Tents of Mercy Congregation
Kiryat Yam, Israel
He had been there for what seemed like forever, sprawled out on the bedding his mother had prepared for him years ago. There were always people around – sometimes more, swarming and pushing, and sometimes less, leaving him a clear view of the water.
At the beginning, someone was always with him, helping him, keeping him company and watching the surface of the water to be ready to scoop him up into the pool in case the miraculous ripples appeared. They would bring him food and refresh his bedding and speak hopefully of his chances to be healed. As the years went by and he got older, family and friends came less and less often.
Eventually, he was left all alone. The hope he once had drained into bitter resolve. Watching people come and go, he accepted that his destiny was to sit on the edge of the supernatural but never to be the lucky one touched by grace.
One Shabbat new people arrived whom he had never seen before. He was used to seeing groups like this look about with casual curiosity at the desperation of miracle seekers and then go on their way, with either pity or disgust in their eyes. He was used to being invisible, melting into the background, his face and plight unseen.
“Yeshua?” He heard one of the followers address the man who appeared to be the leader, “What is our task here in this place? There are so many people here, what can we do for them?”
Just then, Yeshua turned and looked him full in the face. His gaze was like fire burning into his tired soul. Walking towards him, Yeshua asked, “Do you want to be made well?”
What else would he be doing here but wanting to be made well?! However, he peered into Yeshua’s face, and gave the most rational explanation: “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” Tears of compassion rose in Yeshua’s eyes, and the crippled man knew at once that His tears were the Pool of Grace in which to be healed.
Immediately he followed Yeshua’s instructions and got up from where he had been lying all these decades, rolled up the mat and began walking home. Suddenly, he turned back realizing he hadn’t even thanked Him, but Yeshua was no longer there. Bending down to touch his newly-mobile legs, he closed his eyes and remembered the face of Yeshua shining on him.
Faces all over Israel
Posters featuring the faces of kidnapped hostages are scattered all over Israel, so that all may see and be confronted with the ongoing reality of their absence – these victims of the hate crimes perpetrated on Oct. 7, 2023 and since. Media platforms make their faces known, showing pictures and videos of each one with descriptions and stories of who they are.
So also, the faces and stories of the IDF soldiers who have died almost daily in the war, are published on the news, and interviews are held with their bereaved loved ones – to give a face to the numbers, to humanize the growing statistics of the heroes who have fallen. Even if one wanted to, it is impossible to escape the reality of how many people’s lives have been taken. The pictures of the fallen are everywhere, and the sadness rises up at the strangest times:
waiting at a red light (the fallen soldier’s picture on the back window of a car or bus)
at the post office (a poster of the manager’s son who died in battle taped up on the wall by the service counter),
driving along the highway on the way home (a picture of each hostage lines the road, their faces, names and ages enlarged to be seen clearly from passing cars).
Now, with the agreement signed, we are finally bringing more hostages home. We have been praying for and hoping for this day for so long. The families get to gaze into the faces of their loved ones, and they will get to be washed by the eyes of people who love them in place of the hateful stares of terrorist captors.
At the conclusion of our Shabbat service we proclaim the Aaronic benediction: “The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace” (Numbers 6:22-27). It is one of the most widely known Jewish prayers and twice mentions the face of God: if the face/countenance of God is towards you and upon you, so will His blessing be.
Yeshua is the face of God. He is God made flesh, sent to earth to eventually die for our sins, but also to put a face to The Name. If the God of Exodus was “I am who I am,” and the God of Deuteronomy was the “God who was and who is and who will be forever more;” then the God of the Gospel is the “God of salvation, God in the flesh, the One who revealed Himself walking and talking among us.” He ate and slept and wept. He spent time with the first disciples and did miracles like the one described above in John 5 where he healed the crippled man by the Pool of Grace.
When babies are born, they are wired to thrive just by staring into the faces of their mother and father. When kids are little they sometimes even hold our cheeks between their hands so that they can capture our full attention.
With all of modern technology, phone calls, texts, emails and even video calls, there is nothing that compares to the fulness and directness of a face-to-face meeting.
As more hostages rejoin their families, we pray for them to be healed from all the trauma. We pray for comfort for the families who will receive their loved one back in a casket. And we pray that all Israel will look into the face of the One who was pierced for them, and be healed inside and out.
