Years ago, when I was an altar boy, perhaps 11 or 12 years old, I witnessed a remarkable incident. Weekday morning Mass had just ended, and the church emptied quickly as people rushed off to work. I was in the sanctuary extinguishing the candles when I noticed a man walking up the center aisle carrying a young boy in his arms. The boy looked to be about five years old and his legs draped loosely over the man’s arms. When they arrived at the altar rail, the man lowered the boy to the floor and knelt facing the altar. I stood there, maybe 20 feet away, ignored by both man and boy. I still remember their faces, the faint smile on the boy’s and the look of determination on the man’s. After a moment he said, loud enough for me to hear, “Lord, Jesus Christ, he’s yours. Heal my son. Save my son.” He then picked up the boy, turned, and walked back down the aisle and out the front door.
At the time I wasn’t exactly sure what I’d just witnessed, but I knew it was something special. I wish I could tell you the story had a miraculous ending, but I can’t. I never saw either the man or the boy again. But this incident from 65 years ago always comes to mind when I read this passage from Matthew, chapter 15:
And Jesus went on from there and passed along the Sea of Galilee. And He went upon the mountain, and sat down there. And great crowds came to Him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the mute, and many others, and they put them at His feet and He healed them, so that the throng wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel [Mt 15:29-31].Usually, when we read or hear this passage, we focus on the multiplication of loaves and fishes that immediately follows. But today, at least at first, I’d like to focus just on these three brief verses. It’s really a remarkable little passage.
To me, this passage highlights, among other things, the difference between the common people of Galilee – with the obvious exception of the envious hometown folks of Nazareth – and the urban sophisticates of Jerusalem. The former, having witnessed firsthand the miraculous works of Jesus, “glorified the God of Israel.” The latter, apparently hoping for an earthly liberator, cry out as Jesus enters the city:
Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel! [Jn 12:13].…and then, only days later, call for His crucifixion.
We also notice that the events described by Matthew mirror the Old Testament story of the Exodus. Once again… “Jesus went on from there and passed along the Sea of Galilee. And He went up on the mountain, and sat down there” [Mt 15:29]. Just as God led His chosen people across the sea and then to the mountain in Sinai where he sat in glory, Jesus passes by the sea, and then takes his place on the mountain top.
It’s only fitting that Jesus, the King of Creation, should use the earth as His very throne. And there He sits, on that mountain between heaven and earth, resting, saying nothing, full of God’s expectant silence. Yes, there he sits, in Paul’s words, “the one Mediator between God and men” [1 Tim 2:5], waiting to dispense to anyone who comes to Him truth and healing, life and breath, and everything good.
This decision by Jesus to sit down does not simply indicate His need to rest, but perhaps more importantly, reflects the posture of the rabbi, the teacher, who is always seated when He teaches. But no sooner does Jesus sit down than the needy flock to Him in great numbers, as if drawn by some irresistible force. Who are they? Matthew tells us: “…the lame, the maimed, the blind, the mute, and many others.” Ah, yes, you might think, the usual suspects – the lame, the maimed, the blind, the mute -- those same unfortunates we encounter throughout the Gospels.
But Matthew adds something else, doesn’t he? “…and many others.” What others? Why, all of us, for the healing power of Jesus is universal and we are all in need of it.
In this remarkable event we see the fulfillment of the Psalmists’ prophecies:
Serve the LORD with fear, with trembling kiss his feet…Blessed are all who take refuge in him [Ps 2:11-12].
Because he cleaves to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name [Ps 91:14].
Your people will offer themselves freely on the day you lead your host upon the holy mountains [Ps 110:3].
In the Old Testament we find frequent close encounters with God’s power, a power He must wield frequently enough to keep His chosen people together and holy. But now, under the New Covenant, mercy and power come together; Jesus judges only to save:
I have come as light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world [Jn 12:46-47].
So, the next time you see one of those roadside signs that shouts out to the passing world, “Jesus Saves!”, you should loudly exclaim, “Amen!”
Sometimes, I think, as we hear the Gospel proclaimed, we pay too little attention to what it reveals. For example, Matthew tells us “great crowds came to Him,” all looking for healing. The word had spread throughout Galilee, hadn’t it? This Jesus of Nazareth cures everyone who comes to Him. Yes, indeed, the WORD gets around, and draws all to Him.
