6th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C) – February 16, 2025

St. Paul – Lyons, KS

Jeremiah 17:5-8; Psalm 1:1-4, 6; 1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20; Luke 6:17, 20-26

Makarios

So today we continue our spring journey that we are calling “Renewing…”, which is a deep dive, a journey of sorts, to experience the healing power of Jesus Christ in our lives. And like I was mentioning last week, I want to begin just by reaffirming, re-clarifying what I do and do not mean by “healing.” Again, like I said last week, by “healing” we’re not talking about the miraculous physical healings that Jesus did.We’re also not talking about Jesus Christ “fixing” us: if Jesus is going to “heal” me, that means he is going to “fix” all of my problem, help me accomplish my career and family goals, make more money, but a better house, whatever. But no, none of this. Remember, the goal Jesus has in mind for us isn’t the prosperity gospel; he’s not trying to help you become some rich and famous superstar. Rather, the goal, what Jesus has in mind for us—the goal of our life is to love and to be loved (those are the great commandments). And since that is the goal, then the healing that Jesus promises is oriented toward that goal. That’s why healing, the definition of healing we’re working with—to be healed means to be set free to love the way you have been created and called to love and to receive love as we were created and called to be loved.

Remember St. Mark Ji Tianxiang—he was our example. His disease was never cured, but he experienced a deep healing that allowed him to love and experience God’s love. He experienced life—sufferings and all—in a qualitatively different way than the people around him! Mark, and countless others, have experienced a life totally different than the one we typically experience—even in the midst of the sufferings and challenges that they faced. And the description of this kind of life is what our Gospel is talking about today: “Blessed,” the blessed life. The life of the “blessed” is what Mark and many others experienced—and it is something we can experience as well! 

“Blessed”—the word in the original Greek is makarios (μακάριος). In ancient Greek literature, makarios was the word used to describe the gods. Why? Well, because they didn’t have to deal with all of the sadness and problems of earthly, mortal life—they’re the gods! Makarios is also, then, a word that describes those in society that are rich, that have a good education, a good job, a good social status; they’re the one’s that can take care of themselves because they have money, they eat well, they enjoy life, they’re popular. In other words, makarios is what most people assume the goal of life is! That’s what we should want!

But Jesus takes makarios to mean something much different. Jesus redefines it. True makarios, true blessedness, the life of God, truly divine life—makarios is different. And the healing that Jesus offer is one that, first and foremost, is oriented toward us experiencing this, this blessedness. This is the life that St. Mark Ji Tianxiang experienced. And it’s one that we can experience as well.

Today, then, we want to dig a little deeper into that. And the question for today is simple: “If Jesus isn’t necessarily going to fix me (you know, cure my cancer, fix my diabetes, help me overcome career hurdles)—if he isn’t going to fix me and give me a “blessed life,” a life most people would assume is a “blessed life,” then what is he going to heal? What’s the point? If we all have things that we have to endure, sufferings we have to bear—then what are we even talking about?”

The Foster Father We Never Wanted—But Had Anyway

Have you ever seen the movie Good Will Hunting? Matt Damon, Robin Williams? The movie is about this young man played by Matt Damon, Will Hunting. Will has this genius-level intellect, but he also has a troubled past—and so he’s ended up as a janitor at MIT and spends his life just horsing around and partying with his friends. Eventually he gets in trouble with the law, and has to see a court-ordered psychologist, Sean Maguire (played by Robin Williams).

Throughout the movie, we learn how this brilliant kid’s history continues to affect him. He’s deeply wounded by past abuse, particularly from his foster father. And because of those experiences, he’s built “walls” around himself to avoid vulnerability and connection. Even when he has a wonderful girlfriend, it all falls apart because Will is afraid of opening up, of these deep connections, of the vulnerability it requires. He ultimately is just kind of resigned to just live life, enjoy some good times with his friends, not worry about the past. But Sean (Robin Williams), his psychologist—Sean helps Will to confront his past. He won’t let him take the easy road out. And patiently he begins to work with him.

There is an incredibly powerful scene where Sean is looking through Will’s court file—which is pretty extensive, and has everything from his petty crimes all the way back to the photos of the abuse he endured—in this scene, Sean opens up about how he experienced the same kind of treatment as a child. And then he says, “Hey Will? I don’t know a lot. But you see this?” And he hold up the file, the story of his past, his abuse, his brokenness. “You see all this? All this… This is not your fault.” And Will just kind of brushes it off and says, “Yeah, I know that.” And then Sean says, “Look at me, son. It’s not your fault.” And Will again brushes it off, “I know.” But over and over Sean keeps saying, “It’s not your fault.” And Will moves from brushing it aside, to getting defensive, to getting angry, but then—truly accepting it—he breaks down in tears. Confronting his past, truly accepting that he was not at fault—experiencing this in the context of a relationship where the person with him didn’t need anything from him, didn’t want anything from him—in this encounter, Will experienced a healing.

