Jesus' words map onto the model quite well. Do you want to be healed? And then take up your mat and walk. And then later do not sin unless something worse happens.
But it seems strange to apply that model to a healing. Isn't the healing an act of divine mercy? How responsible are we for our own disease dis-ease and disability?
That's where the politics comes in. The people of Israel were ready to believe that the Roman occupation was a result of their sin. Reading the book of Deuteronomy would have taught them that interpretation. And it was out that expectation that ultra-purity folks like the Pharisees and the Essenes (and the preaching of John the Baptist) gained their social power.
Like his nation the disabled man is oppressed. His body has no freedom of movement just as occupied Judea has no freedom. He awaits the cleansing of the waters just John the Baptist and his followers do just as the Pharisees and Essenes and other sects rely on purification.
Jesus locates healing and change within him. Divine power empowers rather than imposes yet another oppressive order of power atop of the power structures already there. And in so doing he ires those who sought salvation in increasing the restrictions and burdens. The man was freed not only of his illness but of the Sabbath injunction. A threat to the power-base of the Pharisees who now seek to kill him.
3 comments:
David wrote:
"How responsible are we for our own disease dis-ease and disability?"
Ah, that's sure a $64 question. Karl Menninger in his book Man Against Himself suggested that we are all killing ourselves by inches. I believe that a man without sin would live forever, unless put away like Jesus was.
So it appears that we are all responsible for our diseases, but not quite. A more comprehensive answer would be that we all contribute to the diseases of one another. Enjoying bananas I may contribute to the disease (and death) of a Central American peasant.
When we realize the prayer of Jesus, that we all might be one, we can be sure that diseases of all sorts will diminish rapidly.
David said ...
How responsible are we for our own disease dis-ease and disability?I may be biased, but I don't like the idea of "blaming the victims" ... it makes me think of the book of Job where his friends try to convince him that he deserved his misfortune to make themselves feel more comfortable and to make life just.
Very interesting and well-written, David. Thank you, I learned a lot and your post makes more sense of this passage than I would ever have found.
As to disease and healing, I was wondering if anyone has read Morton Kelsey, I've tried many times to read Christianity and Healing and the varying views as to the cause of disease. He notes how many healing rites blame the victim. I haven't read far enough, but he takes a different approach.
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