Wednesday, December 7, 2022

 

Wednesday, December 7, 2022


Psalm 90

Isaiah 8:5-9:1

Mark 7:24-37


Observances: Second Wednesday in Advent; Ambrose of Milan, bishop and teacher (d. 397)


He has done everything well.


If you wanted a job that would make you a lot of money without having to work very hard for it, being a self-help guide would have to be up there as one of the top contenders. One of Australia’s top-selling books is about investing money. Heathen forms of spirituality, like Buddhism and other hodge-podge mixes from the subcontinent are on the rise here as well. The materialist counterparts of secular atheism and statism are all about trying to make people “good” by changing the society itself.


We all know how to be good people. That is not the problem. All these seekers are looking in the wrong place, because the problem is that we don’t want to be good people. All the intellectual information in the world cannot compete with a heart that really wants to have the last piece of cake for himself.


This is why Jesus is a terrible self-help guru. He does not teach us how to better ourselves. Rather, He is the only One who does everything well. He does these things so well, in fact, that no matter how much He wants the crowds to keep quiet about it until He has come off the cross, they cannot help but spread the word.


These two healing miracles continue on from the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves. Where the disciples were worried about their own capabilities, at how much money and effort it would take for them to feed the crowd, Jesus tells them they are looking in the wrong place for the solution. Jesus is the One who can fix the problem. He is the Lord God Almighty, who wants to come and fix our problems for us, firstly because He has a much better idea about what the best outcome looks like, and secondly because He is the only One capable of doing so. Jesus underlines this point by performing the impossible through explicitly spiritual and divine means.


So many of our struggles arise from when we try and fix problems ourselves. Not only is Jesus the only One who can fix things, He is the only One who should be allowed near them in the first place. Anything less leads us down the path of pride: pride in our own abilities, our own talents. Jesus wants to take them (and He is allowed to, seeing as He gave them in the first place) and use them for His own means. Our total surrender to Him and His will is both what He wants, and what is in our best interests. We can’t banish demons and perform miraculous healing; but He can, and He does, and He will.



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