21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Written by Julianne Reed
A few weeks ago, I was watching The Chosen with some friends and we were having a discussion about the episode after. The episode we were watching was the episode in season 3 where Jesus heals the hemorrhaging woman. For those who may be unaware, blood was a sign of shame in the gospels. When a woman would bleed or miscarry, she was pretty much shunned from society and had to go clean in the sea for a few days. This particular woman spent 12 years of her life bleeding so you could about imagine how she was treated. When she hears of the saving power of Christ, she is incredibly eager to meet him, believing that if she could only touch his cloak, she would be healed. Spoiler alert, she does and she is healed! A few scenes later, the Pharisees criticize Jesus and his apostles and make them go clean off in the sea as well since they had contact with her. When they go to sea, the woman is there, delighting in what just happened. The scene ends with Jesus and his boys goofing off in the water. A friend of mine made a comment that I’ve been sitting with for the past few weeks.
“Jesus truly does redeem. This sea was a place for shame and unclean people and now he just turned it into a pool party”
That certainly wasn’t my first thought after watching the episode but the truth of that comment struck me to the core. I often think about my relationship with Christ growing up and there wasn’t much to it besides following a ton of rules. If anything unfortunate happened to me, I would often blame it on the Lord. Though that still seems to be a tendency sometimes, I remember thinking earlier in the days that if God can part the Red Sea, why can’t he will this thing I want to happen or why is he letting this or that happen to me? Like I said, while it still can be tempting to have those thoughts, now that I’ve encountered Christ in a personal way and have seen the love of the Father pull through, I have tasted and seen the goodness of the Lord. He doesn’t give us stones when we ask for bread. In the moments where I’ve had radical encounters with the Father, I’m always going back to that holy ground to literally reground myself in his goodness that never fails and that is always constant. When we taste and see the goodness of the Lord, we enter into the redemption Christ won for us: a reordering of the heart. Are the hard times any easier? Not necessarily but there is much peace knowing that the Father has me in his hand and isn’t going anywhere, and he desires that freedom of heart for all! As I wrap up these thoughts, I’ll leave you with a few questions to prayer with:
Where are you rejecting the invitation in your life to sit at the table with the Lord? He wants you to taste and see his goodness. What is stopping you? Where in your life have you seen the Lord close to you in your sorrows and in your joys?
Julianne Reed is an alumni of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She’s a worship leader for a few church parishes in the Diocese of Lafayette and owns an independent benefits consulting agency. You can check out her instagram and spotify.
Pray with today’s psalm.