In 1979, Monty Python’s Life of Brian came to theaters.
At the time, and I had two roommates: Rich, who was planning to be a Lutheran Pastor, and Rex, who was planning to be a Methodist Pastor.
Three eventual seminarians in one room.
And, like most young men of the day, big Monty Python fans.
To say the very least, there was a lot of consternation and scuttlebutt in anticipation of the movie.
Was it going to be about Jesus? Were these crazy young men going to make fun of Jesus? (And so on, and so on.)
The answer was, “no.” The troupe had made it clear: They had no issues with Jesus. The movie wasn’t going to be about Jesus, but…
It was going to be about a man, Brian, mistaken to be a messiah, living at the time of Jesus.
Given that information, the Lutheran Church (LCA), banned the movie before it even opened.
In other words, in front page news, the church banned the movie the day before it’s release.
Virtually guaranteeing that my roommates and I would be there on opening night. (And we were.)
The movie is pretty absurd and really funny. But it also asks some complex questions, including one in a scene that relates to something Jesus asks two blind men in the 20th chapter of Matthew:
“What do you want me to do for you?”
The scene unfolds like this.
Brian, the main character, and his awful mother are walking the streets and go by some sick people, begging.
One of the men begging, however, doesn’t seem sick. In fact, he’s only in a loincloth and his skin is practically glowing.
Brian and his mother ignore the man, but he leaps up and starts skipping after them, asking for absurd amounts of money.
Brian and his mother keep trying to get away, and the man continues to beg, lowering the amount of the request each time. Finally, the man says:
Okay, sir, my final offer: half a shekel for an old ex-leper?
Brian: Did you say “ex-leper”?
Ex-Leper: That’s right, sir, 16 years behind a veil and proud of it, sir.
Brian: Well, what happened?
Ex-Leper: Oh, cured, sir.
Brian: Cured?
Ex-Leper: Yes sir, bloody miracle, sir. Bless you!
Brian: Who cured you?
Ex-Leper: Jesus did, sir. I was hopping along, minding my own business, all of a sudden, up he comes, cures me! One minute I’m a leper with a trade, next minute my livelihood’s gone. Not so much as a by-your-leave! Bloody do-gooder.
Brian: Well, why don’t you go and tell him you want to be a leper again?
Ex-Leper: Uh, I could do that sir, yeah. Yeah, I could do that I suppose. What I was thinking was I was going to ask him if he could make me a bit lame in one leg during the middle of the week. You know, something beggable, but not leprosy, which is a pain in the ass to be blunt and excuse my French, sir.
The conversation continues, but the point is intriguing. The leper wasn’t sure, after being cured, that getting a cure was such a good idea. He had been making a living, after all…
And do we, always, want to be made whole?
Oh sure, if we’re sick, we want to get better, but do we sometimes want to be allowed to exist with our faults?
Do we really want Jesus to make us better? Is that what we want him to do?
It’s a question worth asking, because getting better will mean a different life, and this life might be just fine, thank you!
I wonder if the truth is we all have something Jesus could help us with…that we’d rather keep just the way it is.
Because, we’re comfortable…
Or we’ll “miss it”…
Or it’s bad for us…but sooo yummy.
Or that it asks for a change we really don’t want to make in terms of how we are living life.
I think, when we look at what Jesus can do for us, we should always start with the basics of healing. At what we need down at our deepest level.
I think we should start by looking at the actual health of our soul.
For example, one of the confessions we use at my church says:
Lord, we come before you today recognizing we are broken…and yet Lord, we know that you can and will heal us…
The use of the words “broken” and “heal” is very intentional in this confession. We acknowledge that sin has brought us to a state that is less than whole. We note that we need to be healed from the wounds caused by sin.
The words make us think about sin and forgiveness in a deeper way. Our sins result in more than simple “slash marks” on God’s scoresheet. Likewise, forgiveness is more than God flipping the pencil and using the eraser on the same.
Sin damages us and others. It really does break us.
Forgiveness offers a path to being made whole again. It really does offer healing.
The confession acknowledges we really need Jesus to do something real for us, even if we might want to avoid that healing at times.
Something to think about. Is there a part of our lives Jesus could help us with that we’d prefer to ignore?
And how would life look if we decided to work with Jesus to change that something? How would life look if we let Jesus heal us?
The ex-leper in Monty Python offers us a lesson to consider, because, as he hops along, begging continuously, he misses the point.
Jesus has given him a life full of possibility. Leprosy would have pushed him out of the community, and now he has been restored. He can go and work the fields and vineyards. Perhaps even go back to the trade of his father.
Go back to synagogue and temple. Maybe even find a wife…
But all he can think of is the way of life he lost.
As we consider how life might be different if we work with Jesus to change a thing about us that is wrong, or harmful, but that we are fond of, we need to keep in mind the opportunities such a change might bring.
Because these changes might bring what we are seeking in our faith journey. New life!
