Good Cheer, Commandeered
From the perch of midlife's approach to objectivity, astute and genial observer of the human character Benjamin Franklin compared two friends in a letter to a third. He appraised, "Parsons, even in his prosperity, always fretting; Potts in the midst of his poverty, ever laughing. It seems, then, that happiness in this life depends rather on internals than externals; and that there is such a thing as a happy or unhappy constitution."
Franklin may have been centuries ahead of neuroscience in suggesting a happy or unhappy constitution, especially if one factors in an accumulation of formative experiences very early in childhood in establishing this default perspective. If he is ahead of his time in this middle-aged realization, the 16-year-old Franklin is even more precocious when he writes as Silence Dogood, "Nothing is more common than grieving for nothing when we have nothing else to grieve for." That is, with or without a particular, inborn tendency to be pessimistic, it is common to men to look for aggravations in life. As Franklin again chimes in, "Listeners seldom hear any good of themselves," he warns against how actively people look for confirmation of negative assumptions.
Perhaps in light of this, Jesus' odd commandment in Luke 8:48 begins to both make sense and to leave readers sputtering at His audacity. Luke has just presented a woman with a bleeding issue which has persisted for twelve years. In that time, Luke says her substance has been consumed as she has gone from doctor to doctor. Her battered hopes and sense of self are manifest from the fact that she approaches Jesus from behind. She hopes only to touch His garment and to sneak away with the healing she has for so long been so forthright in seeking from lesser sources. In the duration of Luke 8:47, after being healed, she goes from trembling to testifying. Story over. Roll credits. Right?
Why, AFTER this, after healing, after she goes from trembling to testifying, does Jesus COMMAND her to be of good cheer? Isn't she already? Her presenting problem has been solved, after all. Jesus has succeeded where a myriad of physicians have failed. She is no longer an unclean outcast on the fringes of the covenant community. Does Jesus wish to "catch her being good"? There is certainly counseling validity in this, for Him to hold up a mirror and to remind her that her current cheerful state is, must be, the norm of one who realizes the extent of God's goodness. G.K. Chesterton emphasizes with force that crosses genders, certainly applying to the woman in Luke 8 and to modern followers, "'Man is more himself, more manlike, when joy is the fundamental thing and grief superficial."
Even such selective followers of Jesus as Dr. Franklin remind those who would come after Christ in the centuries that follow Luke 8:48 how much this particular command is needed. Many, he says, enter each new situation in life with what he calls in unhappy constitution. Nothing is more common, he says, than grieving for nothing when we have nothing to grieve for. People, he insists, will sift out any good of which they are reminded, and they will actively attatch their attention to the negative. With years of practice at defending against rejection, those habits can be maintained long after they serve any rational purpose.
With this command, Jesus fortifies this dearly loved woman, and followers for centuries after, against the bitterness that crouches at the door to enter at the jolting realization that a particular presenting problem is not THE presenting problem. "You're on Earth," Samuel Beckett reminds us, preparing us with the bad news without which the Good News of the Gospel is a shallow help. "There's no cure for that." Otherwise, the woman in Luke 8 would be left surprised that there are still problems after the bleeding issue which has been her focus has been rectified. Subsequent Jesus followers would be embittered when the degree, the new job, marriage, or parenthood, doesn't solve all subsequent problems and when it, and invites new ones. Good cheer is a prescription that outlasts any particular malady.
Just as Jesus peers into this woman to heal her ovaries, He is equally able to see and to speak to the bruises on her soul that are evidence of bleeding there. He commands them, and the feelings, and words, and actions that proceed from them, to change. His healing, apparently, works from the inside out, and can be measured in its efficacy by the expression put before the world. Good cheer, it seems, expressed differently by different people in different situations, is the hallmark of true renewal and healing.
Franklin may have been centuries ahead of neuroscience in suggesting a happy or unhappy constitution, especially if one factors in an accumulation of formative experiences very early in childhood in establishing this default perspective. If he is ahead of his time in this middle-aged realization, the 16-year-old Franklin is even more precocious when he writes as Silence Dogood, "Nothing is more common than grieving for nothing when we have nothing else to grieve for." That is, with or without a particular, inborn tendency to be pessimistic, it is common to men to look for aggravations in life. As Franklin again chimes in, "Listeners seldom hear any good of themselves," he warns against how actively people look for confirmation of negative assumptions.
Perhaps in light of this, Jesus' odd commandment in Luke 8:48 begins to both make sense and to leave readers sputtering at His audacity. Luke has just presented a woman with a bleeding issue which has persisted for twelve years. In that time, Luke says her substance has been consumed as she has gone from doctor to doctor. Her battered hopes and sense of self are manifest from the fact that she approaches Jesus from behind. She hopes only to touch His garment and to sneak away with the healing she has for so long been so forthright in seeking from lesser sources. In the duration of Luke 8:47, after being healed, she goes from trembling to testifying. Story over. Roll credits. Right?
Why, AFTER this, after healing, after she goes from trembling to testifying, does Jesus COMMAND her to be of good cheer? Isn't she already? Her presenting problem has been solved, after all. Jesus has succeeded where a myriad of physicians have failed. She is no longer an unclean outcast on the fringes of the covenant community. Does Jesus wish to "catch her being good"? There is certainly counseling validity in this, for Him to hold up a mirror and to remind her that her current cheerful state is, must be, the norm of one who realizes the extent of God's goodness. G.K. Chesterton emphasizes with force that crosses genders, certainly applying to the woman in Luke 8 and to modern followers, "'Man is more himself, more manlike, when joy is the fundamental thing and grief superficial."
Even such selective followers of Jesus as Dr. Franklin remind those who would come after Christ in the centuries that follow Luke 8:48 how much this particular command is needed. Many, he says, enter each new situation in life with what he calls in unhappy constitution. Nothing is more common, he says, than grieving for nothing when we have nothing to grieve for. People, he insists, will sift out any good of which they are reminded, and they will actively attatch their attention to the negative. With years of practice at defending against rejection, those habits can be maintained long after they serve any rational purpose.
With this command, Jesus fortifies this dearly loved woman, and followers for centuries after, against the bitterness that crouches at the door to enter at the jolting realization that a particular presenting problem is not THE presenting problem. "You're on Earth," Samuel Beckett reminds us, preparing us with the bad news without which the Good News of the Gospel is a shallow help. "There's no cure for that." Otherwise, the woman in Luke 8 would be left surprised that there are still problems after the bleeding issue which has been her focus has been rectified. Subsequent Jesus followers would be embittered when the degree, the new job, marriage, or parenthood, doesn't solve all subsequent problems and when it, and invites new ones. Good cheer is a prescription that outlasts any particular malady.
Just as Jesus peers into this woman to heal her ovaries, He is equally able to see and to speak to the bruises on her soul that are evidence of bleeding there. He commands them, and the feelings, and words, and actions that proceed from them, to change. His healing, apparently, works from the inside out, and can be measured in its efficacy by the expression put before the world. Good cheer, it seems, expressed differently by different people in different situations, is the hallmark of true renewal and healing.
Eat. Drink. Be merry.
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