Jesus the Healer
Epiphany has been a time of shedding light on the true
identity of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is
God’s own Son, with whom the Father is well pleased. He is the Lord of Life. The one who calls us to follow him. He is a prophet like Moses. He teaches with authority, and casts out
demons with authority. Like a diamond
with all its facets, we’ve been seeing Jesus from all these different angles. Thanks be to God for the brilliant beauty of
such a picture as Scripture paints of him.
In today’s Gospel reading we see Jesus in yet another light.
The healer. The Great Physician. Let’s consider this more deeply this morning.
This year has put a fine point on it for most of us – the
importance of our health. Even without a
pandemic, a pastor knows well the way illness and disease can disrupt the
course of life. We pray special prayers
most every Sunday for those who are sick and suffering. I visit with most people especially when they
are hospitalized. It seems that the gift
of good health is often taken for granted, and we appreciate it most keenly
when we fall ill.
And so apart from doctoring and distancing, mask-wearing and
vaccinating, we pray for our own health and for others. It is really quite humbling, isn’t it, that
there is in the end not much we can do about our health. Eventually some illness or disease will take
us, even if it’s just old age. Life in
this world is fragile and fleeting, we cometh up like the grass and are cut
down.
The cause of the trouble is always sin, of course. Sometimes our own sin. Sometimes the sin that first marred the
world. The wages of sin is death, and
death creeps in through disease and maladies of all manner – leprosy, fever,
paralysis, blindness, deafness, and on and on.
Today we’ve cured many of these, but are still far from understanding
others. We have vaccines and treatments,
but in the end, there’s always an end to us.
Death comes knocking. The real
disease is in our hearts, it corrupts our entire being. And it is always terminal.
But Jesus is here, in Capernaum. And he has authority even over sickness, and
even over death. He heals Peter’s mother
in law. He heals people with all manner
of disease. His great compassion moves
him. But it is not why he came.
After a long day of addressing the needs of so many who came
with their trials and diseases, Jesus retreats for a time of prayer. He does this not only for himself, but also
for us. Healing and prayer of course go
together. We know it well.
But when the disciples find him, he says it’s time to
go. Because his real mission is not to
stay put and open a divine hospital. His
real mission is to go and preach. To
announce the good news of the kingdom that is at hand, and that in him, has now
arrived. The Gospel is the real medicine.
Today we find many Christians who teach a wrong-headed
gospel of faith healing. That if you
just believe hard enough, pray earnestly enough, and often, give generously
enough – that God will answer your prayers and heal you. I’ve even seen a commercial on TV from some
group offering a little packet of magic spring water – drink it – and all your
problems will go away!
But if you listen carefully to the prayers at church, you
will hear some important words when we pray for the sick. “According to your will, Oh Lord”. So here is the important distinction.
When we pray for things that God has revealed as his will –
that sinners be forgiven, that faith is strengthened, and the like… we simply
ask for these things. For we know he
wants us to have them.
But if we pray for a certain disease to be healed, or a
certain person to be restored to health – we always pray “according to God’s
will”, humbly recognizing that he doesn’t reveal his will in such matters. Sometimes it is his will to heal, and when he
does so, thanks be to God. And sometimes he allows us to suffer an illness for
a very long time. But sometimes even Christians get sick and die. Sometimes it’s not God’s will to heal our
bodies, but rather to receive us into his nearer presence. And when that happens, thanks be to God, his
will is done.
In fact, even Peter’s mother in law, and all those other
people Jesus healed, eventually got sick again and died. Even the ones Jesus raised from the dead, the
widow’s son at Nain, Jairus’s little daughter, and his own dear friend Lazarus,
we can only assume again faced death some day.
So no matter the person, no matter the healing he gives, whether our
body’s own natural devices to overcome disease, or modern medicine, or some
fantastical miraculous instance of healing… all of it is temporary. Even for the best and most faithful among us.
But all of this is only part of the story. This only regards the healing of the body
here and now, this side of eternity. The
great good news for us is that all who are in Christ will receive perfect
healing, restoration, life, and fullness – on the last day. At the resurrection of the dead – death and
all of its subsidiaries will be destroyed.
When our bodies are restored, and glorified, death will no longer have
hold of us in any way shape or form. And
so disease and suffering will be left behind, as God himself wipes every tear
from our eyes. This is our true and
final hope. This is the promise God has
made and will fulfill.
This is why Jesus is the Great Physician and the ultimate
healer of body and soul. Yes, of course, we thank him for any healing and
health we enjoy here and now. But the
best is yet to come. Death, what looks
to us like the final defeat, is for Christians now the gate to eternity and the
shedding of the fallen flesh to make ready for the glorified body.
This is why Jesus has come.
To preach the good news of all that he was about to accomplish. To draw sinners to him for healing – true and
lasting healing – healing of body and soul – healing that overcomes death even
for eternity.
He would procure it for you, and for us all, at the
cross. Defeating death, swallowing death
whole by his death. Winning life by
giving up his own. Sparing you by shedding his own holy, precious blood. And there, in the place of all sinners, all
sin is forever cured.
His resurrection is the sign and seal of that victory. It is
the guarantee and preview of the perfect health and life that awaits us all on
the other side of death. Christ is risen
– and so you too will rise.
And so the healing that Christ worked in Capernaum was
itself just a foretaste of the fullness of health and life that he brings to
all who trust in him. The healing that
we enjoy today is likewise, but a shadow of the eternal health and wholeness we
will receive when he comes again in glory.
And yet there’s even more.
For while we wait for that day, he gives us the medicine of
immortality. We are blessed to receive
his true body and blood in the sacrament of the altar. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there
is also life and salvation.
What started in Galilee would continue to Jerusalem. Jesus healed many along the way. And after his time of preaching was done, and
the hour appointed had arrived, Jesus would bring the only balm that heals for
good the wound of sin. By his stripes we
are healed, not just now, but for eternity.
Let us close with the words of a hymn, “Jesus Grant That
Balm and Healing”, whose fourth verse is as follows:
Ev'ry wound that pains or grieves me
By Your wounds, Lord, is made whole;
When I'm faint, Your Cross revives me,
Granting new life to my soul.
Yes, Your comfort renders sweet
Ev'ry bitter cup I meet;
For Your all atoning passion
Has procured my soul's salvation.
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment