WE DON’T NEED AFFIRMATION, WE NEED HEALING

“Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him…For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these things come from within, and they defile a person.”
- Jesus Christ, cited in Mark 7:14, 21-23

These are simultaneously some of the most offensive and yet most freeing words that Jesus ever said.

The context was a conversation that Jesus was having with the religious (and therefore, in that culture, social) leaders of his day. They had confronted Jesus over the issue of whether it was right or not that Jesus’ disciples did not ceremonially wash their hands before eating. Jesus turned the argument on its head by pointing out that the religious leaders (in this case the Pharisees) would make such a big deal about tradition and yet totally disregard God’s commandments in the Law of Moses. The Pharisees assumed that a person’s goodness consisted in his or her faithfulness to rabbinical tradition. Jesus then went on to address the people who were gathered around him with the words quoted (in part) above.

It is distressing to look at our own spiritual climate on Vashon and see people so mesmerized by tradition and ritual, by “sacred music” and eastern philosophy, all the while seeking to find something of God (or whatever they call Him) inside themselves, or in a spiritual experience, or in a religious ceremony.

It is distressing to see people conclude that if they could just change their environment, their job, or their relationships, then somehow everything would be just right.

It is distressing to see people not even think about anything beyond what is right in front of them. To see people not care, or just give up. To see people conclude that true peace comes from either accepting or “transcending” their circumstances.

To all of this Jesus would tell us that we need to wake up. Those who are seekers are looking for all the wrong things in all the wrong places. In essence, we’ve all got a disease and we have either not bothered to think about it or we have misdiagnosed our sickness. The problem is not our environment. The problem is inside of us. It is in our hearts. The problem is that old, unpopular word: sin.

On the other hand, the solution is absolutely not inside of us. That would be like telling a cancer patient to heal herself by dwelling on her “inner-cancerousness.” The cancer patient needs a doctor, a physician, a Healer. And so do we.