Security Alert...Mark l:40-45

“Jesus could no longer enter a town openly...”  (v. 45 NIV)

Jesus had a security issue.

Here, we talk a lot about security.  It is part of our orientation upon entering the country.  We discuss it at team meetings.  Our phones send us security updates.  We receive security alerts from the US embassy through the internet, we depend on our Afghan friends to keep us informed.

Security issues abound:

To have a doctor or technician take night call from home for the hospital just doesn’t work.  Too dark, too far out from the city, inadequate safe transportation...concern for security.

                                                                                                  Women rarely go out after sundown...security risk.   And even in the day they are discretely covered to show only face and hands, some totally hidden in burkas...to keep them secure from the lustful gaze and lewd comments of men.  Of course, with such attire, men are also more secure from the temptation of the eyes.

Afghans that work with foreigners - my driver, our faculty and doctors in training - are at risk because they work with me.   One day our pediatrician phoned an Afghan colleague, who happened to be traveling in a taxi sitting next to a Talib.  The doctor immediately turned off the phone, fearing  the Talib had overheard an English speaker calling...security issue.  “Are you trying to get me killed?”  he later asked my friend, who was unaware of his circumstance at the time.

                                                                                                        One faculty member works in a nearby District Hospital.  A hospital employee accused him of being a  foreign spy.  Certainly, a potentially dangerous, if not fatal, rumor to spread.    Our female residents are not allowed by their husbands to train in that hospital...security issues.

Another colleague has been invited to be a hospital administrator in his home district.  Everyone tells me it is a security risk.  He says “No problem; it is in the city.”  But, he does not visit his family home just a half hour further west. “A lovely place with over 120 fruit trees.” He tells me. “I have not been able to go there for a couple years.” ....security issues.

We gather at times in small fellowship groups, cautiously, changing our pattern of meetings.  Ignoring Afghan custom,      we do not remove our shoes in the room,  ready to leave quickly on command.  Cars are always parked “heading out”, ready to exit the compound urgently if needed.  No photos at those gatherings...security issues.

“Jesus [was] no longer able to move freely in and out of the city...”  (v. 45 Message) He had a  security problem.

Actually, it was a kind of reverse security issue.  Although he was cautious  (“Don’t tell this to anyone” v.43), it was not because of threat or out of fear, but rather due to his compassion and willingness.   (“Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched the man. ‘I am willing,‘ he said, ‘Be clean’”   v.41 NIV).  In fact, he broke the rules of both personal and religious security (Leviticus 15:51, context Leviticus chapters 11-15),  to reach out and touch this untouchable.  He offered security to another at the risk of losing his own.

Alberto Cairo, director of the International Red Cross Orthopedic Center in Kabul, tells of his experience 21 years ago that prompted the reopening of that facility after it had been closed for security reasons when the Mujahldeen took over Afghanistan. (Ted Talks: www.ted.com/talks/alberto_cairo_there_are_no_scraps_of_men.html)  

He first saw Mahmoud as the dust settled after the explosion of a bomb “not far from my car - well far enough..,” as he puts it.   Mahmoud was in a wheel chair,in the middle of the then immediately abandoned street.  His young son was anxiously pushing from behind while  Mahmoud frantically stroked one wheel of his chair with his single remaining arm. Both legs and one arm had been previously amputated following an earlier injury.  Alberto, out of foolish compassion, felt no option but to tell this man to come to the closed Orthopedic Center and get fitted for a prosthesis the next day. He had no idea how that locked facility could meet the man’s needs.  But, as the story has unfolded since, “in that lonely place... people still [come] to him from everywhere” (ref. Mark 1:45).  In fact, more than 7000 new amputees every year have been fitted with limbs...and society...since then.

Last Summer, when I first met Alberto, his sharp mind, enthusiastic vision, and quick wit  were exceeded only by his obvious compassion.  “This is a rehabilitation center,” he said.  “We do not accept acute injuries.  We are not a trauma hospital”  But, that morning he had admitted a man - shot through the neck a few days before - unable to move from the neck down, left quadriplegic.  He had been seen at five hospitals and refused care at all five.   “What else can you do?”  Alberto sighed, explaining his decision to set aside his usual admission policy.

“Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out ... and touched...I am willing..,” he said.

Oh, the willingness of God With Us to breech security on my behalf  (John 11:7, 8, 16; Phillipians 2:6-11) that I might be clean before the High Priest, the Holy One, the Creator on the throne who makes all things new (Rev 21).   He secures the neighborhood.   

‘Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They're his people, he's their God. He'll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good—tears gone, crying gone, pain gone..."  (Rev 21:4 Message)

 Security issues...gone.