A few weeks ago, our reading was the one commonly referred to as “The Great Commission,” also known as “go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28: 19). Yet, I wish that today’s reading from earlier in Matthew would actually be the one given this title because I think it more fully embodies our call as Christians. But, it involves flipping the script a little bit.
Just as a few weeks ago when I talked about the harm that has been done in the name of God because of how people have interpreted the Great Commission, so too has harm been done to many people in the way that we talk about healing stories. But, I want to talk about healing in a different way today. Because healing isn’t just about eradicating physical ailments as our current medical systems tell us, but it is about living life as abundantly as we can in the bodies that God created and the situations that we are enduring. This is going to look different for different people, something that I have had to accept in my years living with chronic illness because my condition will never be cured, but I can find ways to help manage it, to help me do more of the things that I want to do in life.
And, I think so much of healing is about bringing people back into community and relationships with one another because of the ways that illness and disabilities have led to social ostracization. One because, at least in my case, it feels like no one can really understand me and what I’m going through, so it hasn’t always feel worth the effort to try. After years of people dismissing the pain we feel or our own sense of feeling like a burden when we need people to make accommodations for us or we can’t “keep up” with everyone else, it’s pretty easy to give up trying to connect. Two, because of the ways our systems are designed for people who are deemed able-bodied, and we have to make exceptions for people who are not; this gets very tiring very quickly. And, three, because of the historic teachings of the church about diseases being the result of sin or something that would make others ritually impure if they were to come in contact with the afflicted people. There is so much potential for social isolation and disconnection that happens whenever someone is living with chronic conditions, or even temporary ones that completely change the way the world interacts with them.
It is in this light that I want to return us to the Gospel today and to why I want this reading to actually be called the “Great Commission.” “At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity because they were distressed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9: 36). Jesus truly sees the people and their need to be loved and cared for, to be drawn back into community. So Jesus takes compassion on these people and calls the Twelve disciples over; yes, even Judas is included in this commission! So “Jesus summoned the Twelve, and gave them authority to expel unclean spirits and heal sickness and diseases of all kinds” (Matthew 10:1). Jesus is sending the disciples out to continue his ministry of healing, not just to the people around them, but to extend beyond their comfort zone to provide care for others that they might not otherwise think of if they were not directed to do so by Jesus.
When the disciples continue Jesus’ healing ministry, it’s about returning lives to fullness, restoring the breaks in society. While the healing stories can have beautiful meaning for some, I think that we can expand it even more to realize that the disciples are being sent out to restore the sense of community to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 10: 6). To recall them to the time when they were whole as one community. Not just this idea of what it means to be a person without the physical ailments that affect our daily lives because otherwise people can spend their whole lives waiting for God to bring them a cure, and that gets pretty isolating too. This is what the disciples are sent out to do; not to force people into conversions, but to tell about what having life abundantly can actually look like! I think this is absolutely beautiful.
It’s like when I have conversations with people about what they think perfection looks like in heaven and we talk about whether peoples’ diseases are cured or if they still have scars, etc. I know this conversation looks different for everyone based on what is helpful for them, but I want to just remind you that the Risen Jesus retained his scars! As much as I don’t like living every day with a chronic illness that exhausts me and causes me to be in pain, this is who I am. And, I believe that I am beautifully and wonderfully created, achy knees and all! So perhaps part of healing is also letting go of this false sense of perfection and the divisions that we make among ourselves to determine our worth, especially when it comes at the expense of people who are differently abled.
Even our Exodus story today, while not directly called so is about healing because it focuses on healing the conflicts between the Israelites and bringing them back into community with one another. The whole reason Moses is sent before God to learn about God’s laws and statutes, to hear about the covenant the Israelites will make with God, is because Moses had been spending so much of his time listening to their quarreling and trying to judge between people. Now, they are given the ability to help them understand what it means for all people to have life abundantly too, to cease (or at least reduce) the arguing between people. This is something that they will have to learn, as they have been used to the structure of their days living in Egypt, being told what to do and when. They weren’t given the opportunity to think about how they actually wanted to live their lives or how they would relate to those around them, who also were a part of the same traumatic experience but probably react and grieve in different ways. So this is a healing story too, even if it looks a little different than we might think based on the miraculous nature of Jesus’ healing stories.
But, today, Jesus saw the people without a shepherd and wanted to tend to them with the same love and care that actual shepherds use to tend their sheep. This my friends is the ministry that we are being called into! A ministry of care for one another, to see one another as Beloved children of God, and to not dismiss the differences in our realities. We are not all the same, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t all need to be cared for in different ways too. We are all deserving of love and care. So, may we embrace our commission to love and care for one another, even if it is something as simple as sitting beside one another and seeing each other as the wonderful creation of God because I can assure you that this has an impact too.