Sometimes, we put our faith in the wrong places, and yet Christ heals. 
Posting about ­­­­­­­­Jesus\u27 healing ministry in the Bible from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.
http://inallthings.org/the-healing-mission-of-christ

Stoub, Darren

English

Dordt College

Digital Collections @ DordtFaculty Work: Comprehensive List4-29-2015Healing Mission of ChristDarren StoubDordt College, darren.stoub@dordt.eduFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/faculty_workPart of the Christianity CommonsThis Blog Post is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Collections @ Dordt. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Work:Comprehensive List by an authorized administrator of Digital Collections @ Dordt. For more information, please contact ingrid.mulder@dordt.edu.Recommended CitationStoub, Darren, "Healing Mission of Christ" (2015). Faculty Work: Comprehensive List. Paper 343.http://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/faculty_work/343Healing Mission of ChristAbstract"Sometimes, we put our faith in the wrong places, and yet Christ heals."Posting about Jesus' healing ministry in the Bible from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claimthat the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.http://inallthings.org/the-healing-mission-of-christ/KeywordsIn All Things, healing, miracles, faithDisciplinesChristianityCommentsIn All Things is a publication of the Andreas Center for Reformed Scholarship and Service at Dordt College.This blog post is available at Digital Collections @ Dordt: http://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/faculty_work/343The Healing Mission of Christ inallthings.org /the-healing-mission-of-christ/Darren StoubIn March, we began a series of reflections on the healing mission of Jesus Christ. According to ICorinthians 12, each of us are given spiritual gifts through the Holy Spirit and healing is one that isbestowed on many who are called into Christ’s service.1 Through this series, we seek to understand moreabout how we can join with Christ in his healing mission. This month, we consider the question: what canwe learn about Christ’s healing mission by investigating his healing miracles? Through discussionsand readings of and about the healing miracles of Christ, four questions seem to encapsulate the relevantthemes from Christ’s miracles:• Whom did Christ heal?• Why did Christ heal this person?• How did Christ heal?• Was there a greater purpose to the miracle?This week we address the question: Whom did Christ heal?The son of Royalty, Peter’s mother-in law, a whole bunch of various people, one and ten lepers, a Romanservant, a friend of three men, a man who was there, the only son of a widow, a bleeding and uncleanwoman, the daughter of a synagogue leader, a mute, an old invalid man, many people in the marketplaces, a deaf and speech-impaired man, a blind man, a man blind from birth, a blind and mute man, acrippled woman, a swollen man, a blind beggar, a dead man, the slave of the high priest, and many thatwere not recorded. These are the people Christ healed. As I search for patterns in the people Christhealed, standard categorizations fail to show a pattern. Christ healed the rich, the poor, the free, the slave,the Jew, the gentile, the young, the old, male, female, the proud, the humble, the rich, the poor, the loud,the quiet, the sane, the insane, the loved, the rejected, the living, the dead, those he knew and those hedidn’t know. Christ did not categorize people the way we categorize patients. Christ did not usedemographics or socioeconomic factors or residency or three forms of doctrine or membership in a churchor the ability to pay. As far as I have been able to discover, Christ healed two types of people.First, Christ healed people who didn’t ask. We worship a God who is so in tune with creation, so in lovewith the people of this world, that God knows our needs. God heals, even when we don’t ask.But why don’t we ask? Sometimes, we don’t see Jesus. In Luke 13:10 – 17, the healing of the woman who“was bent over and could not straighten up at all” is told. This woman didn’t ask because she didn’t seeJesus. George MacDonald, in his book “The Miracles of Our Lord” described the situation as follows:Supported by a staff, she had crept to the synagogue. There is no appearance from the story that she hadcome there to see Jesus, or even that when in His presence she saw Him before the word of herdeliverance had gone forth. Most likely, being bowed [over], she heard Him before she saw Him. But Hesaw her. Going to her, I think, and saying ‘Woman, you are freed from your infirmity.’ ‘He laid His handsupon her, and immediately she was made straight and she praised God.’ What an uplifting! A type of all thatGod works in His human beings. The head, down bent with sin, care, sorrow, pain, is uplifted. We lift oureyes to God.2For eighteen years, this woman was crippled, perhaps unable to look at the people around her or in front ofher. Her gaze was permanently fixed down. Perhaps, she was unable to see Jesus. Perhaps, she didn’twant to see Jesus. Never-the-less, she couldn’t ask because she could not see him, yet Christ healed her.Can you see Jesus? Are you looking?Why don’t we ask? Sometimes, we put our faith in the wrong places, and yet Christ heals. John 5:1-8,describes the story of a man who placed his faith in a pool with mystical powers.Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which issurrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind,the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus sawhim lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you wantto get well?” “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred.While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pickup your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.There have been many discussions about the pool of Bethesda and its potential healing powers. Someearly manuscripts of the Bible include John 5:4:3 “an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons intothe pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the waters stepped in wasmade whole, with whatsoever disease he was holden.”4 Some have suggested this was literally an angelof God that stirred the waters imbuing it with healing powers; others suggested that it was a Jewishcustom to call anything of good favor the result of angels of God.5 Others suggest that the pool, like othersimilar springs in the region, had medicinal value that was enhanced by periodic outgassing of thesurrounding soil.6 Regardless, many Jews and gentiles put their faith in the healing waters of the pool.Regardless of the historicity or authenticity of the healing properties of the pool, the paralytic placed hisfaith in the wrong place. He thought the water would heal him. He thought he had to be the first in thewater. He thought he had to rely on others to help into the pool. He didn’t ask, because he was looking tothe wrong source. Even when Christ asked him if he wanted to get well, the man still kept his faith in thepool and other people. He didn’t ask, and yet Christ healed him. Do you put your faith in the wrongthings?Why don’t we ask? Sometimes, we are simply unable to ask, and yet Christ heals. Matthew 12:11–14recounts the story of the man with the shriveled hand. In the story, Christ visited the synagogue on theSabbath. The man with shriveled hand was there, yet Christ’s conversation was with the Pharisees.Perhaps the man was unable to ask because of his station in life. Perhaps, as is the case in othermiracles, the person was mute or dead. Sometimes, we are simply unable to ask. The man with theshriveled hand didn’t ask, yet Christ healed him. What is hindering you from asking Jesus?Why don’t we ask? Because we think we have done too many awful things and are, therefore, not worthyof Christ’s love, attention or power. In Luke 22:49-51, we learn of the slave of the high priest who has hisear cut off as the high priest comes to arrest Jesus. Would such a person even think to ask Christ forhealing? Christ did not even give him a chance. The slave did not ask, yet Christ healed him. Do you thinkthat you have done too much to warrant the free gift of grace, to receive the healing that Christ wants tooffer?Second, Christ heals people who seek the One True God. We worship a God who longs for us to seekhim. God has created us in his own image. The heavens and the earth proclaim who God is and creationdraws us to God. As Paul says in Romans 1:20 “For since the creation of the world God’s invisiblequalities–his eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what hasbeen made, so that people are without excuse.” God longs for us to seek him. MacDonald states “Yet hewho asks shall receive – of the very best. One promise without reserve, and only one, because it includesall, remains: the promise of the Holy Spirit to them who ask it.”7 And when we seek God, God heals.How do we seek the Creator? When we recognize Jesus’ greatness, we boldly seek him and God willinglyheals us. In Mark 6:53 – 56, we read an account of the people of the region of Gennesaret:When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there. As soon as they got out ofthe boat, people recognized Jesus. They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats towherever they heard he was. And wherever he went–into villages, towns or countryside–they placed thesick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all whotouched it were healed.The people heard of Jesus’ greatness and came to wherever he was. They asked, they begged, theybelieved. When the people boldly came, Christ healed them all. Do you boldly seek Christ?How do we seek the Lord? When we seek God in our fear, we are healed. In Luke 8:42-48, we read thestory of a woman who was shunned by society, timid and afraid; she sought the One True God who heals.As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. And a woman was there who had been subjectto bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge ofhis cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. “Who touched me?” Jesus asked. When they all deniedit, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.” But Jesus said, “Someonetouched me; I know that power has gone out from me.” Then the woman, seeing that she could not gounnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she hadtouched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healedyou. Go in peace.”When we feel invisible or hopeless, our heart cries out to God and it compels us to seek God. God hearsthe cries of our heart and accepts our timid seeking. God heals us. Can you seek God even when youare trembling?How do we seek God? When we seek God’s face with humility and faith, Christ heals.  