News That Heals
The Rev.
Jack Alvey
One Saturday morning,
while on-call as a chaplain resident at Baptist Princeton in Birmingham, I was
greeted with the news that a family had just learned there loved one had died. Like I normally did, I went into the family
room to pray with those who were grieving.
During the middle of my
prayer, a family member interrupted to tell everyone that their loved one was
being kept alive on a ventilator. It was
a miracle, so everyone thought! But it
was really just miscommunication—the patient never died.
I left the family in
peace and later that night I received a Code Blue for the same patient. There was no question, the patient had died. I made sure to double check with the
nurse. I gathered with the family around
the deceased for prayer.
As I usually do, I
asked the family for prayer requests. One
of the family members asked if I could pray for a miracle. They wanted me to pray that their loved one
come back to life because of course, that prayer worked just hours earlier. Another one of those things that they don’t
tell you about in seminary.
I hesitated. I wanted to tell them that I thought that kind
of prayer was a bad idea, but I thought that now was not the time for a
theological explanation on the meaning of prayer. So I prayed for a miracle. Meanwhile, the nurse stared a hole through
the back of my head with her piercing glare.
Maybe the nurse should have because, after all, the prayer did not
magically bring the deceased back to life.
Maybe I shouldn’t have prayed for a miracle but then again don’t we
believe in a God who is in the business of miracles.
We see the God who is
in the business of performing miracles in today’s Gospel lesson. In fact, we get a 2 in 1 miracle today. First, Jesus is met by Jarius, a man with
status and importance in the community.
Jarius has a twelve year old daughter who is dying. A rumor has it that Jesus, the miracle
worker, is back in town so Jarius takes to the streets and asks Jesus back to
his house.
On the way to the house,
a woman who is hemorrhaging pushes her way through the crowds to find
Jesus. The sad reality is that she
probably didn’t have to push her way through the crowd. She was probably one of those people who
parted the crowds by her very sight. She
is a nobody, but Jesus notices her when she reaches out to touch him and says, “Daughter,
your faith has made you well.” Thanks be
to God!
After the short detour,
Jesus makes his way to Jarius’ house where the twelve year old girl who was
sick is dead. However, Jesus calmly
tells the family that she is only sleeping.
Jesus takes the young girl by her hand and lifts her to life. Thanks be to God!
As miraculous as the
healings Jesus’ performed in today’s lesson, one must have to wonder, “What
about the old man who was too weak to stand when Jesus came walking through the
town?” “What about the orphaned boy who
didn’t have a dad who could pull a string or two to get him in to see the
healer sooner?”
Even today, “What about
the friend who survived the cancer and on the other hand the friend who
died? What about the child who has
everyone in the world rooting them on and on the other hand the child who has
nobody who cares about their future?
What does Jesus say
about the people who don’t get healed or about the people who don’t have others
who will advocate on their behalf? Is it
because all the others were less deserving?
Does only 1/1,000,000 get healed by Jesus? Why does Jesus heal some and not others? Why do some have it so good while most have
it so hard?
These are indeed hard
questions, emotional questions, questions that cause many to have a crisis of
faith. I imagine these are questions
that have run across your mind at least once or twice. The ultimate question that we must consider
says, “What is the purpose of Jesus’ healing?”
“Why is Jesus in the business of healing if he doesn’t heal everyone?”
Perhaps this last
question is our first clue. If Jesus isn’t
in the business of healing everyone he comes across, then maybe he is on a
mission to do more than our eyes can see.
Unlike a Doctor who takes the Hippocratic Oath, Jesus does not do
everything in his power to heal the masses, at least not physically. Because if Jesus is who Jesus says he is, the
Son of God Almighty, then he could heal the masses with the snap of a finger. But he doesn’t.
Maybe this means that
there is something more important for Jesus’ mission than physical
healing. While physical healing is
certainly a part of what God is doing through Jesus, maybe there is something
God is telling us that goes beyond healing the lame or raising the dead to
life. After all, physical healing in
this broken and fallen world is only a temporary fix because physical death is
inevitable—for we are dust and to dust we shall return.
Our text gives us a
clue that the kind of healing that Jesus is ultimately interested in is a type
of healing that is eternal. The kind of
healing that Jesus wants us and the world to experience is a kind of healing
that lives beyond our earthly world—your will
be done on earth as it is in heaven.
In both healing
stories, a relationship is a vital part of the healing story. In the case of the hemorrhaging woman, Jesus
basically asks, “Who just touched me?”
Jesus wants to know who came to him for healing. And when Jesus identifies the woman he speaks
to her and says, “Daughter, your faith has made you well.” Jesus wants to know this woman who came
seeking healing. In the case of the
twelve year old daughter, Jesus takes her by the hand and lifts her up. Jesus touches this twelve year old child,
someone whom the law probably prohibits him from touching, and makes her well.
In both stories, Jesus
is breaking the rules on who you are supposed to have a relationship with. In a society that depends very much on social
structure, what Jesus is doing is radical.
And even more than healing the sick without condition, Jesus is in the
business of calling all nations and races together into the family of God where
no distinction is made between a poor widow who is unclean and a twelve year
old girl whose parents have everything in the world to offer her except eternal
life.
So basically, these
physical healings are pointing to the bigger truth. Like Bishop Sloan says, we are often like a
dog who looks at the finger and not what the finger is pointing at. While miraculous and life giving, miracles
stories are not ends to themselves.
Miracle stories point to the bigger truth of God, a truth that calls the
world to know and see the healing touch of Jesus not only on the outside but on
the inside.
Ultimately, Jesus is in
the business of changing hearts. As one
of my favorite prayers says, we call on Jesus’ love to heal us and make us
whole. Yes, anything is possible with
God even raising the dead to life and making the lame well again. And these stories of healing do enrich and enliven
our faith and compel us to say, “Thanks be to God!” This is the God we put our hope in.
But even more
miraculously, Jesus is transforming the broken world and the broken hearted. As we continue to be bombarded with news of
all types—the good, the bad, the ugly—it is clear that our world needs to be
soaked in love. And not just any kind of
love—not love that is rooted in rules or laws, not love that is based on who is
right and who is most deserving.
Instead, a kind of love that we know through
our Lord, a love that breaks society’s rules, a love that is rooted in grace, a
kind of love that doesn’t discriminate between rich and poor, black and white,
red or yellow, gay or straight. The kind
of love that sees beyond our deservedness and this is the good news because
somewhere along the way we all come to realize how underserving we are of God’s
love.
As Christians we don’t have
wallow in this place where we and others have fallen short. Instead, we proclaim news that goes beyond
sin and death and hate and prejudice. We
boldly proclaim the good news of a God who has revealed himself in the flesh
and blood of Jesus Christ so God can touch and heal this broken world. Good news that says we are defined not by our
sin and falleness but by our risen Lord who has removed our sin, healed us, and
made us whole.
And this is the news
that we are sent forth with today, news that shows us that “We are all beloved
sons and daughters of God Almighty—no matter who your earthly father is. We are all members of the same race—the human
race. And at the end of the day, news
that says there is only one orientation that really matters and that is God’s
orientation toward the human family, an orientation that says, ‘you are loved
beyond measure, you are loved despite your sinfulness, you are loved by the One
who is touching and healing the whole world with life everlasting.’” Amen.
