A HEALING FOOL
The Gospels depict Jesus as having spent a surprising amount of time healing people…
It is significant also that the Greek verb "sozo" was used in Jesus’ day to mean both to save and to heal, and "soter" could signify either savior or physician.
Ever since the time of Jesus, healing has been part of the Christian tradition. In this century it has usually been associated with religious quackery or the lunatic fringe…
Jesus is reported to have made the blind see and the lame walk, and over the centuries countless miraculous healings have been claimed in his name. For those who prefer not to believe in them, a number of approaches are possible, among them:
1. The idea of miracles is an offence both to man’s reason and to his dignity. Thus, a priori, miracles don’t happen.
2. Unless there is objective medical evidence to substantiate the claim that a miraculous healing has happened, you can assume it hasn’t.
3. If the medical authorities agree that a healing is inexplicable in terms of present scientific knowledge, you can simply ascribe this to the deficiencies of present scientific knowledge.
4. If an otherwise intelligent and honest human being is convinced, despite all arguments to the contrary, that it is God who has healed him you can assume that his sickness, like its cure, was purely psychological...
If your approach to this kind of healing is less ideological and more empirical, you can always give it a try. Pray for it.
If it’s somebody else’s healing you’re praying for, you can try at the same time laying your hands on him as Jesus sometimes did.
If his sickness involves his body as well as his soul, then God may be able to use your inept hands as well as your inept faith to heal him.
If you feel like a fool as you are doing this, don’t let it throw you.
You are a fool of course...
If your prayer
...