Christian Art | Christian Faith And Healing
Mathew 12: 14-21 – Week 15 Ordinary Time, Saturday (King James Audio Bible KJV, Spoken Word)
14 ¶ Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him.
15 But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence: and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all;
16 And charged them that they should not make him known:
17 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying,
18 Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles.
19 He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets.
20 A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory.
21 And in his name shall the Gentiles trust.
Jesus has challenged the malice of the Pharisees by curing the man with a withered hand on the Sabbath. In response to the pure goodness of Jesus, the Pharisees take council together and decide to kill Jesus. Their response to absolute good is evil, even as Jesus gives the Pharisees every reason to see the ways in which they have fallen into error. The refusal of the Pharisees to respond to Jesus’ call to reform compounds their evil. They have locked their hearts.
Knowing the threat, Jesus departs from this place, and what happens next is extraordinary. No matter the Pharisees’ condemnation of Jesus, the people follow Jesus. This demonstrates the clear and simple knowledge of the truth of God, of which the humble people are capable, and for which Jesus has thanked his Father. There is a drawing toward Jesus which is unencumbered by the Pharisees’ burdensome distortions of key precepts of Law, to the detriment of God’s honour and men’s welfare. Jesus heals all the people, and then far from wishing his acts of healing to be proclaimed, Jesus enjoins the people to secrecy.
The words of the prophet Isaiah are thusly proven in Jesus’ careful choice of action – of when to act and when not to act: ‘He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets.’ We are called inwardly to Jesus; and Jesus is not to be forced upon us by brazen, street-side show. This precept may inform our own evangelizing as Christians. Our witness to Christ must be so gentle.
In citing the words of the prophet Isaiah, Matthew highlights the contrast between the contemporary and mistaken Jewish notions of a spectacular messianic kingdom, and the truth of the Kingdom that Jesus proclaims to the faithful, to those who follow Jesus, often outside of the usual limitations of their contemporary society, to witness and accept Jesus’ teaching and miracles. No matter contemporary authorities, the people, in their heart of hearts, know how to discern Jesus’ love.
By providing the quotation from Isaiah, Matthew in his Gospel tells us that Jesus is the one in whom the prophecy of the servant of God is fulfilled: a loving and gentle teacher has come to bring the light of truth. Jesus, without ceasing to be the Son of God, has taken the form of a servant. Through this humility, Jesus has come to heal us all: ‘And in his name shall the Gentiles trust.’
Concluding Prayer
O God of my fathers, and Lord of mercy, who hast made all things with thy word,
And ordained man through thy wisdom, that he should have dominion over the creatures which thou hast made,
And order the world according to equity and righteousness, and execute judgment with an upright heart:
Give me wisdom, that sitteth by thy throne; and reject me not from among thy children:
For I thy servant and son of thine handmaid am a feeble person, and of a short time, and too young for the understanding of judgment and laws.
For though a man be never so perfect among the children of men, yet if thy wisdom be not with him, he shall be nothing regarded.
And wisdom was with thee: which knoweth thy works, and was present when thou madest the world, and knew what was acceptable in thy sight, and right in thy commandments.
O send her out of thy holy heavens, and from the throne of thy glory, that being present she may labour with me, that I may know what is pleasing unto thee.
For she knoweth and understandeth all things, and she shall lead me soberly in my doings, and preserve me in her power. (Wisdom 9: 1-6, 9-11 – King James Version – KJV)
King James Audio Bible | Endnotes
The Secret Jesus
In the Gospels, we find a Jesus who is often shrouded in secrecy. Jesus performs miracles but tells people to keep the miracles a secret. Jesus speaks in parables and uses symbolism to reveal deeper truths about God’s character and purpose. Jesus reveals himself gradually and selectively, avoiding being misunderstood by the people of his time who had certain preconceptions about what the Messiah would be like.
