Healing
When you hear the word healing in connection to Christian circles, what comes to mind?
Do you feel comforted?
Or do you feel a bit uneasy?
Perhaps you are a bit weary?
Maybe you think about a specific type of healing.
Spiritual healing.
Physical healing.
Attitude healing.
Throughout the history of Christianity healing has always been part of the Christian life.
In fact Jesus tells us in the Gospels on numerous times to Go and proclaim His God news and heal the sick.
And in today’s Gospel reading and in a number of other places in scripture we see Jesus and his disciples involved in healing.
Unfortunately, though some people have been turned off Christian healing.
One reason I suspect is that they are worried they can’t explain it.
They can’t explain sometimes how someone is healed.
Or they can’t explain why some people are healed and others aren’t.
This is one of the mysteries of God,
although hopefully today we can gain some insights into why God may heal some people and not others.
But remember there are many things about God we do not know.
Also another major reason is that we are uncomfortable with some people who claim to be Christians and provide healing.
A colleague Lutheran pastor, who believes that healing is part of the ministry of the church, shared with me that at times he is also weary of people claiming to be healers.
He shared with me his experience in a smallish country town, where most of the churches decided to get together for an event, to show their diversity and their unity.
They decided to end the week with an event, a worship celebration of some kind.
Touring around the area there happened to be a traveling healing evangelist.
They decided to book him as their guest preacher for the weekend.
However when some promotional material and some banners arrived some of the church leaders were disappointed.
You see most of the promotion read something along the lines of ‘Come and be healed by Bill Jones (name changed)’
Can you see the problem?
The emphasis was not on Jesus or God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit providing the healing, but on a particular person.
This brings me to a very important point regarding healing.
All healing should be attributed to God, to Jesus.
We should always highlight and remember that all healing takes place so as to glorify God.
And this includes healing that seems to be miracalous and healing that takes place through a hospital.
As I mentioned earlier healing has always been part of the Christian church.
And three recent stories related to healing I would like to share with you today.
One I am quite familiar with.
The other two have been relayed to me by other pastors.
The first is about a gentleman called Tom.
Around 8 months ago, in June Tom was diagnosed with cancer.
And a fairly aggressive form of cancer.
In late November Tom was sent home by the hospital to die.
In fact by now Tom should have been dead.
He was given a hospital bed and regular visits by nurses and other palliative care was arranged.
And he was told he would die the next time he had a major bleed.
At the time of him being diagnosed with cancer Tom was not a Christian.
In fact he was adamant that he could not believe.
If there was a line showing how far Tom was away from God...
If God was here…
Tom was over there (pointing to something around 3 metres away).
And his wife…well she was even further away.
Probably five blocks away.
Fortunately though God had placed someone in Tom’s life who was a Christian and who believed that God could do everything.
We will call this person Bill (not his real name but used because he is a member of one of our congregations and does not want to be identified).
Bill would visit Tom regularly.
As a mate who had known Tom for some time, Bill would drop into see Tom and see how he was going.
He would occasionally and casually talk about Jesus and the future God has prepared everyone who believes.
Tom’s wife didn’t want to hear anything about God and would often leave the house or say they needed to talk in a separate room, because of her attitude to God.
And occasionally Bill would always ask Tom, do you mind if I pray for you?
Tom’s response was I don’t think it will work but you can give it a go.
Now some interesting things have occurred.
At a recent visit to his doctor,
The doctor was scratching his head saying “I can’t work at what has happened but your cancer seems to have reduced.”
Amazingly some physical healing has taken.
However something even more remarkable has occurred.
Tom’s has been healed from his rejection of God.
Tom now sees that no matter what happens he has a future with God.
He is looking forward to spending enternity with God.
He has received physical healing and spiritual healing.
Then there is the story of Dannielle.
Danielle at 3 months old had a seizure and her families were told she had little hope of surviving and even less hope of surviving if she had another seizure.
Her family are members of a local Lutheran church, they were weekly attenders, and saw church and God as one part of their life.
The entire congregation pray for Danielle and her family.
Not only did they pray but also a few other congregations around the town prayed for them.
Danielle is now 20 years old, healthy and has no signs of what had occurred to her at three months.
She has been healed physically.
As a result of this healing, her family place God central in everything, and not just as one part of their life.
Then there is Max.
Max many would say was a committed Christian.
Not only did he go to church, but he was an elder, he visited lots of members, supported the pastor and congregation in many endeavours and had daily devotion and participated in regular bible studies with other Christians.
In fact as you talked to Max, you could sense he truly believed in following Jesus no matter what was happening.
Then it happened.
He came home from the doctor with the results that he had cancer.
Initially he was very angry.
He would shout to God, “why me, why me…I have served you so well, why me?”
However his faith in God lead him to dive into the scriptures and to spend time, a lot of time with God in prayer.
Remarkable some things change.
He sees his illness not so much from his perspective, or as a hindrance to his life,
but from God’s perspective.
He now sees it as an opportunity to mix and share with people he otherwise would not have had the opportunity to mix with.
One of the common comments made about Max at his funeral was that throughout his suffering he was so positive.
