Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Mark 1:2-3 (KJV)
Healing is an intimately personal encounter between the sick and the healer. Ultimately, the healer is the Lord himself. Anyone claiming to be a faith-healer or a otherwise-healer is usurping the rightful place of God in the encounter. What with our modern medicine and technology, we have largely forgotten who our true healer is. Physicians do not heal, nurses do not heal, magicians does not heal, witch-doctors do not heal, shrinks do not heal, shamans do not heal, medicines do not heal, operations do not heal, faith does not heal, herbs do not heal, clean living does not heal, meditation does not heal, chanting does not heal, love does not heal, optimism does not heal, positive thinking does not heal, nothing heals -- you get my drift. God heals, the Lord heals, the Healer alone heals. And I know of only one true healer -- Jesus the crucified and resurrected Son of God.
The sick is weak in mind and body, but most often stubborn in spirit. They will yield to anyone who promises healing for a price, large or small. But they seldom give heed to the true healer who offers healing without a price, a divine gift, a free hand. Faith in the true healer demands poverty of the spirit, purity of the heart, ordering of the mind, cleansing of the body. Faith demands a straight path, a wide road, a super highway through the wilderness of our soul to be made for the healer.
Jesus charged and sent his disciples into the world, not just to heal, but to preach and heal -- preach the good news and heal the sick. The messenger first prepare the way of the Lord by preaching the good news of redemption, then delivers the gift of God that heals/liberates/satisfies/uplifts/energizes/transforms the one with the sickness unto death into the one with life everlasting.
The healing that brings only temporary remission of the sickness is incomplete. The healing that requires chronic medication is burdensome. The healing that enslaves the sick to his sickness is addictive. The healing that relieves the symptom but feeds the disease is short-sighted.
We have much to learn about true healing from the true healer himself. We who believe in faith healing are the messenger who prepare his way in the wilderness of sickness. We are the voice that cries "Make straight a path in your soul for the true Healer of your sickness unto death." We believe in miracles, beyond science, beyond medicine, beyond religion, beyond psychology, beyond magic/voodoo/witchcraft/shamanism/herbs/acupuncture/massage/mind-games, beyond you and me. There is one coming after the messenger who has the true power to heal, who turns sickness to health, sorrow to joy, and even death to resurrection.
If you are moved by my message, answer my call to follow my healer, and let my message into your life that you may have life eternal.
Let us pray:
I am sick of body, wounded of heart, stricken of mind, and weary of spirit. Heal me O Lord Jesus, by the laying on of hand of your faithful messenger who has delievered to me this good news of redemption and healing from you. Amen
Friday, June 6, 2008
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Not lose even one
Jesus said, "I am the bread of life.... For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do what I want. And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them to eternal life at the last day. For it is my Father's will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life -- that I should raise them at the last day." (John 6:35-40 NLT)
I believe in Jesus as my Savior because his power of life, his power of forgiveness, his power of mercy, his power of grace, his power of redemption, albeit his power of healing transcends all barriers & boundaries & judgments & sicknesses & the whole of human condition. When it comes to the human condition, there is nothing that falls outside the power of his crucifixion and the dominion of his resurrection. It is not for the living to judge the dead. It is not for us mortals to meddle in the fate of the immortals. What God has resurrected by the promise of his vicarious sacrifice, remains alive and resurrected and bound to eternal life. The promise to us is great, no matter what befalls us in this mortal journey, Jesus awaits us at the end with his hand out-stretched to lead us to our prepared place in his mansion in the kingdom of God. It really does not matter what anybody else thinks about it, righteous and sinners alike who are so wise in our self-righteous generation. According to Jesus, it only matters what God thinks. And everyone that God has given to him will not be lost, no not even one. In this world, we are beset with so many diseases great and small, physical and mental, real and imagined, social and psychological, material and spiritual, poverty and wealth, even boredom & age & purposelessness & abundance, some lead to death and others to oblivion. Make no mistake about it: what we believe or do on this earth has serious consequences. We may be a blessing or a curse, a giver or a taker, a joy or a sorrow, a beacon of hope or a shadow of despair. But in the end, whatever the cause of our earthly demise, it is the unerring promise of God that counts -- that begins anew a fresh journey in the way of eternal life. So do not judge, my brothers and sisters; for God has not judged you and me, but has rather blessed us with the overbearing, overriding, overpowering guarantee that he will not let us be lost, no not one -- once he has given us into the hand of his beloved Son. So have faith, be assured that all our healing, now and eternal, begins and ends and begins again with the touch of the hand of Jesus. Yes indeed, he touched me and made me whole.
