A Christian’s Heart
“A Wounded Healer’s Heart”
Watch on YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpF2ETQABIU
In our series on the heart of a Christian we’re looking at those qualities that every Christian needs and should have. Today’s is no exception; in fact, it’s vital in our sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.
The overall call that we’ve been given is to be like Christ, to follow Him and the example He lays out for us, which is what we’ve been studying throughout this series. This means that we need to have the heart of a wounded healer like Jesus Christ who identifies with human pain and suffering because He Himself was not only fully God, but fully human, thus becoming a channel for healing.
Jesus Christ through His brokenness and wounds heals our pain and binds up our wounds.
What we could say is that His power to heal is off the chain, it’s greater than all the medicines combined. His ability to speak peace into our hearts is greater than whatever peace the world can give, and His power brings joy that is greater than anything this world can ever offer.
Compassion and caring are at the heart of God; therefore, it needs to be a core ingredient of our hearts as well.
And the healing we need is on many levels. We are emotionally, physically, and spiritually wounded although many of us have become adept at hiding it being deceived by a spirit of deception.
Loneliness, despair, disappointment, discouragement, depression and/or aggression, all are symptoms of deep wounds that have never truly been healed, and while Jesus came to heal all our diseases, He has called those who are His people to be those healers as well, even though we’ve been wounded ourselves. Now, we don’t heal the people, what we do is point them to Jesus, who is the ultimate wounded healer.
The Lord reveals this about Jesus as the coming Messiah. He is the wounded healer of Isaiah 53.
“He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5 NKJV)
Jesus is the ultimate wounded healer. And when He walked upon the earth, He healed people of their hurts and diseases. He healed them not only physically, but also emotionally and spiritually as well.
Mark, in his gospel, said that Jesus “Healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons.” (Mark 1:34a NKJV)
We are also told of the coming Messiah that He would heal those who are brokenhearted in Isaiah 61:1, which is the passage Jesus used of His own ministry.
But why did Jesus have to become wounded to heal us? The reason is so that He can sympathize and help us through whatever we’re going through.
And what this means is that we don’t have to face the pain alone. The writer of Hebrews says this about Jesus.
“For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15 NKJV)
How else could Jesus have been that perfect substitute sacrifice without going through it Himself.
Jesus took on the form of a human being, one with all its physical limitations. He chose to suffer, feeling the same pain; knowing the same grief; and being hurt just like us.
He is our wounded healer because He understands what it is to be hated, despised, rejected, abused, and to be an outcast even amongst His own people.
The prophet Isaiah said, “He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.” (Isaiah 53:3 NKJV)
And on top of it all He carried the sin and sorrow of the whole world as He hung upon the cross, taking our place and dying the death we all deserve as it says in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death, and in Romans 3:22-23, the Apostle Paul said that all those who have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory can have eternal life through Jesus Christ by faith.
Jesus was beaten, bruised, and deeply wounded, so that He would be able to heal us of our sin, which is the most potent hurt of them all.
The Apostle Peter said, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by his wounds you have been healed.’” (1 Peter 2:24 NIV)
And so, we are to come to our wounded healer, Jesus, to be healed of our wounds; physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
And it’s with this same heart, a wounded healer’s heart that He has called for us to minister to those He has placed within our sphere of influence.
We should be moved when we see the devastating images from a natural disaster. Or get a knot in our stomach when we hear of a love one’s or friend’s illness. And that’s because we are image bearers of God here upon the earth.
That is, we feel what He feels, and we hurt when He hurts. The Bible says that we have been made in the image and likeness of God, therefore, it is a believer’s greatest honor to bear His image.
And as we embrace and step into the life of a believer in Jesus Christ, it is with this knowledge that we are His image bearers and when we show up, He shows up, and when we love others, He is loving them. In other words, we are cooperating with Him to give others His love, light, and life.
Now, as I look at Jesus as our wounded healer, there are several aspects of having a heart like the heart of Jesus, a wounded healer’s heart. The first is having a heart of compassion.
1. A Heart of Compassion
In the seventh chapter of the Gospel of Luke there’s a very powerful scene.
Jesus was approaching the city of Nain where he encounters a large procession of mourners carrying the body of a mother’s only son. Seeing her obvious grief, it says that Jesus had compassion on her. He touched the coffin and said, “Arise,” and the young man sat up and began to speak.
The word “compassion” that is used here is very telling and one that is instructive if we truly want to be followers of Christ. And while it’s the word for having pity or feeling sympathy, it goes much deeper. It comes from within the very bowels of a person, which is often referred to as the seat of emotions.
Jesus felt the pain and anguish of that mother’s loss way down in His guts. And having compassion for her He met the need.
This is the heart of Jesus. When He saw a need the Bible says He had compassion, like at the feeding of the five thousand. When He saw the multitude that was waiting for His arrival, it says, “He was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things.” (Mark 6:34 NKJV)
And in His compassion for them, seeing that they had nothing to eat, He miraculously multiplied what little food they had and fed over 5,000 people (Mark 6:35-42).
