Jesus and Healing, pt1 | 6/16/19
Mark 1:29-31; 1:40-44; 3:1-6 5:22-43 6/16/19 | Will DuVal
This morning, we are starting a 3-part mini-series within our broader series “ROOTED” through the Gospel of Mark, spec ifically on the topic of HEALING. And since this is such a heavy topic, and I recognize we may come here this morning carrying all SORTS of baggage – maybe you or someone you love has suffered from a chronic debilitating illness for years now, that you’ve prayed and pleaded with God about, to no avail, and maybe you’re frustrated; maybe you’re even, frankly, fed up. I don’t know, but since the subject is so heavy, I thought I’d start by just trying to break the ice and ease some of the tension with a JOKE...
You seem nervous... It turns out there aren’t many church-appropriate jokes about sickness and healing, go figure... so I had to make one up... Here it goes:
A Christian Scientist, a Word of Faith faith-healer, and an evangelical Christian walk into a hospital room. The Christian Scientist takes one look at the woman lying in the bed, and says, “What are you DOING here! Sickness is an illusion, modern medicine is evil, and Jesus is all you need?! Get up, go home, and pray harder!” The faith-healer says, “No, clearly YOU don’t have the faith to heal yourself; your lack of faith is the reason you’re in this mess! Write me a check for $1,000 right now, and I’ll pray over you and heal you.” The evangelical Christian looks at the Christian Scientist... he looks at the faith healer... then he looks down at the sick woman... and he says... NOTHING.
You didn’t laugh. I’ve got a WEIRD sense of humor. Maybe it’s less of a JOKE and more of an illustration of what I see going on in the Christian world today when it comes to the subject of healing. We saw this with DEMONS when we studied them together last month too - evangelicalism looks around and sees these various offshoots of “Christianity” handling a subject so POORLY - liberal mainline Protestants who disbelieve in demons altogether, or hyper-spiritualist charismatics who see a demon behind every tree; evangelicalism rightly identifies so many problems with these other approaches, that we’ve WRONGLY concluded it’s easiest to just avoid the topic altogether. So we don’t talk about demons. And the same is often true for HEALING. It seems like the only “Christians” talking about healing today are the ones who get it BADLY wrong, and sadly, my “joke” really ISN’T funny, because it exposes the way evangelical Christianity by and large deals with this topic of healing, or rather, DOESN’T deal with it. It’s hard to know WHAT to say, when so much of what GETS said is so hurtful to the very ones who are hurting the most, and so instead, we say... nothing.
Well, fortunately for those who ARE hurting, in need of physical healing this morning, Scripture has quite a BIT to say on the subject. 9 passages in the Gospel of Mark alone. So if WE don’t know what to say; maybe it’s best to shut our mouths anyway, and open our ears, to hear what GOD has to say, over these next 3 weeks, on the topic of healing. Would you pray with me...
#1 – We turn FIRST to Mark 1:29-31. This is Jesus’ FIRST healing miracle. And the first, and perhaps most IMPORTANT thing we need to point out about healing right off the bat, is that it is IMPORTANT... BUT... not MOST important.
MARK 1:29-31 And immediately Jesus left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 Now Simon's mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her. 31 And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
Physical healing is important to Jesus, that’s why Mark includes 9 separate accounts of Jesus healing people, and YET, it is NEVER most important, to Jesus. We will see this truth born out especially in two weeks, in Jesus’ healing of the paralytic in Mark 2:1-12 - Jesus prioritizes healing the man’s SOUL, forgiving him of his SINS, before he even THINKS about physically healing the man’s body. Or consider Mark 1:38-39, the passage just AFTER this one, where the crowds in Capernaum turn up in DROVES, because they’ve heard about this Jesus and his miraculous healing powers, and Jesus responds: “Time for me to move on to “other towns”. Not because I’ve physically healed everyone here, but because I’ve already PREACHED here, in Capernaum; now I must go PREACH elsewhere – THAT IS WHY I CAME.” Jesus CAME, primarily, not to meet physical needs, but to meet our deeper spiritual need. Luke 4:43. And that’s at least hinted at here in Jesus’ first healing in ch.1, simply by virtue of its place in Mark’s CHRONOLOGY, and what that tells us about its relative importance. Now, I can’t PROVE that just because something happened FIRST, that makes it more important. But I DON’T think it’s inconsequential, that
Before Jesus EVER heals anyone, Mark FIRST foregrounds the importance of God’s word in vv1-8, by rooting Jesus in his OT context.
