Have you ever prayed for anyone who was sick?
A while back, we learned that one of our neighbors was going to have to have surgery. This is a neighbor that has become a friend to our whole family. He and his wife even got our kids and some of the other neighborhood kids a Christmas present this past year. Super sweet people.
So when we learned that he was going to have surgery, Alisha and I took our family over to their house, circled around him and prayed for him.
I could tell it meant a lot to him and his wife. They are believers in Jesus. They believe in prayer. And it was my sense that this surgery was weighing heavy on them.
So we did what people of faith do in moments like this.
We gathered together and we prayed.
We prayed to the God of the Universe, to Jesus Christ the Son of the Most High God, to do what only God could do in this moment for our friend. To heal.
Why? Because we believe that Jesus is a Healer.
I’ll acknowledge that this can be a touchy subject. Like some of you, I have prayed my heart out at certain times for certain people who needed Jesus, the Healer. And on more than one occasion it seemed like those prayers went unanswered. That the healing didn’t come.
But then, I can also point to moments when I prayed, when I really needed Jesus the Healer to come through, and He did!
I can’t tell you why sometimes Jesus heals, Jesus performs the miracle, and sometimes He doesn’t.
There’s tension here for us because we know, we believe, that Jesus has all power and all ability to heal those who are sick.
Sometimes, people get better.
Sometimes, they don’t.
So how do we see Jesus as healer when sometimes He does heal, He does answer that prayer, and sometimes it seems like He doesn’t?
Miracles, Healing and the Ministry of Jesus
Healing was a HUGE part of Jesus’ ministry while He was on Earth! In the gospel of Matthew alone, Jesus performed 20 different miracles, 13 of those were healings. More than half.
If you look across all four gospels, Jesus performed 37 different miracles. 27 of those were healings.
A few months ago when I was in Israel we climbed Mt. Arbel. Mt. Arbel isn’t mentioned in scripture, but from Mt. Arbel you can see most of Galilee.
The majority of the miracles Jesus performed were in Galilee.
And while there were certainly times when Jesus withdrew from the crowd and didn’t heal everyone… think about that, there were times when Jesus stopped healing and not everyone there that day got healed, Jesus did heal many.
Sometimes we ask, Why didn’t Jesus heal?
That’s an important question. One where there are no easy answers. But there is another question we should also ask.
WHY did Jesus heal who He healed?
Ordinary and Extraordinary
I think we find one of the reasons Jesus heals those who are sick in this story in Matthew 9.1-8.
Jesus climbed into a boat and went back across the lake to his own town.
Before we talk about Jesus the Healer, I do want you to notice that Matthew gives us a really interesting detail here before he tells this story of a time when Jesus healed someone who was sick.
Matthew tells us that Jesus “climbed into a boat” to cross a lake.
There was another moment when Jesus was at the Sea of Galilee. He was on the land. His disciples were in a boat in the middle of the lake in the middle of the night in the middle of the storm. On that occasion, Jesus didn’t get into a boat to cross the lake, He just walked on the surface of the water to the boat.
Jesus had the power to walk on water here too… but here’s my point: Jesus can and does use ordinary means to accomplish his purposes. Just because He can walk on water doesn’t mean he always does.
I think it follows to say that Jesus can heal our sicknesses in miraculous, unexplainable ways. We’ve all heard stories of when God has done something like this in someone’s life and the doctors don’t have any answers, any medical explanation as to why someone got better without the surgery! Or the medication, or whatever.
Jesus can heal our sickness in extraordinary ways, but he can also use ordinary means to accomplish his purposes.
Jesus Sees “Their” Faith
Some people brought to him a paralyzed man on a mat. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “Be encouraged, my child! Your sins are forgiven.”
This man, for whatever reason, cannot walk. He’s paralyzed and limited to a mat.
But Jesus doesn’t see HIS faith, Jesus sees THEIR faith. And it’s because of THEIR faith that Jesus forgives HIS sin.
You might be wondering, Why did Jesus forgive his sin? Obviously, they brought their friend to Jesus not because he was sinful but because he wanted to walk!
But Jesus knew that his primary problem was not his paralysis. His primary problem was his sinfulness!
But even then… why did Jesus forgive him of his sins because of THEIR faith. Didn’t the man need his own faith to receive forgiveness of HIS sins?
What a great question. I don’t have all the answers here, but I can tell you this…
The faith of his friends to carry him into the presence of Jesus was enough to forgive his sins.
You never know what hangs in the balance when you usher your friends into the presence of Jesus.
Sometimes you don’t have the strength to walk into the presence of Jesus. You need someone to carry you there. You need people of faith to carry you when you don’t have the faith to walk.
When we allow others to carry us into the presence of Jesus, Jesus can and will do extraordinary things in our lives by their faith.
Their love, their faith, their willingness to bring their friend into the presence of Jesus resulted in his forgiveness.
Physical Healing + Spiritual Healing
But some of the teachers of religious law said to themselves, “That’s blasphemy! Does he think he’s God?”
Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he asked them, “Why do you have such evil thoughts in your hearts? Is it easier to say ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up and walk’? So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!”
And the man jumped up and went home! Fear swept through the crowd as they saw this happen. And they praised God for giving humans such authority.
Here in this moment, I think Jesus gives us a clue to WHY he is a healer, why so much of his ministry centered around healing… because he wanted us to know that he had the power to forgive sin.
Physical healing proved the spiritual healing. Jesus healed what we CAN SEE so we could know that He can heal what we CAN’T SEE.
Why did Jesus heal?
He healed the blind so we could know we could see him.
He healed the lame so we could know we could walk with him.
He healed the mute so we could know we could talk to him.
He healed the deaf so we could know we could hear from him.
He raised the dead so we could know we could live with him!
Why did Jesus heal? So that we would know that he has the power to save.
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