For Nov 15

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Sermon Notes: The Real Miracle Healing of Jesus

Intro: As humans, our bodies are all subject to pain and sickness, although generally. when we experience periods of good health, we consider that as normal. We may have occasional times of needing medical care, such as  dental work, colonoscopies, and medicines to control irregularities. But until there’s a serious threat to life or limb, or an inability to function as we want, people are more likely to see good health and normal functioning bodies as a right, rather than a gift from God, and less likely to feel a need for God. People who do consider health and life as a gift from God are more likely to recognize, and be thankful for God working in their lives.

 

I. About Healing

A. It’s when our bodies give off alarms with sharp pain, or we’re unable to function properly that we feel the need to seek special help. Facing serious illness, we tend to look for answers crying out “Why me, Lord?” and question why bad things happen to good people, of course assuming themselves as ‘good’, and those undesirable experiences as ‘bad’. The prospect of death leaves people afraid, vulnerable. Many may then realize our health, and healing is beyond their control, and health is a gift from God in this life, 

B. Those who turn to God for healing, in reality, are asking for a miracle, defined as an extraordinary event that can’t be explained by known natural or scientific laws, and is generally attributed to a higher power. In other words, an intervention by God. They might receive the miracle they prayed for, but God knows what healing is really needed, even if it’s not the miracle we asked for. Faith is knowing that God’s answer is the best one, the miracle we may not understand at the time.

C. Throughout the Bible, God has given particular people HIs gift of healing. In the OT, Elijah miraculously brought a dead child back to life, even miraculously curing Naaman of leprosy, healing that was beyond human power. But some people cling so desperately to life, they fall victim to those who claim they have the power of healing, but their power is trickery, or from an evil source. Like the man who came to a healer in a wheelchair. The healer told the man to get up out of his wheelchair! Stand up! and walk!. The man carefully stands up, and slowly starts walking and the crowd was shocked. The healer then gave the microphone to the man, asking what he thought about the miracle, expecting praise for his power.  “I still can’t see”, the man replied.  That fake healer didn’t even know what needed healing!

D. This morning, we’ll be looking at what was brought to Jesus as needing healing, wasn’t what really needed healing. We’ll be using two examples from Scripture to show the real healing miracles of Jesus.

 

II. Mark 1: 40-45

A. In our first Gospel reading from Mark, a man with leprosy approaches Jesus. He had evidently heard of Jesus’ healing power, and knew who Jesus was. As Suzanne told us, leprosy was an incurable disease that rotted away the skin with painful sores. It was thought to be contagious by contact, so lepers lived in colonies, away from their loved ones, with other dying lepers.

Under Mosaic Law, lepers had to announce they were lepers when anyone approached them so they could avoid contact. Jewish laws of charity required giving the needy alms, or donations, to buy food, so coins were tossed in their direction, avoiding touching them. Imagine what it would have been like to be an outcast from society, awaiting certain, painful death, denied human contact with loved ones, unable to even be near them. Death would almost be a welcome relief.

B. So, when Jesus approaches, the man doesn’t ask for money, but healing, to make him clean, IF Jesus was willing. IF Jesus would grant the request of an undesirable, an outcast. He didn’t question Jesus’ power, but placed himself under Jesus’ will, trusting that God’s purposes were righteous and good, hoping Jesus would grant his request. His request joined confidence in Christ’s ability with submission to Christ’s authority. I find myself wondering if our requests for healing are made with such humility.

C. Jesus indignance at the man’s doubting IF, reveals His character, His willingness to heal. But what exactly was Jesus so willing to heal? Jesus knew this man, seeing into his soul, and knew his need for human compassion and acceptance. Which is what Jesus first gave him by reaching out and touching the man before commanding him to be clean. Cleansing was more than healing from his physical symptoms. It meant restoration from being ceremonially unclean, and being able to return to family and community, and renewed participation in the worship of God in the synagogue, in the presence of God. The leper came to Jesus for the restoration that the Law could identify, but could not produce as Jesus could. He alone has authority to cleanse the soul, and even more, to restore sinners to fellowship with God. Do we see beyond our request for physical healing to see our need for spiritual healing? Can modern medicine offer such healing?

D. Jesus commands the man to show himself to the priests, required before being allowed back into society,  Unfortunately, in his overwhelming joy, the man disobeys and testifies to the people around him, making Jesus’ ministry more difficult, for then many people surrounded Him, pleading for physical healing without realizing their need for spiritual healing. What they thought needed healing, wasn’t the healing they really needed.

E. I remember, as a layperson, questioning my pastor about the AIDS crisis, epidemic among the gay community. Like leprosy, you can contract that awful disease by contact with someone with AIDS. It seemed like God’s punishment on them, so what was our appropriate Christian response?  I was critical that my pastor had not addressed it in his sermons like I felt he should have, but his response jarred me, saying It’s not our concern how or why they had been infected with that painful suffering, but that our Christian duty was to minister to the sick. At that moment, I felt ashamed that I had even asked that question. Compassion, like Jesus had shown to the leper, was the Christian response, rather than condemning, even judging another’s sin. We have no right to judge another’s sin as deserving God’s condemnation. I can’t hear this miracle of Jesus healing the leper without thinking of that pastor’s response. It changed my thinking about others’ suffering, especially when I began in prison ministry.

