I don’t think that you are going to be surprised that I am now going to mention the Super Bowl this morning and the fact that my Pittsburgh Steelers won! Yes, last Sunday they pulled out a great game and although watching it on television was enjoyable, I would have loved to be there in person. I know it is next to impossible to obtain Super Bowl tickets unless you are either very rich or you personally know one of the players.
Prior to the game, there were a number of interviews by players on both sides talking about how many cousins, relatives and long lost friends rose up to congratulate them on making it to the Super Bowl. After the congratulations of course these “cousins” whom the players never knew they had, wanted tickets to the game. The phone rings off the hook. “Troy…yea, it’s your cousin Hector. Yeah, I am your fifth cousin, twice removed, from your step mother’s side of the family. Yeah, don’t you remember? I played hopscotch with you once when we were kids. Yea, those were the good ol’ days, weren’t they? By the way, I hear you have some extra tickets to the big game…”
It is quite comical to hear these stories from professional players. Here it is, the biggest game of their life and suddenly every tom, dick and harry calls them up to see if they can grab a little piece of the pie, so to speak. One player even suggested that these “relatives” were bold enough to come to their house, just to “chat”. Right, that’s the ticket. They came over just to “chat”. Yes, if you’ve suddenly got Super Bowl tickets, you’re suddenly popular. And before you know it; you have a larger family or group of friends to boot!
Well, for Jesus, it obviously wasn’t Super Bowl tickets that brought people out of the woodwork, (although if Jesus was teaching in 2009, that would not have been a bad idea), instead it was His healing powers, which was even better than tickets; even better than money. What we heard in our Gospel reading was that they came into the house of Simon and Andrew, where Simon’s mother in law was lying sick with a fever. The disciples immediately spoke to Jesus about her and Jesus took action! He took her by the hand and BAM! The illness left her.
Now, this is where things get really interesting. Right after Jesus goes to Peter’s house and heals his mother-in-law, suddenly every neighbor with a headache shows up at their front door to be healed! Verse 33 says “The whole city was at the door!” “THE WHOLE CITY”…FOLKS! Word travels fast! And this was before email and telephones and even the U.S. Postal Service! No video conferencing; no UPS, just good-old fashioned word of mouth traveling by sandal-clad people all around the town.
And Jesus was kind and gracious to them. Unlike the Super Bowl players who might have asked, “how much are they worth to you”, Jesus did not expect payment. He simply healed them and cast out many demons as well. If I was around when Jesus was doing all this healing, I would have sent him my 6th grade teacher because I am sure she was demon possessed. Yes, I would have gotton on the Jesus healing for free bandwagon back then, as would we all. We would have all be thankful for whatever healing Jesus provided but would that have been the only reason we would have gone to Jesus?
That thought gave me pause to ask what was it really that brought them to Jesus? I looked for something more than just physical ailments. However upon further study I found that it was just their physical needs; or the physical needs of someone they loved, that motivated them. Just like that player who owned those Super Bowl tickets, Jesus suddenly had something that they wanted. This is one of my encouragements for ministry here at faith, we need to find what people want; what they need. Meeting needs is a very important part of ministry. We can’t blame anyone that went to Jesus simply to be healed, you and I would do the same thing. But shouldn’t there be more?
Got a hangnail, go see Jesus. Got a migraine, go to Jesus! Got a sore back, go to Jesus! Got a sore throat, go see Jesus! Got a nasty disease, go to Jesus! Got a demon, go to Jesus! How simple is that!? Who wouldn’t want to go!!??? In fact, if Jesus came here today and stood at the door of faith Lutheran offering to heal, this place would be jumping. But would it be jumping for the right reasons?
So, we see that Jesus endured this endless supply of want from his people. He dealt with them all night. It says here that that evening “He healed many who were sick with various diseases and cast out many demons.” But now we need to answer the question I put to you earlier….that is…”should there be more?” Jesus did have a hidden agenda; a deeper meaning if you will for doing what he did. If not, he would never have felt a need to go on the cross. If healing people of their illnesses was all that mattered, he would have just stuck around and opened up a clinic, offering free Super Bowl tickets on your 100th visit.
