The Rev. Charles B. Fulghum, M.D. Priest Associate June 10-2007

Jesus: performer of miracles, teacher, or philosopher?

The Gospel story today is the miracle for the widow of Nain. Jesus was passing through the widow’s village with an entourage of fans who had heard about his miracles and were hoping to see one. They got what they were looking for. And when did they cried out, “A great prophet has been raised among us.” They did not seem to know that prophets were messengers from God. They thought prophets performed miracles for them. That was what they had come to see. According to Luke, Jesus, followed by his fans, saw the widow and heard her story. He immediately touched the mat on which men carried the body of the widow’s son and told the boy to get up. He did. You have to know a little about the widow. When she lost her son, she also lost her land because women could not own land. As long as she had a male heir she could hold the land, but without her son, the land would pass on to another male and she would be left a beggar dependent on the kindness of others. It is a very simple story. Too simple. People were following Jesus like a super star. They expected Jesus to perform the miracles they had heard about, and he often did. But this early in his career he had not learned to teach before he performed. The crowd with him recognized him by the miracles he performed, not by what he said. Jesus knew what the people wanted. It was not sermons about their responsibility. In the town of Nain that day, they did not learn to take care of widows. They learned that a prophet had come from God and could raise people from the dead. That was not what Jesus meant to teach. He accused the people of looking for the miracles and not for God. The miracles became a source of conflict with the Pharisees who objected to his healing on the Sabbath, after that they got upset because he forgave the sins of the sick in his own right. They believed that only God could forgive sins, so he was guilty of blasphemy. When he fed the 5000, the people loved the bread and fish but they had no interest in the niceties of the law and probably not much interest in all his talk about the God’s expectations of them and their part in the Kingdom of God. Jesus knew the problems that came with doing miracles. Remember when Jesus was in the wilderness being tempted by Satan to perform miracles for himself and as show business for the people? He did not perform miracles for himself, and he knew people would mistake any miracle he did as evidence of his holiness . . . and they would ask for more miracles. One time, people were lined up at his door trying to get all their relatives healed. Jesus slipped out of the house and left them. When the people came out to retrieve him he told them that he had not come to heal the sick but to preach the Kingdom of God. The people did not want responsibility, they wanted relief from suffering and fear. The miracles promised relief. The sermons only promised God’s presence while they suffered. So Jesus had three problems with his miracles, the healings, exorcisms and feedings. First of all, he had learned from his interaction with Satan in the wilderness that he must not advance his own notoriety with attractive miracles. The people would see him as a secular messiah come to straighten out the problems of humanity. No prophet has ever solved the problems of the people. Nothing has. It reminds me of a recent New Yorker cartoon in which a TV announcer is telling a watching woman about a new pill which will solve all her problems, and then the announcer says, “Ask your doctor if this pill is right for you.” In my fifty years in medicine I saw many miracle pills come and go which promised to heal all the human problems without the problem of addiction. “Ask your doctor if this miracle is right for you.” A miracle that solves problems not a solution, it is part of the problem. Jesus knew he had help for people but he knew that he had not come with a quick fix. However, if somebody came to him with pain and suffering, he could not resist helping them. Even after he learned very clearly that his healings detracted from his message about human responsibility and the ubiquity of human suffering, he could still be induced to alleviate suffering even if it meant healing on the Sabbath and miracles were a distraction from his message of responsibility. Most importantly, his charisma and his legitimate miracles were a threat to the established religion of the day. The established clergy of Jesus’ day were in charge of a lot of wealth and political power. This was very clear to the priests of the Temple, and when Jesus arrived in Jerusalem with a parade, of adoring crowds waving palms and shouting, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of The Lord,” it meant trouble for everybody. I mean if he were coming in the Name of The Lord, what were they doing? Both Jesus and the powerful Priests could not be speaking in the Name of The Lord. There was not room in that town for both of them: it was Jesus and the Temple, one of them had to go. We know who had to go. The Priests cooked up some charges that he was disturbing the peace, and they turned him over to the Romans. Jesus was crucified to teach a lesson to those who are threats to the peace, threats to established order. It would be nice if we were studying the conflicts that Jesus stirred up 2000 years ago. But the conflict goes on today. And the conflict is the same now as then. The people prefer the miracles and the power of Jesus Christ the super star, any super star. Almost anybody with any promise of a better life, or a miracle is welcome as long as the promise conforms with what we already know is true. Change is welcome and wonderful if it promises less taxes and less chaos. Science is marvelous as long as it does not require us to think too much. All the teachings of Jesus are sacred as long as they do not require us to take care of somebody else. In summary we like progress, but not change. We like tax breaks but not taxes. We like Jesus if he comes with promise. Our President says Jesus is his favorite philosopher. But he does not tell us much about Jesus’ philosophy of life. Jesus’ philosophy of life is: “Become a servant to the people who need you. Never advance your self or exercise your power except to serve others.” Yes, Jesus is a great philosopher but you would never learn it from the people who make the most noise about Jesus. Jesus never asked us to worship him. He asked us to follow him, cross in hand. He asked us to care about the widow and the orphan, and all those people who need a miracle.