Be Jesus to Someone Today

 

I am someone who is super sensitive to certain sounds. 

For example smoke alarms.  The sound of a smoke alarm going off is so distressing to me that I have bought ear plugs and even those earmuffs you wear when you’re at the firing range, so that if one of my alarms goes off, I can fix or address it, because without ear protection, my only option is running from the house. 

I am so sensitive to those sounds that some years ago when I was at the grocery store and their alarms went off, I dropped—I collapsed, my knees gave out and the only thing that kept me from hitting the floor was that I was able to grab ahold of my cart at the last second. 

When I was volunteering as a chaplain at the hospital, I arrived one day to find their alarms were going off and had been going off and on all morning with no indication of stopping.  I sent a text to the head chaplain and apologized saying that I had to leave because of the alarms. 

One day, I visited a woman in the ICU whose heart monitor was going off because she was suffering from Afib.  I could barely hear myself when I asked her how she was doing.  She had been listening to that alarm all night.  She had not slept. 

As I stood there wondering how I could possibly pray for her in that environment with the alarm screaming at us, I remembered that we had been told that being a chaplain was more than prayer. 

So, I looked at the woman and said, “Let me see if I can find some ear plugs for you.” 

In today’s reading from Mark, we see Jesus making the rounds with healing people.  He first heals Simon’s mother-in-law of fever and when word gets out that He is healing people, other people start showing up, sick people and possessed people.  

“The whole city was gathered around the door,” we are told.  I don’t think this is hyperbole.  I think there was a crowd of people there larger than anything you can imagine—like maybe a Taylor Swift concert or Bad Bunny.  

It would have been standing room only.  It would have been difficult to breathe, to move.  There would have been this mass—this solid mass—of human flesh pressing in on all sides.  Jesus heals who He can and then when it is very dark, He slips out to a deserted place and prays. 

It is so important that we pause here and acknowledge what Jesus is teaching in that moment.  Something we call boundaries.  Jesus needed time to pray.  He needed time alone.  I’m thinking Jesus may have been an introvert.  He loved what He did but it took something from Him. 

Don’t believe me? 

What does He say when the bleeding woman touches His cloak? 

“Who touched me?”  How does He know someone touched Him?  Because He felt the power go out of Him. 

Jesus goes away to pray and to recharge. 

And then He goes back to work.  A leper comes to Him and begs Him for healing.  But the way he asks, is somewhat unusual.  He says to Jesus, “If You choose, You can make me clean.” 

And Jesus says, “I do choose.”  And He heals him. 

And this is the message I want you to take home with you today. 

Be more like Jesus.

How? 

Do what He did with the leper.  If you can help someone, help them.  If someone asks and it’s in your power to give … give.  

You don’t have to be a savior. 

You don’t have to be a martyr. 

You don’t have to have healing powers. 

Be Jesus to someone today. 

If someone asks for your help and you can help … help them.

It doesn’t have to be dramatic. 

Every little thing helps.  I keep saying that these days the place where I am most feel the kindness of strangers is at the post office.  Everyone holds the door.  Everyone says, “Thank you.” 

It’s not a little thing. 

Be Jesus to someone, not because being good will get you into Heaven, but because by being good, by doing good, by showing love, we embody Jesus and that saves us. 

It saves us … today, right now. 

That woman in the hospital who couldn’t sleep because her heart monitor was screaming at her all night—I managed to find some ear plugs for her.  I asked one of the nurses for help and they gladly helped me and I brought the ear plugs to the woman. 

Sometimes the best prayers are not the ones we say, but the ones we act out—prayers said in action not words.  

So be Jesus to someone today. 

Love deeply and unconditionally and if you can help someone, help them. 

Amen.