Of course, on the surface, He did heal them because Jesus is compassionate, He is merciful. Jesus doesn’t like to see anyone suffer! But just looking at how many people came to see Jesus, you’ve got to see that there is something wrong. There is some sort of epidemic going on. People are sick. People are hurting. People are dealing with demon possession, just like my sixth grade teacher. Even here in our congregation, we all have our aches and pains. In fact last Sunday while I shared God’s message with you, I had a fever of 100 and if Jesus was around doing his healing thing, don’t you know that I would have cut short my sermon and went to see him? But, all of us are hurting and that should tell us something. It should tell us that something is wrong, deathly wrong.
There is an overabundance of sin in this world! That is what is wrong. The demon-possessed and the disease-ridden are showing us symptoms of a deeper and larger problem.
What would you say if I was your doctor and we just found out that you have cancer, and my response and action to you was to put a band aid on you before sending you on your way? Would you think I was a quack? I would hope so! Well that is what is going on as Jesus heals these physical problems. He is putting a band aid on something that requires greater attention. Yet in this case nobody realizes there is some greater illness that is still eating away at them. They could walk around with no demon or no leprosy, but they were still sick. Jesus could have cured their cancer but they were still sick. Jesus had only eliminated a few of the symptoms. The sickness went deeper than leprosy or even demon-possession. I can’t say it enough times…something still remained. Something very, very, very bad still lingered.
Jesus had a deeper reason for healing them. He wanted them to know who He was; He wanted them to trust His Words. He wanted them to start getting the idea that it was Him! He was indeed the promised Messiah; the one the prophets of old had been talking about since the days of Moses! God had come in the flesh! Immanuel! “God with us” is here, standing right in front of you! Here to forgive the sins of the world, to heal us from what was most important; sin.
Casting out demons and healing diseases was a means to an end. And that end was for them to believe! The idea was that if He could get this first generation of New Testament people to believe, then grandiose healings and demonic exorcisms would no longer be as necessary.
People would simply thrive on and trust in His Words. People would not live to be healed of physical things, but of deeper spiritual things. In other words, they would realize that His kingdom was not of this world, but of another.
One of the best places Christ ever showed this intention is found in Mark chapter 2. It was the account of when four guys brought their crippled friend for Christ to heal. You remember that story. Jesus was preaching in a house, beneath a thatched roof. And it was so crowded, that these four men, carrying their friend on a makeshift cot, had to climb the stairs outside up to the roof, dragging their friend along, and then dig a hole large enough to let their friend down into the middle of the room where Jesus was preaching.
Jesus was very moved by their love for their friend, but even more so by their faith in Him. So you know what He does? Not what you’d expect; not what Hollywood would have done with this scene. Hollywood would have Jesus be so touched by the diligence of these friends that He would heal this man very dramatically, and everyone would all watch him stand up and dance out of the house. That would make a great show, wouldn’t it?
But no, Jesus was so moved by the love and faith of these friends that He decided to give the greatest gift He could ever give this crippled man. Everyone thought it would be physical healing; that need was so obvious. But Jesus knows that all physical disease and pain is in this world solely because sin is in this world. So if physical pain should remind us of anything, it shouldn’t be physical need; it should be spiritual need. Physical troubles should drive us to be healed spiritually. When we suffer physically, we should be begging for the Lord’s Supper. When we suffer emotionally, we should be pleading for absolution. For these physical things should remind us of nothing other than we carry the sin-gene and live in a sin-world.
For no one would ever experience physical ailments if it weren’t for sin. So what does Jesus do? He gives this crippled man the very best gift God has to offer; higher than even the gift of miraculous physical healing: He gives him…forgiveness of sins. Jesus turns His attention from the beloved faith of his four friends, and looks directly at the crippled man and says, “Child, your sins are forgiven.”