Before Jesus heals ANYONE, or performs ANY ministry, he must first be CALLED and commissioned by His Father, at his baptism in vv9-11.
Before Jesus heals ANYONE, he demonstrates the importance of internal integrity over outward ability; when tempted in the “wilderness” in vv12-13, Jesus proved he was not only CAPABLE of the ministry entrusted to Him, but that he is CREDIBLE for it as well.
Before Jesus heals anyone, he announces his Mission, the GOSPEL, in vv14-15; he starts not with the “What”, but with the “WHY”; I’m here because: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand;[e]repent and believe in the gospel.”
Before Jesus heals anyone, he highlights the importance of COMMUNITY, by calling the disciples in vv16-20. Perhaps even our social health is more important than our PHYSICAL health! Jesus surrounds himself with a community before he ever meets a single physical need.
And finally, before Jesus heals anyone, he preaches and teaches, and spiritually heals people in vv21-28;
So physical healing is important to Jesus, absolutely. But it’s not as important as God’s word, God’s calling, our character, the gospel, Christian community, or evangelism and SPIRITUAL healing. There is a hierarchy of importance here.
My question for practical application this morning is: do our prayer lives REFLECT that? If time and time again, Jesus proves that physical needs MATTER to Him, but NOT as much as our deeper SPIRITUAL needs, do our prayers mirror God’s priorities?
I am so honored as your pastor to pray alongside you each week, for the physical healing of your family and friends; that is the most common type of request we get each week. And that is wonderful – West Hills is a church that intercedes for people’s physical healing. Let’s keep it up. But I can just tell you, I am even MORE encouraged when less frequently, we receive requests for the SPIRITUAL healing of your lost loved ones. Who don’t know the Lord and if God forbid they don’t physically recover, and that cancer DOES take their life, they are at serious risk of spending eternity separated from God. Friends – THAT is the more pressing need. I will pray with you for that person’s physical recovery, but the harsh truth is that she’s gonna die 10, or 20, or 30 years from now ANYWAY; and I’m MUCH more concerned with her “quality of life” for the next 1,000... million... BILLION... ETERNITY years after that!
About a month ago, Brian Gamble’s father was diagnosed with stage 4 liver cancer and given only months to live. When I called Brian, the first thing he said was: “Please pray for my Dad’s heart”. I thought, “Did the cancer spread to his heart?” Brian said, “Even if the treatment works and he’s in the 90th percentile who survives 2 more years, if my father doesn’t repent and trust in JESUS, then he’s just delaying the inevitable. I want him in HEAVEN, with me, for eternity.”
Friends, THAT is most important. NONE of us, no matter HOW excellent your physical health, is guaranteed our next breath around this joint. So I want to ask you a very simple, very direct question this morning: if you left here today, and got mowed over by an 18-wheeler merging back onto Hwy-40 – that just happened a few weeks ago right here, right in front of the church – and you died this morning, do you know where you would spend the rest of eternity? Follow-up question: HOW do you know? When you stood at the gates of Heaven and God asked, “Why should I let you in?”, how would you answer?
If you hear NOTHING else this morning, please hear this: if your answer has ANYTHING to do with trying to live a good life, with being a good person, with your church attendance, being baptized, being raised in a Christian home, trying your hardest to follow Jesus, with ANYTHING that you have done or TRIED your very hardest TO do, you will spend eternity separated from God. Because try as you may, you will NEVER be good enough to impress God, to deserve God, to EARN His love; HE is perfect, so anything SHORT of perfect is just gonna screw Heaven up. You are disqualified from entering. You’ll ruin Heaven. On your own merit.
But friend: hear the good news this morning: JESUS lived the life you couldn’t live and DIED the death you deserve and ROSE from the grave to conquer the sin that you couldn’t, SO THAT you could stand before the Almighty God of the universe with CONFIDENCE not because of anything you’ve done, but because of EVERYTHING HE’S done for you. And if you will simply trust in Him, in Jesus, BY faith, YOU. WILL. BE. SAVED. Rom 10:13 – “Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD, will be saved.”