Let us pray:
Lord God our Father, for all those whom you have graciously given into our keeping during our earthly pilgrimage, we thank you for saving and resurrecting each of them to eternal life as you have promised. In Jesus name, Amen
I believe in Jesus as my Savior because his power of life, his power of forgiveness, his power of mercy, his power of grace, his power of redemption, albeit his power of healing transcends all barriers & boundaries & judgments & sicknesses & the whole of human condition. When it comes to the human condition, there is nothing that falls outside the power of his crucifixion and the dominion of his resurrection. It is not for the living to judge the dead. It is not for us mortals to meddle in the fate of the immortals. What God has resurrected by the promise of his vicarious sacrifice, remains alive and resurrected and bound to eternal life. The promise to us is great, no matter what befalls us in this mortal journey, Jesus awaits us at the end with his hand out-stretched to lead us to our prepared place in his mansion in the kingdom of God. It really does not matter what anybody else thinks about it, righteous and sinners alike who are so wise in our self-righteous generation. According to Jesus, it only matters what God thinks. And everyone that God has given to him will not be lost, no not even one. In this world, we are beset with so many diseases great and small, physical and mental, real and imagined, social and psychological, material and spiritual, poverty and wealth, even boredom & age & purposelessness & abundance, some lead to death and others to oblivion. Make no mistake about it: what we believe or do on this earth has serious consequences. We may be a blessing or a curse, a giver or a taker, a joy or a sorrow, a beacon of hope or a shadow of despair. But in the end, whatever the cause of our earthly demise, it is the unerring promise of God that counts -- that begins anew a fresh journey in the way of eternal life. So do not judge, my brothers and sisters; for God has not judged you and me, but has rather blessed us with the overbearing, overriding, overpowering guarantee that he will not let us be lost, no not one -- once he has given us into the hand of his beloved Son. So have faith, be assured that all our healing, now and eternal, begins and ends and begins again with the touch of the hand of Jesus. Yes indeed, he touched me and made me whole.
Let us pray:
Lord God our Father, for all those whom you have graciously given into our keeping during our earthly pilgrimage, we thank you for saving and resurrecting each of them to eternal life as you have promised. In Jesus name, Amen
Monday, January 14, 2008
Go and sin no more
The teachers of religious law and Pharisees brought a woman they had caught in the act of adultery. "Teacher," they said to Jesus, "this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?" Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger.... said, "All right, stone her. But let those who have never sinned throw the first stones!" John 8:1-11 (NLT)
This is a very peculiar and powerful story to consider in the context of faith healing. Although on the face of it this story has nothing to do with sickness and healing, but a short reflection brings the stark reality of a sickness unto death in this act of adultery committed by this woman. Call it emotional, psychological, social, relational, or contractual, this very act of marital infidelity was a sickness with the worst possible outcome -- being stoned to death. One might even term this a paradigm of a legal disease resulting in mortal death. It is amazing how Jesus the master healer dealt with this legal disease in his inimitable fashion, by stooping to write in the dust with his finger, "let those who have never sinned throw the first stones," a prescription for pardon by impeaching the witnesses.