And his positiveness was not because he was convinced he would be healed physically,
but because he was convinced that there was something better beyond this life,
that the life, death and resurrection of Jesus actually makes heaven possible for him and everyone who is dieing on this earth.
Max wasn’t healed physically
but his spirit and attitude was healed.
And as a result he brought some healing to others.
These stories of healing highlight some important things about Christian healing.
When we ask God to heal us,
healing occurs in a number of ways.
And not always the same way.
In today’s Gospel reading we will see that Jesus heals in at least 3 ways.
Physically.
Spiritually.
And what I will call attitudely, or of the mind.
But before we look at today’s reading.
There are some perspectives which are foundational and may help us understand healing in a Christian context.
As we skip through scripture we see that
Jesus has no set way of healing people.
There is no strict formula.
When Jesus heals it is no magical formula.
He heals because healing is needed and will be beneficial.
However his approach often differs.
And even the type of healing that takes place can vary.
Also we should not automatically assume or even judge people when they are sick.
Remember what Jesus said in today’s reading.
2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.
Another important Christian foudnational teaching that affects us in all apsects of life is that this life is not our eternal life.
This earth is not our eternal home.
Throughout scripture this is mentioned a number of times, look at Hebrews 11:13-16.
On one of my first visits to a hospital as a pastor, I remember a lady of faith, saying in response to my offer to pray for her, “Yes please, but please don’t pray for physical healing I am 90 years old and would like to go to the place I am meant to be enjoying eternally.”
She had a perspective of life that went beyond this life.
Another perspective we should keep in mind is that
our purpose on earth is to be beneficiaries of God’s eternal gift.
From Romans 6:22-23 we hear
22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in a Christ Jesus our Lord.
And from John 9 verse 39, we hear Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”
As we live our lives God is wanting us to see that He offers us the gift of eternal life.
Some people only realise this after they have been healed.
As your friends and families live their life God is wanting them to see that they are being offered the gift of eternal life.
Think about this in relation to healing and why God heals people.
The final perspective that is important comes from Romans 11, verse 36
For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen.
Everything we do and everything we receive should glorify God.
All healing whether it be through prayer, a doctor, another health professional is to glorify God.
One of the mistakes some people fall into is that they separate healing that occurs as a result of prayer, and healing that occurs as a result of doctors and medical staff.
All are from God,
who do you think gives the doctors and nurses the gifts they have?
God will use at times a combination of things to heal us.
All praise should be given to God.
Now the gospel reading we heard earlier highlights three ways in which Jesus heals.
Verses 1 to 12, highlights the most common healing people seek.
Physical healing.
The man is blind.
And then is given sight.
He is healed from his blindness.
And there are many stories of people healed physically throughout this life.
Jesus has the power to heal people physically and at times we get to see this occuring.
The second healing that occurs is not to the man,
but to some of the Pharisees as a result of this man’s healing.
In verses 13 to 17 we see that the attitudes of some of the Pharisees changes.
Remember the Pharisee’s have a very rigid approach to faith.
However the healing of the blind man divided them.
Some of the Pharisee’s were not so concerned that the man was healed, but were upset that he was healed on the Sabbath.
It was outside what they were comfortable with.
So they had a simple answer to this.
That Jesus could not be from God.
And yet there were other Pharisee’s who as a result of hearing and seeing what Jesus had done, were convinced that he was from God.
Their mind was healed, there attitudes were changed.
And this is an area we often require healing.
At times we have preconceived ideas about who we are or how things should be, which are not always right.
At times our attitudes require healing.
And they are healed when like the Pharisees we move from having to be right,
to seeing what is right, by Jesus.
To accepting that God does not always operate how we beleive he should operate.
And this often leads to being healed spiritually.
Verses 35-39 of today’s reading indicates that Jesus miracle is not just about physical healing.
It is also about being healed spiritually.
About seeing how important Jesus is to life.
When we are healed spiritually we begin to see things from how God sees them, not how we see them.
One of the areas where we often need healing is how we see people and how we see ourselves.
Think about how important Jesus sees people.
As you look at the cross,
think about how much this reflects how important people are to Jesus.
Jesus lived, suffered and died for every single person.
He sees each person as people who are worthy to be given the opportunity to enter his heavenly home.
He sees each person as people who need his love.
Do you see everyone in this same light?
Do you see people no matter who they are needing God’s love, compassion and graciousness?
That’s how God sees you.
That’s how God sees everyone.
Do you see yourself as someone God has accepted into His family, through baptism.
At times we need healing which shows how much God loves us.
And there are also other times when we need healing to remind us that without God we could have achieved nothing.
That God has given us everything we have and achieved.
This is Spiritual healing, and in all cases Spiritual healing will result in us moving from
revolving our life around ourselves or something else, with God at best as an attachment,
to revolving our life around God, around Jesus.
Each day this week I encourage you to ask yourself as you pray and read scripture the following questions:
Lord, where do I need healing?
Lord, show me who needs healing?
They are simple questions, be open to His answer!!
And the answer to these will at times be a little confronting.
But remember what Jesus says Mark chapter 10 verse 27,
With God all things are possible!!! AMEN
