Rest for your Souls: Jesus Heals
Where do you go when you need healing?
During our summer holiday our son became sick. As soon as we saw symptoms my wife and I called a doctor. The next day the doctor saw him, prescribed some medicine, and by the end of the week the sickness left. Our son was healed!
The toy doctor kit our boys play with
Modern medical care amazes me. For so many ailments a simple doctor’s visit accompanied with the right medicines brings a level of healing unparalleled in human history.
Even so, not all doctors have answers, and not all illnesses have cures. Cancer still ravages its victims. Simple viruses untreated still lead to death. Many people across the world have no access to modern medical care. So what do we do when we need healing beyond our ability?
British pastor and writer G. Campbell Morgan wrote a great book called, The Great Physician, detailing how Jesus healed people in the gospels. Since Jesus is the Great Physician, Morgen wrote that, “[Jesus] went about healing ‘all manner of disease’ [including] the spiritual as well as the mental and physical.”
In Matthew 9:18-26, Jesus healed two women on the brink of death. Take a moment and read Matthew 9:18-26.
A synagogue leader approached Jesus in haste, begging Jesus to heal his dying daughter. As Jesus hastened to the girl, a woman with a horrible bleeding illness grabbed Jesus’ robe hoping he could heal her. In both instances, Jesus healed the women.
Both the dying girl and the bleeding woman needed healing. Both had nothing to give. Both were dead- one physically, the other socially. And in their moment of greatest need, Jesus healed them with great compassion.
Often we cry out to God in prayer in times of sickness, hoping and believing he will heal us. Thankfully, this passage shows that Jesus answers our prayers with healing and compassion.
For some, that healing takes on a physical reality. Many of us experienced times when we or someone near us received healing that defied medical knowledge. The doctor says something like, “I can’t explain it, but they are healed.” In these moments I firmly believe that God answers our prayers for healing.
On the other hand, we certainly know many instances where, despite many prayers, sickness ends in death. In those moments, where is Jesus’ compassion and healing?
Of all the books I read at seminary (A LOT OF BOOKS!), this is one of the most impactful.
As G. Campbell Morgen reflected on this text, he shared his personal experience of his own young daughter who became deathly ill. Despite Morgan’s many prayers for healing, “[Jesus] did not say, She shall be made whole. She was not made whole on the earthly plane. She passed away into the life beyond… It meant that [Jesus] needed her, and He took her to be with Himself. She has been with Him for all those years as we measure time here, and I have missed her every day; but His word, ‘Believe only,’ has been the strength of all the passing years.”
Physical healing in this life is but a momentary delay of our inevitable physical deaths. While Jesus offers us physical healing on occasion, he offers us a spiritual healing of far greater value. When we approach him with nothing to give begging for forgiveness, love, and compassion, he always answers us with the same words, “Daughter [or Son], be encouraged! Your faith has made you well!”
Do you want to learn more about receiving physical or spiritual healing in Jesus? Write us and we’ll gladly share more with you.
