The Hidden and the Healed

THE DISPARITY OF COMMUNITY 

Community has a way of attracting two very different kinds of people with two very different agendas: Those who choose to blend in, and those who choose to stand out. The hidden and the healed, as I call them.

The Internet has become an uncharted destination point for the hidden because you can become part of a worldwide “community” that is really an illusion. This online “community” is all about hiding. The larger the community, the easier it is to blend in, almost to the point of anonymity. 

The problem with hiding in this “community” is that you rarely intersect with someone who may be the answer to your need. Especially if you are hurting. The real problem with social media is that it’s not really about being social. It’s about being safe. We want people just like us who will reinforce what we like, what we believe, what we think. And there’s no better way to do that than with smiley faces, emojis, and likes.  

We can aggregate all the “likes” in the world, but that does not mean that anyone truly likes us. As a result, we stay safe and secure...and distant...in our online communities. Anonymity may feel safe, but it’s really the one-way street to a dead-end relationship.

This is not what community is about. True community forces us out of the shadows to intersect with people we normally would never have met otherwise, or with people we would not want to meet in any situation. 

This is why I gravitate to the words of Jesus, who promises to bring me security when I find my identity in Him. From there, I can find my healing, which is illustrated best In Matthew 8 in the story of Jesus healing a leper. It says that the man came to Jesus and knelt before Him. For anyone else during that time, as a Jew, it was anathema to be associated in any way with lepers let alone touch them. You were ceremonially unclean if you came into contact with a leper. People avoided them at any cost. But Jesus breaks down that barrier to show us that His community includes lepers as well. 

There’s a truth deeper than just a healing in this story: Jesus teaches us to make contact with those the world deems unclean. They too must be in our community. Unfortunately, both the world and the church have people they still declare unclean. 

I believe that the rise in anger, conflict, and lack of civility in our society is the natural progression of lives untouched by lepers. 

Christ calls us to be in the midst of broken people, not safe people. He talks about touching the lives of lepers, the disenfranchised, the poor—those most unlike us but very much like Him. He asks us to live a life of love, but love is best exemplified when it is given away to the unloved and the unlovely. We cannot stay hidden in the type of community Christ has established. 

Jesus is telling us that only in the intersection and communion with others can healing take place. The only caveat is that you have to be involved with others. You can’t share life when there is no one around you to share it with. 

Unfriend the hidden life of anonymity. Get off Facebook and get face-to-face with those who need a touch from Jesus. When hiding ends, community begins.