I have been forever fascinated by the way Jesus intertwined the healing of sickness and the forgiveness of sin, a constant interplay of law and medicine, emphasizing the cleansing of the soul as concomitant with the healing of the mind-body complex. In modern medicine, there is no question that mind and body interact in sickness and in health, for better or for worse, until death do they part, albeit in mysterious and scientifically undiscovered ways. In our faith, however, there is yet a more mighty soul at work dominating the mind-body complex, not ever to be understood or discovered by the scientific enterprise. For by definition, the realm of faith and soul and sin and redemption will always be outside the meek enterprise of true science. Law of nature, especially the law of God, recognizes no such boundaries and reaches boldly into the spiritual realm and declares jurisdiction over the life-death dichotomy of the human person. So, for Jesus the master healer, healing of the mind-body complex is not quite enough healing to deliver to a sin-ravaged and disease-ridden soul; only a sin-forgiven, disease-free soul in the end is adequate healing in the eye of God.
Who can deliver such healing to us? He who is without sin, he who is willing to give his life a ransom for many. The source of faith-healing is the same source for faith-forgiveness. We are not understanding faith unless we understand that Jesus who is without sin died for our sins, took our iniquities, bore our sorrows, and carried our diseases upon himself -- to the cross, to be crucified, to be rejected, to be cast down to hell, to be delivered to the enemy. Only then is his victory our victory, his resurrection our resurrection, his eternal life our eternal life. That is why we can be healed of our diseases, forgiven of our sins.
It is required that the witnesses for the prosecution be without sin, so that they can cast the first stones of condemnation. But it is not required that the witnesses for the defense by without sin, for all we sinners can bear equal witness to the power of forgiveness that washed away our sins, and the power of healing which drove away our diseases. So we physicians, sinful and imperfect as we all are, can with full confidence of faith, reach out our healing hand and heal the sick in the name and by the power of the crucified Jesus of Nazareth. However, it is required that we who seek to heal be willing to pay the price of such power, as the disciples of the cross, to be nailed to the cross with our master. For this supreme sacrifice, there is no reward save the promise of difficult servant-hood. For this strict obedience, there is no compensation except the satisfaction of more servitude. For this extreme poverty, there is no reprieve except the hope of continued deprivation. But miracles do happen. Jesus does heal. And there is power in obedience to the Lord.
This is a very peculiar and powerful story to consider in the context of faith healing. Although on the face of it this story has nothing to do with sickness and healing, but a short reflection brings the stark reality of a sickness unto death in this act of adultery committed by this woman. Call it emotional, psychological, social, relational, or contractual, this very act of marital infidelity was a sickness with the worst possible outcome -- being stoned to death. One might even term this a paradigm of a legal disease resulting in mortal death. It is amazing how Jesus the master healer dealt with this legal disease in his inimitable fashion, by stooping to write in the dust with his finger, "let those who have never sinned throw the first stones," a prescription for pardon by impeaching the witnesses.
I have been forever fascinated by the way Jesus intertwined the healing of sickness and the forgiveness of sin, a constant interplay of law and medicine, emphasizing the cleansing of the soul as concomitant with the healing of the mind-body complex. In modern medicine, there is no question that mind and body interact in sickness and in health, for better or for worse, until death do they part, albeit in mysterious and scientifically undiscovered ways. In our faith, however, there is yet a more mighty soul at work dominating the mind-body complex, not ever to be understood or discovered by the scientific enterprise. For by definition, the realm of faith and soul and sin and redemption will always be outside the meek enterprise of true science. Law of nature, especially the law of God, recognizes no such boundaries and reaches boldly into the spiritual realm and declares jurisdiction over the life-death dichotomy of the human person. So, for Jesus the master healer, healing of the mind-body complex is not quite enough healing to deliver to a sin-ravaged and disease-ridden soul; only a sin-forgiven, disease-free soul in the end is adequate healing in the eye of God.
Who can deliver such healing to us? He who is without sin, he who is willing to give his life a ransom for many. The source of faith-healing is the same source for faith-forgiveness. We are not understanding faith unless we understand that Jesus who is without sin died for our sins, took our iniquities, bore our sorrows, and carried our diseases upon himself -- to the cross, to be crucified, to be rejected, to be cast down to hell, to be delivered to the enemy. Only then is his victory our victory, his resurrection our resurrection, his eternal life our eternal life. That is why we can be healed of our diseases, forgiven of our sins.
