagant love for us: the crucifix, the altar of sacrifice and fellowship, the Word of God proclaimed in the Scriptures, and in a few moments the Lamb of God, the Blessed Sacrament, the Holy Eucharist in our very presence.  When we see the unnecessary, the extravagant, the almost reckless abandon of God’s love in action in this very place and in our daily life, we come to realize two things: our unworthiness and our response of Thanksgiving.

WE ARE NOT WORTHY. We are so not worthy of this incredible and immense love that comes from God.  Our very existence, our very family, the very world around us – We. Are. Not. Worthy.  We are sinners, we are traitors, we are backstabbers, liars, cheaters, and theirs.  We are adulterers, drunkards, and coveters.  And yet, God loves us so much to come into our lives, show us the way, and bring our lives into communion with Him.

What is left in our unworthiness and guilt is to look up and reach out to the hand of God and pick ourselves up in Thanksgiving.  When you realize that despite your guilt and unworthiness that God desires communion with you, then you start to realize and experience God’s grace in your life.  You move into a complete movement of thanksgiving and gratitude.  He didn’t have to, but because He loves you, He did.

He did not have to do all those things to the deaf man, but He did because Jesus was in Pagan territory, and those extra actions helped the pagans there to understand that Jesus was healing.  In the same way, God’s “extra actions” in our lives speak to us – we just have to listen.  We just have to see how extravagant and beyond necessity His working is in our lives.  This only comes through prayer – paying attention to His good graces in your life.  Pray now that you can understand your unworthiness and guilt and so respond to God’s over abundant generosity with praise and thanksgiving – that unnecessary love that God has for us, becoming so necessary for us.