Following our brief passage, “Jesus summoned His disciples and said” to them:
My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, for they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, for fear they may collapse on the way [Mt 15:32].We see, then, that these folks didn’t just come and go; no, these “great crowds” stayed with Jesus…for three days. The people knew, instinctively, that they needed more than physical healing, for wherever Jesus went, He not only healed, He also preached and taught. They needed to hear the Word of God, the Word of mercy and forgiveness that leads to the salvation God wants for all of us.
Jesus did “not want to send them away hungry.” They also needed food. And what better food to nourish them on their journey home as they follow “the way” than the Bread of Life itself? The feeding of the 4,000 that follows is a foreshadowing of the Eucharistic feast Jesus will introduce at the Last Supper. We are called back to His words proclaimed in the synagogue at Capernaum, words that shocked those who heard them:
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever [Jn 6:52-58].
Many, indeed many of His disciples, were shocked by these words, so shocked they no longer followed Him, leaving only the twelve and perhaps a few others. It’s then John shares with us this brief yet wonderful dialog between Jesus and Peter:
Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also wish to go away?" Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God" [Jn 6:67-69].
Today, we thank Peter for his decision to remain with Jesus, a decision that likely influenced the other Apostles to stay as well. And we thank, too, the Holy Spirit who inspired Peter, leading his heart and mind to follow the will of the Father. Yes, God inspires us and offers us His grace, but He doesn’t force Himself on us. He allows us to accept or reject His saving grace. But had Peter made the wrong decision, had he rejected the Lord as so many others had, had he led the other Apostles to turn away from Jesus at this critical time, would we have had the Last Supper? Would we have the Eucharist, the “bread which came down from heaven” and gives us eternal life? Fortunately, it’s a question we don’t have to answer, for Peter accepted the inspiration and the grace he received that day in Capernaum.
Let’s return now to our initial verses and those who came to Jesus in need of healing. Notice that those whom Jesus cured were prevented by their very afflictions from going to our Lord on their own. They found themselves at Jesus’ feet only because their friends, relatives, neighbors – perhaps even a stranger or two – carried them there.
The people in need are placed at Jesus’ feet – actually a better translation of the Greek is that they are cast at Jesus’ feet -- in a sense, thrown down, at the feet of the King, almost as a sacrifice. They are placed there in an act of submission to Jesus’ person and power, so that they may be freed from their brokenness and become whole. For it is only through the saving power of Jesus Christ that we become truly whole in both body and soul.
What seems at first to be simply the start of a rather ordinary scene in which Jesus makes His way up the mountain and sits down, in just a few verses, is magnified into a universal event of salvation that creates new life. It’s all of a piece isn’t it, all blended together in this remarkable series of events? The physical healing, the spiritual healing, the Eucharistic teaching, the promise of eternal life, and so much more, all become one as all are bound together by our Lord.
I’m reminded once again of that event I witnessed in my parish church so many years ago. The man who carried his son to the altar of the Lord took hm there out of love, knowing the boy could not make the pilgrimage on his own. He needed another, just as so many of us need others as we struggle along the path to salvation, as we make our broken way along The Way. Yes, we need physical healing often enough, but we are always in need of spiritual healing.
That father spoke aloud his short prayer as he knelt before the altar of the Lord, but perhaps in its brevity, we encounter the abundance of the perfect prayer.
“Lord, Jesus Christ, he’s yours. Heal my son. Save my son.”
He accepts that his son belongs to God, and by expressing this, he tells the Lord to care for this child, to what he, his earthly father, has been unable to do. He calls on God to heal this son of theirs, to heal him physically. But then he concludes his prayer by asking God to grant this boy, their son, salvation.
I’ve always believed that this father’s act of humility and perfect prayer brought the answer he sought from the Divine Healer, our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Do you see our responsibility? Your responsibility? Yes, brothers and sisters, each of us has a part in each other’s story of salvation. And for what end? Why the same end that Matthew reveals in our Gospel passage: “and they glorified the God of Israel.”
For this is what human life is all about. We are to make a gift of ourselves to God, so that, as Paul reminds us,
…having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints” [Eph 1:18].
…that our lives may glorify our God.
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