When I was four going on five, more than anything else in the world, I wanted a new bike. I drew pictures of it—I could see it in my head!—and in all my pictures it was blue and it was fast. I wasn’t really sure how to draw the fast part, but it was there! I used to pray for that bicycle with the fervor of the most devout Christian who has ever lived. “God, You know how much I want that bike. God, You know good that bike would be for me.” Every day, I would look for that bike, convinced that it would just appear because my parents always said that God answers prayers. Finally, I decided that I must not have made the deal good enough for God—I knew He loved me, and wanted what was best for me—but maybe I had to sweeten the deal. So I offered God what I thought was a great deal, “God, I will give you anything you want, just please give me this bike. I won’t bother you to ask for anything ever again.” As I grew up, I realized that bargaining with God was kind of crazy—what could I ever offer God who has everything, right? Yet, the times that I have prayed the hardest as an adult have all been when I have prayed for healing and protection—for myself and for other people. My kids are sick, or my friend is suffering, or my mom as she was dying, and I come to God, knowing how beyond my control everything was. In today’s passages from the New Testament, we see Jesus touching the lives of people when things were beyond their control, and bringing healing and hope. As we try to walk in Jesus’ footsteps, let’s try to get close to Jesus, to understand what was going on, to get a sense of how Jesus’ approached people and healing, and then perhaps we will understand how Jesus can heal us and the people we love today.
First, Jesus’ compassion drives His healing. In the Mark passage for today, Jesus heals people and casts out demons well into the night. Many times in the gospels, Jesus is “moved with compassion” by the needs of the people in front of Him. The man in the synagogue who, even troubled by a “demon,” goes to synagogue demonstrates his desire to be free. Peter’s mother-in-law, who is so sick and it’s killing her she can’t show Jesus some hospitality, to do her part for the family. The dad whose son has a destructive spirit—maybe something like epilepsy—who is so desperate for his son to be healed that he battles through the disciples’ issues and his own issues to help his son. In John’s gospel, we even read that when Lazarus died, and Jesus goes to comfort his good friend’s sisters, Jesus is so moved by their grief that Jesus Himself cries. Jesus has deep, heart-felt compassion for those who are suffering.
Second, Jesus can heal the whole person. I love the tender picture of Jesus healing Peter’s mother-in-law of a fever. I imagine him going in and sitting next to her bed, placing his hand on her forehead, like he’s taking her temperature—and then the temperature is gone and her feverish eyes clear and a smile comes to her face. I imagine her being healed by Jesus—and it’s clearly a physical healing. One minute she’s sick and the next she’s not. At first, that seems very different from the demon possession thing we read about in our two passages. We don’t take much about demon possession in our time because we have names for all sorts of things people used to blame on demons. Adam Hamilton, in his book, The Way: Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus,writes, “No one in ancient times understood viruses or bacteria or the hypothalamus (the part of the brain where epilepsy seems to be centered). No one knew anything about schizophrenia or other conditions now routinely diagnosed as mental illness. How, otherwise, would we expect people in the ancient world to explain these conditions, except as the presence of demons?”[1]Jesus doesn’t seem inclined to draw distinctions between physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health problems—to the sick he gives wholeness, to the paralyzed He brings forgiveness, to the unhinged He restores sanity, and to the despairing He brings hope. Jesus can bring healing to all kinds of suffering.
Finally, people’s faith seems to make a difference. Before coming to Capernaum for today’s first passage in Mark, Jesus is in his hometown of Nazareth, and he doesn’t do much healing there, maybe because it’s hard for them to see past the Jesus who grew up there. In Capernaum, though, people are amazed by Jesus—what He says, what He does—and do all sorts of crazy, faithful things. For example, one time, Jesus was hanging out in Peter’s house and the place is packed with people. All of a sudden, there’s the sound of digging on the roof made of mud and sticks. Before long, there’s a hole big enough for a stretcher, and four friends lower their sick buddy down so Jesus can heal him. Mark says, “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the [the paralyzed guy on the stretcher], ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.” I love this story because we see that Jesus sees the real need for the guy on the stretcher is forgiveness, and I love this story because Jesus heals him not because the guy on the stretcher has faith, but because his friends do. Faith makes all the difference in the world.
But prayer is not magic, and faith doesn’t make God help us. My bike did not appear just because I wanted it. God is a wild, untamed God—loving to be sure—and God knows how everything is connected, so we can’t make God do anything, and we might not like what happens if we could. And Jesus’ healing is not magic—it may not come when we call, and God may not answer our prayers in the way we ask for or expect. That’s a whole other sermon. But still, as the great Baptist preacher, EV Hill, puts it, “Sometimes—not every time—but sometimes, God steps in and moves things.”
Months after my fifth birthday, at Christmas, my parents gave me a bicycle of my dreams. Well…it was orange, had handlebars like a chopper motorcycle and a black banana seat…and it wasn’t very fast at first, ‘cause I didn’t know how to ride it. I had a couple of ugly falls, one into a thorn bush that was particularly memorable. Ouch! I think about prayer differently now, think about how Jesus comes into our lives—and other people’s lives—when we feel our lives, our health, our addictions, our sanity are most out of control. In some way we can’t explain, that Jesus died for us and then rose from the dead, allows Jesus to be present with us in this very moment in our lives. Just as it happened 2000 years ago, Jesus knows the needs of people’s hearts and Jesus is moved with compassion. And Jesus is able to BE with us—not overwhelmed by our needs, but loving, strong and peaceful—and listen to us pour out our hearts. Just as it happened 2000 years ago, Jesus has a power over the things that make us broken—over a body that is sick, over a heart that is scarred, over a mind that is ill, over emotions that are surging, over grief and despair and addiction and woundedness—and Jesus can speak a word into our lives that brings healing, wholeness, soundness, and hope. When we are ready, Jesus can speak into our pain and neediness words of life and love and laughter.
But the story of our four friends, who carried their friend who was so paralyzed with guilt that he couldn’t walk, these four faithful friends remind us that sometimes we are called to do our part—to help our sick, wounded, grieving, oppressed and broken friends, neighbors and co-workers into Jesus’ Presence. These are the people we may know the best, see their pain, and know we may not be able to do something for them, but Jesus could. We may not know how to heal them, but Jesus does. We may not know how to break them free from the traumas and shackles that weigh them down, but Jesus does. All we are called to be is a good friend, to be a stretcher bearer, willing to help them into Jesus’ Presence, and to overcome whatever gets in the way. Jesus’ healing is for us—oh yes! Jesus sees our need—and Jesus is moved with compassion by those who need it most. We are the wounded stretcher-bearers, in need of healing, still we help others find theirs too. Jesus sees our need and theirs, and Jesus is ready!
[1]P. 60.