It is required that the witnesses for the prosecution be without sin, so that they can cast the first stones of condemnation. But it is not required that the witnesses for the defense by without sin, for all we sinners can bear equal witness to the power of forgiveness that washed away our sins, and the power of healing which drove away our diseases. So we physicians, sinful and imperfect as we all are, can with full confidence of faith, reach out our healing hand and heal the sick in the name and by the power of the crucified Jesus of Nazareth. However, it is required that we who seek to heal be willing to pay the price of such power, as the disciples of the cross, to be nailed to the cross with our master. For this supreme sacrifice, there is no reward save the promise of difficult servant-hood. For this strict obedience, there is no compensation except the satisfaction of more servitude. For this extreme poverty, there is no reprieve except the hope of continued deprivation. But miracles do happen. Jesus does heal. And there is power in obedience to the Lord.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Only by prayer and fasting
Afterwards, when Jesus was alone in the house with his disciples, they asked him, "Why couldn't we cast out that evil spirit?" Jesus replied, "This kind can be cast out only by prayer and fasting." Mark 9:28-29 (NLT)
On this Christmas Day, 2007, it is well to remember why God sent his only begotten Son to us in the little town of Bethlehem, in the land of Judea, by way of Mary and Joseph, linear descendants of David, to be born in a lowly manger among the gentle domesticated animals. Many of us brazen children of the modern hedonistic generation have the audacity to demand direct communication with the Lord God himself, heedless of the absurdity of such presumption. Not that God does not want to talk to us one-on-one, face-to-face so to speak, or even spirit to spirit; but that we would not live to tell about it. Imagine speaking to an avalanche exploding in our face, or shouting at the hurricane gusting at our heels, or puffing at the volcano spewing fire and ashes and lava into our sky,... well, you get the picture. We have very little respect for the power and majesty of God, while we marvel and cower at the display of natural forces even at minutely terrestrial magnitudes within our astronomical measures, only to underscore our disbelief of the Almighty. We really don't believe that our God is present and living, all powerful, all knowing; do we now? And who told us that he is a loving God, a judging God, a fearsome God, a jealous God, an angry God, a consuming God, a demanding God, a capricious God?
Jesus came to earth because we needed a mediator between us and the Almighty. For those who understood the unfathomable might of a true living God, to approach God without a mediator is not just suicide -- it is utter futility. No communication would take place and sure destruction would result. Every religion that conceives of an almighty god must provide for a means of mediation between the mortal man/woman and the immortal potentate. So from the beginning of the Biblical faith, there were men and women chosen by God himself to be temporary mediators between him and his chosen children. As the Hebrews conceived it, this process was initiated by God himself, but the response depended largely on the chosen mediator, and the effect depended entirely on the recipient people. Biblically, there were at least five classes of human mediators: Patriarchs, Judges, Prophets, Priests, and Kings. A rich record of how these mediators served as communication links between God and his people down through the ages has been passed down to us in the Old Testament Bible of the Hebrew people.
Jesus came, as the epitome of mediators of the old covenant -- embodiment of the perfect Patriarch, Judge, Prophet, Priest, and King; and, above that, as the mediator of a new covenant -- the first-born Son, the first Apostle, and the King of Kings. Incredibly, but of necessity, Jesus brought the persona of God all the way down to the level of a new-born child easily approachable by even the lowliest, the saddest, and the sickest of all mankind, not to mention all the rich, powerful, and famous. Only because he came in this way on that first Christmas night are we now able to approach God Almighty anywhere, anytime, through our ever-present and permanent mediator -- Jesus the crucified lamb of God. To call on the name of Jesus in our prayers is not merely a sentimental afterthought or an expression of decorum, it is the absolutely only means for us to communicate with the God we know as the Almighty himself.
