A tax collector.
A synagogue leader with a dying daughter.
A chronically ill woman.
What do these three people have in common within this story? They are all people considered on the outside looking in . . . people of the shadows. They are not the main players in the story. They are not the mainstream of society. In fact, they are those who were ostracized, pushed away, ignored, and barely tolerated. They were the outsiders of society who were often seen as disposable.
The tax collector . . . say no more. These individuals were seen as traitors of their own people working for the enemy who profited off the backs of their own. The leader of the synagogue . . . not a popular person among the followers of Jesus as they were often in opposition to Jesus, his teachings, and his ministry. The chronically ill women who had been suffering bleeding for twelve years . . . she was all hands off . . . considered dirty . . . untouchable. None of them were like the rest of the people. They were untouchables . . . outsiders . . . forgotten people who lingered on the fringes of society . . . who lived in the shadows.
And what in the world was Jesus doing associating with them! Inviting them to join in the party. Healing them. Getting down and dirty with them. What was Jesus thinking! Well, at least for the people of Jesus’ time, that was what they were thinking . . . who is this guy and why is he associating with those sorts of people?
I suppose that is the gift of 20/20 hindsight. As we hear this story today we can look back with years and years of study and recognize that this is who Jesus was and is. We are not there witnessing and experiencing this first-hand . . . no, we are witnessing and experiencing it through many different lenses over the span of many, many years and generations of the faithful. This is who Jesus is . . . his was a ministry to those others would rather forget and ignore. Jesus’ ministry was to “the least of these”.
For those at the time of Jesus, these outsiders were as good as dead in their eyes. For Jesus there was still life . . . still purpose . . . still value. And he invited them to fully embrace the life that God offered . . . to come and take their place in God’s family . . . to claim their place at the table.
One of my all-time favorite movies is The Princess Bride . . . the story of Wesley and Buttercup’s undying love for one another. If you have never seen the movie, you should . . . It is a wonderful story for the whole family. In the movie Wesley is captured and tortured to death by the movie’s protagonist, Prince Humperdinck before he is rescued by his two traveling companions who take him to Miracle Max, the village’s holy medicine person. Presenting Wesley’s body to Miracle Max they are sad because they are certain he is dead. Max bends down, puts his ear down to the face of Wesley, and listens . . . Nope! He’s mostly dead, declares Max.
Miracle Max explains that there is still hope that he can be brought back to full life since he is not yet dead all the way . . . you know, he’s mostly dead. So, he goes to work on reviving Wesley back to life . . . which according to Miracle Max hinges on whether Wesley has something to live for. Which, of course, if you know the story, he does . . . true love. Miracle Max proclaims: “Sonny, true love is the greatest things in the world . . .”
“True love is the greatest thing in the world.” Would any of us disagree? Is that not the foundation of Jesus’s words, miracles, teachings, and ministry . . . love? Isn’t everything Jesus does grounded in love? Did he not tell his disciples and us that the greatest commandment was to love . . . to love God wholly and to love one another? That love that Jesus was doling out and asking his followers to dole out was not for select people, it was for all people . . . all of God’s creation . . . for all of God’s children. Even those that everyone considered to be outsiders . . . tax collectors, the powerful, the disabled . . . those considered “sinners”. Everyone was included.
Why? Because true love is a powerful thing . . . a powerful thing that can change the world. When one is valued, respected, cared for, wanted . . . it changes life, it changes the world. It changes it for the better. That is what Jesus preached. It is what Jesus lived.
One of my favorite singer/song writers is John Prine. He wrote songs that were thoughtful, thought-provoking, and often humorous. One of the first songs that he ever wrote was a song about an elderly couple called Hello in There. It is a song about being “forgotten”. As the couple grew older, family moved away, retirement came and those relationships were lost, friends die, neighbors change and as old people they slowly began to fade away. It talked about the loneliness of growing old . . . of being forgotten and fading into the shadows of the world they once thrived in.
As each verse of the song paints the picture of this transition in life it is pierced by the chorus—a chorus expressing a longing to be remembered and to belong:
You know that old trees just grow stronger
And old rivers grow wilder every day
Old people just grow lonesome
Waiting for someone to say, "Hello in there, hello"
This song speaks to something we all feel . . . something that we have all experienced . . . that feeling of being left out, or being forgotten, of fading into the shadows. We can identify with the song because it is a fundamental part of who we are . . . we want to be loved, desired, remembered, and included. We want to be acknowledged because we are not dead yet . . . no, we might be mostly dead but we want to be counted among the living.
Is that not the desire of all of us? Why would it not be among those who are considered outsiders . . . those who are on the fringes . . . those who linger in the shadows . . . looking in and wishing that someone—anyone—would acknowledge them. Jesus recognized this in the people he encountered, particularly those that others deemed unworthy. Jesus lived and ministered to the “least of these”.
And that is his challenge to his followers. He challenges his followers to open their vision . . . to look around the world in which they live . . . and to acknowledge the presence of others—especially those on the outside looking in—and to invite them in. To care. To love.
John Prine’s closing to the song, Hello in There, is such an invitation to those who listen to the song:
You know that old trees just grow stronger
And old rivers grow wilder every day
Old people just grow lonesome
Waiting for someone to say, "Hello in there, hello"
So if you're walking down the street sometime
And spot some hollow ancient eyes
Please don't just pass 'em by and stare
As if you didn't care, say, "Hello in there, hello"
To be loved. To be acknowledged. To be wanted and desired. To be thought of . . . to be cared for . . . to count and belong. We all want this in our own lives. None of us wants to be left out or to be forgotten. And Jesus doesn’t want that either. So let us embrace the invitation to open our eyes and hearts to the world around us. Let us stop and say, “Hello in there.” Let us begin to acknowledge others as we acknowledge ourselves worthy of love . . . love of God and love of others. There is nothing more powerful than love. It changes us and the world we live in . . . in fact, it is the only thing that ever has.
Let us believe . . . it changed the lives of those we learned about this morning in our reading. As Jesus told the woman who touched him seeking blessing: Take heart . . . your faith has healed you. It will make a difference. Amen.
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