Physician, heal thyself!
The implied irony is that the physician, despite vast powers of restoration at his fingertips, despite immeasurable knowledge and experience, is incapable of letting his own bad blood. Although he knows the innermost workings of the body, he doesn't understand the precise locality of his own functions and organs. And no dim mirror or lamp could correct that. He has saved so many before, yet now is left utterly alone and disdained, shunned by a world incapable of understanding that the procedure is much too daunting to attempt, let alone succeed.
The physician cannot heal himself, no matter how loud, earnest or vulgarly we demand of him.
The task is left to the creator, then, to restore, to make whole again, to bring back to the original state of creation.
The last of the minor, non-apocryphal prophets assured his hearers in the closing chapter of the Hebrew Old Testament that, "For you who fear (God's) name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings." The attention is not on the individual or even on the community, but on God and his healing. (Malachi 4)
The winged sun. It would seem to be an Apollos-style metaphor, a glorious god-figure riding high in all his splendid majesty. But to my mind, the association rings Phoenix-ian, a rising bird from the ashes and clutch of death. A being alive, fully alive.
Another prophet, working during an intense civil war and painfully aware of an impending devastation, Isaiah points to a future where things will be restored for his people, the Israelites. Again, the worker is God, who breaks in order to heal.
For who can hurt like the Maker? And who can heal like the Maker? It's interesting to note that the LORD doesn't just heal indiscriminately. Before this passage, it is noted that the recipients will shun - no, despise and dispose - their previous gods in favor of this everlasting One. "You will throw them out like filthy rags. 'Ugh!' you will say to them. 'Begone!'" (Isaiah 30)
The wounds God gave his people then are transposed to his Suffering Servant, a man willing to take the punishment and wrath of God on our behalf. It only shows how much our rebellion is against God to see that God was delighted "to crush him and fill him with grief" when he was filled with our wounds and our trespasses.
Trespasses. The word is weightier and more fitting than sin. Sin, in the modern vernacular, has positive connotations. To call someone a sinner means that she does not abide by an archaic and stringent set of societal and personal rules. It means that he lives by the standards of the day, by his own rules. To trespass, on the other hand, is to make an affront to someone else, to violently set yourself, your body and all, against someone else's right and space. And, in this case, the other is the Other; it - or he - is God.
The Suffering Servant, then, the Man of Sorrows acquainted with bitterest grief, takes those trespasses committed by all - those grievances against God and his place - and carries them, puts them upon himself. He miraculously translates them into the positive, into the restorative process.
"He was beaten that we may have peace. He was whipped, and we were healed!" (Isaiah 53)
The physician is impotent. The doctor is diseased. We cannot afford to stare at our wounds and wonder. Decisive action is imminent. Healing (pardon the pun) is in the wings.
* All quotations are from the New Living Translation of the Bible.
The physician cannot heal himself, no matter how loud, earnest or vulgarly we demand of him.
The task is left to the creator, then, to restore, to make whole again, to bring back to the original state of creation.
The last of the minor, non-apocryphal prophets assured his hearers in the closing chapter of the Hebrew Old Testament that, "For you who fear (God's) name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings." The attention is not on the individual or even on the community, but on God and his healing. (Malachi 4)
The winged sun. It would seem to be an Apollos-style metaphor, a glorious god-figure riding high in all his splendid majesty. But to my mind, the association rings Phoenix-ian, a rising bird from the ashes and clutch of death. A being alive, fully alive.
Another prophet, working during an intense civil war and painfully aware of an impending devastation, Isaiah points to a future where things will be restored for his people, the Israelites. Again, the worker is God, who breaks in order to heal.
Then the Lord will bless you with rain at planting time. There will be wonderful harvests and plenty of pastureland for your cattle.... The moon will be as bright as the sun, and the sun will be seven times brighter - like the light of seven days! So it will be when the Lord begins to heal his people and cure the wounds he gave them."The wounds he gave them."
For who can hurt like the Maker? And who can heal like the Maker? It's interesting to note that the LORD doesn't just heal indiscriminately. Before this passage, it is noted that the recipients will shun - no, despise and dispose - their previous gods in favor of this everlasting One. "You will throw them out like filthy rags. 'Ugh!' you will say to them. 'Begone!'" (Isaiah 30)
The wounds God gave his people then are transposed to his Suffering Servant, a man willing to take the punishment and wrath of God on our behalf. It only shows how much our rebellion is against God to see that God was delighted "to crush him and fill him with grief" when he was filled with our wounds and our trespasses.
Trespasses. The word is weightier and more fitting than sin. Sin, in the modern vernacular, has positive connotations. To call someone a sinner means that she does not abide by an archaic and stringent set of societal and personal rules. It means that he lives by the standards of the day, by his own rules. To trespass, on the other hand, is to make an affront to someone else, to violently set yourself, your body and all, against someone else's right and space. And, in this case, the other is the Other; it - or he - is God.
The Suffering Servant, then, the Man of Sorrows acquainted with bitterest grief, takes those trespasses committed by all - those grievances against God and his place - and carries them, puts them upon himself. He miraculously translates them into the positive, into the restorative process.
"He was beaten that we may have peace. He was whipped, and we were healed!" (Isaiah 53)
The physician is impotent. The doctor is diseased. We cannot afford to stare at our wounds and wonder. Decisive action is imminent. Healing (pardon the pun) is in the wings.
* All quotations are from the New Living Translation of the Bible.
posted by jasdye at 10:32 AM
6 Comments:
haven't read it yet...but why'd this post under my pic? that's kind of odd, no¿
Okay, I've read it. tight writing! sweet topic. No unicorns though...seriously, I'm rememinded of Abraham and God in Gen 22...the outcome of that was also focused on GOD...the outcome was "The LORD wil provide", not "Abraham is faithful to obey..."
yeah, that's why. i was planning on copying it to aater time, but i forgot to b4 i published.
and thank you.
i should check out gen 22 before i make any more comments.
nice analogy adam.
Of course, this is an amazing write. I read it before, but I really soaked it all in this time around. You're killin it with the Nevi'im prophets, btw. Love that.
Just one minor, off-beat question though...
If the physician can't heal himself, does that mean then that the trespasser is unable to forgive himself of his trespasses too? Does that mean one, who is burdened and laden with sin, who has already transposed his debt onto Adonai and has received the full benefits of forgiveness in exchange, STILL cannot undo his own personally burrowed sin? Does one have to forgive self to be fully forgiven?
These are the things I ponder on this blessed Shabbat night...
jason says, "huh?"
the ponderance, for me, is not the degree in which one is not able to cure oneself, but rather on the person of the physician him- or herself. the physician - for all of his or her gifts of healing others - is at a time left speechless and powerless by hurts just too large and personal to personally cure.
the focus for me is then to take the eye off of the earthly and limited physician and on to the infinite one.
and the pharisees had it right, i believe. only God can truly forgive sins for, as David said, against you and you alone have i sinned and done what is evil in your sight. what they didn't recognize is that God was in their midst in the person of Jesus. what Jesus was able to do, therefore, was to demonstrate the power of God to heal us - bodily and spiritually.
'Does one have to forgive self to be fully forgiven?'
In context, what you're asking is for an understanding of grace. 'there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.' to accept God's grace in forgiveness of our sins and in accepting his offer of a new life with him means that - among other things - we should be awakening to a realization that he has forgiven us. to not accept that grace and internalize it would be devestating. for who can stand against us? Christ has forgiven us, who then is our accuser? death has been swallowed up in victory. death, where is your victory, o death where is your sting?
the healing and the focus comes from God. personal forgiveness comes from that realization of truth.
peace,
he who rocks.
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