They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.  The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.” News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee. As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them. That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was (Mark 1:21-29).

Every so often, an old Rock Hudson movie called the “Magnificent Obsession” is shown on television. The Magnificent Obsession is based on a novel written by Lloyd C. Douglas. It is the story of a rich playboy, Bob Merrick, whose reckless speed-boating inadvertently causes the death of a beloved doctor. It turns out that this beloved doctor has very little money because of his habit of giving it away. The playboy also inadvertently causes the blindness of the doctor’s wife, played by Jane Wyman. The only way Bob Merrick can hope to undo the damage that he as done is to become a surgeon himself, which he does. Along the way he falls in love with the now-blind widow of the famous doctor. After years of struggle, the now famous surgeon, Bob Merrick, saves the life of the wife of the person he killed, and the movie comes to a happy ending. The movie and book are examples of a genre of secular retellings of the message of the Bible that were popular in America in the early 20^th Century. [1] The message is one of sin, forgiveness, renewal, and two healed lives by the power of God’s Spirit.

This morning we are thinking about the fact that Jesus came to heal our lives by the power of the Holy Spirit. Healing is an important subject for Christians. Jesus came as a healer. One name he has been given throughout history is, “The Great Physician.” From the earliest days, Christians have prayed for healings and believed that certain people have a special gift of healing. From the earliest days of the church, Christians have been interested in healing. For example, there was a great epidemic around the year 260 A. D. Here is what Dionysius of Alexandria said concerning the Christian response:

Most of the Christians in our city showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of others. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending their every need, helping and comforting them — and with them departed this life serenely happy; for they were infected by others with the disease, drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pain. [2]

The God of Healing

The first Christians would not have been the least bit surprised that Jesus was a healer. When Jesus went to Levi’s home for dinner, the religious leaders complained that he was consorting with sinners. In response, Jesus admonished them that it was not the healthy that need a doctor but the sick (Mark 2:17). This tells us that Jesus was acquainted with doctors. In addition, in the ancient world very few people would have been surprised at what we would call “faith healers,” who could heal others in ways that seemed mystical. Jesus was just such a person. He had the power of healing.

In the Old Testament, one name for God is “Jehovah Rapha” or the “God Who Heals.” The Hebrew word can mean the healing of a person, a relationship, a community, or a nation. It can involve spiritual healing, emotional healing, communal healing, even a national healing. [3] The God of Israel is a God who heals everyone and every kind of illness or brokenness there is or can be. Where things are out of joint, Jehovah Rapha, the God Who Heals, has the power to put them right.

One sign of the Messiah’ reign was to be healing. In Isaiah 35, the time of the healing and restoration of Israel is described like this:

Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.” Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert (Isaiah 35:3-6).

The coming of the Messiah was to be the coming of a healer and time of healing for creation, for individuals, and for human society.

The Healing Power of Jesus

All the Gospels are unanimous in teaching that Jesus was a healer. All four Gospels devote substantial attention to Jesus’ healing ministry. About twenty percent of the Gospels are taken up with healings. Out of almost 4000 verses in the four Gospels, over seven hundred concern his healing of physical and mental illness or the resurrection of the dead. [4] Luke, who was a doctor, shows an unusual interest in the healings of Jesus and often provides details that the other gospel writers did not think important.

John, when he wrote his gospel, saw in the miracles of Jesus generally and in the healing miracles specifically, signs that Jesus was the Messiah of Israel and God in human form, the Word of God in human flesh. In fact, he calls the miracles “signs.” A sign is something that signifies or stands for something else. In the case of Jesus’ miracles and healings, the events themselves carry a deeper meaning: They signify that God was present in Christ. The signs are clues so to speak that God is present in Christ.

This week, I posted the following as the meditation of the week of Facebook: “In Jesus’ healings and exorcisms, we come to a major issue for people who do not believe in miracles and a major reason why Jesus came: He came that creation might become new and be healed of the effects of sin, brokenness, and finitude. In his eternal kingdom, there ‘will be no more sorrow, nor mourning nor pain.’ Even the last enemy, death, is to be defeated. Faced with the God of Life in human form, those things that oppose God’s eternal life and wholeness must flee—and people are healed.” When Jesus came, when the Kingdom comes, the impact of sin, disease, and death end.

The Healings of Mark

One aspect of Mark is the attention it pays to what Jesus does as opposed to what Jesus says. The long sermons of Matthew, Luke, and John are largely absent from Mark. If those who believe that Mark is based on Peter’s preaching are correct, there may be a good reason for this: The hyperactive, not always reflective Peter, the Big Fisherman, was more interested in what Jesus did than what he said. Matthew the tax collector and Luke the doctor were educated men much more interested in the teachings of the Messiah. For Peter, the most important thing was the actions, the mighty deeds, and the confrontations with the leaders of Israel that marked Jesus public life.

Therefore, right at the beginning of his book, Mark sets out the fact that Jesus was a healer. According to Mark, right at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, after calling Peter, Andrew, James, and John, he came home to Capernaum to teach. As was his custom, he went to the synagogue, or their church house, and gave a message that was so unusual, that the people were amazed. Jesus, unlike the teachers of the law, did not rely on long quotes from the law or other rabbi’s. He taught as one with personal authority. As he was preaching, a man with an evil spirit cried out on behalf of the spirit, “Jesus, Son of God, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” (Mark 1:24).

In Aramaic, the collective word for demons means, “Ones Who Do Harm.” [5] This demonic, speaking for the entire demonic world, confesses that the man, Jesus of Nazareth, is in fact, the Holy One of God. Jesus, in a mighty act of power, silences and casts out the demon. Later on, Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law of a fever (v. 29-31). By that evening, the events of the day have been so widely recorded in Capernaum that people from the village and surrounding area being Jesus sick and demon possessed people and he heals them all (v. 32-34).

In both word and deed, Jesus spoke and acted as one with authority, that is to say, Jesus spoke as if he had both the right and the power or ability to speak, heal, and cast out demons. By his words and mighty deeds, he claims and exhibits God’s power, including the power to break into history and bring about a healed state of affairs—a state of affairs Jesus called the “Kingdom of God” (Mark 1:17). [6] This pattern of Jesus teaching in mighty ways and then demonstrating the power of God in healings occurs over and over again in Mark. [7] Jesus heals demons (v. 1:29), skin diseases (v. 40), paralysis (2:3-4), fever (v. 1:31), and blindness (10:46-52).

What Does This Mean for Us?

We live in a nation with a very sophisticated medical. It is no mistake or coincidence that many of the hospitals of our nation and other nations carry the names of Catholic saints, or Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, Baptists, and others. Jesus came to heal and his followers have been healers and supporters of healing ever since. In the West, we are accustomed to healings by doctors, many of whom are not Christians. We forget how our wonderful healthcare systems began. Perhaps more importantly, we forget the role God plays in healing. We forget (until we are in big trouble) that in every age people cry out for Jehovah Rapha.

For those who have difficulty with the idea of miracles and healings, the best explanation I can give is this: Miracles are not so much a suspension of the laws of physics, chemistry, biology, and the like as they are a revelation in specific circumstances of a deeper rationality in and beyond the universe—a rationality that is not always revealed to us, but with which we do occasionally come into contact. It is obvious that our contact with this reality is not constant, does not guarantee that every prayer for a miracle will be answered, and is in some sense a ” personal contact with a personal rationality.” This is why we pray to God for a miracle: We sense that an answer is not automatic and is outside of our control, much like other people cannot be automatically controlled by our words or requests. We are asking another intelligence with its own ideas, agenda, desires, and will to answer our prayers. In so doing, we recognize that this Person is infinitely different from us and in some ways infinitely superior. Therefore, we throw ourselves upon his mercy in answering or not answering any particular prayer. Nevertheless, because God is Absolute Wisdom and Love, we trust that, whatever the answer, in some way all things are being worked together for the good (Romans 8:28).

At staff meeting this week, I told a story I’m sure I’ve mentioned to the congregation before. When our Clara was born, the tear duct for one of her eyes was closed. The pediatrician instructed us to massage it, saying that, most likely, it would eventually open. By the time she was seven months old, he told us that, if it did not open on its own, we would probably need to have it surgically opened before she was ten or eleven months old. In 1986, the main reason we dreaded an operation was the risk of anesthesia on a baby, though there were other worries. For months, friends and relatives prayed that Clara’s tear duct would open. The surgery was finally scheduled. The day before it was to happen Kathy canceled it saying that she did not have a peace about it. That same afternoon, Kathy was driving home our maid, Cuca, who was a charismatic Mexican believer. When they stopped for an errand and Kathy got out of the car, Cuca massaged Clara’s eye and prayed in tongues for God to heal Clara’s eye, as was her custom. When Kathy returned to the car, Cuca told her what she had done and the tear duct was open! The next day, when the surgery should have happened, the tear duct was still open!! I am sure that a non-believer could find a reasonable explanation, even chance, to explain away the facts. All I can say is that her father and mother believed then and now that she was healed. Like the blind man in John, all we can say is that we had a daughter with a closed tear duct that is now open (John 9:28).

Every month at Advent we have a healing service in the chapel. We have this service for a simple reason: We believe that Jesus came as the Great Physician to reveal for us the nature of God—and God is Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals. That is why Jesus came—to usher in a new world and to heal the old world, including us, of all its sin, sickness, and brokenness.

Copyright 2014, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved

[1] The Magnificent Obsession, wr. Robert Blees, dir. Douglas Sirk, staring Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson, based on the 1929 novel, The Magnificent Obsession (1954).

 

[2] This quote was found in an article on the internet at huron2.aaps.k12.mi.us/smitha/HUM/PDF/Growth-of-Chr.pdf (downloaded December 10, 2014).

 

[3] In certain translations of the Old Testament “Jehovah” is used for the unspeakable name of God, “YHWH.” Jehovah Rapha simply means, the “God who Heals” or the “Healing God. “Rapha” is a feminine noun that refers to the source or remedy of an illness, physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual.

[4] Gary Wiens, The Healing Ministry of Jesus International House of Prayer Northwest, www.ihopnw.org (Downloaded December 10, 2014).

[5] See, William Barclay, “The Gospel of Mark” in The Daily Bible Study rev. ed. (Philadelphia, PA: Westminster Press, 1975), 34.

[6] The term “exousia” means both the authority to do an act and the power of its performance. In the political sphere, a king has both the authority to punish misdeeds and the power to inflict the punishment he has determined just. In the New Testament, this is the power Jesus possesses to a divine degree—his power is effective even over and against death. See, Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich, eds, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament abridged ed. trans. Geoffrey Bromily (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1985), 238-240.

[7] By my count, there are at least eighteen healings in Mark.