This same compassion was part of Paul’s recommendation for believers.
He said, “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion (tender mercies), kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” (Colossians 3:12 NIV)
Every day God places people in our lives that are consumed with deep pain. Maybe a loved one, friend, or neighbor has had someone close to them die, or illness has struck, and their pain, both physical and emotional, is real.
What I believe God is calling for us to do is to stop being so busy with our own lives and respond to their need with this sort of “from the bowels” compassion, or what some would call empathy.
Who can we reach out to today? Who can we offer the compassion of Jesus to? We need to take a moment and slow down and pay attention to those who the Lord may be putting in our path.
We are called to share in their feelings and emotions as if they were our own. This leads me to the second aspect of a wounded healer’s heart, and that is, a wounded healer’s heart is that of a giver.
2. A Heart of a Giver
Usually when this concept of giving comes up we think about the giving of our assets, which usually consists of our tithes and offerings. We see this throughout the Bible especially when the people of God gave willingly, and also how God loves a cheerful giver.
And while this should be at the heart of every Christian, this is not exactly the type of giving that we’re looking at, when we look at the heart of a wounded healer. It’s a heart that gives of itself to help others in need.
As a wounded healer Jesus gave of Himself to heal those who were likewise wounded and in need.
Again, I go back to Isaiah’s suffering servant passage.
“He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5 NKJV)
Not only did Jesus give Himself upon the cross, but as He walked this earth He also continued to give as He healed all those who came to Him.
“Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, ‘If You are willing, You can make me clean.’ Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.’” (Mark 1:40-41 NKJV)
Now, while the religious may have ostracized Him by touching someone considered to be unclean, Jesus gave of Himself, and the Lord calls for us to do the same. We are to help heal the wounds of others with the same comfort and grace that God used in our healing process. Think about this, and then what it says in the Bible that while we were still sinners, Jesus came and died for us (Romans 5:8).
The Apostle Paul said, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NKJV)
It is such a giving heart that the Lord Jesus pays attention to and blesses in His End Times parable saying, “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” (Matthew 25:40 NKJV)
The final aspect of a wounded healer’s heart is that it is a heart of faith.
3. A Heart of Faith
It was to Jesus, the wounded healer, that the woman with the issue of blood came and by faith, which is the key, she reached out and touched the hem or the tassels at the base of Jesus’s garment and was healed. And we know this was by faith because Jesus turned to her and said, “Your faith has healed you.” (Matthew 9:20-22)
Jesus is the Great Physician, and not only does He heal our physical ailments, but He also heals our sin-sick souls.
Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” (Luke 5:31-32 NKJV)
When John the Baptist was in prison, he sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus whether he was “the Coming One.” And Jesus responded, “Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them.” (Luke 7:18-22)
And then Jesus said, “And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” (Luke 7:23 NKJV)
He was basically saying, “Blessed are those who have faith in Me.”
We must have our faith in Jesus, our Great Physician, as we come to Him so that He can treat our wounds, especially our wounded souls. Having faith, however, in the Great Physician, means that we are to follow His directions, that is, obey His word.
On one occasion Jesus said to the Pharisees, “Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46 NKJV)
As we look at Him as our Great Physician, we could change this up a little bit and say, “Why do you call Me your physician, if you’re not going to follow my instructions?"
Our faith in Jesus as our physician is valuable only if we follow His remedy to heal what ails us. Our faith should be leading us to observe and follow God’s instructions as found in His word, the Bible.
Paul saw this faith in a crippled man. When the man heard Paul’s message it says he had the faith to be healed.
“Paul, observing him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, ‘Stand up straight on your feet!’ And he leaped and walked.” (Acts 14:9-10 NKJV)
Today doctors don’t do house calls; instead, we are to go to their offices to receive the benefits of his or her treatment. This is essential for our recovery.
To be healed we must come to Christ. Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28 NKJV)
But there were some who wouldn’t come, and so Jesus said, “But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” (John 5:40 NKJV)
Conclusion
Jesus is the Great Physician; He is our wounded healer, and He is here to heal
Sometimes the hurt can go on for a very long time, and generally we think of this in the physical sense, but it is more often hidden in the deepest recesses of our soul and heart, because we’re hoping that somehow, we can forget it, or that it will just go away. But it just keeps coming back, and we can’t find the peace we need. But God is greater than the hurt and sorrow.
And no matter how heavy the load, or how burdened we may feel, or how overwhelmed we are, Jesus understands our grief and He’s able to take it, carry it, and heal us of it.
Jesus is greater than our pain, greater than our sorrow, greater than our hurt, and greater than our doubts and fears. And the great thing about this is that He can not only carry the load, but He can cast it as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12).
So, give it all to Jesus, because as the Psalmist says, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” (Psalms 147:3 NKJV)
Are you in any physical, emotional, or spiritual distress? Has your spirit been wounded, your heart broken, and your faith shaken? Give it all over to Jesus and have your faith firmly established in Him, because He is your Great Physician. He is your wounded healer; and He is here to heal you.
