Saturday, August 02, 2008

Your Faith Has Made You Whole

I was asked the other day whether I am Christian, and I said I'm Christian but I'm not a Christian.

While Jesus was surely one of the best things to ever happen to the world, Christianity might be seen as one of the worst. One of the most harmful beliefs promulgated under the name of Christianity is that we must see Jesus as the source of salvation. I don't think Jesus taught this.

The story is told in three of the gospels of the woman who said to herself that if she could only but touch the hem of his garment, she could be healed. As it is told in Mark: 5, 24-34:
[24] And Jesus went with him; and much people followed him, and thronged him.[25] And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years,[26] And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,[27] When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.[28] For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.[29] And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.[30] And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?[31] And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?[32] And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing.[33] But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.[34] And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.
In this and other situations, Jesus told people, "Your faith has made you whole." Many people, I gather, people take this to mean that it is faith in Jesus that made them whole. But I believe Jesus was telling the woman that, even though she thought, "If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole," that in fact it was her own faith that had made her whole.

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