The early disciples were quick to discover, however, that this process of mediation comes with a high price. As Jesus taught them, self-sacrifice of the highest order is required of a mediator chosen and ordained by God himself. In the long tradition of Old Testament mediators, the New Testament mediators must also yield to the power of the Holy Spirit by a process of self-imposed spiritual discipline and purification. Jesus himself prepared for his ministry with 30 years of study in the teachings and scriptures of his forefathers, while learning a successful trade as a master carpenter and gaining favor in his community and family. He then began his ministry by submitting to baptism by the prophet John the Baptist in the River Jordan, followed by 40 days of prayer and fasting in the wilderness. Thereafter, for the three years of his earthly ministry, he continued his discipline of preparation, prayer and fasting. In this story recorded for us in Mark 9, healing the sick child appeared to require more discipline on the part of the mediator than the disciples had acquired. To be an instrument of healing, to be the messenger of forgiveness, required the faith and commitment of the sacrificial lamb. The servant of God himself needs to be in the right position with his God, so that the sick may exercise his faith in an effective condition.
Healing of the sick, just as redemption of the sinner, requires all three conditions: the living presence of the Almighty God himself, the effectual hand of the mediator, and the overcoming faith of the recipient. Many a brave Protestant soul claim the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers and dare to call directly nupon the Almighty in the name of Jesus as the only necessary intercessor, without the aid of another human mediator. More power to them. But I suspect that most of the time the effort is well-meant but naively ineffectual. No wonder so many prayers go unanswered, sins unforgiven, sick unhealed, and gifts unclaimed. Catholic and Orthodox believers have the benefit of the apostolic succession of priests as their official and ordained mediators, so they are more likely to invoke the help of such a human intercessor. Again, more power to them. Their problem is that many of the intercessors are themselves not given to deep faith, fervent prayer, and fasting spirit, and so betray the trust of their petitioners. Again, prayers go unanswered, sin unredeemed, and sickness unhealed.
Two lessons are delivered to us in these simple verses. First lesson is that we the disciples of Jesus must be honest as to our own abilities and limitations; must be willing to see the sicknesses that we cannot heal with our powerful medicines and surgeries and therapies; must be convinced that no other alternative or even hocus-pocus therapeutic strategies exist to deliver the cure; and must be willing to turn to Jesus our Master Healer and ask the humble question: Why could't we cast out that evil spirit? (Mark 9:28 NLT)
Second lesson for us is in the words of Jesus passed down to us for our cogitation. For the petitioner, he said: "What do you mean, 'Do something if I can'? Anything is possible if a person believes." (Mark 9:23 NLT) For the mediator, he said: "This kind can be cast out only by prayer and fasting." (Mark 9:29 NLT) It all depends how much the sick believes in the healing, and how much the mediating disciple is willing to sacrifice himself in his spiritual discipline.
Please join me in this prayer.
If you are sick, then pray this: "I do believe, but help me not to doubt." (Mark 9:4 NLT)
If you are a Christian physician as I am, then pray this: Give me your spirit of sacrifice, you who bore our sorrows and carried our weaknesses on the cross, you who rose from the dead with healing in your wings, you who commanded us to place our hands on the sick and heal them (Isaiah 53:4; Malachi 4:2; Mark 16:18 NLT), give me your spirit of prayer and sacrifice that I may cast out the evil spirits of sin and sickness. In Jesus' name, Amen.
On this Christmas Day, 2007, it is well to remember why God sent his only begotten Son to us in the little town of Bethlehem, in the land of Judea, by way of Mary and Joseph, linear descendants of David, to be born in a lowly manger among the gentle domesticated animals. Many of us brazen children of the modern hedonistic generation have the audacity to demand direct communication with the Lord God himself, heedless of the absurdity of such presumption. Not that God does not want to talk to us one-on-one, face-to-face so to speak, or even spirit to spirit; but that we would not live to tell about it. Imagine speaking to an avalanche exploding in our face, or shouting at the hurricane gusting at our heels, or puffing at the volcano spewing fire and ashes and lava into our sky,... well, you get the picture. We have very little respect for the power and majesty of God, while we marvel and cower at the display of natural forces even at minutely terrestrial magnitudes within our astronomical measures, only to underscore our disbelief of the Almighty. We really don't believe that our God is present and living, all powerful, all knowing; do we now? And who told us that he is a loving God, a judging God, a fearsome God, a jealous God, an angry God, a consuming God, a demanding God, a capricious God?
