Making the Invisible Visible

This past week, I have been thinking a lot about visibility.

I thought of it mostly in terms of some actions I witnessed that touched me.

• One family I know is going through a rough time, and some other families are making meals for them for the next few weeks.
• Another person I know decided to reach out to someone whom they know that has almost no one visiting them in the nursing home and has committed to go once each week for the next month.
• A colleague went the extra mile for a person who has been a bit rude and critical lately – knowing that the client is going through hard times and is stressed out and acting out.
• There are PRIDE flags everywhere on my street

These are not earth-shattering stories by any means. And yet they are powerful stories because they help to make someone more visible in this life. They convey the message that we see the struggle and would like to be there with them in it.

I know that when people have acknowledged me or acknowledged a challenge that I am facing, it means a lot, and I would guess that we would all say the same. And I honestly believe that when someone is acknowledged for who they are or for what they’re going through, our nervous systems relax a bit and find some ease.

In today’s gospel, Jesus makes people visible – twice. Once expectedly and once unexpectedly. We’re told in Matthew 9, “While Jesus was speaking, an official came forward, knelt down before him, and said, ‘My daughter has just died. But come, lay your hand on her, and she will live.’” So Jesus sets off with the official. En route, “a woman suffering hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the tassel on his cloak. She said to herself, ‘If only I can touch his cloak, I shall be cured.’”

Now A LOT could be unpacked (and should be unpacked!) in this reading that space in this blog does not allow. So I will just focus on the visibility piece for now.

Jesus is approached by a man (we’re told an ‘official,’ so we know he has some public status) whose daughter has died. Jesus knows the desperation and grief of this family and pledges his willingness to accompany them. Their suffering is already more visible and acknowledged, in part, because of this man’s social standing. Jesus honors it regardless.

The hemorrhaging woman, however, is socially marginalized. She is considered ‘unclean’ and is, in effect, invisible in society. And so is her pain.  Jesus’ acknowledgement of her personhood and her situation brings her into the spotlight and says to her, “I see you and what you’re going through.” In addition to having her blood flow stopped, another part of the healing that happens is for her to be publicly re-cognized which means to “know again.”  Visibility makes people known again in the community.

The great public intellectual Cornell West once famously said, “Justice is what love looks like in public, just like tenderness is what love feels like in private.”

I think both of these are true when we make people’s lives more visible. Justice becomes more possible and tenderness flows.

This is why visibility is so important.

Whether it is something so simple as remembering someone’s name or pronouns or doing something that requires more of our time or energy, helping others feel visible can be a game changer and sets things in motion that we cannot always fully appreciate or understand. It is a dynamic that is at the heart of the scriptural tradition where God says, “I have heard the cries of my people (Ex 3:7),” and is carried on in the work of the prophets and, ultimately, in the work of Jesus.

Perhaps as we move through our week, we can work to make someone (or their life or circumstances) more visible. This could be at an individual level (like in most of the examples that I mentioned above), but it also could be making visible a group of people as well (perhaps people whose lives are left out of the dominant discourses or media attention).

Moreover, Jesus was clear in his teachings that almost everyone does things for people in their social circles. And this is a good thing. But he goes on to say that it is doing things for those who are outside of our social circles or are on the margins that is most resonant with what he was here to do. Making visible those who cannot return the favor held the highest place for Jesus.

It is my hope that you have people who help you feel visible in life. And may you do the same for others.