Now, for each and every one of us, we have a past. And for some of you, Will’s story may not be so different from your own. But for each and every one of us—what our faith teaches us is that all of us, each and every one of us, has an abusive “foster father” in our past. The story we hear at the beginning of the Bible, Adam and Eve in the garden with the serpent—that’s not just a children’s story about how Adam and Eve were disobedient little kids that got punished for being bad, no! (That’s the interpretation of people who see God as this angry, vindictive father.) No, the story of Adam and Eve is a story of deception.

There in the garden, the serpent, the Devil—he doesn’t tell Eve, “Hey, go do a bad thing!” No. The serpent simply lies, he deceives Eve. And he does it so subtly.  “The serpent asked the woman, ‘Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?’” It starts with a question. All he does—he places God, the good Father—who has done nothing but bestow goodness and life and everything upon this couple—he places God, the good Father in suspicion. He begins to accuse God and to cast Him and His motives in suspicion. It’s like he’s saying, “If God really loved you…he would let you have that, right?” Immediately, cast in suspicion! “If he loved you, he would let you eat of that tree, but he won’t. You know why? Because God is not a father, at least not a good father. He doesn’t really love you. You can’t trust him. He’s holding out on you. If you just had that you would be happy, like God himself; and he won’t let you have that. Just rebel.” And the rest (as they say) is history.

But it’s not just history or a children’s story, that’s my point! It’s our story, the story of every human person. And because of the fallout from that, each and every one of us suffers. In that moment, Adam and Eve sold the human race out, sold us into captivity, abandoned the house of the good Father and moved us all in to the house of an abusive foster father. And this “foster father” has had his way with us. And he continues to work on us, continues to to deceive us, to gaslight us—he convinces us that something’s wrong and that it’s our fault—when really it’s his!

Our Good Father

But the gospel message is this: it’s not your fault. And like Will, we all say, “Yeah, I know.” And yes, *up here* we know. But the problem is that you, you as a person, deep down—we don’t know. We still act from this identity of having grown up in this abusive home. We’ve internalized the lies. Deep down we believe that this other Father, God—we kind of believe that He’s not as good as some people say he is. We believe that He is holding out on us. And like Will, the wounds from that past continue to affect us. Sure, we try to move on with life. We look for “healing” in fitness, or “self care,” or food, or vacations, or our appearance and vanity, surgeries. We accept all of our problems like they’re all out fault, and like God the Father is ashamed of us, angry at us, upset, vindictive. And so we just learn to deal with things on our own.

But listen: that is not God. The Father is not ashamed, not angry, not upset, not vindictive. Those are lies being fed to you by that abusive foster father of ours. Our Father, the Father revealed to us in and through Jesus Christ—Our Father is a good Father. Think of your own little kids (or imagine if you had kid)s: if your six year old was struggling, hurt—would you be angry at him, upset, vindictive? No! Think of that very famous parable Jesus tells about the Prodigal Son—which is really the story of the Father and his two sons. One of the sons is openly rebellious, goes off to live a life of drugs, sex, and rock and roll. But the other son—he stays at home, he’s a “good kid,” but he is deeply resentful of the Father, sees him as his boss. Both sons—both have been deceived about who the Father is. Because as we go on to find out, this Father wants nothing more than to share everything he has with his sons. What does the Father say, “Everything I have is yours.”

This is how God the Father is with us. We are not his servants, he is not holding out on us. He is offering us everything, everything he has, his own life! And what is the name of that life? Makarios, blessedness.

Ok. Here’s the point. The healing, the fundamental healing that each and every one of us needs, the primary healing that Jesus comes to offer each and every one of us—the fundamental healing is to our identity. Our true identity is that of beloved son, beloved daughter. And that is the identity we have been robbed of, that is the identity we think we have to chase or earn, that is the identity that deep down we don’t really believe is ours. We think (we’ve been deceived into thinking) that God is holding out makarios from us, and so we have to chase it. And we chase it like the prodigal son: money, food, good times, being well known (go back to the gospel). Or we chase it like the older son: we think that God is a cruel master, holding out on us, always giving good things to others; and maybe if we serve this cruel master long enough he’ll finally reward us.

But do you see how both are flawed? Do you see that both stem from that original deception that God is not a good father; and he’s holding out on us; and on and on? This is the fundamental wound that all of us have: we have forgotten, rejected, abandoned our identity as the beloved son or beloved daughter of a good Father—and this has led us down a hundred different paths: from convincing ourselves that “It’s fine, I’m fine, everything’s fine,” to searching for makarios in all the wrong places, to straight up self-destruction—all in a search to gain makarios on our own.

But then Jesus comes. And Jesus says a little later, “Fear not… Your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32), he’s happy to give you makarios, blessedness. Why? Because we are his beloved sons and daughters.

As we continue in these weeks, the bulk of what we’re going to be doing is digging in to the many ways we continue to live as if we are not beloved sons and daughters of the Father. We will dig in to how even though we “know” up here that we are, we continue to live and operate as if we aren’t. And in that, we will discover the particular places in our lives that need healing, the particular places these lies have hurt us the most.

But for today, stay with this: makarios, true makarios is offered to all of us, because it is freely offered to all of God’s beloved sons and daughters. And God seeks to heal you in all of the places that prevent you from receiving it, from receiving his love.