Jesus came to earth because we needed a mediator between us and the Almighty. For those who understood the unfathomable might of a true living God, to approach God without a mediator is not just suicide -- it is utter futility. No communication would take place and sure destruction would result. Every religion that conceives of an almighty god must provide for a means of mediation between the mortal man/woman and the immortal potentate. So from the beginning of the Biblical faith, there were men and women chosen by God himself to be temporary mediators between him and his chosen children. As the Hebrews conceived it, this process was initiated by God himself, but the response depended largely on the chosen mediator, and the effect depended entirely on the recipient people. Biblically, there were at least five classes of human mediators: Patriarchs, Judges, Prophets, Priests, and Kings. A rich record of how these mediators served as communication links between God and his people down through the ages has been passed down to us in the Old Testament Bible of the Hebrew people.
Jesus came, as the epitome of mediators of the old covenant -- embodiment of the perfect Patriarch, Judge, Prophet, Priest, and King; and, above that, as the mediator of a new covenant -- the first-born Son, the first Apostle, and the King of Kings. Incredibly, but of necessity, Jesus brought the persona of God all the way down to the level of a new-born child easily approachable by even the lowliest, the saddest, and the sickest of all mankind, not to mention all the rich, powerful, and famous. Only because he came in this way on that first Christmas night are we now able to approach God Almighty anywhere, anytime, through our ever-present and permanent mediator -- Jesus the crucified lamb of God. To call on the name of Jesus in our prayers is not merely a sentimental afterthought or an expression of decorum, it is the absolutely only means for us to communicate with the God we know as the Almighty himself.
The early disciples were quick to discover, however, that this process of mediation comes with a high price. As Jesus taught them, self-sacrifice of the highest order is required of a mediator chosen and ordained by God himself. In the long tradition of Old Testament mediators, the New Testament mediators must also yield to the power of the Holy Spirit by a process of self-imposed spiritual discipline and purification. Jesus himself prepared for his ministry with 30 years of study in the teachings and scriptures of his forefathers, while learning a successful trade as a master carpenter and gaining favor in his community and family. He then began his ministry by submitting to baptism by the prophet John the Baptist in the River Jordan, followed by 40 days of prayer and fasting in the wilderness. Thereafter, for the three years of his earthly ministry, he continued his discipline of preparation, prayer and fasting. In this story recorded for us in Mark 9, healing the sick child appeared to require more discipline on the part of the mediator than the disciples had acquired. To be an instrument of healing, to be the messenger of forgiveness, required the faith and commitment of the sacrificial lamb. The servant of God himself needs to be in the right position with his God, so that the sick may exercise his faith in an effective condition.
Healing of the sick, just as redemption of the sinner, requires all three conditions: the living presence of the Almighty God himself, the effectual hand of the mediator, and the overcoming faith of the recipient. Many a brave Protestant soul claim the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers and dare to call directly nupon the Almighty in the name of Jesus as the only necessary intercessor, without the aid of another human mediator. More power to them. But I suspect that most of the time the effort is well-meant but naively ineffectual. No wonder so many prayers go unanswered, sins unforgiven, sick unhealed, and gifts unclaimed. Catholic and Orthodox believers have the benefit of the apostolic succession of priests as their official and ordained mediators, so they are more likely to invoke the help of such a human intercessor. Again, more power to them. Their problem is that many of the intercessors are themselves not given to deep faith, fervent prayer, and fasting spirit, and so betray the trust of their petitioners. Again, prayers go unanswered, sin unredeemed, and sickness unhealed.
