I Choo Choo Choose You

 

There is an episode of The Simpsons where Lisa takes pity on a boy in her class who has not received any Valentine’s Day cards from his classmates. He’s sitting at his desk crying, so she quickly writes his name down on a card, barely giving the card a look, and hands it to him.

Ralph, the boy in class with his finger always up his nose, takes the card from Lisa and reads it.  On the card is a picture of a train and the train is saying, “I choo choo choose you.”

“You choo choo choose me?” Ralph says to Lisa.

“Happy Valentine’s,” Lisa says and goes back to her desk, content in her good deed for the day.

Ralph cherishes the card, but he also misconstrues it and to Lisa’s shock and horror now thinks that he and Lisa are boyfriend and girlfriend.

Let the hijinks begin.

It seems sometimes like our entire lives, beginning as early as toddlers on the playground, are just a series of moments where we are chosen or not chosen.

We ask someone on the playground if they will be our friend.  They either say yes or they say no.

We ask someone to the dance or on a date.  They say yes or they so no.

We interview for a job.  They say yes or they say no.

We ask someone to marry us.  They say yes or they say no.

Chosen or not chosen.

In today’s reading from Mark 1:40 we read of a leper coming to Jesus and begging Him for healing, saying, “If you choose, you can make me clean.”

And Jesus, we are told, is moved by pity, stretches out His hand and touches the man, saying in verse 41, “I do choose. Be made clean!”

Now different translations use different verbs here in place of “choose,” with several having Jesus say, “I want” or “I will.” 

But whether it is the word “choose” or the word “want,” the underlying message is the same—Jesus is not healing the man because of a sense of obligation.  He’s not rolling His eyes and saying, “If I must, I must.”

He is healing because He wants to heal, because He chooses to heal.

The NRSV translation says that Jesus is moved by pity.  The King James Version says He is moved by compassion.

I would say what’s clear is that Jesus is moved by love.

In The Simpsons episode, Lisa, at first plays along with Ralph’s delusion that they are boyfriend and girlfriend.  She doesn’t want to break his heart and also, he keeps giving her nice gifts.  But eventually, she can’t pretend anymore.  She winds up breaking his heart on national tv, something her brother, Bart, replays for her again and again on the VCR, commenting that you can see the moment when Lisa rips Ralph’s heart in two.

Here's the thing about Jesus.

He has chosen us.

He has chosen you and He has chosen me.

We are children of God and we are also—each and every one of us—chosen by Him.

His love for us is real.

It’s not a delusion on our part.

And He does not love us out of a sense of obligation.

He loves because He is love.

Amen.