It's hard work being a healer. In this passage, Jesus heals many people in Simon's house. In fact the whole city was gathered at the door, and Jesus worked all night to cast out their demons. I imagine that the demons were more than just physical, but spiritual too. And if this happened today in Short Hills, NJ, the line-up out the door might include a mother struggling with depression, a father burdened by financial issues, a stressed and anxious teenager feeling overwhelmed, an aging and lonely widow, families in distress, and people of all ages dealing with demons of the spirit and the body.
Jesus, the healer, is working overtime, and not giving the demons the time of day. He won't let them speak, "because they knew him". This tells me that Jesus had struggled with his own demons in the past. He was quite familiar with them in fact. And because of his own journey to darkness, Jesus has learned how to heal others. As Henri Nouwen wrote in the Wounded Healer "...the great illusion of leadership is to think that man can be led out of the desert by someone who has never been there."
But, what does Jesus do after his work? He gets up early in the morning to go to the desert to pray. As we travel on our own journeys through Lent and through our lives, getting up early in the morning to pray is a good thing to do. Scripture and prayer are pathways to the heart of God, and adding this spiritual discipline to our lives can help during the long and difficult journeys of life.
This is the gift of Lent. Lent calls us to be present through the journey of darkness and to renew this ancient practice of being still. This is also the gift of Christ Church. We live in community, we worship together, we pray together (and we pray in lonely places in the early morning), we serve together and we cast out demons. Can you imagine huge crowds of people lining up outside the red doors of Christ Church, desperate to have their demons cast out, and us welcoming them inside to join our community? We can help because we have been there before. And then, of course, we will pray.
Sarah Rosen
