Bringing the Adult Jesus Home for Christmas, Part II
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Bringing the Adult Jesus Home for Christmas: A Resource for Celebrations at Home at the Holidays
Part 2: Jesus the Healer
What an idea! Let’s bring the big Jesus home for Christmas and see what happens. In addition to the stories about Jesus’ birth, let’s see if we can celebrate the larger meanings of Jesus at Christmas.
This bulletin is one of four that are meant to help people enrich their Christmas holidays with simple times that focus on what Jesus can mean in our lives. These four resources can take advantage of the extra time we have at home or with friends and family during the holidays. Each of the bulletins lead the reader(s) through different significant ways Jesus has meaning, and invites you to take no more than a half hour to focus spiritually on that meaning.
Jesus and Healing at Christmas
The gospels are full of stories about Jesus healing people from physical and mental illness. Mostly these stories portray Jesus as healing people by “throwing out unclean spirits” from sick people. In these stories, people are made better from lameness, skin disease, being bedridden, self-destructed behavior, and delusions.
The Christmas season is a special time to think about healing, mainly because so many of us feel hurt, lonely, frustrated, and inadequate during the season. This is especially difficult for us because the expectation from society is that Christmas is a happy time. The stories of broken bodies and spirits and Jesus’ response to them can be helpful ways of dealing with our difficult feelings at Christmas.
You are invited to spend some time at Christmas with Jesus, the healer, in your home in this spiritual exercise. (It can be done with a group or alone, and it takes no more than a half hour.)
First find a comfortable place to sit, and make sure each person has a shawl or small blanket with them.
Then remember that in the gospel stories Jesus heals people of their physical and mental illnesses. Take a few moments to think of where you or people in your life need help with physical or mental illness. Don’t speak anything out loud, but simply touch the edge of your shawl or blanket and think of your own or others’ struggles with physical or emotional pain.
According to the stories of Jesus’ healings, many of the healings happen mainly because of the “trust, confidence, or faith” of those who need to be healed. Wrap your shawl or blanket around you, and feel its warmth. In the parts of you that feel wounded or lonely, try to feel trusting and/or confident that things will improve. Imagine Jesus or some other trusting person beside you, and let the thought of them comfort you. With the shawl or blanket around you, picture yourself in one of your favorite places in the world, and claim the power of that place. Feel the chance of comfort from the extra time and perspective you have during the holidays. Notice the opportunities for yourself.
In the gospel stories sometimes Jesus cannot heal people. Remove the shawl or blanket from just one of your shoulders. Feel both the warmth of much of your body and the contrast with the uncovered shoulder. Notice that for you and others that sometimes healing happens just partially or not when you want it to happen. Raise a silent prayer to God for the parts of you where healing seems impossible, and another prayer where you feel thankful for some healing.
In the stories Jesus sends out his followers to heal, and they mostly (but not always) succeed in this commission. Keeping the shawl or blanket on a portion of you, stretch it beyond you to either the person sitting next to you or to an empty space next to you. With the same trust and confidence you found for your own comfort and healing, notice that you can be present to someone else’s need And healing. As the shawl or blanket is extended beyond you, let your good feelings and prayers extend to someone else in need.
In the stories Jesus sometimes resists healing someone because of his own busyness or prejudice. Drop the shawl or blanket on the floor. Let it lie there for a moment, and think of when your trust and confidence in being a part of someone else’s healing has been prevented by your own busyness or prejudice. Don’t try to fix this at the moment, but just notice it and ask for forgiveness.
Pick the shawl or blanket up, wrap it around yourself, but leave a portion of it beyond yourself. Close your eyes. Feel warm. Feel connected to others and Jesus the healer. Still under the shawl or blanket, if there are others with you reach out and hold their hands. Say “Amen” together.
