The Healer

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

March 7, 2012

Trinity Episcopal Church Lenten Series

The Healer

Luke 5:12-16

The lights burn bright on the stage.

The preacher stands there expectantly,

the congregation buzzing with excitement and anticipation.

One-by-one they move forward,

lining up by the stairs that lead to the chancel,

that lead up to the lights,

that lead up to the preacher,

…that lead to hope.

One-by-one they are brought forward to the preacher,

who asks them,

“What is it that you want to be healed of sister?”

What is it that ails you brother?”

And then the preacher looks up

as he places his hand on the forehead of the afflicted,

and with a mighty shout

that rivals the hosannas of the heavenly host

the preacher cries out,

“IN THE NAME OF JESUS HEAL!”

And in one explosive second,

the afflicted man, the ailing woman,

falls back into the waiting arms of attendants,

who then turn the person to the crowd:

LOOK: the sinner has been healed,

the affliction gone!

Let all God’s children shout, “Praise the Lord!”

That’s how we often picture a healing service;

as straight out of “Elmer Gantry”,

or more recently, “Leap of Faith”,

a service that is more about theatrics than faith,

more about the preacher than about God.

It is easy to be skeptical of such services,

but still there is that question that lurks:

Could there be something to it?

Is there a possibility that a person could be healed:

healed of blindness, of deafness,

of crippling arthritis,

even of cancer by nothing more than a touch,

a prayer?

It’s what Jesus did in our lesson.

He healed a leper of his horrible disease,

just as he had healed Peter’s mother-in-law of fever;

just as he would go on to restore sight to the blind,

hearing to the deaf,

give the crippled the ability to get up and walk.

Jesus healed.

Jesus healed -

not because he wanted to be the center of attention;

but because he knew that his Father in Heaven,

our Father in Heaven,

wants us to know healing,

wants us to be healed.

An apocryphal book –

a book that is found in the Bibles

of some denominations

but not most Protestant denominations -

tells us that God gave us medicine and medical practitioners

so that we would know healing.

In a book entitled Sirach,

written almost 200 years before the birth of Christ

we read:

“Honor physicians for their services,

…for the Lord created them;
for their gift of healing comes from the Most High,
 …The Lord created medicines out of the earth,
 …By them the physician heals and takes away pain;

 the pharmacist makes a mixture from them.

… from [God] health spreads over all the earth.”

(Sirach 38:1-8)

We may not consider Sirach canonical,

but we probably would not disagree with this passage.

God wants us to know healing and wholeness,

not pain and infirmity,

and God uses any and all routes to our healing.

You and I turn to the medical profession 
for healing of our physical maladies, our illnesses.

And certainly miracles abound

in what the medical profession can do these days:

artificial joints, heart bypasses,

organ transplants,

more and more effective treatments for cancer.

Leprosy, the scourge in Jesus’ day,

is all but nonexistent in this country

and where it does still appear in other parts of the world

there are drugs to treat it,

to effect a cure as complete as our Lord’s touch.

But there are afflictions that affect us,

wounds that abound in almost all of us,

wounds that are present,

but which the eye cannot see, 

which even the most complete physical exam

might not reveal;

Wounds that fester;

wounds that resist healing;

wounds that may have been inflicted upon us,

or which we may have inflicted upon ourselves.

Wounds that weaken us,

wounds that can drain the very life from us.

These are spiritual wounds,

spiritual affliction and illness

that come from hopelessness,

frustration,

guilt,

loneliness,

anger,

depression,

grief,

fear,

failure:

wounds that can have their root

in any of a thousand different sources,

a thousand different causes,

and which eat away us

as surely as leprosy attacked the body.

These are wounds which the medical profession

may try to heal in us,

but the promise is sure:

for these kinds of afflictions, these kinds of wounds,

no one can heal us more effectively,

more completely

than our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus will heal us with “gospel medicine,”

to use Barbara Brown Taylor’s term.

Gospel medicine:  the Word of God in Jesus Christ

The Word of God in Jesus Christ that can

“mend broken lives, and revive faint hearts.”

Think of the healing power in the words:

“fear not.”

Think of the healing power in the words:

“your sins are forgiven.”

Think of the healing power in the words:

“I have redeemed you; you are mine,

precious and honored in my sight.”

        

There is healing power in the words:

“I am the bread of life.”

        

There is healing power in the words:

“whoever follows me will never walk in darkness

but will have the gift of life.”

    

There is healing power in the words:

“I am the resurrection and the life.

Those who believe in me,

even though they die, will live, and

everyone who lives and believes in me

will never die.”

These words are gospel medicine,

words that can bind up our brokenness,

words that can heal even the deepest spiritual wound,

for they are words of grace and love.

                 

The prophet reminds us

that our Lord was “a man of suffering,

and acquainted with infirmity.”

(Isaiah 53:3)

And so he comes to each of us

with empathy,

with understanding

with compassion;

He comes to you and me ready, willing,

eager to heal.

He comes to the “the disappointed,

the doubtful,

the disconsolate,

to those who have given up,”

to help them find hope,

to help them find healing

to help them know wholeness.

Where do you hurt?

Where is the pain?

Where is your wound – what is it?

Is it an injury that someone else inflicted upon you?

Something someone said or did to you?

Jesus can heal you.

Is it pain you have inflicted upon yourself?

Something you said or did?

Or perhaps it is something you know

you should have said or done, but did not.

Jesus can heal you.

Our Lord Jesus Christ can and will heal you

with Gospel medicine,

words of assurance,

of comfort,

of hope,

words of grace, words of love.

For ultimately, it is love that heals,

love that is ours,

love given us by God,

not through a bottle of pills,

but through the one who invites you to come to him

for healing,

for wholeness:

our Lord Jesus Christ.

AMEN