Collateral Benefits
Stained Glass Window of Jesus healing.
Sometimes the ones we are trying to help are not the ones we help.
When Jesus became aware of this, he departed. Many crowds followed him, and he cured all of them, and he ordered them not to make him known. This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah: ‘Here is my servant, whom I have chosen, my beloved, with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not wrangle or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. He will not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick until he brings justice to victory. And in his name the Gentiles will hope.’ - Matthew 12:15-21
Jesus must have been troubled at the sight of the crowds that came to see him. He knew he was not sent for them, but for the children of God, the Jews who had lost their way, and yet the Gentiles kept coming.
How often do we feel we find ourselves off on a tangent, focusing too much time on something other than what we set out to do? Are we sure we are not supposed to be doing that?
When it comes to talking about Jesus, we tend to believe he had a clear vision of God’s purpose, and we believe that because we say he was divine, God’s presence here on earth.
But in today’s Gospel reading, Jesus tries to keep the ministry of preaching to and converting the Gentiles from distracting him from his main mission, which was to heal the Jews who had lost their way.
But God can have more than one purpose, more than one mission for each of us. It could be that in doing one thing, we find ourselves called to another, something which may be much more necessary, much more needed.
I believe the message in this is to be open to all that God reveals to us.
We may think we know what needs to be done, but God knows us better than we do, and he knows what we can accomplish if he puts us in the right place at the right time. It may be the people we think we are helping are not the ones he has sent us to help.
It may be the ones who follow us on the way who need it ore.
More to come...