One reason for Jesus’ secrecy is to avoid being misunderstood. The people of Jesus’ time expected a political saviour who would overthrow the Roman occupiers. However, Jesus’ mission was not primarily about political liberation but was rather about spiritual redemption and the establishment of God’s kingdom on earth. By revealing himself gradually and selectively, Jesus could be said to have set himself up to be misunderstood and in this sense and through the Cross was able to reveal the truth about himself and his mission in a way that was not distorted by people’s preconceptions.
Jesus’ secrecy is to preserve his life until the appointed time. Religious authorities of his time were threatened by Jesus’ teachings and his popularity, and they sought to kill him.
The secrecy of Jesus is – now – also a way of participating in a larger pattern of divine hiddenness and mystery throughout the Bible. According to Alan E. Lewis, the God of the Bible is a God who hides, and this hiddenness is not accidental but is rather integral to the nature of God’s self-revelation. God often reveals himself in unexpected ways, such as through burning bushes, clouds, and other mysterious phenomena. In a similar way, Jesus’ secrecy is a way of participating in this divine hiddenness and revealing God’s character and purpose in a deeper way.
According to Alan E. Lewis, the pattern of divine hiddenness and mystery in the Bible serves a twofold purpose. First, it creates a sense of expectancy and anticipation among God’s people. When God’s presence and action are hidden, it creates a longing and a hunger for His manifestation. This is why the psalmist cries out, ‘My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?’ (Psalm 42:2)
Second, divine hiddenness and mystery reveal the limits of human understanding and knowledge. God’s ways are higher than our ways, and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9). When God reveals himself, it is always in a way that challenges and expands our understanding, rather than confirming our preconceptions. This is why Jesus’ parables and symbolic actions often left his listeners puzzled and questioning.
The secrecy of Jesus participates in this pattern of divine hiddenness and mystery in several ways. First, it creates a sense of expectancy and anticipation among his followers. As Jesus gradually revealed more about himself and his mission, his disciples began to understand that he was not just a political or military leader, but rather the Messiah who had come to establish God’s kingdom on earth.
Second, the secrecy of Jesus reveals the limits of human understanding and knowledge. Jesus often spoke in parables and used symbolism to convey deeper truths about God’s character and purpose. He challenged his listeners to think in new and radical ways about the nature of God’s kingdom and the way in which it would be established on earth.
Finally, the secrecy of Jesus reveals the nature of God’s self-revelation as a gradual and unfolding process. Just as God’s revelation of himself throughout the Bible was gradual and progressive, so too was Jesus’ revelation of himself and his mission. His disciples were not able to grasp the full significance of his teachings and actions until after his resurrection and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
In conclusion, the secrecy of Jesus is not just a matter of practical necessity but is rather a way of participating in a larger pattern of divine hiddenness and mystery throughout the Bible. As Alan E. Lewis has shown, this pattern serves a twofold purpose of creating expectancy and expanding our understanding of God’s character and purpose. By understanding the significance of Jesus’ secrecy, we can deepen our appreciation of the mysterious and transformative nature of God’s self-revelation.