So I ask again: Have you called on the name of the Lord? Today can be YOUR day of salvation. Repent, and believe the gospel. And for those of us who have, let’s keep our priorities straight. Let’s care and pray hard for people’s physical healing. But let’s care more and pray even HARDER for their spiritual healing. Amen?
#2 – Healing is the GIFT of a COMPASSIONATE God.
MARK 1:40-44 And a leper[h] came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” 41 Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” 42 And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43 And Jesus[i] sternly charged him and sent him away at once, 44 and said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”
Two things stand out about healing here: #1 – it must be JESUS’ will, it is a GIFT; and #2 – it’s a gift he OFFERS, because he is compassionate.
First, the leper rightly recognizes that if he’s going to be healed, it’s NOT gonna be because HE wills it, because of HIS great faith, but rather, it will ONLY be a result of JESUS’ faithfulness TO him, because JESUS wills it. So he declares, “Jesus: If you will, you can make me clean.” This is one of the things the Word of Faith / prosperity gospel FALSE teachers get most WRONG about healing: it is not ultimately the sick person’s faith, or even the intercessory healer’s faith that bring about healing; healing ONLY occurs because GOD wills it. HE is the only one able to heal, physically, spiritually, or otherwise, and while he sometimes sovereignly appoints and determines to use US as instruments through WHICH to accomplish His healing, he uses physicians to heal people medically, or he uses the prayers of a righteous man, James 5, to heal spiritually, but in ANY case, if a person is healed, it was because GOD willed it. And the more difficult truth to accept, of course, is that when healing DOESN’T happen, that is ALSO because God didn’t will it. False teachers like Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Bill Johnson, Todd White, will say things like, “I cannot believe that it is EVER God’s will NOT to heal someone.” Or “If I had the power to heal my own child who was suffering and DIDN’T do it, I’d be a terrible father; so I cannot believe God is that kind of Father”. And to them, God says in Psalm 50:21 – “You make the mistake of thinking that I am like you”; Isaiah 55:8-9 “my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Praise God that His ways are higher than ours. That even when we CAN’T understand, when we struggle to believe He’s still GOOD, that in the midst of the most unthinkable of tragedies, the cross of Jesus, our Father has already PROVEN that He is still at work, transforming the most unspeakable suffering this world has ever known into the most glorious, REDEMPTIVE act of all time.
Because OUR God is compassionate. Literally, He “suffers with” us. And we need look no further than the cross for proof. Heb 4:15 “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with us in our weaknesses”. You wanna talk about WEAKNESS? About SUFFERING? About desperately needing physical healing? How about crucifixion! Brothers and sisters: we don’t just have a God who feels bad FOR us, but who suffers WITH us. That’s what sets Christianity apart. Most people, if they believe in God at all, envision Him as a STOIC, who could never be affected by the minor hurts and pains of lowly peons like us. But JESUS is no Stoic. JESUS was “moved with pity” in v41, for this man with leprosy. Leprosy is a skin disease. This man is not about to die. I don’t want to downplay it, but he’s mainly just ITCHY. And yet, Jesus CARES. He is MOVED; He is splanch-NIS-theis, moved deep within His bowels, to his CORE, we might say today.
And even here, Jesus isn’t JUST concerned with the man’s physical suffering; he instructs him to “Go, show yourself to the priest and be cleansed”. Jesus restores him SOCIALLY as well. Back into COMMUNITY. Lepers were social outcasts, but Jesus shows this man COMPASSION. He could have just spoken a word and healed him. But what does he do? He stretches out his hand and touches him. Some of us are signed up to visit Delmar Gardens during SERVE week - you may have the opportunity to HUG someone who literally hasn’t been touched by another human being in years. That is not uncommon in nursing homes today. Compassion.
He shows us here that He is BOTH sovereign, that healing is a gift that comes from Him, AND that He is compassionate, that He doesn’t just care about us, that He is affected BY and suffers WITH us. What a Savior! What a kind, merciful, loving healer.
#3 – Healing is DEEPLY THEOLOGICAL.
MARK 3:1-6
Again Jesus entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand.2 And they watched Jesus,[a] to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. 3 And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” 4 And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. 5 And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6 The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.
Healing is DEEPLY THEOLOGICAL. In our final passage we’ll read in just a moment, Jesus will tell a sick woman, “your faith has made you well”. By contrast, here, in Mark 3, we see that the Pharisees, because of their LACK of faith, specifically, because of their misguided theological conviction that rules are more important than PEOPLE, the Pharisees have effectively eliminated even the possibility of healing, at least on the Sabbath.
