In 1966 there was a two year pilot program to assist schools serving “nutritionally needy” students. In its first year, the School Breakfast Program spent $573,000 serving about 80,000 children.

As of 2010 the School Breakfast Program was the second largest of the targeted food aid programs administrated by the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), feeding 16 million children.

It turns out children learn better when they are not hungry.

Let’s go to God in prayer.
God of wisdom, may the words that I speak, and the ways they are received by each of our hearts and minds, help us to continue to grow into the people, and the church, that you have dreamed us to be.
Amen.

Jesus is preaching and teaching, but what attracts people?

Healing.

Some people would say miracles, but Jesus’ ministry isn’t a magic act. Sure, there are places where Jesus is recorded as walking on water, calming the storm, or turning water to wine.

But people aren’t seeking out Jesus to see him do the impossible. They come for healing.

They come to save the lives of children and adults.
They come to stop a multi-year hemorrhage.
They come to walk again, or to drop a man through a roof so that he may walk again.
They come to have skin diseases cured.
And they come to have their sight restored.

At times, Jesus seems weary of all the requests for healing. I don’t know what it takes out of him, but he is recorded as feeling the power go out from him.

Perhaps these healing events are recorded in the Bible as proof that Jesus was the son of God. But I think there may be another reason.

If you’re suffering, you don’t need to hear “love one another.”
If your child is dying, you don’t need to hear “welcome the stranger.”

You’re not ready for this information.

Jesus needed to address the pain before the message could be heard.

Just as the School Breakfast Program resolved the need of food so that children could receive the instruction their teachers had for them, so Jesus needed to resolve the needs of people before they were ready to hear him.

Today we’re remembering people who have past in the last year, sometimes as recently as the past few weeks.

That feeling of loss is fresh and sharp. There is an empty place in our lives, and we are very aware of it.

And some of us are going to feel the unfairness of life, and wonder where God was in all of this, and we will really not be ready to hear about how great our God is.

That is to be expected.
That is nothing to be ashamed of.

You may feel like crying out

“Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

– Mark 10:47, NRSVue

That’s an absolutely appropriate feeling. It’s an absolutely appropriate thing to do.
In our reading today, Jesus responds:

“What do you want me to do for you?”

– Mark 10:51, NRSVue

That’s also important. We need to know what we want.

It may not come to us immediately. When the pain is acute it’s hard to clearly see what we want. But in time we will be able to see the kind of healing we need.

We may have people in our lives who are hurting from loss. Our instincts may be to say something to make it better. Sometimes we are at a loss for words. That may be because there is nothing we can say to make it better.

There will be a time when grieving people want to talk about what they’re feeling, or about the person they lost.

That time may come soon or later.
That time may come and go, and perhaps even come again later.

Whatever we have to share with them can wait until they are ready to hear it, until at least some of the healing they need has come to them.

My challenge to all of us this week is be aware of the places where healing is needed before a message can be heard.

Have Mercy.

Amen.

• Scripture quotations marked NRSVue are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. https://www.friendshippress.org/pages/about-the-nrsvue
• Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James version of the Bible.