Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Tuesday, April 12 by Dr. Cindy Ryan

Read Mark 7:24-37.

In this passage, Jesus is looking for a little down time.  He enters a house “where he didn’t think he would be found, but he couldn’t escape notice.”  Here, a woman begs for healing for her daughter and Jesus heals the girl.  After that, he heads to the next town and another person is brought to him for healing.  The scripture tells us that Jesus touches the man and then prays, “Ephphatha!  Open up!” and the man is healed.

What impresses me about these two healings is what they say to us about openness.  Jesus, even though needing some space and quiet, is open to the woman who asks for healing for her daughter.  He even allows her to argue a bit with him to get her point across.  Openness.

When he prays for healing for the man, his prayer is simply “open up.”

God, in this Lenten season, maybe this is all we need to know…that Jesus is radically open to us and that you are open to us. Maybe all we need for healing is to “open up.” Amen.      

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