A non-relating Christ
Imagine what it would be. Christ became incarnated, grew up,
walked around tiny towns of Judea, miraculously healing the sick, vanquishing
evil spirits, telling the crowds that “blessed are the poor” and “turn the other
chick”. He would do this in a very general way, as someone who has a mission,
the words to deliver to the general audience. He would do what was described in
the Gospels but would do that without relating to others. No, He would not be
silent when the apostles woke Him up when they thought their boat was sinking –
He would simply say “waves, be quiet” and then, without adding “why do you have
such little faith?” to the apostles return back to his cushion.
Actually, He could still say those words but in a very
impersonal way, without truly connecting with his disciples, heart to heart. One
can say “I love you” in a way that another feels being stabbed, so obvious is the
lie. He could also enter Jerusalem without making personal points and, in the
same non-relating way, become crucified and die. He could, as well, pray for
those who crucified Him but do this in an empty way, just because the Son of
God must say those words. It is fitting His previous teaching. A Christian must
pray for the enemies, and He also must give us an example – perhaps He uttered
those words just for that reason. He could say them silently; after all, the
Father still would hear Him.
The striking thing about the Gospels is that they do not
say, as the novels do, anything about how the people there look, or about their
intonation etc. but they are all somehow very alive and very visible. They are visible and come to a life via the
response of Christ to them. An impersonal “woman with an issue of blood”
who touched the hem of His cloth in a hope of a cure becomes, via His response
to her, very clearly visible to us in His words “go daughter, your faith saved
you”.
Noteworthy, Christ in that episode (as it is related in the
Gospel of Mark) seems to need to see the
one who touched Him and this is why He asks who did it and continues to insist
despite the very reasonable statement of the apostles that He is in the middle
of a crowd and everyone presses Him so how can they – and He – know. Obviously,
since He had no trouble seeing Nathaniel under the fig tree before Nathaniel
was called, by Philip, to come to see Him [and even before Nathaniel was born]
He did not need to physically see the
one who touched Him. It appears that He wants a woman who hid herself in the
crowd to come out for the sole purpose of relating to each other in person, via
the act of seeing each other. By that
very act of His we see that woman now as she is under the magnifying glass. She
literally pops up from the pages of the Gospels. It is quite astonishing because
no “literary methods” of description etc. is employed like the description of
the woman’s face, how she looked at Christ etc. She is alive to us because He
saw her soul, “your faith saved you”. She knows she was seen = her soul was
seen by Him and she feels fully alive, and we feel it as well.