And you know what the average person would say? “Yea, thanks a lot, now could you do something about my legs?” That was the mentality of the crowds that day at Simon Peter’s house. “Heal me, Jesus! No, Heal me, Jesus!” And to His credit, He did. But it was also important for them to learn the lesson he would later teach this crippled man and his friends. True healing goes much deeper than physical paralysis, or the sores of leprosy, or cancerous cells, or even demon possession. True healing isn’t a temporal fix, but an eternal gift.
So, after a long night of healing and exorcisms, Jesus gets up early in the morning, before anyone else is awake, and while it is still dark He goes out alone to pray. We are not given the contents of that prayer, but we are told what was on Jesus’s mind shortly thereafter. He wanted to get on with His preaching! When Peter finally found Him, that’s what Jesus said: “Let’s go onto the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out [here in the dark, away from the people].”
In other words, lest these or any other people think that I came from the Father merely to bring them physical healing, I must get on with more of my spiritual healing ministry. It is far more important, and there are many more places to go. Jesus was saying that people needed His Word, far more importantly than they needed some physical cure.
Even today, people hope that Jesus is primarily about physical healing. They want Him to cure a disease, repair a financial crisis, mend a broken arm, or fix a marriage, put food on the table. And when these things don’t magically happen, they either abandon their Lord before He gets a chance to speak, or they ignore Him when He does.
But Jesus wants us to know that all those things: diseases, financial crises, broken arms and hurting marriages are the effects of sin in the world. And Jesus is the answer to sin; He became sin for you and me, so that we might become righteous for His Father.
And it doesn’t mean that if you believe in Jesus that you won’t suffer some of these things. It doesn’t mean you’ll never experience hunger or thirst. Even Jesus Himself once said, “I thirst” in the midst of suffering, so why should it be any different for any of us?
Jesus healed people so that they would understand that in the midst of a dark world of pain and suffering, He comes as The Light! I am the Messiah! These physical healings show you that. But there is coming an even greater proof. I will die and rise again in three days, and then there will be no more need for massive group healings. Because there is no greater proof that I am God than for Me to die and fulfill My promise to rise again. And then… “It is finished!” Not only have I proven who I am, but your sins are forgiven.
So, even though Jesus healed a few more people before He went to the cross, His primary focus was now upon His preaching and teaching—to prepare people for after the cross. They needed to believe His Words, not just their eyes. They needed to come to Him for forgiveness, not just for physical cures. Because you see, a diseased body of a forgiven man is far better than a healthy body of an unbeliever; any day of the week! And that’s why we sang today: “Thy cross, not mine, O Christ, has borne the awefull load…” It’s not about having our temporary, physical crosses lifted from us. It’s about the eternal cross we deserve that Christ has already lifted for us that matters. “Thy cross, not mine, O Christ, has borne the awefull load…”(TLH#380) As we suffer with whatever we have, rather than complain to God, we thank Him that we do not suffer with the Cross of His Son.
Now, remember when all those people came to Peter’s house to be healed? It seems rather important at this point to ask, “Why is it that you come to this house every week?” Is it so that Jesus will heal your physical pains, cure your financial stresses, repair your broken marriage, or fix your broken bones? Or is it to receive something more meaningful than all of those temporary things? Is it to receive something that will hold you up for eternity even in the midst of those earthly crosses?
Because you know, Christ hasn’t promised to be here each week to bring physical healings. Not that He can’t—or won’t. But there is a deeper reason—a higher purpose—for His being here each week. Think of yourself as the cripple let down through that roof. And instead of what you might have at first hoped for; instead of Jesus making you rise to pick up your bed and walk, He says to you instead, “Child, I want to give you the greatest gift I have; Greater than the cure for cancer; greater than financial freedom; greater than a trouble-free marriage to the most terrific spouse on the planet! Greater than even you walking again. Those things are mere band-aides put on symptoms. I want to give you the cure for the cause of those things: I want to give you forgiveness for your sins.”
Consider it given.
In Jesus’s name, Amen.
