Yom Kippur, Communion, and the Death of a Cousin

How do the death of my cousin, Yom Kippur, and Holy Communion all fit together?

My cousin Randy passed away last week at age 42. Randy was disabled from birth. He was legally deaf, legally blind, and suffered from mental retardation. As a child, I remember that Randy didn't play like the rest of the kids did. As I grew older, I realized that even though Randy wasn't able to enjoy life like I could, he could feel love and love back.

I'm struck by how Randy's passing has magnified just how much his life has to teach me. By the world's standards, Randy would have been considered a burden. To my aunt and uncle, Randy was a challenge, but he was a blessing also. In spite of his challenges, flaws, and disabilities, they loved Randy deeply.

Randy was worth all the extra effort to my aunt and uncle. I could clearly see that in his father's mourning eyes at the funeral last week. Randy's parents loved him deeply, flaws and all. Witnessing that love expressed in the grief of my uncle physically and emotionally shook me to my core.

I think it is wonderful that this relationship between my uncle and his son truly reflects the way God views each and every one of us. We are spiritually flawed, spiritually disabled--retarded even, by sin in our lives. Sin mars us and makes us unholy and undesirable--yet God, our loving Heavenly Father, loves us deeply. In spite of the yuck in our lives, He reaches out to us, wanting to restore us.

God loves us and has gone to so much trouble to redeem us and restore us so we can have a right relationship with Him. I know without a shadow of a doubt that if my aunt and uncle could have done something to "fix" Randy's disabilities and challenges, they would have done so in a heart beat.

Wonderfully, God is able to fix us. He has provided atonement for us--atonement, redemption, and restoration through the death and resurrection of His Son, Christ Jesus.

My mind was drawn to this reality much of the day following the funeral (which, by the way was Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement). I was drawn to the fact that a price has been paid by God to "fix" my problem of sin. And then on Sunday morning, as we celebrated the Eucharist in our worship service, the reality of God's love for me seemed very real-very tangible. It was a special time of worship and reflection for me.

As I took the bread and drank from the cup, I couldn't get out of my head the love I saw in my uncle's eyes for Randy at the funeral..

Spiritually, we're all much like Randy--flawed, but so fortunate to have a Father who loves us in spite of the flaws.

We are fortunate to have a heavenly Father who can "fix" our flaws, if we'll just embrace Him.

Miracles

I think we often question why we don't see "miracles" happen today the way they happened during Jesus' ministry on earth. He healed the lame, helped the blind see, raised the dead, and calmed the sea.

Could it be that the purpose of these "signs" was to help the people of that time, in that context, realize who Jesus really was and what his message was really about?

Today, technological advancements could reproduce any one of these "miracles". There are more miracles per capita today through modern medicine than anything Jesus produced during His earthly ministry.

Look at the story of Jesus' healing of the man who was lowered through the roof. That is one of those stories many non-Christians have heard. This man was sick, and word was out that Jesus could help him. But the crowd was huge. So the man's loyal friends believed Jesus could help so much, they pulled off the roof and lowered the man to center-stage seeking healing.

Jesus was so impressed by the faith of this man and his friends, he cut straight to the most important need the man had--he forgave the man of his sins, a fatal disease unto itself.

This enraged the religious leaders.

The Pharisees, who were in the crowd watching, were more upset about Jesus' forgiving of the man's sin than the physical need of the man. They made Jesus' blasphemous granting of forgiveness of sin a huge deal--a bigger deal than this poor man's medical well-being.

Jesus then turns the situation on its head. On top of the spiritual miracle that had just taken place, Jesus asks a question. Which is harder: healing the man spiritually or physically?

If you were a Pharisee, how would you answer that question?

I think the Pharisee's never gave much thought that a physical healing was in the cards for this guy. At this point in Jesus ministry, His reputation as miracle-worker had yet to be developed.

The Pharisee's were more concerned with deflecting the political threat that Jesus' offer of forgiveness posed to their monopoly on atonement. After all, Jesus' offer of forgiveness threatened to shatter the paradigm of the temple--the paradigm on which the Hebrew culture was based, as well as the Pharisee's power.

From the crowd's perspective, the offer of forgiveness is just so many words--not that impressive, right?

So Jesus plays the wild card and heals this man, in what is the most public miracle he performs early on in His ministry. Jesus' trumps the Pharisee's concerns about his claim to be able to forgive and ups the ante with a very public, physical healing.

Again, this healing is truly miraculous in that culture and context. This man is described as a paralytic. We don't know what that means, but we must admit that his condition may be something modern medicine could cure easily. Not so "miraculous" to us, but in the culture and context of Luke 5, a spectacular, major sign that Jesus was who He said He is.

So if Jesus used signs relevant to the culture and context of his time on earth to point to His true identity and mission, I am pressed to ask what type of signs would achieve that goal for us today?

..........more to come on this one.......