“News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them” (Matthew 4:24).

 

Some seven centuries before Jesus ever touched a sick person or commanded a lame man to walk, Isaiah said, “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5, NKJV). Earlier the psalmist had written, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3).

If ever a generation needed wholeness and healing, it is our generation. Broken hearts, fractured relationships, the inability to live at peace with our neighbors and ourselves has left us hurting, estranged, and troubled today. Deeply troubled.

Now, who would deny that we need healing, but the question immediately follows is, “Is God still in this business of healing and restoration?” The good news is that He never turned His back on the suffering of the world.

Healing which may be emotional, physical, and, certainly, spiritual, is all part of what Jesus came to bring. At the very onset of His public ministry, Jesus made that clear. “He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,” He said. He healed without considering how serious the situation was. He never differentiated between emotional and organic sicknesses because they are often intertwined. He didn’t consider race, position, or social status when there was a need. The influential and wealthy were accorded no more attention than the destitute and poverty-stricken.

He spoke as one who had absolute authority over disease. In healing the man born blind, Jesus made it clear that sickness was not the result of personal failure or sin, rather part of the curse that came when Adam turned His back on God’s plan and purpose for humankind.

What does healing mean? Well, it does not mean being as you once were necessarily, but rather being able to function as you are with wholeness and wellness, being able to cope where you are today. In some cases, it means the complete removal of a physical affliction. But in other cases it means you taste of the grace of God in such wonderful ways, you are able to function with joy and gladness.

The Apostle Paul saw the miraculous in his ministry such as the time he spoke late into the night and a young man by the name of Eutychus fell asleep in a third-floor upstairs window and fell out to his death in the courtyard below. Paul threw himself on the lad and the young man was restored completely whole, yet—and this is the contrast—Paul himself had a thorn in the flesh for which he prayed three times. God chose not to remove it but to give Him His grace to cope.

I personally have known individuals who were so emotionally wounded that they curled into a fetal position, withdrawn, ready to die, and God healed and restored them. I have also seen more than a few whose cancers went into remission and totally disappeared, and whose eyes, having been blinded, saw sight restored. Now, these things could never have just happened, and that is where God takes over where medical science is impotent.

Do we need an awakening of the realization that the same simple faith which was rewarded in Jesus’ day is enough to bring the touch of His hand to those living in high rise complexes as well as those who live in squatters’ shacks with no electricity or running water?

If man is a composite of the emotional, the physical, and the spiritual as he is, then restoration, the kind we need, must touch all three areas of life. He is still Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals. An unchanging God means He is sufficient for our pain and need today.

 

Resource reading: Matthew 4:23-25.