Jesus Heals

In our modern era, Jesus gets mixed reaction: IF people believe in him, they usually cast him in a good light and regard him as a good person who helped people, and he was a good teacher who inspired people to love each other. What's interesting to me is the fact that when looking at the actual stories we have of Jesus, the reason he was regarded so highly, what made him so helpful was his healings. And all the healings are miraculous. And the things he taught were all connected to living in line with the rule of God. So today we applaud Jesus for his good work and good teachings, but discount the divine miracles that made his work good, and downplay his divine message that made his teachings good. No wonder so many people these days don't know what to do with Jesus.

People in Jesus' day had doctors, had advanced knowledge of medicine, of herbs and healing remedies. But many of the people who came to Jesus either couldn't afford a doctor, or their wretched poverty was causing the misery, and they were caught in a cycle they couldn't get out of. The other terrible condition was affliction from unclean spirits. We don't talk much about that part of Jesus' ministry, mostly because we don't know what to believe about them.

Most Americans don't believe in demon possession, and if they do it is totally influenced by Hollywood. In reading the Jesus-stories, it seems like other than Jesus, these people who were filled with unclean spirits had no hope for release. It wasn't like Jesus was competing with other exorcists in the region. People were amazed that Jesus could cast the spirits out, and that the people were completely healed of the effects of the possession. Amazed because what they were witnessing was so rare and so beautiful.

Some scholars wonder if possession by unclean spirits is comparable to some of the severe mental illnesses that we have diagnosed today. It's possible. But we also know that in other primitive parts of the world there is very strong belief in dark spirits, there are situations and circumstances that seemingly can only be explained by supernatural action. It's not like the people that Jesus freed had been playing with a Ouija board and went too far, or had done incantations and gotten them wrong.

What we do know is that the oppression of Rome was so brutal, the rule of Herod so cruel, and the abuse of the temple leaders so corrupt, that when millions of people are subjected to unending injustice, grinding poverty, and unmediated terrors, they become susceptible to severe mental and spiritual trauma. How unclean spirits take advantage of people in those conditions is unclear to me. What's important though, is that Jesus freed these oppressed people from spiritual and mental bondage, and then gave them directions and hope for a way to not only survive Rome and Herod, but how to thrive in this hard life and in the next.

Jesus heals still today. He heals through doctors and nurses, through counselors and therapists, through pastors and friends. Jesus once in awhile does miracles yet today, but his rationale for doing so is mysterious to us and known only to him. What we do know, from reading these stories of Jesus, is that Jesus heals in connection with his message of renewal. Jesus wants to renew us and restore us to God, and everything he does intends to help bring about more restoration in this life and the next.

God and Jesus seem to take a long-view of things, they seem to be working very slowly. Two-thousand years later and there still seems to be so much work to be done in the world, so many more people who are in need of restoration. We see people now who need healing, and we wonder why God doesn't intervene more. God sees people who needs healing and wonders why we don't intervene more. God sees people who need healing, and he sees people he'd like to use to help bring about that healing, and God works to bring those people together. But will we respond to his promptings? Will we line ourselves up with his bigger work of restoration? Or will we only focus on why God doesn't heal more people more often?