The Unauthorized Homily

By Bill Dunn

A commentary on the Scripture readings from the Sunday Lectionary

(Scripture readings for Sunday, February 15th: Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46; 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1; Mark 1:40-45)

GOD IS ALL POWERFUL AND ALL GOOD

In this week’s gospel reading, a man afflicted with leprosy came to Jesus, knelt down in front of Him, and said, “If you wish, you can make me clean.”

This statement is very interesting. In the leper’s mind, the question of whether or not Jesus was capable of healing him was settled; there was no doubt Jesus was able to perform such a miracle. The leper had great faith in Jesus’ power. The only question in his mind was whether or not Jesus would choose to exercise His power and perform the healing. So the leper had some doubts about Jesus’ goodness.

The Scripture then tells us, “Moved with pity, [Jesus] stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, ‘I do will it. Be made clean.’”

Jesus’ statement is also very interesting. He first addressed the leper’s doubt. “I do will it,” Jesus emphasized. He was saying, in essence, yes, you have faith in my power, and that’s great. But you also must have faith in my goodness, you must have faith in the fact that I love you and care about you.

Great power combined with great goodness is a wonderful thing. God is the ultimate combination of power and goodness, but even on a human level, we can understand that someone who possesses both the desire to do good for others and the means by which to do it, can be a positive influence in the world. On the other hand, we clearly understand that someone who possesses a lot of power but has no desire to use it for good, can cause untold harm. (Extreme examples come to mind: Hitler, Stalin, the A.C.L.U., and Planned Parenthood.)

Unfortunately, many people nowadays view God as being all-powerful, but they are not quite sure about God’s goodness. They sometimes think God is, at best, indifferent and uncaring, and at worst, mean and vindictive, gleefully punishing people for their sins.

There are two primary reasons why people think this way. First, there are all those confusing episodes in the Old Testament where God’s actions seemed, well, rather harsh. People were smited left and right, cities were destroyed, folks were turned into pillars of salt and consumed by fire from Heaven, and the Israelites even were commanded by God to wipe out entire nations. Overall, the situation was often very brutal and merciless.

The Old Testament must be understood with a proper perspective. It must be taken in context with the big-picture view in mind. (Another reason why a Spirit-guided teaching Magisterium is so important. The Bible is not a self-interpreting book. Those who focus on certain passages out of context end up having a distorted interpretation.)

Although the Old Testament was not written in the same style as a 21st century newspaper report, and should not be read as such, an even larger consideration is the fact that if God had not been so demanding and harsh during those days, the nation of Israel would have been absorbed by surrounding cultures. And so God’s ultimate plan—a chosen people set apart, possessing the highest form of monotheism ever seen on earth, from which the saving Messiah could come—simply would not have occurred.

Instead of complaining that God was so mean back then, let’s just be grateful that we live in this present era of grace and mercy, rather than having lived during that era, when God had to act like a drill sergeant to lay the foundation for our salvation.

The second reason people often think of God as all-powerful but no so good, is the fact that we often project the personality traits of our parents and/or authority figures onto God. If we were blessed to have kind and loving parents, it’s easier to think of God as our kind and loving heavenly parent. But for people whose parents were abusive or uncaring or unreliable, God frequently is viewed as having those same negative characteristics.

One of the major reasons Jesus lowered Himself and took on human flesh was to give us a more accurate understanding of God’s personality. Jesus said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). The actions and attitudes of Jesus throughout the gospels are filled with compassion, mercy, forgiveness, and love. These are the most prominent character traits of the divine Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

However, sometimes we lose sight of this. We see Jesus’ image in paintings, statues, and crucifixes—silent and static. We watch the various movies made about the life of Christ, where Jesus often looks like one of those Disneyland animatronic robots, reciting his King James Version lines in an emotionless monotone.

This week’s gospel reading from the gospel of Mark—the action gospel—shows Jesus in all of His goodness and mercy. It says that Jesus was, “Moved with pity…” Pity is a strong emotion. Imagine the times you have been moved with pity, when tears began to well up in your eyes. Now imagine Jesus’ face at that moment. Imagine the sound of His voice. Imagine His body language as He drew near to the pleading leper.

The Bible tells us that Jesus stretched out His hand and touched the leper. Imagine the reaction of the onlookers as they watched someone touch an untouchable. Imagine how Jesus did not notice or care about the onlookers, but only cared about the suffering man He was touching at that moment.

This is the Jesus we worship. Yes, He is all-knowing and all-powerful. But He is also all-loving and all-merciful. This is the Jesus we can embrace, because He desperately wants to embrace us. This is the Jesus whose love for us should never be doubted. Our Savior is all-powerful AND all-good.

©2009