III. Luke 5:17-26

A. Our second Gospel reading is another of Jesus’ ‘real miracle’ healings. Jesus is surrounded by a group of people wanting to hear Him. The Pharisees and teachers of the law were also there, most likely looking to dispute His teachings. Men came carrying a paralyzed man, who was completely dependent on them to get him there. The men acted with compassionate faith, fulfilling the call to love one’s neighbor, trusting that Jesus could restore their friend to health. It’s also a picture of our responsibility to bring needy people to Christ through prayer, witness, and practical care. But getting the paralyzed man on the pallet through the crowd proved too difficult, so the determined friends get him to the roof and begin removing parts of the roof to lower their friend directly in front of Jesus below. The man’s needs were obvious to everyone watching, but notice Jesus’ priority here. Rather than telling the men to step away and let Him resume His teaching, He recognizes the faith of the man’s friends, determined to reach HIm for healing.

B. In those times, it was believed that the man’s sins had resulted in the man’s paralysis, as God’s punishment. But before physically healing the man, Jesus tells the man his sins were forgiven. It wasn’t what the man came for, but it was what Jesus healed as His first priority. That really set the religious leaders off, thinking that only God can forgive sins, so who was this person claiming to be equal to God?  Blasphemy was the act of insulting God by showing contempt, or expressing a lack of reverence for God. Irreverently putting oneself equal to God was therefore blasphemy, a capital crime. Jesus knew what the outraged religious leaders were thinking, perhaps what many in the crowd were also wondering. They had heard of prophets’ miracles and healing before. Moses had done miracles like parting the Red Sea, and bringing water from a rock. But no one claiming to be from God had the ability to forgive sins. Not Moses, Elijah, nor Samuel.

C. So Jesus asks what was harder, to forgive sins, or tell this man to get up and walk?  Since no one could forgive sin, the answer would have been that forgiveness would have been harder. And Jesus had done that with just a word to show He had the authority, and could forgive sins. But Jesus supplied the proof of His forgiveness by telling the man to pick up his mat and walk, which the man did, immediately. Since they believed sin was the reason the man was paralyzed, his healing was proof his sins were forgiven. No one had ever healed such paralysis either.

D, Even though the man had never asked for it, the real miracle of Jesus was forgiveness of the man’s sins. Jesus knew what was the most important, and that’s what He was revealing. That what they thought needed healing, wasn’t what really needed healing. Luke concludes this passage by saying the crowd was filled with awee and said, “ We have seen remarkable things today.” 

E. But what about when we aren’t physically healed?  Mary and Martha, personal friends of Jesus who believed He was the Messiah, chastised Him for not having healed their brother, Lazarus. He had told his disciples that Lazarus’ apparent death was for God’s glory so that God’s Son would be glorified through it. Lazarus was resurrected from the tomb, not in answer to the sisters’ prayer, but as testimony of Jesus’ power, and a preview of His own resurrection from the tomb days later. 

F. We still tend to overlook the real miracle of Jesus’ healings today, focusing our attention on the physical rather than His healing of people’s souls. The man with leprosy had been healed, but he had first been touched by Jesus’ compassion. He had been broken in spirit, an undesirable, an untouchable, waiting for a merciful death. But Jesus had compassionately touched him. His sores were healed, his flesh restored, but more importantly, Jesus had healed his brokenness with His compassionate touch. The leper  had felt God’s love in that touch.

G. What about the ten lepers who approached Jesus for healing? Without touching them, Jesus told them to show themselves to the priests to prove they were healed. As they obeyed Him, on their way to the priests, their healing took place. By the time they showed themselves to the priests, their bodies were completely restored. They could go to their homes and resume their normal lives. But one of them, not even an Israelite, went back to Jesus, kneeled at his feet and thanked him. He had responded to God’s love that had healed him spiritually, and had touched his soul so that he had responded with love for His healer. Once again, what the ten thought needed healing, wasn’t what really needed healing, but only one had realized Jesus’ complete healing miracle.

H. By now, many of us might be asking ourselves, do I know Jesus’ real healing? Our mortal bodies may be healed, even several times. We might live days, months, or years after such healing, but death still awaits each of us here on earth. Our souls, however, are eternal.

I. During the Invitation to Communion, we confess our sins, declare our repentance, and hear those miracle words, “In the Name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.” You may have come to Jesus with other needs, but as we’ve been stating, what you thought needed healing, wasn’t what really needed healing first. His blood was shed for the forgiveness of our sins, not for the healing of our bodies, or the promise of prosperity. We eat the bread and drink the juice in Communion “in remembrance of Him”, thankful for the miracle He performed in our souls when we accepted Him in our lives, when our sin was forgiven. Our sin that had caused the broken relationship with Him, was restored to fellowship with Him. Then, those individual sins we regularly confess are also forgiven, freeing us from guilt so that we may enjoy full relationship with Him.

 

Conclusion: But if we have been healed of what really needed healing, our sin, we will know perfect healing in eternal life with Jesus. No pain, no sorrow, no death. When we have been washed with His blood, we will have been fully cleansed, fully healed. Amen