Two lessons are delivered to us in these simple verses. First lesson is that we the disciples of Jesus must be honest as to our own abilities and limitations; must be willing to see the sicknesses that we cannot heal with our powerful medicines and surgeries and therapies; must be convinced that no other alternative or even hocus-pocus therapeutic strategies exist to deliver the cure; and must be willing to turn to Jesus our Master Healer and ask the humble question: Why could't we cast out that evil spirit? (Mark 9:28 NLT)
Second lesson for us is in the words of Jesus passed down to us for our cogitation. For the petitioner, he said: "What do you mean, 'Do something if I can'? Anything is possible if a person believes." (Mark 9:23 NLT) For the mediator, he said: "This kind can be cast out only by prayer and fasting." (Mark 9:29 NLT) It all depends how much the sick believes in the healing, and how much the mediating disciple is willing to sacrifice himself in his spiritual discipline.
Please join me in this prayer.
If you are sick, then pray this: "I do believe, but help me not to doubt." (Mark 9:4 NLT)
If you are a Christian physician as I am, then pray this: Give me your spirit of sacrifice, you who bore our sorrows and carried our weaknesses on the cross, you who rose from the dead with healing in your wings, you who commanded us to place our hands on the sick and heal them (Isaiah 53:4; Malachi 4:2; Mark 16:18 NLT), give me your spirit of prayer and sacrifice that I may cast out the evil spirits of sin and sickness. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Jesus came to heal the sick
"Healthy people don't need a doctor -- sick people do." Jesus healed great numbers of sick people who had many different kinds of diseases. (Mark 2:17; Mark 1:34 NLT)
There were a great number of sick people around Jesus, and a great deal of healing was taking place wherever he preached. He healed physical ailments, he healed mental illnesses, he healed thought disorders, he healed religious misunderstandings, and he healed spiritual rebellions. No distinctions, no discriminations, no disqualifications in this broadly based healing ministry. The disciples related certain salient features of some particularly memorable healing events for us their posterity in loving instruction, unable to document the many thousands of diseases cast aside by the hands of Jesus in those three short years. The early disciples themselves were marvelling most of the time at the healing power flowing so effortlessly from their own fingertips, leaving little time or energy to understand the mystery of it all.
We might wonder why Jesus the Great Physician did not institute some fundamental healing procedures, or some elementary scientific knowledge, or some basic biophysiological insights to launch the disciples quickly into a more modern healing regiment. Instead, he seemed to have left them with some primitive notions more akin to religious philosophy than scientific knowledge. Indeed, he left all the wonderful scientific discoveries to the toil and labor of generations of thinkers, many of them secular and profane atheists, scarcely any devout believers, in the centuries to come. Christians and their establishments, in fact, began to make enemies of scientific thought, rational discourse, evidence based knowledge, humanistic endeavors, tolerance of diversity, respect for life and pursuit of happiness.
Today, we live in a world filled with ever more sick people, caught between a very dogmatic enterprise of modern medical science on the one hand, and a very prosperous explosion of alternative/folk/naturalistic/popular/spiritual therapeutic experimentations on the other. We all pay our money and take our choices. If we are healed, then our money is well spent. If not, that's just life and fortune for us.
Where is our Lord Jesus today, who offers to heal our sicknesses for free; to forgive our sins for free; to liberate our bondages for free; who offers to decimate our miseries for free; to mend our heartbreaks for free; and to transform our mortality for free?
What do we make of the young man in perfect health dying a sudden death on a roller coaster ride? What do we make of the robust 40-year-old woman who dies of a heart attack after getting a clean bill of health from her week-long excecutive checkup last week? What do we make of a well-adjusted college honor student who mysteriously commits suicide? What about a perfectly wonderful Christian youngster who ends up prostituting for drugs? And then there is the senseless millionaire executive who takes a few drinks and drives into a carful of high school kids making brain-damaged/dismembered/pain-ridden messes of them all.
