The “Miraclehood” of Our Fellow Person


Revelation 11:1–19; Matthew 13:44–52

Chris Chavez
Nov 6 · 6 min read

I’ll be honest. I hadn’t looked at the lectionary before I agreed to do today’s reflection. You see, I was driving home from my West Point 10-year reunion and was somewhere on the New Jersey Turnpike when I received a text from Fr. Dan asking if I could take November 5th. Because I am a responsible adult and don’t text and drive, I immediately asked my wife to reply back to him saying that I would do it. So after doing so, she read the passages to me, and I wasn’t sure if I should just walk into the chapel wearing a sandwich board, and just scream at everyone to repent for 10 minutes straight until someone physically removed me from the building.

Luckily I had almost exactly a month’s lead-time on this, so the more I thought about the passages, mostly our Gospel passage, I started to understand what Jesus was saying. For Him, the Kingdom of Heaven is not an abstract idea. Instead, it is His vision for what the purpose of humanity is supposed to be. He speaks in parables, because our feeble human language is unable to accurately describe the glory of His Kingdom. So, is the Kingdom a field full of treasure? Is it the perfect pearl? Is it a basket of the best fish in the sea? Jesus was trying to put into words the splendor and joy that one finds in His Kingdom. In those days, the metaphors He used would make complete sense. Here in the 21st century, I believe there is another way to describe the Kingdom, one that will resonate more with today’s population, and address our most critical societal needs.

So, I’m going to tell you a personal story to illustrate what I mean. When my wife Ashley was newly pregnant with our first child, she started getting extreme pain in her side. Because she was only a few weeks along, we thought that it could be a very serious condition that would require surgery and loss of the baby. Now, in these situations many hospitals won’t show the parents the embryo on the ultrasound, because some couples will go into the ER complaining of pain just to get a chance to look at their baby’s development. To curtail this, they often won’t show the parents the screen and just deliver the diagnosis. However, they could tell immediately upon giving us the news that everything was fine, that we weren’t faking just to see the baby. The doctor turned the monitor around, and I what I saw will stick with me forever. It was a small mass of cells, that looked nothing like a person. However, that right in the center of that mass of cells, I saw a miracle: a few cells had come together, and were fluttering like crazy. It was the heartbeat of our first child, and it was nothing short of miraculous.

So with that in mind, I think the Kingdom of Heaven can be described as the point in time when we as humans recognize the miracle that is our fellow person. The Kingdom will be realized when we set aside our earthly worries and work toward bringing into being the famous line from the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.” That isn’t a plea to God to magically make Earth look like Heaven. It’s proclaiming that WE must do HIS WILL here on Earth. It means that WE have a major role to play in making it a reality. It starts with treating people like the precious treasure, the perfect pearl they are. It starts with love, dignity and respect. It means selflessness and sacrifice. It means being that beggar that leads another beggar to bread.

Ultimately what Christ is telling us in our Gospel and I think what the passage from Revelations is saying, is that there are very real consequences to our actions, positive and negative. We are given the free will to pursue life as we choose. Even though we are here right now, or whether we attend church every Sunday, we all deviate from the path Christ has laid out for us. Christ isn’t asking for perfection. He’s asking for self-awareness and the life-long struggle to be the best person we can be. Ultimately, that struggle is the difference between the good fish and bad fish. He’s asking us to help our fellow miracles along that path as well.

People who see each other as fellow miracles don’t resort to violence against their neighbors. People who feel as though they have worth do not go on suicide attacks against their fellow human. People who understand the miracle that is their fellow humans don’t shoot up classrooms full of children. We were made in God’s image to love and to be loved. Every person begins as a miracle; every parent can attest to that fact. If you didn’t believe in miracles before you became a parent, watching a baby being born and holding the minutes-old child in your arms will instantly change your mind. If we can return to that belief, if we can begin to recognize our neighbor as the miracle, the beautiful treasure, the perfect pearl that they are, the next logical step would be to do whatever it takes to protect each other. It would bring that line from the Lord’s Prayer to fruition.

By doing this, we can change this world from the angry, hyperbolic, and dangerous place it often is, into the Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus describes in these three parables. Yes, people will be separated, just like the fish in the parable, and not all will be able to partake in the unspeakable joy that is God’s Kingdom. Some people will not be saved. Some people will refuse to be brought back into the fold, BUT EVERYONE is worthy of our best efforts. Christ showed us the way. He showed us what to do, and it is our responsibility to go out and do it. If we bear His name, we have to act like Him. We are supposed to go out and save as many of those “bad fish” as possible. THAT is our responsibility as Christians.

Now, I’m going to blow your mind right now. Did you know that we can actually break bread together even if we don’t agree on everything? Right now, some people won’t even do that. At some tables, there is an empty seat, because earthly disagreements have clouded our better judgement. Our foolish emotions prevent some of us from sitting at the dinner table with someone with whom we disagree. Because of our foolishness, because of our pride, some people are no longer welcome. However, there is one table that is open to everyone, one table that NOBODY on Earth has the authority to keep someone from. It’s that table right there. We need to get back to the altar, and pray that we be given the fortitude to ACT, to bring our fellow miracles back into grace. We are called to be the light of Christ, and we can be the beacon that brings the “bad fish” to that table. That’s our purpose. As Christians, it’s our duty. It might be difficult sometimes, but it’s imperative that we recognize the miracle that is our fellow human, the treasure in the field, the perfect pearl, and to understand that they are worth the work.

We are going through a tough time in our history right now, and I don’t want to sound glum, but I don’t know how it will improve. I believe though, down to my very core, that through Christ, we can find the inner strength to take the lead, and bring the Kingdom of God to Earth, where it belongs. In fact, I think I’ve read that somewhere before. As Christ said, angels will separate the righteous from the evil. I don’t know about you, but I want to be able to say that I did everything I could to make that evil group as small as possible. Amen.

Written by

Active Duty Army Officer, Husband, Father, Episcopalian

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