[Members of other congregations might also find these "passes" helpful because something like 80-90% of the time, the Bible lessons we use are from the lectionary (or lesson plan) used by we Lutherans, as well as Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, and many Methodists, Presbyterians, American Baptists, and others.]
Mark 1:29-39:
29As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. 31He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
32That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. 33And the whole city was gathered around the door. 34And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. 35In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. 36And Simon and his companions hunted for him. 37When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” 38He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” 39And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.
A Big Concern:
This text confronts us with an enormous cluster of issues surrounding the question of healing.
Christians acknowledge that:
- Jesus is God enfleshed. That means He possesses all the attributes the Bible associates with God, things like omnipotence, omniscience, and compassion.
- Jesus has the ability to heal and can heal anybody He chooses to heal.
- Jesus promises that the same power to heal and to relieve people of the influence of demonic forces is reposed in those of us who follow Him.
- Jesus is the sign of a God Who wishes to be deeply involved in the lives of human beings.
Does Christ care?These are important questions. The temptation is to respond to them with facile answers that sweep the problems they raise under the metaphorical rug.
Can He heal?
(1) Some for example, take refuge in what a colleague of mine and I used to call "wallow theology." The proponents of wallow theology in effect, believe that after Jesus rose from the dead, He left us to simply fend for ourselves while evil washes over us. Jesus might have healed, these folks say, but that has little to do with our circumstances today. There are supposedly reputable Christian theologians who adhere to such a view.
They remind me of the woman in my internship congregation whose theology was simply, "We do the best we can do. We do the best we can do." But that's not the Jesus we meet on the pages of the Bible! He said, "With God, all things are possible." I'm unwilling to give up on that promise.
(2) Others take refuge in a version (a perversion) of Christian faith that's all about miracles, signs, and wonders. Whether it's the professional purveyor of faith in miracles or the desperate people on whom they prey, people who buy into this brand of Christianity are taking a wrong turn.
They're like those Jesus upbraided in John 6. After Jesus performed the miracle of feeding more than 5000 people, He headed out for another destination. But the crowd formed an armada that chased Jesus across the sea. Why? Jesus said that instead of seeing the miracle as a sign of Who He is (God and Savior) and of what He can offer to them (life), the crowd saw Jesus as a meal ticket. They worshiped the sign rather than the sign-giver.
They saw Jesus as a means to an easier life. But Jesus doesn't promise that our time on earth will be easy. "In this world, you will have trouble," He once said.
And it's true to say that every person we ask God to heal will eventually die. (Unless, of course, they're living when Jesus returns to the world.) Consider Lazarus, Jesus' friend. In John 11, Jesus calls him back from the grave, after being dead for four days. Yet the poor devil had to die again.
Jesus does perform miracles, even today. I've known many people whose bodies, psyches, and relationships were restored after they and others had prayed. Healing happened.
But I have also known people for whom many prayers were offered who weren't healed.
What should we say to all of this? Our Bible lesson may help us to see a few things:
(1) Even when Jesus was on earth, He didn't heal everybody. At the end of our Bible lesson, Simon and company want Jesus to go back to heal the throngs of people not yet touched by Him. But Jesus insists that He must go on to proclaim repentance and renewal and to perform healings and exorcisms in other places.
This doesn't reflect a lack of compassion on Jesus' part. A sinless Savior Who goes to a cross to take the punishment of people who deserve that punishment can hardly be said to be hard-hearted or lacking in compassion.
Rather, it speaks to the nature of Jesus' miracles. They are, as mentioned above, signs. Signs never point to themselves. They point beyond themselves. They point to something or someone. Jesus' miracles--be they healings, exorcisms, mass feedings, or bringing people back to life--aren't the ends or objects of our faith. They're indicators that the compassionate, wonder-working Savior Who performs them is worthy of our complete trust.
(2) Physical healing isn't the ultimate object of the Christian's life. "If for this life only we have hoped in Christ," the apostle Paul once wrote, "then we are of all people, most to be pitied." Our desire as Christians is to live with God forever. That means willingly turning from all that might separate us from God's righteousness and making Christ the number one priority in our lives.
After Karen, the woman I wrote about here died, I was given a note she had prepared for me in case this happened. "Please tell everybody who prayed for me that just because I died, this doesn't mean their prayers didn't 'work'," Karen told me. Being healthy, she went on to say, is more than having a healthy body here on earth.
(3) The Church is given the gift of healing. But we limit God when we say that it can only happen in certain proscribed ways. God can use our prayers. God can use doctors. God can use those who have the spiritual gift of healing and can lay on hands. A sovereign God can use any means He chooses. He can even choose not to heal.
(4) We will not be able to bring healing to everyone. Just as Jesus, during His earthly incarnation as a man, dealt with the limitations of time and space that features in His decision to move onto other places at the end of this Bible lesson, humility demands that we acknowledge that we can't be everywhere at once and we don't even have the capacity to pray for everyone. If our impulse to bring healing isn't matched with a humble faith, we'll either burn out, give up, or be useless in the hands of God.
I hope to present more thoughts on this lesson tomorrow. But I'll be somewhat pressed for time as I intend to write the message for this weekend then and I'm in the middle of a big writing project in anticipation of the upcoming Lenten season.
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