We preach miracle healing because that is the last resort, the last appeal, the last promise of a loving God who has given his first and only Son a ransom for our sins, a remedy for our infirmities, a mediation for our death. "Yet it was our sicknesses he carried; it was our diseases that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God for his own sins! But he was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace. He was whipped, and we were healed!" (Isaiah 53:4-5 NLT)
Science is not the final answer. Religion does not offered the ultimate path. Medicine of all kinds, from brain-surgery to witch-doctoring, can only temporarily stay the final execution of death. Only Jesus can bring healing of the lasting order, lasting from now to eternity. What we preach is that when Jesus heals the sick, he makes them well for ever. Believe it or not, he has come to heal the sick -- to put right what is wrong, to revive what is decaying, to rejuvenate what has fossilized, and to breathe life into what is dying.
We preach a crucified, resurrected, and everliving Jesus who is here to save us from our sins and heal us of our diseases, that we may become servants of hope, deliverers of immortality, and givers of life extraordinary.
There were a great number of sick people around Jesus, and a great deal of healing was taking place wherever he preached. He healed physical ailments, he healed mental illnesses, he healed thought disorders, he healed religious misunderstandings, and he healed spiritual rebellions. No distinctions, no discriminations, no disqualifications in this broadly based healing ministry. The disciples related certain salient features of some particularly memorable healing events for us their posterity in loving instruction, unable to document the many thousands of diseases cast aside by the hands of Jesus in those three short years. The early disciples themselves were marvelling most of the time at the healing power flowing so effortlessly from their own fingertips, leaving little time or energy to understand the mystery of it all.
We might wonder why Jesus the Great Physician did not institute some fundamental healing procedures, or some elementary scientific knowledge, or some basic biophysiological insights to launch the disciples quickly into a more modern healing regiment. Instead, he seemed to have left them with some primitive notions more akin to religious philosophy than scientific knowledge. Indeed, he left all the wonderful scientific discoveries to the toil and labor of generations of thinkers, many of them secular and profane atheists, scarcely any devout believers, in the centuries to come. Christians and their establishments, in fact, began to make enemies of scientific thought, rational discourse, evidence based knowledge, humanistic endeavors, tolerance of diversity, respect for life and pursuit of happiness.
Today, we live in a world filled with ever more sick people, caught between a very dogmatic enterprise of modern medical science on the one hand, and a very prosperous explosion of alternative/folk/naturalistic/popular/spiritual therapeutic experimentations on the other. We all pay our money and take our choices. If we are healed, then our money is well spent. If not, that's just life and fortune for us.
Where is our Lord Jesus today, who offers to heal our sicknesses for free; to forgive our sins for free; to liberate our bondages for free; who offers to decimate our miseries for free; to mend our heartbreaks for free; and to transform our mortality for free?
What do we make of the young man in perfect health dying a sudden death on a roller coaster ride? What do we make of the robust 40-year-old woman who dies of a heart attack after getting a clean bill of health from her week-long excecutive checkup last week? What do we make of a well-adjusted college honor student who mysteriously commits suicide? What about a perfectly wonderful Christian youngster who ends up prostituting for drugs? And then there is the senseless millionaire executive who takes a few drinks and drives into a carful of high school kids making brain-damaged/dismembered/pain-ridden messes of them all.
We preach miracle healing because that is the last resort, the last appeal, the last promise of a loving God who has given his first and only Son a ransom for our sins, a remedy for our infirmities, a mediation for our death. "Yet it was our sicknesses he carried; it was our diseases that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God for his own sins! But he was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace. He was whipped, and we were healed!" (Isaiah 53:4-5 NLT)
Science is not the final answer. Religion does not offered the ultimate path. Medicine of all kinds, from brain-surgery to witch-doctoring, can only temporarily stay the final execution of death. Only Jesus can bring healing of the lasting order, lasting from now to eternity. What we preach is that when Jesus heals the sick, he makes them well for ever. Believe it or not, he has come to heal the sick -- to put right what is wrong, to revive what is decaying, to rejuvenate what has fossilized, and to breathe life into what is dying.
We preach a crucified, resurrected, and everliving Jesus who is here to save us from our sins and heal us of our diseases, that we may become servants of hope, deliverers of immortality, and givers of life extraordinary.
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