What Jesus did #6: he brought healing

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralysed; and he healed them. Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.  Matthew 4:23-25

Jesus brought healing. It was part and parcel of his ministry here on earth. He demonstrated repeatedly that he was the most extraordinary human being ever to have walked the earth by all that he said and all that he did. He showed that he could heal any disease of the body and mind. And so of course, he became big news. People travelled from far and wide in search of the miraculous cure for their loved ones that this preacher guy was dishing out. When someone special to us is suffering, what we want more than anything else is for them to be well again. We’ll do whatever it takes and go wherever we have to if we believe healing and wholeness are within their grasp.

When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him.

When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfil what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:

“He took up our infirmities
and bore our diseases.”   Matthew 8:14-17 (and Mark 1:29-34 and Luke 4:38-44)

Jesus often brings healing without any great fuss. He isn’t motivated by who’s watching; he’s motivated by compassion. He’s healing the sick because this is what he was born to do, what he was sent to do. It’s a glimpse of a time that is coming when there will be no sickness and death.

However, as we saw yesterday, Jesus doesn’t heal everyone. These passages are entitled ‘Jesus Heals Many’, not ‘Jesus Heals All’. It’s the same today. Jesus still brings healing today – but not every time. It’s not something we can ever take for granted. That whole teaching that prevails around ‘If you’re not healed, it’s because you’ve not prayed enough or there’s some unforgiven sin in your life’, that’s just toxic. That does no one any good at all and does plenty of harm.

Things have come a long way since the time that Jesus walked the earth. The advances in medical science have been truly incredible. And yet even the doctors can’t always work the miracle we hope for. Twenty five years ago, my mum was admitted to hospital having suffered a minor heart attack. No one was particularly worried. It all seemed pretty routine and under control. And then she had a cardiac arrest as I was sitting next to her, reading her the cards people had sent. The crash team descended immediately. I was ushered away. Even then, I trusted the doctors to work their magic. If you’re going to have a heart attack, what better place could there be to have it, right? I trusted God to look after my mum. And yet she died. It was an unimaginable shock. Jesus can heal any disease, yes, I totally believe that, but yet in this case, he did not. I didn’t understand and I still don’t understand.

God’s healing is a mystery to us humans. Why would we ever expect to make sense of this in human terms when there is so much about God that we can never understand? Jesus does bring healing. I have no doubt about that. Healing on so many levels: physical, mental, emotional. Science has moved on. Our understanding of the right things to do to nurture our own health has developed. We have so much to be grateful for.

And Jesus works with a transformative power in individual lives. I remember standing up at the front of our church one Christmas about fifteen years ago and explaining why these words from ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’ had so much significance for me personally –

Light and life to all He brings,
Ris’n with healing in His wings.

For me, this healing at that time was all around the crippling depression I’d suffered for much of my life. I will continue to thank God for his light and life and healing for the rest of my days.

He doesn’t heal it all. More than often, that’s the case. You’d think if he wanted everyone to turn to him, a great way to achieve that would be to offer all his followers a life free from suffering and pain. It seemingly doesn’t work like that. Many people are working out their faith in daily pain, terminal illness, ongoing health conditions. Sometimes it is through this faith that they find the strength to carry on and a deep peace and comfort that only God can bring.

Jesus transforms lives. He heals. Not always in the ways we expect or hope for, but he is at work to bring light and life.

Right here, right now.