'Be of good cheer!' - Sharing the Gospel by word and handshake
A reflection on Matthew 9.1-8, Christ heals a paralytic
Not long ago our daughter was learning to drive. She could not wait to get her license! She dreamed of the day when she would be able to just hop in a car and go wherever she needed to go, on her terms, in her timing with utter freedom. But there were a couple hurdles in front of her. One, in Kentucky, you have to have 60 hours of driving practice with an adult after you get your temps. Also, her mother and I - tyrants that we are! - required that all of our children go to driving school. This required a $500 investment that she would have to make from her own funds not to mention the extra time and effort required.
At one point when we were practicing, she said to me, exasperated, “It just feels like I’m never going to be able to drive!” I tried to explain to her that she was actually really close. She had her temps. She had already completed 50 hours of her required 60. And her driving school had started and she only had one more session. She then reiterated with even more conviction, “Yeah, but it feeeeels like I’m never going to be driving on my own!” I did my best as a father to show empathy and understanding at that point. I also reminded her of a talk that we’d had many times before about how our feelings do not define reality and how our wrong thinking can lead to feelings that sometimes conspire against us. Our feelings can often deceive us and even defeat us. Even though she was only a few weeks from the freedom of being able to drive on her own, her feelings were telling her she was never going to get there.
Have you ever felt helpless? Have you ever felt like there was just no good answer, no way out, completely stuck? We heard a few weeks ago Our Lord’s words: “Whoever sins is a slave to sin” (John 8.34). We tend to think that addicts are people addicted to a substance like alcohol or drugs. But it sounds to me like Jesus is saying we’re all slaves to something - unless we never sin, that is. Like Bob Dylan sang years ago, “You gotta serve somebody.” We all serve somebody or something. We are all enslaved. We are all addicted. There is some besetting sin or some intractable situation that we are all facing, many of us right now!
The paralytic in this week’s gospel passage must have felt helpless. Like there was no way out, no way to even get out of his own bed. Completely stuck and at the end of his rope. For some time, he had been paralyzed, literally unable to move. His friends had to carry him, bed and all, to Jesus.
Jesus then enters the scene and his first words are “Be of good cheer!” How would you like to hear those words from the God of the universe, the All-Powerful One that can literally do whatever he wants? “Be of good cheer!” Is there something in your life that has you down? That has you feeling trapped? A pattern of sin that you can’t seem to kick? An actual addiction? A relationship? An ailment with no end in sight? Where would you like to hear the words: “Be of good cheer”? I have a friend who has paraphrased the first Beatitude as “Blessed are the optionless.” This paralyzed man, trapped in his bed had no options. But Jesus says, “Be of good cheer!” or said another way, “Blessed are you when you are stuck in your bed, unable to move, carried here by your friends… Blessed are you.” The juxtaposition of that statement in that moment is stark. Yet, Jesus has the authority to say it and more importantly to back it up! He was bringing good news to a situation that was previously filled to the brim with despair, desperation and bad news.
Every week we hear a “gospel” reading. Followed by this reading, Fr. Steven delivers a homily where he unpacks the gospel message or an aspect of it. And you likely already know this but gospel literally means “good news.” And as important as the gospel reading and homily are - and they are essential - we as members of the Church also have a part to play in sharing and being the “good news” for each other, and for our guests. I’ve read statistics that say almost 70% of our communication happens non-verbally. And I’ve recently talked to a professional teacher who readily shared that almost no one learns through hearing alone.
What a great opportunity this is for all of us! Our facial expressions, our tone of voice, our body language - all these things have the power to communicate good news, especially to our guests. Do your non-verbals communicate to our guests, “Be of good cheer!”? Sometimes all it takes is a cordial invitation to coffee hour or risking shaking someone’s hand you have never met before after the service.
From these small beginning efforts, great things will come.