I've read this week's gospel reading in the lectionary schedule and I don't feel like I have it in me to try to figure it out. It's an account of two of the miracles of Jesus and you can read about them here.
With all of the people that follow Jesus seeking healing and other miracles, I sometimes wonder how he decided who would receive a miracle and who would be left to suffer without.
I'm reminded of the story of the man that is walking along a beach covered with starfish that have been left by the receding tide. One at a time, he is picking them up and throwing them back into the ocean. Looking at the vast number of stranded starfish, an onlooker challenges the man saying there are too many to make a difference. The man bends down, tosses another starfish into the ocean and says, "I made a difference for that one!"
What if there isn't any deep theological meaning to these stories?
What if Jesus is just making a difference one person at a time?
What if the stories are given to us so that we would do the same -- make a difference to the people we encounter, one person at a time?
Honestly, I know that nobody really comes here for theology since I am most definitely not a theologian. I'm not really a student of anything, much less a student of God.
I am, however, an observer of people, and it just may be that while few of us are equipped to go out and change the world, we can each make a difference if we just focus on doing it one person at a time.
Chances are pretty good that the few people reading this will be the only people that I have any kind of interaction with today. Maybe one of you will think -- yeah, I can make a difference for one person today! That would be cool -- to have done something positive for one of you.
Otherwise my day will be working on some positives for the bees and butterflies as I do some work in the yard and in the flowerbeds.
John
2 comments:
What if Jesus is just making a difference one person at a time? What if the stories are given to us so that we would do the same -- make a difference to the people we encounter, one person at a time?
Jesus was supposed to be a god, though. He could have made a difference to everyone -- thrown back every single starfish on the beach, so to speak, no matter how many there were.
If you take the stories of Jesus as myths intended to inspire humans who have human limitations, your interpretation makes sense, but my impression is that most Christians believe that Jesus was a real person and that the Bible describes what he actually did.
Thanks, Infidel.
I do believe that Jesus is God, and I wouldn't call his actions myths. But I do think that his life was to teach us how to live well, not how to live so we die well.
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