Matthew recountsthe healing of the Centurion’s servant in Matthew 8:5-13. Matthew Henry provides the followingcommentary on this passage:This centurion was a heathen, a Roman soldier. Though he was a soldier, yet he was a godly man…Observe his self-abasement. Humble souls are made more humble by Christ’s gracious dealings withthem. Observe his great faith. The more diffident we are of ourselves, the stronger will be our confidencein Christ. Herein the centurion owns him to have Divine power, and a full command of all the creatures andpowers of nature, as a master over his servants. Such servants we all should be to God; we must go andcome, according to the directions of his word and the disposals of his providence. But when the Son ofman comes he finds little faith, therefore he finds little fruit. An outward profession may cause us to becalled children of the kingdom; but if we rest in that, and have nothing else to show, we shall be cast out.The servant got a cure of his disease, and the master got the approval of his faith. What was said to him, issaid to all, Believe, and ye shall receive; only believe. See the power of Christ, and the power of faith. Thehealing of our souls is at once the effect and evidence of our interest in the blood of Christ.8A centurion, a Roman, not a follower of Christ is accredited in Matthew 8 as having a faith greater than anyin Israel. Why? Because he came face to face with Jesus Christ and had a simple and humble faith. Not adoctrinally rich understanding of God, not a life full of accolades, not an arrogant showmanship, but simplefaith, an interest in the power of the blood of Christ. Christ heals those who come with humility and faith.Will you seek Christ as the Centurion did?How do we seek Christ? We know him as Lord, worship him and he heals us. In Matthew 8:2-3, we read:A man with leprosy, came and knelt before [or worshipped] him and said, ‘Lord, if you are willing, you canmake me clean.’ Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be clean!’Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy.”Jesus is referred to as Lord 618 times in the Bible, more than the terms Christ and Savior. What is theimportance of calling Jesus Lord? Some suggest that the leper was unaware of why or perhaps he actedbetter than he knew when he called Jesus Lord.9 In fact, this was one of the earliest instances that Jesuswas called Lord by any follower. Paul wrote the Colossians, “By him all things were created: things inheaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all thingswere created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is thehead of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that ineverything he might have the supremacy.”10 Lord is the rightful title for Christ Jesus. Our recognition of titleconfers our act of following him. When we come to Christ as Lord, we recognize His power and authorityover our lives. We recognize his creative power. We humbly kneel before him. Praise be to God that He isa servant Lord, for He calls us heir and friend. But more than that, He reaches out and touches ourdiseased self, takes on our uncleanliness and makes us clean. Will you call Him Lord?This week we asked the question, whom did Christ heal? Christ healed those who didn’t ask and thosewho sought after Him. He didn’t categorize people using standard classifications. He healed; He heals;and He will heal.So how do we join with him in this mission? Whom shall we heal? What can you do this week to reach theblind, the misguided, the incapable, the broken, the confident ones, those who tremble, those who arehumble, those who call Him Lord? When you minister to each of these, you join with Christ in his healingmission.Footnotes1. 1 Corinthians 12:9 ↩2. MacDonald, George. The Miracles of our Lord. (Wheaton, IL: Harold Shaw Publishers, 1985) 37. ↩3. Notice in the New International Version, which is quoted, verse 4 is absent. ↩4. American Standard Version ↩5. Barnes, Albert.Barnes Notes on the Old and New Testament. (Ada, MI: Baker Books, 1983). ↩6. The Bethesda Pool, Site of One of Jesus’ Miracles,  Accessed 16 April 2015. The Miracle of theHealing of the Lame Man, Accessed 16 April 2015.  ↩7. MacDonald, 70. ↩8. Matthew Henry’s Commentary on Matthew 8, Accessed 16 April 2015. ↩9. Barker, Kenneth L. and John Kohnlenberger. Zondervan NIV Bible Commentary, Vol. 2(GrandRapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994) 38. ↩10. Colossians 1:16-18 ↩

Healing Mission of Christ

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