Let’s make this practical and personal for us today: I think there are 2 ways we can ERR when it comes to healing. I think of C.S. Lewis’ famous statement about DEMONS, which holds true for healing as well: we can ERR by making either too MUCH of healing – Christian Scientists, prosperity health and wealth gospel – OR contrastingly, and perhaps more relevantly for MOST of us here this morning, we can err by making too LITTLE of healing. Have we, in our reaction AGAINST the heresies of such false gospels, or perhaps just in our unconscious adoption of the materialist worldview of the society in which we live, that de-spiritualizes EVERYTHING, have we reduced ALL healing to merely physical intervention? Do we even make room in our theology anymore, for a spiritual dimension to physical healing, or have we, like the Pharisees in Mark 3, ruled out that possibility altogether? If God actually WANTED to supernaturally heal that person, perhaps even use YOUR prayers FOR them as the vehicle for DOING it, do we still believe that’s even possible? That God still works in those ways today?
I know I do, but I’ll be honest - I often PRAY like it’s not. Aren’t our prayers often FULL of qualifiers. Well-meaning, theologically sound qualifiers, yes. But qualifiers nonetheless. “God, I pray that you would heal this person... BUT if it ISN’T your will, then...” That’s TRUE; it may NOT be God’s will. But we’re not called to KNOW God’s will; we’re called to PRAY with all boldness. How many of you have ever been AFRAID – I have! – to pray for something, healing in particular, because you weren’t sure if it was God’s will? [Hands] And what happens then, if I’ve PRAYED for something that wasn’t God’s will – does that mean I’m opposing God’s will?! So I qualify and weaken my prayers. And I emphasize God’s sovereignty SO much, that I effectively take myself out of the equation altogether. I mean, if God’s will is going to be done REGARDLESS of what I pray, then why pray for anything EVER anyway!?
Perhaps you’ve heard it said of evangelism: “Pray like it’s all up to God, Preach like it’s all up to you”. Some of us in the Reformed, evangelical camp need to appreciate the truth of that saying when it comes to physical healing too. We might paraphrase and say: “Remember it’s all up to God, but PRAY like it’s up to you.” Don’t over-qualify your prayers, friends. Yes, God is sovereign. Yes, His will WILL ultimately be done. But it’s not our job to KNOW His will. It’s OUR job, to pray boldly: Heb 4:16 “Let us with confidence / boldness draw near to the throne of grace”; 1 Jn 5:14-15 “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” – in other words, ASSUME He’s going to grant your request if it’s within His will, and since you can’t KNOW His will, just pray like it IS His will! Pray like this person’s healing is up to you, even while you remember that it’s ultimately up to the Lord.
Finally, #4 – Healing is ALWAYS possible with Jesus.
MARK 5:22-43
22 Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet 23 and implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” 24 And he went with him.
And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. 25 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, 26 and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. 27 She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. 28 For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” 29 And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30 And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” 31 And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” 32 And he looked around to see who had done it. 33 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. 34 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
35 While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler's house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” 36 But overhearing[e]what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” 37 And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. 38 They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus[f] saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly.39 And when he had entered, he said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.” 40 And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was. 41 Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” 42 And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. 43 And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.”
There’s a lot we could say about this passage. This is the longest healing story in Mark’s Gospel, I believe it may be the longest in ANY Gospel. But I’ll keep it REAL simple here as we wrap up: Healing is ALWAYS possible with Jesus. Mark goes out of his way in describing the first woman, to emphasize just how HOPELESS her case is. She’s been bleeding for 12 years straight, it’s amazing she’s still alive AT ALL, she’s been to EVERY physician in Galilee, and she’s only gotten progressively WORSE, and yet all it takes is touching a piece of Jesus’ ROBE and she is immediately healed. But that’s just the WARM up, because the SECOND girl is DEAD. It doesn’t get any more HOPELESS than THAT! And with a mere WORD, Jesus speaks breath back into her lungs.
All due respect to physicians, but GOD is the one who gives us the number of weeks we have left to live. I want to call Bryan West up here to share his testimony but of course I’m out of time. Next week, Bryan?
Brothers and sisters – as long as we know the One who with a word