Reflection from Rev Alison Roberts
Matthew 9:18-34
18 While he was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” 19 Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.
20 Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. 21 She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”
22 Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.
23 When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, 24 he said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. 25 After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. 26 News of this spread through all that region.
27 As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”
28 When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”
“Yes, Lord,” they replied.
29 Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you”; 30 and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.” 31 But they went out and spread the news about him all over that region.
32 While they were going out, a man who was demon-possessed and could not talk was brought to Jesus. 33 And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowd was amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”
34 But the Pharisees said, “It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons. (NIV)
Reflection
The one outstanding thing that I am left with after reading this passage is just how busy Jesus was, doing what he recognised as needing to be done in just one day!
At this time of the year the pressure starts to build up for us to ‘do’ more and more and more. Maybe we believe in our power to make this coming Christmas the most joyous ever, by giving presents and preparing to feast, yet we know it rarely works.
As we reflect on Jesus’ rushing around today, doing his stuff, healing a distraught haemorrhaging woman here, assuring a parent their child wasn’t dead there, and restoring the sight of three blind beggars, and all in the context of cheesing off the establishment, maybe you to are left a little breathless. It’s an impressive day’s work, and we have no idea if his evening carried on in the same way; healing, reassuring all whilst managing to be radically irreverent. Jesus has this awesome way of knowing what’s important, what was needed at that moment that could help people to change their lives so dramatically, by altering their hearts and mind and by listening empathically and offering hope. And not just to those he healed, but also to those who witnessed him healing.
I wonder what Time and Love, Empathy and Love, Curiosity and Love, Hope and Love, Healing and Love, might look like if we were able to gift them to those we care about and to those we struggle with, this Christmas?
You never know this Christmas you may simply find yourself dancing in the kitchen……..
Prayer
Empty Me
Gracious and Holy one
creator of all things
and of emptiness,
I come to you full of much that clutters and distracts
stifles and burdens me,
and makes me a burden to others.
Empty me now
of gnawing dissatisfactions
of anxious imaginings
of fretful preoccupations,
of nagging prejudices,
of old scores to settle,
and of the arrogance of being right.
Empty me
of the ways we unthinkingly think of myself as powerless
as a victim
as determined by sex, age, race,
as being less than I am.
or as other than yours.
Empty me
of the disguises and lies
in which I hide from other people
and from my responsibility
for my neighbours and for the world.
Hollow out in me a space
in which I will find myself,
find peace and a whole heart,
a forgiving spirit and holiness,
the springs of laughter,
and the will to reach boldly
for abundant life for myself
and the whole human family.
Amen
By Ted Loder
Common Worship: Collects and Post Communions, material from which is included here, is copyright © The Archbishops'