expectations

Friday February 17th Mark 1: 43 Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: 44 "See that you don't tell this to anyone. There were expectations of what the Messiah would be like and do. Jesus did not want the newly healed and whole leper to go and tell others so the word would not get around that the Messiah was in town. Once the word got around, Jesus’ ministry would be hampered by other people’s ideas of what a messiah should be. Jesus wanted him to go back to the church that had rejected him and show them the expanse of God’s Grace as a healing measure for the church as well as himself. Jesus did not want him to be excluded from the worship communities because of their prejudice against what they considered clean and unclean. Jesus does not want to be excluded from our worship communities by what we consider clean and unclean. Everyone, then and now, would come and see only what they expected to see, nothing less, nothing more. The message of Jesus’ healing ministry could end up being just another roadblock keeping the boundaries of expectation in place. Jesus did come to tear down every and any boundary, mental, physical, social, righteous and religious we put in place to try to feel safe in an unsafe world. The world will however will never be safe until we dispense with the boundaries and replace them with welcome signs.