Jesus has crossed the Sea of Galilee, entering into Gentile territory. The King James Version speaks of the country of the Gergesenes, however ‘Gaderenes’ or ‘Gerasenes’ are more usually spoken of in other ancient sources. The two main towns in the area were Gerasa and Gadara. The events reported in these Gospel verses could have happened close to both of the towns [ … ]
Some few of the Pharisees now show solidarity with Jesus, warning him that Herod Antipas means to kill him. Herod has previously expressed a wish to meet Jesus (Luke 9: 9), about whom he was perplexed, wondering if John the Baptist had risen again. We do not know whether the Pharisees simply want to get Jesus to go away or if there is danger [ … ]
‘Death,’ says His Grace, ‘throws it all apart. For we are not as we should be. Faith requires our adjustment to God’s truth. God’s triumph in a very real sense requires in us the loss of our everything. Which, as with Mary at the other end of Jesus’s life, is God’s truth.’ The Gospel reading is of John 11: 1-45, which is a long passage, and His Grace’s homiletic theme commences in textual wilderness. Our brokenness – in this place – a family home. Our faith, our doubt, our death… The irruption – death, doubt, fear – within our precious scenes and our most intimate places. Our domesticity. His Grace speaks from the chair, as is a bishop’s prerogative, and says: ‘So much is obscure in the Gospels. We’re always reaching through them. We’re never there. Really, we never are. Our knowledge, our understanding, of the Gospels is never complete, and with each reading comes a new revelation. There are always new riches there. Just as there are between all of us, between myself and you. The Gospels are living texts. This is a part of the conversation we have with our own Christianity. It is a part of who we are in our relationship with Jesus. We are in this sense always on the brink. ‘So yes, there is plenty that doesn’t seem to make sense. As one of the order of bishops, we would be lying if we said that weren’t the case. They are not easy texts to encounter, if by that word we may signify something more than a superficial glancing off against, but rather a profound search for the word of God. The Gospels are written by people who had their own ideas, and often didn’t know what had really happened. Luke is quite explicit on this point. His is an investigation, from the explicitly claimed point of view of an historian, rather than that of a first-hand witness, who attempts, so he says, to set out an orderly account, out of the chaos, the sheer muddle, that has been handed down to him. It is possible to imagine Luke researching and composing his account after many years, when there has arisen a desire to know what exactly happened, and this implies a certain call to faith and certain demands of historicity, to historical exactitude. So in these different ways, the people of the first years of Christian faith are in the dark. There is also a decisive need to define the life of Jesus. And people didn’t get Jesus. The whole meaning of Christianity is only now beginning to take root throughout the composition. So much needs to be evangelized. The light shines almost in tentative fashion like that first star, which drew the wise men from the east to our Lord’s cradle. ‘John’s is widely held to be a very late Gospel. There are others who say that John’s Gospel might have been the first to acquire its true shape, because it most fully expresses Jesus, as we know him to be, as members of the Catholic Church. We don’t really know when any of this is being written, but we get a feel in John of a Gospel refined over many years, through a community. So there’s a lot going on there that I’d like you to think about. ‘What I would like to suggest to you is that, while within the Gospels we are often confronted with clues, guesswork, stories that have been handed down through so many people, and so in this sense we might find ourselves to be in the wilderness, this is the very desolate space itself to which we must give ourselves in order to experience Christ’s full redemption in our lives. I suggest it is for God’s glory that we do so. ‘As we become aware of ourselves, in this seminary, we find ourselves in a very secure, comfortable setting, and there are signs of Easter everywhere. Within the very fabric of these buildings, our Lord is risen; our Lord lives. But now this is our Lenten journey, where death enters, where death breaks us. We are to ride into Jerusalem in triumph, and then we are to be utterly broken, all hope gone, our hope extinguished. And really, I suggest to you, it is only by inhabiting this thought, as if we don’t know Easter is there, that our new life can follow, just when we have given up all hope, when every promise that Jesus made to us seems to have been cancelled. ‘And here now we have the story of Lazarus. I should like to suggest to you that we have a very powerful call now. In our very comfortable space, our domesticity, with all this comfort, where so very little might seem to happen each day, so it might seem to you, there is a disturbance within all of this comfort, and that is a disturbance within ourselves, and that is our call to Jesus. I think it is correct to say that our most comfortable places break in the light of Jesus from the inside, in order that we may take the necessary steps to be with Jesus. ‘Faith is not comfortable. I think that we can all receive the message of the rolling away of the rock from the tomb of Lazarus to say something of vital importance to ourselves concerning our openness to God’s love. The rock we roll away can come in all sorts of guises, but we know when we are blocked, and I firmly believe if we are truthful then we know where those blocks might be. ‘Next Sunday, which will be Palm Sunday, we process as it were to Jerusalem, to begin our Holy Week. Now as I speak to you we are on the brink. Even now, I suggest it might be very good for all of us to lay aside what we think we know, to fall apart a little, and so […]
